Most indigenous kids were healthy before they were sent to Canada’s residential schools: study

National Post
June 28, 2016

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/most-indigenous-kids-were-healthy-before-they-were-sent-to-canadas-residential-schools-study

An archival photo of residential school students in a typical classroom.

SASKATOON — A study suggests most indigenous children from Saskatchewan and Manitoba were healthy when they were sent to residential schools.

Paul Hackett, a researcher at the University of Saskatchewan, says he and two others analyzed the body mass index of more than 1,700 children entering the schools between 1919 and the 1950s.

The researchers found 80 per cent of the children were at a healthy weight — better than the average Canadian child today.

Hackett says the results suggest the residential school experience set the stage for health problems plaguing indigenous people today.

He says the study also undercuts the government’s justification for performing nutritional experiments on residential school students due to their poor health.

The findings were published in the International Journal of Circumpolar Health.