A South Dakota Farm During the Depression
Many insane asylums had gardens which grew both flowers and produce. The Canton Asylum for Insane Indians included a garden that provided supplemental fresh food for staff and patients, but sometimes with indifferent results.
South Dakota was subject to harsh and unpredictable weather, with great temperature swings at times, drought, and pests. Continue reading
Drying Corn at Laguna, New Mexico, circa 1916, courtesy Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture 1918
All asylums operated within budgets, and most had to make difficult choices about which services and personnel to provide and which to skimp on or delete. One reason (among several) that early asylums used patient labor was because it saved money that could then be used elsewhere. Asylum gardens were extremely important to some institutions; they often subsidized food allotments which would have often been inadequate. Dr. Harvey Black, superintendent of Southwestern Lunatic Asylum, wanted three things for his asylum: good food, comfortable clothing, and enough ward attendants. His facility and many others, raised corn, potatoes, and a variety of vegetables; some institutions were able to tend fruit orchards as well.
Patients at the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians helped raise these same items, but wintertime presented a problem for them as it did for the general population. Potatoes, corn, and other starchy vegetables were easy enough to store, but fresh greens and fruits would have disappeared for the winter. Some dried fruits may have been available, but records do not seem to indicate much activity in the way of canning or drying at the asylum. A diet of meat and primarily starchy vegetables could have led to many different health issues, and patients at the Canton Asylum seem to have had a leaning toward sugar addiction. One inspector wrote in 1916: “The only suggestion that I would make, with reference to the ration allowance, is that the supply of sugar be increased. The patients, for some reason, consume more sugar than normal people . . . I have observed this abnormal craving for sugar by patients in other asylums.”
Sugar cravings can indicate thyroid problems, yeast infections,adrenal overload, depression, and a variety of other conditions.The inspector’s comments indicate that something physical was probably going on with the patients at Canton Asylum in addition to any mental issues they may have had.
Women's Sewing Room at Maryland Hospital for the Insane, 1910s, courtesy Spring Grove Hospital Center
Men's Industrial Shop at Maryland Hospital for the Insane, circa 1900, courtesy Spring Grove Hospital Center
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Arikira Medicine Ceremony, 1908, Edward S. Curtis
Though produce and meat constituted the bulk of regularly preserved and stored food, other plants and herbs were also important to Native Americans. Many modern consumers know the benefits of teas made from chamomile, mint, and and sage, for example, and newcomers to the continent brought medicinal plants with them both on purpose or by accident when seeds hopped rides with cargo. Peoples throughout the world have relied on the plant world for their medicines, and still do where big pharmaceutical companies have not made inroads or aren’t trusted. Patent medicines–typically vegetable extracts with plentiful amounts of alcohol, opium, or cocaine–were popular in the U.S. as early as the 1700s. However, most native peoples and settlers favored plant preparations which had some validated success.
During the Civil War, the Confederate Army relied on plant-based remedies to such an extent that it commissioned a study of herbal medicines, Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests by Francis Porcher, to aid their treatment of soldiers. Doctors used onion and garlic from the allium family for their antibacterial effectiveness with injuries. The reasons behind many herbal remedies weren’t clearly understood at the time, but doctors realized that these plants facilitated recovery for soldiers with wounds and skin infections. Yarrow was an effective blood-stopping agent. Soldiers themselves used American pennyroyal as an insect repellent by rubbing the fresh plant over their skin. Unfortunately, alcohol and opiates continued to hold a powerful position with military doctors, as did harmful mercury-based products like calomel.
Medicinal Recipes circa 1871
Confederate Study of Medicinal Plants
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Native American Storytelling
Native Americans did not celebrate Halloween rituals as Europeans did, but they passed on stories about spirits and ghosts. The following story is adapted from the Zuni tale, “Rolling Skull” on angelfire.com, Native American Legends, Myths, and Lore:
One day, a young man who was a great hunter found himself far away from home when it became dark and rainy. He saw smoke coming from a house and thought that he could find shelter there. An old woman let him in and offered him food. Later, she offered him her beautiful daughter for the night. The man agreed and went to sleep with the daughter. When he woke up, the house was only an old ruin and his blanket was just a rag. The woman he had slept with was a skeleton, and her bones rattled as he jumped up in fear and ran away. As he ran, he heard the old woman’s skull rolling behind him.
