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.

Longing for Winter’s End

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Cheyenne Winter Camp

Solstice celebrations (see last post) helped peoples in cold areas of the world cope with their fear that summer would never return to a dark and dreary world. Later, these celebrations acted as bright spots during a long season of inactivity and discomfort. Wintertime was certainly a period of discomfort for most people, and could be deadly without proper shelter and enough food. South Dakota, where the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians was located, was no exception. Though records were not kept throughout the state’s (and territory’s) history, we do know that the state’s lowest recorded temperature reached 58 degrees below zero on February 17, 1936, in McIntosh. (Its highest was 120 degrees in Gannvalley that same year–representing a 178 degree swing in temperatures.) There is no way to know what wind chills may have been, since these measurements were not widely used by weather reporters until the 1970s.

Blizzards were a particular hardship on the Plains and in the Dakotas, where few trees could stop the wind and blowing snow. Frigid temperatures throughout winter often killed livestock, and indoor temperatures sometimes could not get above freezing. Milk, water, and even the ink in inkwells froze, and sometimes children stayed in bed all day simply because it was too cold to get up. Meanwhile, parents prepared food in freezing kitchens as they remained dressed in outside winter gear. Blowing snow could both blind and suffocate people, and settlers often strung clothesline between their houses and barns to prevent losing their way and dying of exposure. Winter in the Dakotas was a fearful time that left bitter memories for many families.

Photo of a Drawing by Charles Graham of a Herd of Cattle in a Blizzard, courtesy Kansas Historical Society

Sod Home Near Meadow, South Dakota, courtesy Library of Congress

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Winter Celebrations

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Hopi Katsina, also Katchina, or Spirit Messengers

Though Christmas is the winter holiday many Americans celebrate, people over the world and throughout time have celebrated and enjoyed holidays during the winter. The winter solstice, the time when the North Pole tilts furthest away from the sun, has been celebrated by many nations. Neolithic and Bronze Age peoples have famously left the Stonehenge and Newgrange (Ireland) sites as evidence of their solstice celebrations. Woodhenge, a circle of posts within Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site in Illinois, marks both solstices and equinoxes. The city containing these mounds existed between 600-1,400 AD and are the remains of an advanced Mississippian culture.

The Hopi Soyaluna is a winter solstice festival occurring on December 22nd. When the Sun God has traveled as far from the earth as he can, Hopi warriors bring him back through  festival activities. The core of the festival occurs when members of the tribe dress as snakes, warriors and the Sun God himself to re-enact the solstice story. The black Plumed Snake symbolizes the (evil) forces which drive the sun away, so prayers are offered to persuade him not to swallow the sun forever. (This “swallowing” image recalls the way an eclipse looks.) The warriors offer gifts, and eventually the sun returns.

This festival is also a time to exchange good wishes for the new year. Preparations for the festival include making and giving away pieces of cotton string tied with feathers and pinyon needles at one end. When a person gives this string to another, he says that he hopes the Katchinas (spirits of Hopi ancestors) will grant the recipient’s wishes the following day.

Cahokia Representation, courtesy University of Chicago

Stonehenge

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Lakota Winter Counts

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Sam Kills Two, Lakota Winter Count Keeper, circa late 1800s, courtesy National Anthropological Archives

Winter was an important time of year for Native Americans, partly because it allowed time for reflection, repair, and planning. Plains Indians documented their year through “winter counts,” which were pictorial histories drawn on materials like deer hides, buffalo skins, or even paper. A pictograph for the year depicted an important or memorable event for the community preserving it; yearly pictographs were arranged in a spiral or in rows. These pictographs were in chronological order, and served as memory prompts for the group’s oral historian. Individuals could also create their own winter counts so they could remember important events in their lives.

A community’s historian did not arbitrarily decide upon the most memorable event of the year, but instead, consulted with elders to decide what that year’s event would be. The event was not merely important, but also memorable–which means that it was often unique or unusual. A brilliant meteor shower, terrible sickness, great hunts, and so on, would be candidates for a winter count pictograph, rather than an important but annual event.

