220 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19 



problem. To begin with, the hospital records showed that for the five-year 

 period from June, 1934, to June, 1939, there was an average of 862 cases 

 admitted per year. With a population of 1,700 Indians on the reservation 

 this means that the number of cases hospitalized each year was just about 

 half the total population. The number of cases admitted to the hospital in- 

 cludes a few whites (accepted in emergency cases) and a few from other 

 reserv^ations, but this figure is offset by the number of Lac Court Oreilles 

 people hospitalized at other institutions, such as the Walker Sanitorium. 



This figure does not mean that all cases admitted were persons suffering 

 from sickness or disease. Over this same five-year period there was an 

 average of ninety-four maternity cases per year. The balance must be con- 

 sidered as enrolled because of illness. There must also be taken into account 

 the fact that some people suffering from even serious illnesses will not go 

 to the hospital because of prejudice, and the number of tubercular patients 

 who should be hospitalized but refuse. For example, in 1934, ten out of 

 the seventeen known active T.B. cases among Indians in Sawyer County 

 were not in a sanitorium (Wis. State Board of Health, 1943). 



Compared to the average number of people hospitalized in the United 

 States for one year — one out of five (A.M. A., 1946), the Chippewa ratio of 

 one out of two is significant. The fact that the Chippewa are provided free 

 hospitalization and thus can utilize this advantage more frequently than 

 other lower economic groups in the general U. S. population may mitigate 

 the significance of the wide gap between the two ratios to some extent, but 

 even taking that factor into consideration, the Chippewa figure is an im- 

 posing one. 



Mr. J. B. Townsend of the U. S. Public Health Service states (p. 32): 

 "In general, the Indians as of today have about the same disabilities as the 

 white race. The tuberculosis rate is higher, they have more trachoma, and to 

 some extent more venereal disease, the last depending upon the location of 

 the tribe." In general this holds true for the Chippewa except for the 

 venereal disease rate which is about the same as for the general population. 

 Trachoma, once a fairly common disease, has been brought under control 

 due largely to the fact that the great majority of children are born at the 

 hospital. Dr. Adams stated he encountered only about twenty-five cases of 

 trachoma in his nine years (1931-1940) at the hospital. The sulfa drugs, 

 a specific treatment for trachoma, are now the potent weapon of the hospital. 



Mental disease among these people is comparatively rare, as is cancer. 



