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.

Wild South Dakota

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Mescalero Apache and Mountain Lion Pelt, circa 1883, courtesy Libary of Congress

Mescalero Apache and Mountain Lion Pelt, circa 1883, courtesy Library of Congress

Though Canton, SD could boast of a beautiful college and insane asylum, along with other substantial structures, it remained on the edge of the wilderness. The state was still a wide-open, empty place, and even settled areas weren’t far removed from the frontier environment.

The March 12, 1909 issue of The Sioux Valley News (published each Friday) noted that mountain lions were encroaching on settled territory in the Black Hills. The paper stated, “The lions have so far confined their meals to chickens, cats and other small live stock, but as several of the animals have come almost into town and seem unusually bold, hunting parties are being organized to rid the community of their presence.”

Hand-picking Corn in South Dakota, early 1900s

Hand-picking Corn in South Dakota, early 1900s

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Power at the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians

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O.S. Gifford

O.S. Gifford

Asylum superintendents were powerful by the nature of their jobs (see previous post). The situation at the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians especially consolidated power in its superintendent, simply because there was no other likely person to share it.

When Canton Asylum opened on the last day of 1902, superintendent O.S. Gifford (a non-medical man) used the services of his assistant superintendent, Dr. John Turner. Though Gifford was ultimately responsible for the asylum and could call all the shots–which he sometimes did to the detriment of patients–he realized that some authority had to go to Turner as the only medical person at the facility.

Dr. Harry R. Hummer

Dr. Harry R. Hummer

Harry R. Hummer replaced Gifford in 1908. Dr. Turner resigned after less than a year, fed up with Hummer’s arrogance and dismissive attitude. In August of 1909, Hummer received another assistant superintendent, Dr. L.M. Hardin, from the Leech Lake reservation. Early in 1910, Hardin quit in frustration. After that, Hummer never employed another physician at the asylum.

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Power at an Insane Asylum

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Dr. John Gray

Dr. John Gray

Superintendents were responsible for almost everything at an asylum. Though their responsibility might bog them down with administrative details, it also made their word law in the asylum. John Gray, superintendent of the New York State Lunatic Asylum at Utica, was arguably one of the most powerful of these powerful men.

Gray fired anyone on his staff who disagreed with him, and carried on ill-natured vendettas against fellow doctors and superintendents whose policies he disliked. Gray enjoyed the limelight and was criticized for spending too much time testifying in trials as an expert witness. He edited the American Journal of Insanity for many years, but was often accused of refusing to publish articles about insanity and its treatment when they differed from his own.

Gray spent 34 years at Utica. In 1886, after testifying as an expert witness, Gray returned to his office in the evening. Henry Remshaw, who may have been temporarily insane, walked into Gray’s office and shot him in the face. Gray never fully recovered from the attack and spent his remaining four years of life in poor health.

New York State Lunatic Asylum at Utica

New York State Lunatic Asylum at Utica

Utica Crib, used for disruptive patients

Utica Crib, used for disruptive patients

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The Incurable Insane

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Waupaca County Asylum for the Chronic Insane, circa 1902, courtesy Wisconsin History and Genealogy website

Waupaca County Asylum for the Chronic Insane, circa 1902, courtesy Wisconsin History and Genealogy website

When asylums were first built, alienists had high hopes that their patients would be quickly cured. Most felt that if families could bring patients in soon after the onset of symptoms, therapy and a changed environment would be helpful. Superintendents tried to get patients, then, during the “acute” phase or within a year of their becoming insane.

Families didn’t usually act this quickly. They often tried to keep family members at home until their symptoms became too difficult to manage. Asylums began to get patients who had been insane for a long time, and there was not as much hope for a cure. At that point, asylums began to differentiate between acute and chronic care. They spent most of their energy with patients they thought stood a good chance of returning to society. Asylums provided little more than custodial care to the chronic insane, and institutionalization became a lifelong fate for these unfortunate patients.

Institutional Check

Institutional Check

Government Care of Insane Native Alaskans

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Tlingit Healer and Patient in Posed Healing Ceremony, Alaska, 1906, courtesy Library of Congress

Tlingit Healer and Patient in Posed Healing Ceremony, Alaska, 1906, courtesy Library of Congress

The Oregon State Hospital in Salem, Oregon was created in 1880 by an act of the state’s legislature, and opened its doors in 1883 to 370 patients. By 1896, the number of patients had grown to 1,106.

On January 16, 1901, the U.S. government entered a contract with the hospital to house the insane of Alaska at $20/month for each patient. The contract was renewed for an additional year, but in 1904, Alaskans with mental health care needs were sent to Morningside Hospital in Portland, Oregon. They were typically arrested and convicted on insanity, then transported by dog sled and boat to Oregon. Like American Indians, many of these patients were railroaded into an institution because they were inconvenient to someone in power.

Inside Morningside

Inside Morningside

The care for the Territory of Alaska’s native population fell under the Secretary of the Interior, as did care for American Indians. Because there were no facilities in Alaska to provide for the mentally ill , they were brought–often unwillingly–to the mainland for treatment under the care of the Sanitarium Company of Portland, Oregon. The hospital was understaffed and relied on drugs to keep patients subdued and manageable.

Inspection at Morningside Hospital, courtesy National Institutes of Health

Inspection at Morningside Hospital, courtesy National Institutes of Health

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The First Government Hospital for the Insane

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St. Elizabeths

St. Elizabeths

The Government Hospital for the Insane (St. Elizabeths) had been in operation about a decade when the Civil War began. Wounded soldiers were treated there, and in January, 1863, the surgeon-general of the U.S. army requested that a separate room be set aside “for the convenience of one of the manufacturers of artificial legs.” A soldier who had lost a limb through amputation could then be easily and conveniently fitted for an artificial limb. Soldiers from close-by hospitals could request a transfer to St. Elizabeths when their wounds healed, for an artificial limb-fitting.

