226 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19 



two-room log cabins or frame structures. Overcrowding is common and I 

 have seen as many as nine persons living in a one-room house. Such condi- 

 tions producing close contact mean that the likelihood of an intected mem- 

 ber spreading tuberculosis among other members of the family is great. The 

 problem of control is also made difficult by the fact that the Chippewa love 

 to be with their families, and will frequently refuse to remain away at a 

 sanitorium for the length of time required for cure. 



Houses in general are poorly insulated, often not equipped with screens, 

 and modern plumbing is almost unknown. I know of only one bath tub, one 

 flush toilet, and one house equipped with running water on the reservation 

 today. This lack of modern plumbing coupled with the lack of electricity 

 and such conveniences as power-washing machines makes the problem of 

 maintaining cleanliness a difficult one. While the low standards of personal 

 and household cleanliness can be largely attributed to economic conditions, 

 there must also be taken into account a traditional lack of any considerable 

 concern for cleanliness, especially in terms of the household. The wigwam 

 of former days was primarily a sleeping place and shelter from inclement 

 weather, and in following their economic cycle no one dwelling was occupied 

 long enough to create problems of sanitation current in their fixed abodes 

 today. Programs of health education by the field doctors and nurses and the 

 influence of the schools have helped, but there is much more to be done in 

 this line. It might be pointed out that the homes of the older people arc 

 better kept as a rule, a fact probably explainable in terms of the greater 

 difficulties in maintaining a neat house by the younger people who have 

 a number of small children. Both the considerable lack of modern sanitary 

 knowledge and equipment, and the overcrowding are conditions amenable 

 to the rise and spread of tuberculosis. 



The change in foodways from a native diet to a growing dependency 

 upon commercial foods has had some bearing upon the health of the com- 

 munity. Native foods such as fish, wild game, berries, and wild rice are 

 still important items of diet and utilized whenever available, but commercial 

 foods form the major portion of the diet. In line with their low economic 

 position it means that they are usually limited to the cheaper foods. Meats, 

 such as salt pork and sausage, are used in considerable quantities mostly 

 because these are all they can aff^ord. Shopping is done at the two stores on 

 the reservation and in the two nearby towns, but distance and lack of trans- 

 portation limits shopping to once a week in most cases. Fresh foods are not 



