At its founding, Ninette Sanatorium served primarily white patients, which is the story told through the photographs in this collection. As time went on, the number of Indigenous people treated for tuberculosis in an institutional setting increased dramatically. 

Medical professionals such as Ninette Sanatorium’s Medical Superintendents, E. L. Ross and A. L. Paine believed that people belonging to Indigenous communities were at higher risk for contracting TB. First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples filled the Ninette Sanatorium patient beds. In 1963, 80 Inuit from Eskimo Point in the Northwest Territories were sent to Ninette Sanatorium. 

The photographs held at Lakehead University show white patients receiving important medical care. Yet we also know that Indigenous people went missing and experienced cruelty as tuberculosis patients in Canadian institutions. We hope that after viewing these photographs you will also take the time to learn more about the impact of tuberculosis and treatments for it on Indigenous people and communities. 

• Manitoba Indigenous Tuberculosis History Project. Resources. https://indigenoustbhistory.ca/resources
• Lux, Maureen K. Separate Beds: A History of Indian Hospitals in Canada, 1920s-1980s. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2016.