The government hospital expanded greatly over the next two decades, and was a leader in the scientific treatment of its patients. Dr. I.W. Blackburn, its first special pathologist, was one of the first in the country assigned to a hospital. St. Elizabeths was also one of the first hospitals to use hydrotherapy to treat the insane. Dr. G.W. Foster began using this therapy around 1893, mainly in the form of cold packs to the head. The hospital purchased a complete hydrotherapeutic outfit in fiscal year 1897-1898.

A school of nursing instruction began in 1894, and became more formalized around 1899, when it was reorganized and expanded. The school began giving certificates after a two-year course, along with a promotion and raise in pay for graduates.

Private Columbus Rush, courtesy National Museum of Health and Medicine

Private Columbus Rush, courtesy National Museum of Health and Medicine

Private Rush with Prosthetic Legs, courtesy National Museum of Health and Medicine

Private Rush with Prosthetic Legs, courtesy National Museum of Health and Medicine

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Training for Nurses

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Civil War Nurse

Civil War Nurse

Just as war in the Crimea led the way for women’s involvement in nursing for Great Britain, the Civil War led to similar breakthroughs in the U.S. Dorothea Dix led the effort to get women into the hospitals. She wanted her nurses to be old and plain so that decorum would not be upset, but eventually accepted women outside those parameters because of the great need. The inroads females made in overcoming the exclusivity of male nursing care during the war helped them retain their place in hospitals afterward.

Doctors particularly saw the need for nurses in insane asylums, because of the often long-term nature of patient care. In 1880, the McLean Hospital for the Insane began to give instruction to attendants in the “manipulations of  nursing,” and introduced the term “nurses” for attendants and “patients” for boarders.

In 1883, the Buffalo State Asylum began instruction for female attendants. Some of the questions included:

What are the physical conditions of acute melancholia; detail the care such patients need.

What are the characteristics of a fit?

Give method of applying moist heat–a turpentine stupe fomentation–poultices–a mustard plaster.

What is a deodorizer; an antiseptic; and a disinfectant?

Give apothecary’s weights; dose of powdered opium; tincture of opium, morphine; symptoms and treatment of opium poisoning?

McLean Asylum for the Insane

McLean Asylum for the Insane

Buffalo State Asylum

Buffalo State Asylum

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Nursing the Insane

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Florence Nightingale

Florence Nightingale

Nurses fill a vital role in caring for patients in any institutional setting, and today’s nurses are trained, skilled, and professional. That was not always the case. In the late 1800s, attendants were typically male, and often incompetent or uncaring. Florence Nightingale set the bar higher for nursing when she went to Crimea in 1854, but twenty years later, medical men were still lamenting the lack of qualified and willing people to help the insane.

One problem the profession faced was a lack of systematic instruction for attendants or nurses. Except for the religious orders, there were no permanent schools to train people for nursing even as late as 1880. Some medical superintendents tried giving lectures on nursing care, but they were often attended by just a handful of people. Alienists (early psychiatrists) understood that they could help the situation by attracting women to nursing.

Stewards and Nurses, Brooklyn Navy Yard Hospital, Detroit circa 1890-1901

Stewards and Nurses, Brooklyn Navy Yard Hospital, Detroit circa 1890-1901

 

Group of Male Attendants, 1890s, Spring Grove Hospital

Group of Male Attendants, 1890s, Spring Grove Hospital

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Tough Women

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Gathering Cow Chips

Gathering Cow Chips

Going West was hard for everyone, but women faced extra difficulties. Besides abandoning a familiar home and surroundings, the physical demands of travel could also take a heavy toll. Passengers in a wagon might have to walk a good portion of the time, to spare the livestock and lighten the load. Long skirts were confining and difficult to keep clean during travel. Thunderstorms drenched a woman’s wagon and all her possessions, blazing sun burned her  body and dried her  skin, and the endless wind could leave all of her family parched for water. Along the way, a woman might lose a baby or child. Then she would be forced to leave the body in a grave, to never see again.

Women were remarkably brave and cheerful through these trials. Here is a journal entry by Mary Richardson Walker in 1838: “In the afternoon we rode 35 miles without stopping…but[when I] came to get off my horse, almost fainted. Laid as still as I could till after tea, then felt revived. Washed my dishes, made my bed & rested well.” (From Women of the West by Cathy Luchetti & Carol Olwell)

Mormons on Their Way West

Mormons on Their Way West

Pioneer Women

Pioneer Women

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Hardships In the West

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Cattle On Farm Ruined by Grasshoppers in North Dakota, 1936, courtesy Library of Congress

People from the East did not always understand how dramatically different conditions were in the West. Without forests of trees, the wind blew unchecked across the plains. The land didn’t offer much in the way of building material–brick or wood homes were impossible dreams for early settlers. Instead, they had to dig into the land itself to build sod homes.

After settling on the land, pioneers discovered that insects (like grasshoppers) could wipe out their crops when devastating numbers of them arrived to feed. Settlers faced blizzards that were made worse because of the emptiness of the land. There were few neighbors for social networking or even practical assistance. The worst thing settlers discovered, was that 160 acres in the West was not the same as 160 acres in the East. That amount of land wouldn’t support them in the dry conditions they faced in the West. Many of the early pioneers abandoned their land and returned home.

Plowing a Field, courtesy Colorado State University Archives

Plowing a Field, courtesy Colorado State University Archives

Pioneers Going West, courtesy Kansas Department of Transportation

Pioneers Going West, courtesy Kansas Department of Transportation

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