Dr. Alfred Schmitz Shadd

"Saskatchewan's great pioneer black doctor" was the other famous doctor from this area. Dr. Alfred Schmitz Shadd was born in Chatham, Ontario, in 1870. He trained as a teacher and completed some medical courses. In 1896, he came to the Kinistino area, which was then part of the Northwest Territories. He taught in the Agricultural Hall in Kinistino which was also was the meeting place for social, political, school and church events. Shadd was probably the only black teacher out of over 400 employed in the territories at that time. He was certainly the first black man many of the people in Kinistino had ever seen. It has been said that one little girl sat on Shadd's knee and hesitatingly lifted her finger and rubbed his cheek. He gently replied that his colour was there to stay, and was not going to come off.

At first Shadd was only thought of as a kindly teacher; his medical training was not taken very seriously. This opinion changed when a man from the town of Birch Hills cut his head open and Shadd saved his life. This is how his reputation as a doctor began. He continued teaching school, but gave the students a couple of days off every week so he could continue practising medicine. Eventually Shadd earned enough money to return to Ontario and finish medical school in 1898. However, he could not be kept away from Saskatchewan. Dr. Shadd returned to Kinistino and set up a two-room office. He jokingly called his bedroom the chamber of silence and his office the chamber of horrors.

There was a Cree reserve not far from Kinistino where one couple had both of their infant children die from an unknown illness. The Indians were puzzled by the colour of Shadd's skin, but Reginald Beatty, who was a friend of both the doctor and the tribe, convinced the Indians to let him examine the baby girl. Shadd operated on what he called "the tubercular gland" and saved her life. The Cree said that "If a white doctor's medicine is strong, why a black doctor's must be stronger". Among the Indians of the area, Shadd became the most respected non-Indian.

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