Canton Asylum

Little Thunder, Yankton Dakota (1887) courtesy of http://www.firstpeople.us/

South Dakota was still a relatively new state when Canton’s ex-mayor, Oscar S. Gifford, made good on his hope to have an Indian insane asylum built there. Dakota Territory had been created in 1861, and took its name from the Dakota Sioux word meaning “allies.” This huge tract of land included what became North and South Dakota, and most of Montana and Wyoming. Two years later, the territory was reduced to the area of North and South Dakota only.

By the late 1880s, the northern part of the territory had about 190,000 people in it, and the southern part about 340,000. These numbers justified statehood. North Dakota became the 39th state and South Dakota the 40th, on November 2, 1889.

Sod Home courtesy Library of Congress Fred Hulstrand and F.A. Pazandak Photograph Collections

The Three Musketeers

Though Dr. Harry Hummer often kept costs at the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians down to unreasonable levels, he was not entirely indifferent to the social and recreational needs of his patients. On February 7, 1921, he sent a letter to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, saying: “I have the honor to report that we have finally been successful in installing our moving picture outfit and gave the first entertainment yesterday, which afforded patients and employees quite a little pleasure. May I have your permission to give one entertainment weekly, the cost of same not to exceed ten dollars?”

The new entertainment did not escape the notice of area newspapers. The Morning Republican in Mitchell, S.D. reported on March 19, 1921: “At the present time high class feature films are shown once each week. On Sunday nights, until a permanent employee at the institution can learn to operate the machine, a special operator from a local theatre is employed. Formerly the mild patients of the institution were taken to this city to the theatre on certain nights every month in the large auto bus of the asylum.”

Popular movies in 1921 included: The Kid with Charlie Chaplin; The Sheik with Rudolph Valentino; and The Three Musketeers with Douglas Fairbanks.

The Kid

The Sheik

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Native American Children in California, circa 1900, courtesy Sacramento Bee

Youth was no protection when it came to the possibility of commitment to an insane asylum. Dr. Harry Hummer admitted a six-year-old Caddo child named Amelia Moss to the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians in May or early June of 1922. His original correspondence to the reservation superintendent concerning the child is not available, but the superintendent’s reply makes it clear that Hummer was perfectly comfortable admitting her:

“I take pleasure in acknowledging receipt of your communication of May 8, 1922, advising that you are able to admit Amelia Moss, a full blood Caddo Indian child six years of age, to your institution, and that you are also ready to send your matron to this agency for the purpose of escorting this child to your institution.” (This letter, from superintendent J. A. Buntin(?), was written May 22, 1922.

According to Buntin’s letter, the Indians taking care of Moss (probably not her own parents) were anxious to send her to Hummer’s institution, “where she may be properly cared for.” Moss’s diagnosis was epilepsy, psychosis, and feeble-mindedness, though there is no reference to a psychiatrist’s confirming diagnosis of the mental issue. Most likely, Moss’s guardians didn’t want to care for her and thought she would be better off in an institution. Their attitude is certainly not Hummer’s fault, but accepting such a patient was definitely his own decision. It is difficult to believe that he actually thought a child so young could be insane, and even more difficult to believe that he thought he could actually help her.

Pueblo Tesuque Indian Children, circa 1880, courtesy Library of Congress

Indian Children, Flathead Reservation, 1907, courtesy Library of Congress

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Western Lunatic Asylum, Male Ward 1892, Female Ward, 1893, courtesy Virginia.gov

Women were assumed to be more delicate–mentally as well as physically–than men, and thus would become insane more often. Alienists (early psychiatrists) accepted this as the truth, but there does not seem to be a comprehensive 19th-century study that actually verifies this assumption. If some asylums held more women than men, it may have been because women had fewer legal rights and were easier to commit. And, as homemakers and primary caregivers, women often looked after male household members who were insane and thus kept them out of asylums. Men could not always do the same even if they had been inclined to, since most heads of household had work obligations. It is likely that many women ended up in asylums because no one could take care of them, or it was simply easier on their male relatives.

