Canton Asylum

Cato Sells, Commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1921

Admissions to the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians were routed through reservation Indian agents (later superintendents), who performed much of the administrative and supervisory functions concerned with running these population centers. The asylum usually had several dozen applications on file, and tried to fill vacancies with patients who had been waiting the longest. Sometimes urgent or acute cases took precedence, but there were always more applications than room at the asylum. Dr. Harry Hummer was often accused of poor record-keeping, but he was apparently required to take a “census” of patients at the end of each fiscal year (June 30). Not all of these survive, but those that do at least give a snapshot of the asylum population. In 1921:

There were 45 male and 45 female patients. Since opening, there had been 146 male and 114 female patients, so the patient population tended to skew male.

There were 28 tribes represented. Since opening, 50 tribes were represented. The greatest numbers of patients came from the Chippewa, Menominee, and Sioux, with the latter being highest. This undoubtedly resulted because the asylum was located near Sioux reservations; studies had always shown that asylums served more people in close geographic range than farther out. States that tried to locate asylums centrally to be fair to an entire region were frustrated in these attempts because of this natural pattern.

Since opening, 62 patients had died of respiratory diseases, mainly tuberculosis (45) and croupous pneumonia (9). From 1903 to 1921, 115 patients had died.

TB Sanitorium Buildings, Phoenix Indian School circa 1890 to 1910, courtesy National Archives

Alaskan TB Patients, courtesy Indian Health Service

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usan La Flesche Picotte, courtesy Smithsonian Institution

Susan La Flesche Picotte was born in 1865 to the last recognized chief of the Omaha Indian tribe, Chief Joseph La Flesche (Iron Eye). She went to the Elizabeth Institute for Young Ladies in New Jersey and then returned to her reservation to teach at a Quaker school. She became interested in medicine and returned east to attend the Hampton Institute, and later, the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania. She graduated at the top of her class in 1889 and became the first Native American woman to receive a medical degree.

After an internship in Philadelphia, Picotte returned to her reservation where she provided health care at its boarding school. She was the only doctor on the reservation and served more than 1,000 people; she resigned in 1893 due to her own poor health. She married Henry Picotte in 1894 and moved to Bancroft, Nebraska, where she set up a private practice. Picotte was passionate about improving the health of Native Americans. She taught them ways to improve health, lobbied to prohibit alcohol on reservations, and eventually built a privately-funded hospital on the Omaha Reservation at Walthill, Nebraska. She died two years later at only fifty years of age.

Picotte's Father, Joseph La Flesche (Iron Eye)

Picotte's Hospital

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Boys Working at an Indian Boarding School, location unknown, courtesy Minnesota Historical Society

The Indian Office liked to hire Native Americans who had been educated in its boarding school system, figuring that graduates would be more familiar with white American culture than people who had stayed on reservations. Unfortunately, many boarding school educations prepared students for entry level work rather than supervisory positions. Students frequently spent half their school day in manual labor rather than academics, and then worked as servants in white homes during vacations.

Charles Eastman (1858-1939) was an exception to this typical educational path. He attended mission schools and later Beloit (a private college), before graduating from Dartmouth in 1887. He then attended Boston University, graduated in 1889, and became the first Native American with a certified European-type medical degree. Eastman worked in the Indian Health Service within the Bureau of Indian Affairs (known at that time as the Indian Office) and was able to minister to Native Americans casualties at Wounded Knee.

Charles Eastman, 1897, courtesy Smithsonian Institution

Charles Eastman, 1913, courtesy Smithsonian Institution

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Pueblo Indians Working in the Indian Service School, Taos, New Mexico, courtesy Library of Congress

When Dr. Harry Hummer found himself understaffed as a result of the manpower shortage created by WWI, he asked the Indian Office to approve higher wages to help him fill positions. (See last post.) Otherwise, he would have to look at hiring Indian workers. For him, Indian staff was a last resort; for the Indian Service, hiring Native American workers was becoming much more commonplace. One of the most important reasons for hiring Native Americans was the hope that it would make the process of assimilation (submerging Indians into white culture as a way of “killing the Indian” without actual bloodshed) quicker and easier. Indians’ employment within the Indian Service itself seemed a perfect way to give Native Americans a stake in white culture and for them to serve as role models for others on their reservations.

Before the Civil War, not many positions were filled by Native Americans, but the government pushed employment for them after the war. Employment within the Indian Service’s education department went from 15 percent in 1888 to 45 percent in 1899. By 1912, Native American employees made up nearly 30 percent of all regular employees in the Indian Service, not just in its education department. (There aren’t statistics that break down employment in every job category for this period.) Teachers were still mainly white, but the number of Native American teachers had risen from 0 in 1888 to 50 in 1905.

