Native students subjected to experiments at residential school


Students at the Brandon Indian Residential School. Photo from Residential School Archive Project

Native children at a residential school were used as subjects for an experiment without parental consent, a Native researcher said.

Maeengan Linklater uncovered a study that involved children at the Brandon Indian Residential School in Manitoba in the 1940s. He said they weren't physically hurt but he said they were exploited because they were given candy for participating.

"There's no parental consent, there's no research studies that would have been ethical by our standards today, and these kids were exploited," Linklater told CBC News.

The study isn't the first evidence of Native children being used as test subjects. In the 1940s and 1950, Native students had their diet or dental care restricted, according to news reports from April 2000.

Get the Story:
Psychic experiments conducted on Brandon residential school kids (CBC 1/12)
Brandon experiments exposed (The Winnipeg Free Press 1/12)

Related Stories
Children used as guinea pigs (04/26)

Join the Conversation