Category Archives: 1900s newspapers

Newspapers in the 1900s were full of opinion and misinformation. They usually contained personal tidbits about local people

Canton, SD Sports

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Flandreau Indian School, courtesy Library of Congress

Flandreau Indian School, courtesy Library of Congress

Citizens of the small town of Canton, SD found plenty of ways to amuse, educate, and uplift themselves. Their baseball team, the Sunflowers, enjoyed a rousing game of ball and both hosted and visited nearby opposing teams.

On a fine Saturday in May of 1904, the Sunflowers played a team from Rock Valley and beat them soundly: 23 to 1. A reporter’s derisive comment was that “if they should want another game with Canton they had better play the Canton Juniors.”

Canton’s team played a game the following Tuesday with Flandreau Indian school’s students. Flandreau began the game. The pitcher began well; however, errors in the infield allowed four quick scoring runs. Canton made its own share of errors (6 to Flandreau’s 9), but won the game at 10 to 7. The paper noted that the Flandreau boys were “a splendid lot” who showed good sportsmanship.

Rain washed out that week’s Wednesday game, which was postponed until Thursday. Another regular game was scheduled for that Friday with the Flandreau school, which took place too late for the outcome to get into press.

American Indian Boys Baseball Team in Idaho, courtesy Library of Congress

American Indian Boys Baseball Team in Idaho, courtesy Library of Congress

Albuquerque Indian School Baseball Team, 1911, courtesy National Archives

Albuquerque Indian School Baseball Team, 1911, courtesy National Archives

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Hippies Had Nothing on This

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Liberty and a Native American, Civil War-era pictoral envelope, courtesy Library of Congress

Liberty and a Native American, Civil War-era pictorial envelope, courtesy Library of Congress

Apparently, long hair has been an issue with authorities for quite some time. In 1902, the Office of Indian Affairs wanted to initiate a program that cut off rations to reservation Indians and paid them wages instead. W.A. Jones, commissioner of Indian Affairs, decided that for their labor to be effective, Indians needed to cut their hair. He issued a “short-hair order” that caused a great deal of resentment.

The order stated that the “wearing of short hair…will certainly hasten their [Indians] progress toward civilization.” The order suggested withholding employment until men complied. It also suggested throwing uncooperative men “in the guardhouse at hard labor,” to cure their stubbornness.

Unfortunately for the Indian Office, newspapers got hold of the document and published its contents. The public discussed those contents at length, sometimes with outrage, and the office was embarrassed by all the negative publicity. However, it continued to defend its position.

Specific records about the result of this order don’t seem to exist, but it met with approval within the Indian Office. It did give some leeway to older Indians, but expected the young males to follow the order.

Dr. Carlos Montazuma, Apache (1880-1900?), courtesy Library of Congress

Dr. Carlos Montazuma, Apache (1880-1900?), courtesy Library of Congress

Native American Children (1880-1910?), courtesy Library of Congress

Native American Children (1880-1910?), courtesy Library of Congress

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One Big Family

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Six Indian Chiefs at Roosevelt's 1905 Inaugural Parade, courtesy Library of Congress

Six Indian Chiefs at Roosevelt's 1905 Inaugural Parade, courtesy Library of Congress

Beginning shortly after the Civil War, the U.S. government realized that it needed to solve the “Indian Problem.” Debate raged for years concerning the capabilities of Indians, but eventually the consensus was that Indians could be assimilated into American culture.

Many people sincerely believed that Native Americans would be best served by adopting white culture. That meant owning their own land, farming and raising their own food, going to school, learning a trade, and learning English.

Assimilation also meant giving up spiritual practices, tribal customs such as communal ownership of land, and leaving behind traditional ways of dress, speaking, and relating to the greater world. Native Americans were pressured to join the U.S. culture, but only on its terms.
Learning Carpentry at Haskell Indian Junior College (1900-1924) courtesy Library of Congress

Learning Carpentry at Haskell Indian Junior College (1900-1924) courtesy Library of Congress

Indian Boys Doing Laundry, Carlisle School, 1901, courtesy Library of Congress

Indian Boys Doing Laundry, Carlisle School, 1901, courtesy Library of Congress

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Stuck Inside

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Few patients wanted to remain at the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians, and the staff (and sometimes townspeople) had to deal with a number of escapes. The April 28, 1905 edition of The Sioux Valley News, Canton’s weekly paper, mentioned that the superintendent of the asylum, O.S. Gifford, had “returned from the north and brought with him the runaway Indian who had escaped from the Indian asylum on Tuesday of last week.

“This is the same redskin who made his escape from the asylum several times before […] Judge Gifford said to a reporter for this paper on his return that it would be a warm day when the fellow would get the liberty enough to get away.” Unfortunately, the paper did not give the name of this determined patient.

Most escaped patients headed back to their reservations and families. The picture of Dirty John’s cabin represents the type of home they may have returned to.

Log Cabin Belonging to Dirty John, Flathead Reservation, 1909, courtesy Library of Congress

Log Cabin Belonging to Dirty John, Flathead Reservation, 1909, courtesy Library of Congress

The Badlands, S.D., courtesy Library of Congress

The Badlands, S.D., courtesy Library of Congress

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What’s Happening?

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Women's Fashions in 1908

Women's Fashions in 1908

Americans continued to see changes as the beginning of the 20th century marched on.  In 1908, five years after the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians opened:

— Life expectancy was 49.5  years for men and 52.8 years for women.

— Wilbur Wright flew a sustained 2 hours and 20 minutes.

— Henry Ford produced his first Model T.

— New baseball regulations ruled that spitballs were illegal.

