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.

Details, Details

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Dairy Farm at Colorado State Insane Asylum, courtesy CMHIP Museum

Though Dr. Harry Hummer, like most insane asylum superintendents, had almost unlimited authority, he was also subject to countless petty annoyances that had to be handled in the course of the day. One of them involved accounting for equipment and supplies. Like many facilities, a certain amount of loss and breakage occurred at the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians, due in part to the nature of the patients who worked there and normal human oversight and carelessness. Because Hummer ran a government facility, however, he had to inventory and report all these losses (over $1.00 in value) and have the items formally deleted from his account. One typical letter from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs began with an acknowledgement that a government inspector named W. R. Beyer had explained that the asylum’s inmates, “on account of their mental condition are irresponsible . . . and many of these items are lost, mislaid, and cannot be located.” Beyer had advised the Indian Office to “drop items such as shovels, etc., as soon as they leave the warehouse, and are placed in the hands of the inmates.”

The assistant Commissioner, E. B. Meritt went on to say: “The Office holds, that though the inmates are irresponsible on account of their mental condition, they are under the supervision of employees whose duty it is to see that the shovels are taken care of, therefore does not see its way clear to grant a blanket authority for dropping said items.”

Though the Indian Office granted Hummer considerable leeway in the asylum’s management, it was adamant that he account for every penny they gave him.

Patients Working in Laundry Room at Texas State Lunatic Asylum, 1898

Nebraska State Lunatic Asylum

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What’s Going On?

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President Warren G. Harding, 1921-1923

The world changed rapidly in the early 20th century, and the Roaring Twenties seemed to kick up the excitement. Movies had enhanced America’s entertainment options (see last post), but more serious achievements also promised to push boundaries. Two researchers from Canada, Frederick Grant Banting and Charles Herbert Best, had discovered the hormone, insulin; diabetics now had a chance to lead normal lives. That same year, Albert Einstein received a Nobel prize for discovering the theory of relativity, while Adolf Hitler became leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party. In the U.S., Alice Mary Robertson became the second female congresswoman and the first woman to defeat an incumbent congressman; the Black Sox trial began in Chicago; and race riot in Tulsa, Oklahoma left 60 blacks and 21 whites dead.

At the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians, Dr. Harry Hummer was trying–as usual–to expand. He was of the opinion that hundreds of insane Indians among the reservation population were not able to receive proper care for their problems. He based his assumption on insanity rates derived from census reports, and was probably correct that all insane Native Americans among a population of over a quarter million, were not currently patients at his asylum. However, when the Commissioner of Indian Affairs asked for a list of applicants for admission to the asylum (Hummer always implied that a horde of applicants had to be turned away), Hummer could only give him 35 names.

Funeral Procession of the Unknown Soldier, Arlington, November 11, 1921

Einstein's First Visit to the U.S. in 1921

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South Dakota Is Still Brand New

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

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

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

Movies at the Asylum

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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. Continue reading →

Boys Not Exempt

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School Picture of Attawa Indian Boys, 1870, courtesy Library of Congress

Though women, and especially young girls, may have had fewer rights and protections under traditional white sensibilities, boys were also vulnerable to involuntary commitment. Navajo James Hathorn became a patient at the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians in 1904, when he was either six or eight years old. (See last post concerning another young patient.) Hathorn’s mother had suffered some problems during delivery, which affected James’s motor skills and language development. His problems were so severe that no one on his reservation could, or would, take care of him. He received ongoing medical care from Dr. Turner, mainly anti-spasmodics and physical therapy, which seemed to be helpful. At the time, there were 23 males at Canton Asylum, so presumably this little boy lived among them.

Though O. S. Gifford was not a trained psychiatrist as Dr. Harry Hummer was, he surely didn’t believe the boy was insane. Though he was probably taken to, and accepted by, the asylum with the best of intentions, Hathorn’s life had to be miserable. Authorities and family at the reservation, Gifford, and Dr. Turner probably understood Hathorn’s medical needs to be extreme, but putting a disabled child into an asylum with patients who were sometimes violent could not have been the best solution. Hathorn died at the age of 19 or 21, with little to indicate that he had improved to any great degree.