The man sought help from the Hawiku, who were dancing the yaya dance. But, as he joined the dance, the old woman’s skull rolled into the group of dancers and cried out, “Where is my daughter’s husband?” The hunter ran to the Navajo dancing a war dance, but the same thing happened. He ran to the Laguna dancing the harvest dance, and the same thing happened. The old woman’s skull rolled behind him everywhere he sought help or protection. The bluebird and the sunflower couldn’t help him, but finally the hunter reached Porcupine.
Porcupine gave the man pinon gum and told him to cover the door thickly with it. When the old woman’s skull cried out for her daughter’s husband, Porcupine told her to come and get him. The skull rolled in and stuck fast to the pinon gum. Porcupine set fire to the pinon gum and skull and burned it up. The man then stayed with Porcupine and married Porcupine Girl.
Though the story is simple, the hunter’s panic is palpable in the longer version, and the eeriness of the old woman’s skull more pronounced.
Zuni Pueblo-Pack Train, courtesy Smithsonian Institution and the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center
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Fur-Hat Industry
Trade usually benefited both parties in an exchange, since value (of goods traded) is in the eye of the beholder. However, from a strictly economic standpoint, European traders came out well ahead of their Native American counterparts. Except for guns and powder, Europeans exchanged relatively inexpensive trade goods like pots and pans, beads, and cloth for Indians’ furs, which took an entire season for hunters to amass. Europeans were dependent on Native Americans for the furs which had been almost depleted in Europe. However, because they weren’t aware of the European situation, Native Americans couldn’t always leverage their goods to better advantage.
The fur trade was fueled to a surprising extent by men’s fashion. Beaver-felt hats were particularly in vogue during the late 1600s and 1700s, and so many beaver were procured for their pelts that hunting areas were exhausted in certain areas in the New World even before 1700. European fur traders ranged further and further looking for fur suppliers, which led to exploration, cultural exchanges, and warfare. By the middle of the 1700s, European goods had been introduced–and readily accepted–into most native peoples’ lifestyle. In certain areas like the Great Lakes, nearly all Native American men owned muskets or rifles, and women relied on metal cookware and European cloth. The fur trade began to dwindle when animals became scarce or disappeared due to over-hunting, and when silk hats became fashionable in Europe.
Victorian-era Beaver Top Hat
1892 Silk Plush Hat
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The Second Continental Congress Voting Independence, courtesy National Archives
Though Europeans early on decided that their own culture should dominate the continent, they also recognized their need for, and dependence upon, relationships with Native Americans. Going beyond fanciful grade-school depictions of friendly meetings between native peoples and newcomers, reality shows that trade was a tried and true method of getting to know one another and establishing relationships. The northern and southern colonies loosely coalesced into organized units and each formed a superintendency of Indian affairs. Later on, the Continental Congress created three similar departments, the Northern, Middle, and Southern. Each department was headed by a commissioner, and the departments’ function was mainly to preserve peace and harmonious relationships with Native Americans and prevent the various tribes from siding against the colonies during their fight for independence.
Once the new nation was established, Congress considered trade and commerce with Native Americans to be of national concern. They had this issue in mind when founders wrote Section 8, Article 1 of the Constitution: Congress had the power to “regulate Commerce with Foreign nations and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes.” In this section, it is plain that Native Americans were independent entities and separate from the new nation and its citizens. Congress also recognized that Indian nations were at a disadvantage in dealing with Europeans and had been taken advantage of by unscrupulous traders. The nation quickly established an act (1790) which prohibited any person to trade with Indian tribes without a license issued by a superintendent of one of the Indian departments.
Illustration of a Hudson Bay Trading Post from Harper's Weekly, circa 1888
Fur Traders in Canada, 1777
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Painting, George Rogers Clark Making a Treaty with the Indians
Though the U.S. population usually supported freedom passionately, the government and its people could also entertain strong paternalistic views. Eugenics laws (see last few posts) were created in part due to a feeling that certain authoritarians “knew best” which traits were good for the country and which were not. More than that, those authoritarians felt compelled and and justified in forcing those views on others. Besides the so-called “defectives” who were the targets of eugenic laws, the country’s paternalism extended to other groups like females, immigrants, and non-Caucasion races.