A Lakota Winter Count with Individual Pictographs

Lone Dog's Winter Count. Smallpox Outbreak 1801-1802, Successful Hunt 1837-1837, and Arrival of Cattle from Texas 1868-1869

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A Look at Asylum Food

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Southwestern Lunatic Asylum, early 1890s, courtesy East Tennessee State University Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Superintendents of asylums considered food to be very important, both for patient health and for their morale. Many patients came to facilities somewhat malnourished or with some degree of  sickness, and nourishing food was a primary means of restoring them to physical health. Even healthy patients enjoyed a good meal, and for many patients, meals afforded pleasant breaks in a long day. Superintendents liked to see patients working in asylum gardens: the work gave them exercise and fresh air, occupied their minds, and helped keep expenses down. Some asylum gardens produced surprising amounts of food, though not entirely (or even mostly) through patient labor. The Southwestern Lunatic Asylum, in 1887, produced the following:

— 400 bushels of turnips

— 4,524 ears of green corn

–12,000 heads of cabbage

— 1,102 dozen cucumbers

— 64.5 gallons of peas

These figures do not represent the total harvest from the garden, but do give an idea of its productivity. The superintendent making the report stated that ” . . . the [garden’s] yield is fair under the circumstances . . . . The crops were planted late, and the early part of the season was unfavorable. While the soil of the farm and garden are naturally good, it has been badly cultivated.” At the the end of  fiscal year 1887, the facility had a capacity of 250 but only housed 139 patients.

Animals at the Athens Asylum for the Insane

Patients' Dining Room, West Virginia Hospital for the Insane, 1912

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Artificial Want

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Indian Woman Making Fry Bread

When settlers arrived on Native American shores, they met robust nations with well-developed cultures and survival systems. However, native peoples did not domesticate the animals they ate to any great extent, nor grow food crops as extensively as Europeans did. Unfortunately, settlers considered animal domestication and agriculture hallmarks of civilization; they immediately assumed that the indigenous peoples they met had not yet “risen” to their own level. Much of the interference in native culture practiced by the U.S. federal government and by religious groups targeted this perceived lack of civilization.

In doing so, these groups delivered some of the most devastating blows to Native Americans possible. Official insistence on European-style farming in particular brought ill-health and suffering to Native Americans. Tribes that were pushed to unfamiliar, marginal lands in the West could not live on what they raised by farming. Federal food allotments were necessary for survival, but the allotments also were inadequate. Poor-quality beef, flour, sugar, and coffee could not replace the superior nutrition that game, fish, and the varied plants gathered from large swaths of land, had previously provided. Health problems quickly surfaced, and soon the federal government and Native Americans became mired in a system that could only react to the worst of any number of crises.

Sioux Squaws Waiting for Rations at Pine Ridge Reservation, 1891, courtesy Library of Congress

Rations For All, circa 1905, courtesy Library of Congress

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A Helping Hand

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In the Land of the Sioux, courtesy firstpeople.us

Though food scarcity occurred naturally due to weather and other factors, Native Americans could generally recover from a poor season of hunting or farming. However, the “help” extended by the U.S.’s federal government actually put them into a downward spiral that affected their health for generations. Government interference began early in the relationship between native peoples and settlers, stemming to some extent from a difference in world view. Settlers expected to see the same extensive domestication of animals and extensive farming in the new land that they had experienced in Europe, and could not understand Native Americans’ different relationship with animals and nature. Settlers took the absence of widespread domestication and agriculture by native peoples as an indication that they were uncivilized. A surprising emphasis of early legislation by the newly formed U.S. dealt with this issue of civilization.

The new Congress’s first trade and intercourse Act (March 1, 1793) said this: “. . . in order to promote civilization among the friendly Indian tribes, and to secure the continuance of their friendship, it shall and may be lawful . . . to cause them to be furnished with useful domestic animals and implements of husbandry.”

These seemingly friendly words and seemingly friendly intention started a cascade of events that left Indian nations destitute of land and poorly nourished. My next couple of posts will concentrate on these issues.

Klamath Woman Preparing Food

Buffalo in Kansas

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Winter Living

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The change of seasons brought changes in lifestyle to most Native American groups. Before industrialization, most societies lived seasonally, with certain tasks being relegated for certain times of the year…spring and summer to plant, grow crops, hunt, and so on, and with autumn a time for harvesting and storing up. Winter was generally a quieter time, with less hunting and gathering. Hard-working people could take some time to rest, and to prepare for the next year.

Iroquois Longhouse

Native Americans dependent on agriculture usually had more stable villages, though they might move to a winter hunting area for a season. Some tribes, such as the Iroquois,  built large, permanent structures called longhouses. These homes could be 200 feet long, have a second story, and house more than 50 people. Native Americans on the Plains moved much more often to follow buffalo herds, and their housing reflected the mobility they needed. These tribes set up tepees (or tipis) that could be quickly raised and struck down.

During the winter, people could relax a bit, but they still stayed busy. Trapping would still be profitable in some areas, and people in winter camps could mend needed items for the next year, sew clothing, etc. Festivals were held in winter, which was also a time for storytelling and consultation concerning hunting or wartime strategies. Though winter could be a time of harshness and deprivation, it could also be a time of joy and play. Native peoples in the north and in Alaska enjoyed snowshoes and sledding, and a game with “snow snakes.” A snow stake was a carved piece of wood with a slight upward curve at one end and a notch at the other. Before play, teams would make a trough in the snow by dragging a log through it over and over. Players would throw their snakes along the trough as fast as possible so it would go far. Each player’s distance was measured and would be added to the team score; the team with the total longest distance won the game.

