Disdained and Respected

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The Cherokee Physician, or Indian Guide to Health

The Cherokee Physician, or Indian Guide to Health

At the turn of the last century (early 1900s), doctors were not considered infallible by any means. Most families relied on local herbalists or their own knowledge of “doctoring” to get them through most medical emergencies.

Though often reviled by whites for any number of supposedly savage or uncivilized traits, Native Americans were often seen as very competent in the use of native plants for medicinal purposes. Here is a recipe for an ague pill, ague being a general term for a fever marked by fits of chills, fever, and sweating.

“Take equal quantities of mullen leaves and red sassafras bark, of the root, boil in water to a strong decoction, then strain and continue boiling the decoction to the consistency of very thick molasses, add a sufficient quantity of sassafras bark finely pulverized to make it the proper consistence to roll into pills. Dose three or more morning and night.”

This recipe is taken from The Cherokee Physician, or Indian Guide to Health, as Given By Richard Foreman, A Cherokee Doctor. This version of the work is the property of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Important Indian Tribes

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Five Civilized Tribes Portraits

Five Civilized Tribes Portraits

Though it was often one-sided and biased, the relationship between American Indians and white settlers was of long duration. One early milestone in that relationship was the recognition of the Five Civilized Tribes.

Five tribes lived east of the Mississippi in what became North and South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, and Louisiana. Eventually, white settlers thought it would be desirable to re-locate these tribes.

The U.S. government entered into a treaty called the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek on September 27, 1830, to remove the Choctaws to land west of the Mississippi. Similar treaties were made between the government and other tribes, who were to govern themselves so long as their laws didn’t conflict with those of the U.S., its treaties, and the Constitution.

The Five Civilized Tribes are: Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole Indians.

Asylum’s Biggest Booster

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Oscar S. Gifford

Oscar S. Gifford

Oscar S. Gifford—Canton, South Dakota’s first mayor–was also a lawyer, merchant, surveyor, and sometimes justice of the peace. He was the kind of hustle and bustle “booster” that the city applauded. Gifford had been born in Watertown, New York in 1842, but moved to South Dakota’s Lincoln County in 1871.

Gifford was well-respected by the citizens of Canton. He had served as a private during the Civil War, studied law, taught school, and energetically looked after South Dakota’s interests as first a territorial delegate and later, the state’s first representative to Congress. In 1896 he had been nominated as the Republican candidate for governor.

When it came time for the Indian Bureau to appoint a superintendent to the Canton Asylum, Gifford seemed the obvious choice—never mind that he had no medical background. Whether it was a reward for backing Senator Pettigrew or whether no one who was actually qualified wanted the job, Gifford got it.

St. Elizabeths, A Government Hospital for the Insane

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Center Building at Saint Elizabeths circa 1901-1932

Center Building at Saint Elizabeths circa 1901-1932

The U.S. government already operated an insane asylum, popularly called St. Elizabeths, in Washington, D.C. Its superintendent, W.W. Godding, suggested that any insane Indians be sent there for treatment.

However, South Dakota’s senator, Richard F. Pettigrew, saw a chance to grab both money and jobs for his constituency. He vigorously backed Indian agent Peter Couchman’s suggestion. Politics won out. Congress approved funds for the facility—which just so happened to land in South Dakota.

In the meantime, Pettigrew had drawn in another influential South Dakotan to help with the scheme. Oscar S. Gifford, the former mayor of Canton, was brought on board to handle the legal paperwork involved in buying 100 acres of land (at $30/acre) for the government’s new asylum. The site of the facility just happened to be near…Canton, South Dakota. Gifford, and practically the whole town, expected him to get the plum job of running the asylum after it was built.

Insanity Among the Indians

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ig Tobacco, A Dance Hall Chief, circa 1900

Big Tobacco, A Dance Hall Chief, circa 1900

The idea for the Canton  Asylum began as a simple suggestion by Indian agent Peter Couchman of the Cheyenne River Agency. In 1897, he wrote to the Indian Service about the unpleasant conditions insane Indians faced on reservations. Anyone suspected of insanity usually ended up in a jail or guardhouse because there were no appropriate facilities on site.