Tulalip Indian Boys at Canoe Race, 1912, courtesy Library of Congress

Huron (Wyandot or Wyandotte) Boys Learning to Chop Wood at Wyandotte Mission School in Kansas, 1880 to 1890, courtesy Library of Congress

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Exceptional Patients

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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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Women’s Lives in Asylums

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Athens Female Ward, 1893, courtesy Athens County Historical Society and Museum

Going to an asylum was psychologically difficult at the best of times, but women could be expected to suffer a bit more . . . after all, many asylum patients had been homemakers unused to much interaction outside their own houses. Ironically, the paternalistic society in which women lived, with all its “protections” gave them few skills to cope with sudden changes to their routines and environments. Of course, women have responded heroically to all sorts of negative situations, but it seems reasonable to assume that between the two genders, women would have been less exposed to communal living and interactions with strangers during the 19th century. In general, women had been taught to seek protection and rely on others, and to find their satisfaction in home, family, and close friends. Their feelings of abandonment and friendlessness upon entering an asylum would be dependent upon how strongly they had adhered to this “womanly” ethic.

A letter from Mary Page to her sister (in 1871) speaks to the anguish many forgotten women felt:

“It has been a long and trying time since I saw or heard from you or any of the rest of your family or any of my relations. . . . Almost four years have this band of enemies been at work on me with foul play . . . . You all can pity my condition and picture to yourselves my sad fate all too unjustly committed. I have never given anyone in this whole world the first cause for themselves to fight poor me . . . ”

The letter is written from Williamsburg Hospital in Virginia, probably referencing Eastern Lunatic Asylum. Though the letter is somewhat rambling and makes a series of bitter comments and accusations against “unjust enemies” (which may have been the result of hallucinations/paranoia and the reason for her commitment), the woman’s pain is evident. Undoubtedly men were sent to asylums and forgotten, too, but given their social conditioning, women would have felt it more keenly.

Eastern Lunatic Asylum

Female Department, Michigan Asylum for the Insane, 1892, courtesy Kalamazoo Public Library

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Female Asylum Patients

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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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Women’s Food Knowledge

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Hopi Indians Removing Pits from Peaches Before Drying, courtesy Library of Congress

Some Native American women held special positions in tribes (see last two posts), but almost any female possessed food-gathering and culinary skills of great value. When settlers first began pushing West, they found survival on the unforgiving Plains and desert areas very difficult. Scurvy (a vitamin C deficiency) was a special problem until whites could settle long enough to grow vegetables. Yet, Native American women knew to eat raw (wild) greens, berries, and vegetables to prevent scurvy and other nutritional diseases. They also knew how to make calorie-dense pemmican and jerky which kept well and could be used during lean times. Native Americans also ate parts of buffalo and other game that most whites disdained, but liver, brains, heart, and intestines are nutritious parts of the animal.

Whites did not want to eat things like grass, clover, cactus, wild artichokes, or cattails. They tended to cook all their food and frequently bypassed raw edibles that could have eased their hunger or provided better nutrition in the raw state; additionally, they were often suspicious of new foods. Though whites could have learned a lot by observing the peoples who had obviously lived successfully on the land for thousands of years, they held so many cultural prejudices that it was difficult for them to emulate the wisdom of Native American eating patterns.

Native American Woman Adding Berries to Make Pemmican

Indian (Pueblos) Food Preparation, 1899 or 1900, courtesy Library of Congress

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Medicine Women

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Blood Medicine Woman, Calgary, circa 1900

Native American women gathered herbs and created various healing preparations from them in probably every tribe. Some women had a special ability to heal, and became medicine women. Their knowledge went beyond the ordinary, and they devoted a considerable amount of time to perfecting their skills in recognizing and using herbs for curing illness and treating injuries. Women who were successful healers would be rewarded for their efforts with presents, food, and the like, and could become wealthy and respected within their tribes. Europeans were often astonished at how effective Native American medicines were in healing the ills of the day.

Some women went beyond healing with herbs and developed a deeper alliance with the spirit world. These women were differentiated as shamans; they studied under a practicing shaman and eventually took over her position. Shamans used the information passed on to them from their mentors, but also developed their own rituals, songs, or formulas for healing and for practicing other spiritual skills like interpreting dreams, finding buffalo herds, or calling out the wind. Their powers were mystical and magical, and though they could heal, they had a different role than medicine women.

Medicine Woman Seeking Solitude, 1915, courtesy Library of Congress

Menominee Medicine Woman

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