Nobody Here Will Harm You: Mass Medical Evacuation from the Eastern Arctic 1950-1965

"Perhaps you are wondering why you are brought down from your home leaving your friends and perhaps family behind. The reason is that you are sick, and if you were left at home, you may endanger those at home. So you are here to get well again... But do not be afraid. Nobody here will harm you."?Mountain Views, Hamilton Sanatorium, 1955

With this quote Shawn Selway begins his thorough investigation of the evacuation of 1,274 Inuit and Cree sufferers of tuberculosis from the Eastern Arctic to Mountain Sanatorium in Hamilton, Ontario, from 1950 to 1965. Selway considers not only the political culture, and the systemic racism within that culture, in which the decisions were made, but also the technological and economic changes that made these relocations possible. Selway carefully documents the impact of the evacuations on the Inuit community and has included an assortment of archival images within the book. This is an important look at a difficult time in our country's history.