Most state institutions for the insane didn’t like to accept Indians because of citizenship issues and racial bias. Even when an asylum did accept a patient from a reservation, it charged the government what Couchman considered to be excessive fees.

So, Couchman asked what probably seemed to him a reasonable question: Might it be a good idea for the federal government to create an insane asylum just for Indians?

Early Methods to Treat Insanity

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Bloodletting on Male Patient courtesy National Library of Medicine

Bloodletting on Male Patient courtesy National Library of Medicine

Throughout history, insane people have typically received the short end of the medical stick. They were often feared and loathed by the community, which couldn’t understand their behavior. The best they could hope for was a little physical care, or at least to be left alone.

Bloodletting Instruments courtesy of the National Library of Medicine

Bloodletting Instruments courtesy of the National Library of Medicine

Dr. Benjamin Rush (Dec 24, 1745 – Apr 19, 1813) was America’s leading physician. He tried to improve the health of the general population and worked tirelessly to help victims of the 1793 yellow fever epidemic. He also championed the cause of the mentally afflicted and insisted that they be treated with respect. Rush was so outraged by the inhuman treatment most insane people received that he agitated for–and won–funding for an insane ward at Pennsylvania Hospital.

Indian Bloodletting (pre-colonial) courtesy of the National Library of Medicine

Indian Bloodletting (pre-colonial) courtesy of the National Library of Medicine

However…Rush believed that most disease originated with problems in the circulatory system–which could be brought back into balance by bloodletting. The first thing he did with patients suffering from “maniacal excitement” was to bleed them. Not surprisingly, this treatment was very effective at calming them down.

Though Rush’s reliance on bloodletting fell into disfavor, the idea of keeping insane people calm did not. Under a mental health care system that was mainly custodial in nature, a quiet patient made things easier for everybody. Bloodletting gave way to etherization, which means exactly what you think it does–compelling a patient to breathe ether in order to induce calm.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs

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Issue Day at Agency Building, San Carlos AZ

Issue Day at Agency Building, San Carlos AZ

The U.S. government was concerned early on with Indian affairs, and placed responsibility for them under the War Department. In 1824, the current Secretary of War, John C. Calhoun, created the Bureau of Indian Affairs and appointed a commissioner. During its life, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) was also called the Indian Office, the Indian Service, the Indian Department, and the Office of Indian Affairs. Its official name was adopted in 1947.

In 1849, jurisdiction over Indian affairs was transferred from the War Department to the newly created Department of the Interior (9 Stat. 395, March 3, 1849.) which also administered the General Land Office, the Patent Office, and the Pension Office.

The BIA controlled almost every aspect of Indian life, and operated on the assumption that native cultures were inferior to white culture. The BIA removed Indians to reservations, sent agents to oversee and control affairs on the reservations, provided medical care and distributed supplies, and created “assimilation” policies that were often harsh and cruel. Indian agents gained great power over the years, and it is often one of these men who decided that an Indian was insane.

A brief history of the BIA

Homeless and Hungry

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Last Buffalo Killed in N. Dakota (Jan 1907) courtesy Library of Congress Fred Hulstrand and F.A. Pazandak Photograph Collections

Last Buffalo Killed in N. Dakota (Jan 1907) courtesy Library of Congress Fred Hulstrand and F.A. Pazandak Photograph Collections

Patients at Canton Asylum certainly didn’t thrive, but most Native Americans were not doing well anywhere else, either. Even the most basic underpinnings of life, like food, had been taken from them and distorted. This led to nutritional deficiencies and diseases that had never affected them before encountering the white man’s culture.

Native American diets were varied, nutritious, and plentiful until they lost control over their food. Depending upon the part of the country they inhabited, tribes ate liberally of the “Three Sisters” (beans, corn, and squash), wild rice, nuts, berries, fish, and game of all sorts. Besides hunting and gathering food from the surrounding area, many tribes cultivated crops, as well.

When Indians were forced to live on reservations, they lost their homes, their cultures, and their independence. Along with that, the quality of their food immediately deteriorated. Often, tribes became dependent on government rations, which were a far cry from the unrefined foods they had previously eaten. Sugar, flour, and poor quality meat were the new staples, and  Native American health immediately suffered.