She asks herself :
To what extent was the confinement of the Crow Indians in reservations a huge cultural shift ?
How were the Indians' traditions in conflict with the new constraints imposed by this new way of life and Dr Shoemaker's rules ?
What were the causes of the bad public health in the Indian reservations ?
What was the impact of Dr Shoemaker's lecture on the Indians' lives ? How did Dr Shoemaker try to influence the Indians' habits ?
How do these lectures take place in the broad context of white supposedly “supremacy” …show more content…
It caused indeed bad ventilation in the houses and favored the spread of disease. Moreover, the Crows continued to mainly build one-room houses, so everyone slept in the same room, which was also used for cooking and eating, and the germs spread even better. Finally, the Crows continued their tradition to invite people in their house, like they did in tipis, so they small houses became quickly overcrowded, yet warmer, which deceases the ventilation of the room and thus increases the risk of disease. Consequently, the death rate in the Crow reservation was 5 times the birth rate, in the United States in general, the death rate was 1 out of 8, and tuberculosis was the main …show more content…
Shoemaker's campaigns did lower the death rate, there were indeed “good” Indians who followed the sanitary rules and of whom pictures were taken, even if these pictures were surely orchestrated by Dr Shoemaker, there was probably some truth in them. Gender rules were also reinforced by Dr Shoemaker's lectures. Indeed, in his slides, Indian women are often presented as submissive, taking care of the domestic chores such as sweeping the floor or cooking. Dr Shoemaker also sent reports to the Commissioner in the Indian service, who was at the head of the reservation and, depending on the circumstances, put people in quarantine for tuberculosis. Finally, Dr Shoemaker's lectures strenghtened the feeling of White supremacy, since Indians were considered as curiosities that could be studied. Dr Shoemaker took pictures of ill Crows and displayed them around as oddities or possible subjects of experiment. Consequently, Dr Shoemaker's speeches were used as a tool for colonialism, such as in the Northern Advocate, a New Zealand journal, which used Dr Shoemaker's work as a model on how to deal with their own Natives. Dr Shoemaker might have geniunly wanted to help the Crows, but the stress caused by the forced enclosure in reservations was the main reason to catch