At the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians, men outnumbered women as patients over the life of the asylum. From available records, about 212 men and 155 women spent time at Canton Asylum; this figure includes two babies who were confined with their mothers for a period. Though the patient list is doubtlessly incomplete, it does show both the gender imbalance at the asylum as well as how few patients the asylum actually treated over more than 30 years. Though Dr. Hummer pleaded continually for expansion, there does not appear to have been a patient population which would have made expansion justifiable.

Female Ward in Athens, Ohio, Lunatic Asylum circa 1893

Staff, Athens Lunatic Asylum

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Missouri State Hospital Nurses, circa 1914, courtesy Missouri State Archives

Many superintendents took the opportunity to observe their patients and write about them, both to enhance their own reputations and to share information with colleagues. The American Journal of Insanity was the most important publication superintendents wrote for, since it had a wide readership among fellow alienists. The titles of their works show far-ranging subject matter:

“The Care of the Insane” by Charles Wagner, Superintendent of Binghamton State Hospital in New York.

“The History and the Use of the Term Dementia” by G. Alder Blumer, Medical Superintendent, Butler Hospital in Rhode Island.

“Night Nurses for the Insane” by C. R. Woodson, Medical Superintendent, Missouri State Hospital.

“The Favorable Modification of Undesirable Symptoms in the Incurable Insane” by A. B. Richardson, Superintendent, State Hospital, Columbus, Ohio.

In his quarter-century tenure as superintendent at the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians, Dr. Harry Hummer wrote one article about insanity: “Insanity Among the Indians.” He read this piece during the 1912 session of the American Medico-Psychological Association, and it was included in the four-volume work, The Institutional Care of the Insane in the U.S.A. and Canada, published in 1916.

Binghamton State Hospital

Butler Hospital for the Insane

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Overcrowding was not a true reason for the problems the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians experienced. (See last post.) Its first superintendent, O. S. Gifford, took over a new facility with few patients. He reported in June of 1903 that he had received 16 patients that year, one of whom died, and two of whom recovered. He was expecting to have a total of 24 patients by the next month. His fiscal year, 1904 report reflected that he had 16 males and 8 females. In fiscal year, 1905, Gifford had 23 males and 16 females.  He used a fairly commonsense approach to therapy, and felt that he knew his patients well. He allowed fishing and picnicking, dancing, and other pastimes suited to his patients’ inclinations, and took some of his patients to town. Gifford certainly fell in with the model of a superintendent who had enough time to spend with patients.

Though Gifford could send patients home as recovered, based on his and/or Dr. Turner’s assessment, he didn’t have the knowledge to institute any kind of mental health therapy for them. His assistant, Dr. Turner appeared to take a great interest in his patients’ medical conditions, but also didn’t have the background to set up a comprehensive treatment plan. Gifford’s real mistake was in not following Turner’s medical advice. When he would not allow Turner to operate on a patient, that patient later died and Turner was understandably bitter over it. The situation brought to a head many of Turner’s other grievances, and the resultant investigation made it clear that the asylum’s superintendent needed to be an acting physician. That didn’t necessarily help Turner, because he knew he wouldn’t get the job, but he at least felt vindicated.

Small, Early Asylum in New York

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Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, 1870, Male Staff at Entrance, courtesy Brenner Collection, Brynmawr

Though it is easy to blame attendants for being frustrated and unkind to the patients in their care, attendants were often frustrated themselves. Mary J. Smith (see last post) told an investigator about her workday: “Her work in the morning is as follows, 6 patients to dress before breakfast–2 paralytics, 1 spastic deplegia, and three that are so crazy they do not know enough to put their clothes on; that she has to wait on tables then after breakfast gives medicine to from 6 to 12 patients, four she has to take to closets (bathroom)–that she has to make 11 beds herself.”

In addition to this daily morning routine, on Wednesday mornings, Smith had to scrub 5 small rooms, one large room, one large hall, three short halls, and a pair of steps. On Thursdays, she had to put the clothing from the laundry away. There were 28 patients in the female ward in 1908, and Smith had charge of 15 of them.

