Tuberculosis (TB) was a leading cause of death among Indigenous children in Canadian residential schools, particularly from the late 19th century through the mid-20th century.

Due to extreme overcrowding, poor ventilation, malnutrition, and a lack of medical care, these institutions acted as "incubators" for the disease, with death rates in some schools reaching up to 50% in certain years, or over 8,000 per 100,000 population in the 1930s.

Children who fell ill with TB were often sent to underfunded, segregated Indian Hospitals or sanatoria, sometimes far from their families. Some children were sent directly from hospitals back to residential schools even if they had not fully recovered, causing the cycle of infection to repeat.

The high rates of TB in residential schools were a direct result of colonial policies that forced children into unsafe conditions. While TB rates significantly dropped with the advent of antibiotics in the 1950s, the disproportionate impact of the disease on Indigenous communities, particularly in the North, persists as a legacy of this era.

This article reviews the history of the schools & the cover-up of alarm about the high right of TB amongst the children there.