When European colonists first met with Native Americans, their representatives treated tribes as sovereign nations and negotiated individual treaties with each group. Once the American nation formed, the country’s Indian Department became the responsibility of the Secretary of War. As activities between the new nation and Native Americans increased, the Secretary of War became overwhelmed by paperwork. In 1822, the Secretary eventually separated all duties specifically concerned with Native Americans into a separate department and asked Thomas L. McKenney (the Superintendent of Indian Trade) to run it. He declined. In 1824, Congress established the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and this time, McKenney was persuaded to accept a position as its head. Native Americans almost immediately began to lose ground as distinct nations and increasingly fell under the power of a government who “knew best” for them.
John C. Calhoun, Secretary of War in 1824
Thomas L. McKenney, courtesy State Historical Society of Missouri
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Harry Laughlin, circa 1929
One of the reasons eugenics laws were so disturbing is because their targets were so loosely defined.
Harry Laughlin’s Model Eugenical Sterilization Law in 1914 spelled out just how nebulous the so-called “undesirable” element of a population could be. He proposed to authorize sterilization of what he called the socially inadequate–and the list of these people was long and frightening. Continue reading
Carrie Buck and Emma Buck, 1924, courtesy of the University of Albany, New York
As eugenics became more popular (see last post), sterilization laws were adopted in many states. One of the most notorious and tragic cases involving forced sterilization was Carrie Buck’s. In 1927, Buck was the first person to be sterilized under Virginia’s 1924 law. She had had an illegitimate daughter, and at 17 years old, joined her own mother at the Virginia Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded. Both were considered feeble-minded and promiscuous, and Carrie’s daugher, Vivian, also received the feeble-minded diagnosis. Carrie’s mother had been involuntarily institutionalized, but Carrie was additionally involuntarily sterilized. Writing for the majority, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes declared that “. . . Three generations of imbeciles are enough.”
Even though sterilization was legal, Carrie’s diagnosis made no sense. She had done well at school, and her daughter made the honor roll in elementary school, several years later. Obviously, neither of these females was feeble-minded. However, Carrie had been raped by a member of her foster family, and apparently they (with her defense lawyer and the lawyer for the Virginia Colony ) conspired to send her to an institution to help the family avoid shame and to test the state’s sterilization law.
Over the years, institutionalization had been used as a tool by many families to cover up or hide problems in both male and female members, and this classic miscarriage of justice was just one of many instances of its misuse. Carrie’s younger sister was also sterilized after being told she was going to the hospital for appendicitis surgery.
Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. kn Buck v. Bell, courtesy Library of Congress
Virginia State Epileptic Colony Cottage for Feeble-Minded Women
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A 1926 Poster Urging the Removal of Defective People
Dr. Harry Hummer’s concern about releasing female patients of childbearing age (see last post) shows that he was looking at factors beyond a patient’s ability to live comfortably outside asylum walls. Hummer was neither alone nor unusual in his concern that a former female patient might bear a child who would, in turn, inherit the mother’s problem. (For some reason, he did not voice the same concerns about male patients.) Both anecdotal observation and real scientific research over many years had made it clear that certain genetic traits could be inherited. A fear of inherited insanity was of long standing, and featured as a theme in a number of Victorian novels in which characters refused to marry because of the “taint of insanity” running through their bloodline.
The rising popularity of eugenics (the theory and practice of improving the genetic quality of a population) during the turn of the century and into the 1930s, gave validity to concerns about inheriting madness. Researchers in eugenics tended to believe that many human qualities–good or bad–were inherited rather than the product of environment. Their pseudo-science was well-presented, however, and many people believed that almost anything could be inherited. Even before Hummer became the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians‘ superintendent, Americans had begun to support the idea of sterilizing so-called “unfit” people in order to stop specific undesirable traits from passing to a new generation. In 1907, the country’s first compulsory sterilization law was passed in Indiana, and targeted “confirmed criminals, idiots, imbeciles, and rapists.” The law was struck down in 1921 but later reinstated in 1927; the second law targeted the “insane, feeble-minded, and epileptic” and stayed on the books until 1974.
Contestants in a Better Baby Contest at the 1931 Indiana State Fair
Eugenic Certificate
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