Cheyenne Winter Camp

Snow Snake Game

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Winter and Scarcity

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Buffalo Hunting for Money

Like many peoples dependent upon agriculture and hunting, Native Americans could face scarcity and deprivation if crops were poor or hunting was bad. If tribes had a regional primary food source, such as corn in parts of the Southwest or buffalo on the Plains, anything that tipped the balance against them had enormous ramifications. Losing good land hurt tribes dependent upon agriculture, and over-hunting hurt others more dependent on meat for winter survival. Many times, the intrusion of white settlers tipped the balance against Native American food security.

Native Americans on the Plains used almost every part of the buffalo, and its meat was critically important for survival. Originally, buffalo seemed to be limitless in number–some scientists estimate they may have numbered as high as 30 million before European settlers came to the continent–but several factors served to drive them to near extinction.:

–Native Americans were able to kill many more buffalo than they previously could, once they acquired horses and guns.

–Buffalo were forced to compete with horses and cattle, while ranchers killed many buffalo to clear land for cattle.

–Railroads required cleared land for trains, and workers killed many buffalo for food.

–Some buffalo were deliberately killed out of spite or as a policy to decimate the Plains’ best food source.

–Hunters and sport shooters slaughtered buffalo for the thrill of downing these enormous animals.

By the late 1990s, there were only two thousand or so buffalo left.

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

Pile of Buffalo Skulls To Be Ground Into Fertilizer, circa 1870s, courtesy Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library

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Agriculture at the Asylum

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Herd Pasturing on Wild Hay, 1910, courtesy Minnesota Historical Society

The Canton Asylum for Insane Indians did not depend on its gardens and livestock for survival, but the dairy products, fresh meat, and fresh produce they produced made meals more bountiful and nourishing. Dr. Harry Hummer depended upon them to keep his costs down, and failures were disappointing to both his self-esteem and his goal of running a tight (economic) ship. Hummer was a micromanager, though, and his interference probably added to whatever problems the site had due to weather and soil conditions.

Dr. Hummer’s unreasonableness was well-known, and a farmer on staff complained once that the doctor expected him to get a spring garden in (sow seed) while the field for it was under a foot of water. A few years later, the asylum lost its potato and corn crops due to drought and excessive heat, an unpreventable loss that has regrettably always been part of the farmer’s lot. Despite these setbacks, Hummer embraced farming and raising livestock wholeheartedly. Many of his letters to various commissioners of Indian Affairs requested more buildings and equipment to expand these operations, and he was generally praised for his efforts in these areas. Either Hummer concentrated on farming because it was more rewarding than trying to cure his patients, or because he was so concerned about economy that he was willing to neglect his patients to spend time on these non-patient concerns.

Wheat Field, Kearney Nebraska, 1908, courtesy Library of Congress

Effects of Drought on Corn near Russelville, Arkansas, 1936, by Dorothea Lange, courtesy Library of Congress

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Winter on the Plains

Homesteaders in North Dakota

Though its topography varied from region to region, the area known as the western Plains could be counted on to have a harsh environment. Summer temperatures often reached 100 degrees, and winter temperatures well into the double-digits below zero. Without many trees to stop or break the wind, heavy snows could be blinding and treacherous. South Dakota, one of the Plains states and home to the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians, experienced difficult weather that brought out its inhabitants’ resourcefulness and courage.

The Lakota and Dakota Sioux, native peoples who had lived on the Plains for centuries, were nomadic. During the winter they lived in buffalo-hide tents (tipis) and ate the food supplies they had gathered and preserved earlier. These supplies could be enormous. An account of General Alfred Sully’s 1863 retaliation against the Dakota for an uprising in 1862 says that his troops burned 500,000 pounds of “jerked buffalo meat, food gathered for the Indians’ long winter” over a two-day period. The melted fat “ran down the valley like a stream,” according to one observer.

This abundance contrasts sorrowfully with the rations most native peoples received once they were forced onto reservations. By the 1880s, game was scarce and the buffalo nearly gone. Iron Teeth, a 92-year-old Cheyenne woman, described her monthly rations: a quart of green coffee, a quart of sugar, a few pounds of flour, and some baking powder. In 1883, winter storms left some of the northern tribes in Montana near starvation. When a government wagon finally got through, it delivered only a load of bacon contaminated by maggots.

Annuity Payment at La Pointe, Wisconsin, 1870, courtesy of Wisconsin Historical Society

Waiting for Rations, circa 1905, courtesy Wannamker Collection, Mathers Museum Indiana University

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