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.

Teach Your Natives Well

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Book for Indian Mothers

Book for Indian Mothers

There was no subject at all, it seems, in which the Indian could not benefit from a little instruction. The pamphlet at the left (created by the Department of the Interior) began with a friendly letter from the commissioner of  Indian Affairs, Cato Sells.

It advised Indian mothers not to feed their babies on demand, but by the clock. It also discouraged strapping babies into the traditional cradle, so they could be carried on the mother’s back.

The pamphlet did warn about serious diseases rampant within Indian communities, like smallpox and consumption. People who might be infected with consumption (TB) were advised not to swallow their spit, as it could then carry the disease to the stomach and bowel. With more practicality, it advised all Indians to get vaccinated for smallpox.

Baby in Cradle, Department of Interior pamphlet

Baby in Cradle, Department of Interior pamphlet

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A Working Society

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Navajo Woman at Work on Blanket, (between 1890-1920), courtesy Library of Congress

Navajo Woman at Work on Blanket, (between 1890-1920), courtesy Library of Congress

Like most other societies, Native Americans usually incorporated well-defined gender roles within their various groups. Men hunted, fought in battle, negotiated treaties and agreements, and made decisions about moving.  Men were chiefs, medicine men, and priests, though women could also take on these roles at times.

Women raised children, farmed if the society were agricultural, tanned skins and preserved food. Though their home-making roles were similar to white women’s, Native American women typically had more power. In Cherokee society, women owned land. Plains Indians traced their lineage through their mothers. Iroquois women controlled their families and could initiate divorce, and Blackfoot women owned the tipi in which their families lived. One important difference between Native American and white societies was the respect women received for their contribution to the home.

Returning War Party, courtesy Library of Congress

Returning War Party, courtesy Library of Congress

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Home Sweet Home

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Mud Lodge (Winter Home) courtesy Missoury Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library

Mud Lodge (Winter Home) courtesy Missoury Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library

Though teepees often represent Native Americans’ homes, they are merely a stereotype. Native American housing actually reflected the land and climate in which various peoples lived, their lifestyles, and the building material available. Earthen lodges (hogans, sod houses) were advantageous in harsh climates because the earth would protect families from severe weather. They were also a good choice in areas without thick trees.

Some tribes established camps that could be quickly dismantled and moved; they relied on structures like teepees and wickiups. Nations that settled in one spot, however, could build sturdier, more permanent structures. The Pueblo Indians in the desert southwest took advantage of easily procured mud and straw to build thick adobe complexes that were meant to last for years.

Sac and Fox Bark House, circa 1885, Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library

Sac and Fox Bark House, circa 1885, Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library

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Nipped in the Bud

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State of Sequoyah, 1905, courtesy McCasland Map Collection, Oklahoma State University

State of Sequoyah, 1905, courtesy McCasland Map Collection, Oklahoma State University

After unassigned lands in Indian Territory were taken to form Oklahoma Territory in 1890, it became obvious that white settlement would continue in that area. By 1902, representatives from the Five Civilized Tribes (Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole) were proposing statehood for Indian Territory, which still existed in the eastern part of present day Oklahoma. The new state would be called Sequoyah, after an esteemed Cherokee man who had developed the Cherokee alphabet.

A constitutional convention met in 1905. Delegates drew up a constitution, established boundaries, and elected delegates to petition Congress for statehood. Easterners pressured president Theodore Roosevelt not to consider this idea, and Roosevelt eventually decided that only one state could enter the union: Oklahoma. Today, Oklahoma has the second-largest native population of any state.

William Henry Davis Murray, White Delegate to Sequoyah Convention

William Henry Davis Murray, White Delegate to Sequoyah Convention

Chief Pleasant Porter, Sequoyah Convention Chair

Chief Pleasant Porter, Sequoyah Convention Chair

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The Land Grab Continues

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Cover of Pamphlet Souvenirs of Tulsa-Indian Territory, 1906, courtesy National Archives

Cover of Pamphlet Souvenirs of Tulsa-Indian Territory, 1906, courtesy National Archives

Native Americans  forced out of their homelands by white settlers were relocated to land in the western United States, called Indian Territory. In a Congressional act of June 30, 1834, Indian Territory  was described as “all that part of the United States west of the Mississippi, and not within the States of Missouri and Louisiana, or the Territory of Arkansas.”

In 1890, unassigned lands in the center of Indian Territory were organized as Oklahoma Territory. In 1906, Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory were combined to form the state of Oklahoma, which was admitted into the union by Proclamation 780 on November 16, 1907. After that, Indian Territory no longer existed.

Map of Indian Territory, 1885, courtesy National Archives

Map of Indian Territory, 1885, courtesy National Archives

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Stuck Inside

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Few patients wanted to remain at the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians, and the staff (and sometimes townspeople) had to deal with a number of escapes. The April 28, 1905 edition of The Sioux Valley News, Canton’s weekly paper, mentioned that the superintendent of the asylum, O.S. Gifford, had “returned from the north and brought with him the runaway Indian who had escaped from the Indian asylum on Tuesday of last week.

“This is the same redskin who made his escape from the asylum several times before […] Judge Gifford said to a reporter for this paper on his return that it would be a warm day when the fellow would get the liberty enough to get away.” Unfortunately, the paper did not give the name of this determined patient.