Though there could never be an excuse for mistreating patients, Smithwas undoubtedly harried and overburdened. It would have been tempting to just lock up patients so she could give her attention to some of her additional duties. One consequences of the inspection was that the asylum was authorized to add two attendant postions, one female and one male. Unfortunately, to do so, it had to abolish two laborer positions.

Buggy Used at the Colorado Insane Asylum, 1879-1899

Agnew State Insane Asylum (Santa Clara) after 1906 Earthquake

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Unruly Patients at Blackwell's Island, from Harper's Magazine, 1860

Employees at the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians didn’t always get along, and the institution’s first big inspection proved that. Dr. Turner had a beef with superintendent Gifford (see last post), but some employees had a beef with Turner.

One attendant in particular, Mary J. Smith, found her work difficult in part because of Turner’s instructions. He did not like to use restraints and wouldn’t often authorize them, but Smith said that she couldn’t do all of her work unless she locked certain patients in their rooms. Her 1908 affidavit stated:

“Doctor had forbidden her to lock certain patients up without his permission . . . ‘he told me if I was doing my duty I would have her (Mary LeBeaux) outside instead of locked in her room, at that time I had locked her in for throwing a cuspidor at me’.” The inspector taking the statement said that “she has marks on her body where the patient has bitten her and has thrown cuspidors at her repeatedly.”

This kind of situation was a quandary for attendants at all asylums: how to handle violent patients without resorting to restraints or reciprical violence. One solution was to call in enough attendants so that the patient could be safely restrained by humans until he/she calmed down. Unfortunately, Canton Asylum had too few attendants for this to be a feasible solution.

Woman Forced Into Cold Shower, from Elizabeth Packard's book Modern Persecution, or Asylums Revealed

Child Patient in Restraints, Georgia State Hospital for the Insane (1940s), courtesy Georgia State University

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O.S. Gifford

Like other institutional staff, employees at the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians demonstrated a wide range of ability, attitude, and character. Inspectors sometimes complained that employees weren’t always available when needed; sometimes that happened because the employee was shirking his or her duty. More often, however, there just weren’t enough employees to cover all the work that needed doing, plus provide the necessary patient supervision. During the next few posts, I’ll talk about the work situation and some of the employees at the asylum.

One of the first employees to make a stir at the asylum was Dr. John Turner. He was not from Canton, and felt strongly that superintendent O. S. Gifford favored the rest of the employees (from Canton) over him. Turner complained that the attendants often ignored his orders, and that Gifford didn’t back him up. When a patient became pregnant because employees hadn’t followed Turner’s instructions  during his absence, he filed a complaint in December, 1906, with the supervisor of Indian schools, Charles Dickson. Turner’s complaint resulted in Canton Asylum’s first major (and negative) inspection.

Canton, 1907, courtesy Library of Congress

Government Doctor Giving Trachoma Examination on Stillwater Indian Reservation

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Commissioner Charles Rhoads, on left, courtesy Library of Congress

At the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians, superintendent Dr. Harry R.  Hummer was far enough away from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to avoid direct supervision. Hummer outlasted five commissioners: Francis Leupp, Robert Valentine, Cato Sells, Charles Burke, and Charles Rhoads before commissioner John Collier threw him out of the asylum and the Indian Service.

One advantage Hummer had–as did other superintendents elsewhere–was that locals wanted the asylum to remain open and running. Insane asylums represented huge boosts to  local economies. Most towns or cities where asylums were located were quite happy about having them, and were proud of the work they did. Canton was no different. Locals enjoyed the employment and local contracts that came from the asylum and usually spoke of it quite enthusiastically.

When Hummer began to finally receive less than glowing reports, he managed to have some friends in Sioux Falls appointed as an inspection committee. They came through for him in a report to Commissioner Charles Burke early in 1929. “We went through the plant thoroughly from top to bottom and . . . found everything in first class condition.” The writer then concluded, “I consider Dr. Harry Hummer a wonderful superintendent of this institution and he has many fine employees.”

Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs

Sample Asylum Report, courtesy University of North Carolina

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