Yakama Indian Employees and School Children, Fort Simcoe, Washington, circa 1888, courtesy Library of Congress

Hospital Staff, Tulalip Indian School, circa 1910, courtesy University of Washington Libraries, Special Collection Division

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President Taft Speaking at Manassas Court House, Virginia in 1911, courtesy Library of Congress

The Bureau of Indian Affairs tried to address the many health issues developing among tribes who had lost their traditional lands, lifestyles, and occupations. However, funds were always far too short to do much good, and healthcare was not provided with any kind of continuity. As time went on and the country began to use  surveys and statistics as a basis for action, the government surveyed reservations and schools to discover the extent of the sanitation and health issues which were being reported. When President Taft received the information, which showed a high incidence of tuberculosis and trachoma (an eye disease which often led to blindness), along with a scarcity of medical care, he was shocked.

“The death rate of the Indian country is 35 per thousand as compared with 15 per thousand–the average death rate of the United States as a whole . . .,” he told Congress in 1911. “Last year, of 42,000 Indians examined for disease, over 16 percent of them had trachoma . . . . Of the 40,000 Indians examined, 6,000 had tuberculosis.” Taft asked Congress for more money to go toward Indian health care. . . . “It is our immediate duty to give the race a fair chance for an unmaimed birth, healthy childhood, and a physically efficient maturity.”

Appropriations for Indian medical service rose from $40,000 in 1911 to $350,000 in 1918.

A Grandfather and Two of His Grandchildren Infected With Trachoma, Rincon Reservation, Californina in 1912, courtesy National Library of Medicine

Group Picture at the Phoenix Indian School Tuberculosis Sanitorium Phoenix, AZ, circa 1890-1910, courtesy National Institutes of Health

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King George III

Native Americans were initially a greater threat to colonists than colonists were to them. The British Crown recognized this, and also realized that good relationships were important both to its trade economy and its position with France, which also had big plans for the New World. Around 1755, the Crown placed control of Indian affairs under its own authority rather than the more haphazard arrangements developed by individual colonies. (See last post.) The government established northern and southern departments and appointed a superintendent for each. By 1763, King George issued a Proclamation which established western boundaries which settlers were supposed to respect, and essentially created an “Indian Country.”

After Independence from Britain, America’s Continental Congress also forbade settlement on Indian lands. Congress later made its intentions clear with the Northwest Ordinance of July 13, 1787. The Ordinance stated that: “The utmost good faith shall always be observed towards the Indians, their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent; and in their property, rights, and liberty, they shall never be invaded or disturbed, unless in just and lawful wars authorized by Congress.” The Ordinance added that from time to time, Congress would also make laws to prevent wrongs being done to Indians, and which worked toward friendship and peace.

Map of North America in 1763, courtesy digitalhistory.uh.edu

Leaders of the Continental Congress from a painting by Augustus Tholey, 1894, courtesy Library of Congress

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Though the four primary groups of people settling in the New World (Spanish, French, English, and Dutch) recognized the rights of Native Americans to their land, their relationships with Native Americans developed differently. The

Father Joseph Pierre Bonnecamp and Native Americans, courtesy Indiana University of Pennsylvania

French, who were heavily dependent on Native Americans for their furs, generally had the best relationship. Intermarriage was not uncommon, and many fur traders established very friendly relationships with their trading partners. The Dutch were also heavily involved in the fur trade, and though their relationships were not so close, they also tended to rein in practices that would disrupt profitable trade. And, even though the Spanish conquistadors committed atrocities in the New World, Spain’s legal stand was to offer Indians protection as wards of the Crown. This paternalistic attitude often did not translate into reality, and the Spanish frequently  forced both government and religion upon native peoples.

The British seemed to differ significantly from the other three nations in their attitude toward Native Americans. The English recognized native peoples’ right of occupancy, but did not recognize them as equals, or even as particularly worthwhile human beings. To a great extent, the British Crown left actual Indian policy development to each of the colonies; this resulted in drastically different approaches, interactions, and results when thirteen separate colonial governments dealt with Native Americans. Additionally, English settlers on the frontier acted in ways which were advantageous to them, no matter what the Crown or their particular colonial leaders desired. English frontiersmen who wanted more land usually regarded Native Americans as impediments to their own dreams and goals, and developed a hostile attitude toward  them. These attitudes continued to play out once Americans gained their independence from England.