— The first successful blood transfusion using blood-typing took place.

— The comic strip Mutt and Jeff was syndicated by King Features.

A man could go on an 80-day cruise to the Orient for $300, buy a cigar for a nickel, or purchase a two-jointed, double cork grip fishing pole for $1.29. His wife could buy White Lily face whitener for $.45, bake bread with flour costing $2.65 for a 98-pound bag, and enjoy strawberries for $.15 a basket.

Mutt and Jeff

Mutt and Jeff

Period Advertisement

Period Advertisement

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Making Reservations

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Indian Reservations in Continental U.S., courtesy National Park Service

Indian Reservations in Continental U.S., courtesy National Park Service

When the U.S. negotiated treaties forcing Native Americans to move from their land, they obviously had to live somewhere else. Early treaties allowed tribes to keep a certain portion of ceded land to live on. This reserved portion was given as an “allotment.” After 1871, reservations were created by acts of Congress.

Reservations are concentrated in the western United States, but they exist in all parts of the country. Approximately 1.1 – 1.3 million (non-Alaskan) Native Americans live on or near 330 reservations.

Indians From Pine Ridge Reservation, S.D., 1909, courtesy Library of Congress

Indians From Pine Ridge Reservation, S.D., 1909, courtesy Library of Congress

On the Indian Reservation, courtesy Library of Congress

On the Indian Reservation, courtesy Library of Congress

Indian Homes, Moapa Reservation, Nevada, 1940, courtesy Library of Congress

Indian Homes, Moapa Reservation, Nevada, 1940, courtesy Library of Congress

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A Female Crusader, Part Two

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After Dorothea Dix visited a jail in 1841 and discovered the appalling conditions that mentally ill people suffered there, she began to gather information to present to legislators. She visited every jail and poorhouse in Massachusetts (her home state) and compiled a graphic report. Dix described a woman who was tearing her skin off, bit by bit, with no one to stop her. She had seen a man confined to an outbuilding (presumably at a hospital) next to the “dead room” so that he saw only corpses. Others she had seen were locked into rooms without heat, daylight or fresh air.

She was immediately called a liar, but newspapers reprinted excerpts of her report. She persuaded a group of men to take up her cause, and they were able to persuade the legislature to appropriate more money for the state hospital for the insane.

During her lifetime, Dix played a direct role in founding 32 mental hospitals. One in particular, the Government Hospital for the Insane, (later named St. Elizabeths) provided “the most humane care and enlightened curative treatment of the insane of the Army, Navy, and the District of Columbia.”

From 43rd Congress, First Session, courtesy Library of Congress

From 43rd Congress, First Session, courtesy Library of Congress

One of St. Elizabeths’ doctors became superintendent of the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians.

Men Working in Broom Factory at Oak Forest, IL Poorhouse, circa 1915, courtesy Library of Congress

Men Working in Broom Factory at Oak Forest, IL Poorhouse, circa 1915, courtesy Library of Congress

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Headlines and Horrors

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Bloomingdale Lunatic Asylum

Bloomingdale Lunatic Asylum

The public has always enjoyed  a good scandal, and madhouses of the 19th and 20th centuries sometimes provided horrific fodder for newspapers eager to sensationalize problems. Nellie Bly’s stay at Blackwell’s Island Lunatic Asylum was well publicized, but abuses existed elsewhere as well. Continue reading →

Movers And Shakers

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William A. JonesCongress created the position of Commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1832, when the “Indian Office” (the common name for the Bureau of Indian Affairs) still fell within the War Department. Its first commissioner was  Elbert Herring.

William A. Jones (Sept. 27, 1844 –  Sept. 17, 1912) became Commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1897 and continued in the position until 1905. One of the last armed conflicts between Native Americans and U.S. troops occurred at Sugar Point on the eastern shore of Minnesota’s Leech Lake in 1898. Ojibwe Indians had been angered by what they considered unfair treatment and the too-frequent arrests of Ojibwe men. When U.S. troops tried to re-arrest Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig (Hole in the Day) after he had escaped a U.S. marshal, they got into a skirmish that left them with six dead and ten wounded. The Ojibwe suffered only one injury.

William Jones arrived at Leech Lake and held council with the Ojibwe leaders. He later condemned “the frequent arrests on trivial causes, often for no cause at all.” Jones said that the Ojibwes would now go home and live peaceably if the whites would treat them fairly, and added that the spirited stand the Ojibwes had taken had taught the white people a lesson.

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The Last New Century

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Calamity Jane, 1895, courtesy Library of Congress

Calamity Jane, 1895, courtesy Library of Congress

In 1902, the year Canton Asylum opened, the U.S. was transitioning from raw frontier to settled country. Teddy Roosevelt became the first president to ride in an automobile; J.C. Penny’s opened; and air-conditioning brought relief to sweating workers.

Calamity Jane was still alive, and readers enjoyed a new Sherlock Holmes mystery, The Hound of the Baskervilles, as it was serialized in England’s The Strand magazine.

However, women still couldn’t vote; the Wright brothers had yet to make their first sustained flight; and conveniences like tea bags, zippers, and windshield wipers were years away.

Illustration From Hound of the Baskervilles

Illustration From Hound of the Baskervilles

Though the Statue of Liberty had been dedicated in 1886 and poet Emma Lazarus had begged the world to send America its “huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” America was in reality a land controlled by white people rooted in an Anglo-Saxon culture. That cultural background decided what constituted “normal” behavior. The beliefs and behaviors of other peoples or cultures were “inferior” and needed to be upgraded to the white standard. Indians, many who were in power agreed, were inferior.

Read Lazarus’ entire poem