Category Archives: Canton Asylum for Insane Indians

Canton Asylum for Insane Indians in South Dakota was also known as Hiawatha. It opened in December 1902 and closed in 1934 after charges of neglect and abuse were validated. Dr. Harry Reid Hummer and Oscar Sherman Gifford were its only two superintendents. Its only patients were Native Americans, typically called Indians. It was the only federal insane asylum created solely for an ethnic group and served only Indians.

A Full Time Job

Chiefs of the Yankton Sioux With Their Indian Agents, courtesy S. J. Morrow Collection, the W. H. Over Museum, University of South Dakota

Chiefs of the Yankton Sioux With Their Indian Agents, courtesy S. J. Morrow Collection, the W. H. Over Museum, University of South Dakota

Indian inspectors had their hands full trying to ensure that laws and policies were properly carried out within all the reservations (see last post).

But, it was the Indian agent who actually made things tick at the local level. Almost all reservations had an agent, who wielded enormous power over the lives of the Native Americans who were living on them as wards of the U.S. government.

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Grimes Was Not Impressed

Morningside Hospital Patient Ward, circa 1935

When Dr. John Maurice Grimes inspected mental institutions in the U.S. (see last two posts), he discovered that the federal asylum in Washington, DC, (St. Elizabeths) was overcrowded. Continue reading

Federal Facilities for the Insane

Life During the Great Depression for Many Men

Life During the Great Depression Was Tough for Many Men

When Dr. John Maurice Grimes published Institutional Care of Mental Patients in the United States at his own expense (see last post), he was able to speak freely about his findings.

His comments about Veterans Administration hospitals which treated mental patients were heartening: on the whole, he found VA facilities almost always situated on pleasant plots of land with room for necessary buildings and recreational activities. Continue reading

The Truth Not Welcome

Tents Used for Insane Patients, courtesy National Institutes of Health

Tents Used for Insane Patients, courtesy National Institutes of Health

In January, 1931, the Board of Trustees of the American Medical Association appropriated $20,000 for the study of all institutions “caring for either the mentally ill or the mentally deficient of the United States.”

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Where Do You Go?

Living Quarters in an Insane Asylum

Living Quarters in an Insane Asylum

Nearly every patient in an insane asylum wanted out. Asylum superintendents often put up roadblocks to this when they didn’t feel a patient was well enough to go home; there are many accounts of clashes between the asylum’s medical staff advising against removal, and patients’ families who thought they looked or seemed well enough to come home. Continue reading

Misery on Display

The Public Outside Utica State Lunatic Asylum

The Public Outside Utica State Lunatic Asylum

Most patients, of course, did not want to be in an asylum, and moving into one very likely added to whatever problem that had brought them there. Doctors’ management of their conditions may or may not have alleviated their distress (see last post), since much of the available medication in the 1800s and early 1900s had undesirable or unpleasant side effects.

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Commit and Forget

Alienists Sought Early Intervention for Insanity

Alienists Sought Early Intervention for Insanity

Spectacular cases of involuntary commitment have found their way into newspapers and books and are interesting to read about, but in reality, many families were reluctant to commit their loved ones to an asylum. Authorities hoped that their magnificent buildings and varied amenities would reassure family qualms so that patients would be admitted before their cases became chronic. Continue reading

Asylum Supervision

Yankton Insane Asylum, S.D.

Yankton Insane Asylum, S.D.

Almost every area of the country provided institutional care for its insane members. Any state government which created an asylum also tried to provide oversight in some way–concerning both patients’ admissions and the facility’s administration. Continue reading

Water Treatments

Continuous Bath Room, Kalamazoo Psychiatric Hospital, 1918, courtesy Kalamazoo Public Library

Continuous Bath Room, Kalamazoo Psychiatric Hospital, 1918

Patients entering an asylum were frequently given sedatives or tonics, depending upon their physical state, as well as a strong laxative to clean them out. Warm baths were thought to be calming and were frequently prescribed for agitated patients.  Continue reading

Water Therapy

Taking the Waters at the Columbian Springs

Taking the Waters at the Columbian Springs

Water therapies, known collectively as hydrotherapy, were popular forms of treatment for insanity. Most people today have relaxed under the influence of a warm, soothing soak in a tub, but it is interesting to note that bathing for health or medical reasons was popular long before bathing as a sanitation practice became nearly universal. Continue reading