Map of Hudson River Area of New Netherland

British and Native Americans Clashing During the Seven Years' War, courtesy Library of Congress

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Pope Paul III

Settlers to the New World had a lot to mull over when they discovered that the land they had discovered was already inhabited. What rights would these inhabitants have, since colonists did not consider native peoples to be as advanced as European citizens? (See last post.) Could Europeans feel justified in sweeping in to do whatever they wanted in this new territory? Or, did the native peoples have inalienable rights that even so-called “superior” civilizations had to  acknowledge?

In 1537,  Pope Paul III made a proclamation to the rulers of Europe in his Bull Sublimis Deus, which stated: “We, who, though unworthy, exercise on earth the power of our Lord . . . consider, however, that the Indians are truly men and that they are not only capable of understanding the Catholic faith, but, according to our information, they desire exceedingly to receive it.” The proclamation further stated, ” . . . the said Indians and all other people who may later be discovered by Christians, are by no means to be deprived of their liberty or the possession of their property, even though they may be outside the faith of Jesus Christ . . . nor should they be in any way enslaved; should the contrary happen, it shall be null and of no effect.”

This proclamation should have made all the difference in the way Native Americans and newcomers interacted; unfortunately, its intent was continually subverted.

Antonio Margil de Jesus, Known as the Apostle of New Spain

Baptisms in the New World

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Public Health Service Staff Inspecting Immigrants. All idiots, insane persons, etc. were to be excluded from the country, courtesy National Institutes of Health

As asylums grew larger and lost their ability to integrate mentally ill or temporarily distraught citizens back into society, they became warehouses for people who could not cope with or mesh into the current culture. Most asylums assumed a custodial role, rather than a therapeutic one. Asylum superintendents noted early on that immigrants made up a larger proportion of the “insane” than native born peoples did, and usually attributed that situation to the inferiority of immigrant minds rather than to their own cultural snobbery or misconceptions (see last post).

Though it undoubtedly happened, most asylum patients who could not speak English were not simply lifted from the streets and thrown into asylums. Usually a complaint about the person’s behavior came from someone, and then further questioning would make it apparent to authorities that the person before them did not adhere to societal expectations. Many sane immigrants were caught in this net, unable to explain themselves well because they lacked language skills, or too intimidated by what they considered foreign (and formidable) authorities to defend themselves. Interpreters may or may not have been used, but considering that many white Americans went  before a sanity board without benefit of a formal defense, it is easy to believe that most immigrants stood on their own or with dubious help from others.

Native Americans who could not speak English well were also vulnerable to these kinds of abuses. A bigoted sanity board would not consider cultural differences, and language barriers would only make the Native American look ignorant or mentally deficient. If the accused lost his temper or gave in to emotional turmoil, he made himself look worse. Many patients were railroaded into insane asylums, but the most vulnerable patients were those who fell outside traditional Anglo-based American culture.

A Six-Man Jury Declared Koslowski Insane in 1911

Eloise Insane Asylum in Detroit, 1911

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Jones Building, St. Elizabeths, circa 1910 to 1925, courtesy Library of Congress

It perhaps isn’t quite fair to compare a federal insane asylum like the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians with a private institution catering to the wealthy. (See last post about McLean Asylum for the Insane.) However, the government did have another insane asylum, and it was also quite different from the one at Canton. St. Elizabeths had a training school for nurses, quarantine rooms, and a full hospital where operations ranging from appendectomies to hysterectomies were performed. It was one of the first asylums in the country to appoint a pathologist to its staff, and one of the first to institute therapeutic hydrotherapy.

At about the time that the Canton asylum opened, Dr. William A. White arrived at St. Elizabeths. He created a clinical director position, and organized a scientific department which eventually included a pathologist, psychologist, histopathologist, and a number of assistants. The department published their research in the form of an annual bulletin. St. Elizabeths also trained surgeons from the Public Health Service and Marine Hospital Service to work on Ellis Island (helping discover insane immigrants). The hospital shared its research with the U.S. Army and Navy to help bring military psychiatry into their respective branches. The Canton Asylum for Insane Indians was much smaller than St. Elizabeths and perhaps couldn’t be expected to do the same things. However, its staff could have done much more research on mental health issues in a unique population than it did, and been much more involved with its peer organizations that it was. Instead, the asylum’s most significant staff member, Dr. Harry Hummer, allowed the facility to stagnate into a backwater institution that helped its patients very little.

Patient Room in Center Building, 1905, courtesy National Archives

Wrapped Patients at St. Elizabeths, courtesy National Archives

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