Most escaped patients headed back to their reservations and families. The picture of Dirty John’s cabin represents the type of home they may have returned to.

Log Cabin Belonging to Dirty John, Flathead Reservation, 1909, courtesy Library of Congress

Log Cabin Belonging to Dirty John, Flathead Reservation, 1909, courtesy Library of Congress

The Badlands, S.D., courtesy Library of Congress

The Badlands, S.D., courtesy Library of Congress

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Who Came to Canton?

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Canton, S. D., 1907, courtesy Library of Congress

Canton, S. D., 1907, courtesy Library of Congress

Patients began to trickle into the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians after it opened the last day of 1902. From January 1, 1903 to the end of the first fiscal year on June 30, 1903, ten males (all over 18 years of age) and six females (two of whom were under 18) were admitted to the asylum. During the fiscal year, one  patient died and two recovered.

An additional female was admitted in July, and by the time asylum superintendent O.S. Gifford (see previous posts) made his annual report at the end of August, 24 insane Indians had been ordered to the asylum. Nine tribes were represented among these patients: Cherokee, Comanche, Osage, Pawnee, Mission, Winnebago, Chippewa, Shoshone, and Sioux.

Coe Crawford, S.D. Governor, 1908

Coe Crawford, S.D. Governor, 1908

View of Big Sioux River (which flowed past the asylum) 1911

View of Big Sioux River (which flowed past the asylum) 1911

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What’s Happening?

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Women's Fashions in 1908

Women's Fashions in 1908

Americans continued to see changes as the beginning of the 20th century marched on.  In 1908, five years after the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians opened:

— Life expectancy was 49.5  years for men and 52.8 years for women.

— Wilbur Wright flew a sustained 2 hours and 20 minutes.

— Henry Ford produced his first Model T.

— New baseball regulations ruled that spitballs were illegal.

— The first successful blood transfusion using blood-typing took place.

— The comic strip Mutt and Jeff was syndicated by King Features.

A man could go on an 80-day cruise to the Orient for $300, buy a cigar for a nickel, or purchase a two-jointed, double cork grip fishing pole for $1.29. His wife could buy White Lily face whitener for $.45, bake bread with flour costing $2.65 for a 98-pound bag, and enjoy strawberries for $.15 a basket.

Mutt and Jeff

Mutt and Jeff

Period Advertisement

Period Advertisement

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Another Pill to Swallow

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William A. Jones, Commissioner of Indian Affairs (1897-1905)

William A. Jones, Commissioner of Indian Affairs (1897-1905)

When Native Americans were forced to live on reservations, their health declined. Poor food quality led to malnutrition and put them at risk for disease and ill health. Two diseases in particular, trachoma and tuberculosis, devastated Indian populations.

Government Doctor Giving Trachoma Examination on Stillwater Indian Reservation

Government Doctor Giving Trachoma Examination on Stillwater Indian Reservation

Trachoma is an easily transmitted virus that infects the eyes, and is usually picked up in childhood. It thrives in congested, unsanitary conditions, which developed when tribes were crowded together and prevented from moving around and relocating camps. Children would be re-infected so often that scars made the eyelids turn inward, causing the eyelashes to scratch the cornea. Victims said the pain nearly drove them wild, “as though cinders were in both eyes.”  Permanent blindness often resulted.

Tuberculosis is a bacterial lung infection that causes  death by suffocation from excess fluid (blood or phlegm) or by respiratory failure. Tissue in the lung is killed by TB and eventually the patient simply cannot absorb enough oxygen. By the mid-1800s, the Navajo death rate was ten times the national average. Prior to 1935, most adult TB patients were left to fend for themselves, while children attending boarding schools were either segregated or institutionalized. In 1904, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, William Jones, ordered all infected children out of the schools. Most returned to their reservations and died a slow death.

Group Picture at the Tuberculosis Sanitorium, Phoenix Indian School circa 1890-1910, courtesy National Archives

Group Picture at the Tuberculosis Sanitorium, Phoenix Indian School circa 1890-1910, courtesy National Archives

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An Unstable Land

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Procession at White Earth Indian Reservation, circa 1908-1916, courtesy Minnesota Historical Society

Procession at White Earth Indian Reservation, circa 1908-1916, courtesy Minnesota Historical Society

Because most Native Americans were not U.S. citizens, they had few protections and were often cheated or defrauded of their valuables.  In the late 1800s, the Chippewa (also known as Ojibwe) lived on rich woodlands filled with hardwood and pines. These lands were coveted by timber interests,who took advantage of several Congressional acts designed to break up tribal ownership of land.

Ojibwe Indians Getting Land Allotments, White Earth Indian Agency, courtesy Minnesota Historical Society Photograph Collection

Ojibwe Indians Getting Land Allotments, White Earth Indian Agency, courtesy Minnesota Historical Society Photograph Collection

Through these acts, particularly the Dawes Act (see 7/13/10 post) the Chippewa were each allotted only 80 acres of non-forest land, and told that the government would sell the land they didn’t need to white men, keep the money in the treasury with the Great Father, and give it to them when they needed it.

The allotments were made, and then the non-allotted Indian land was opened up and sold to timber companies, railroads and settlers. Delighted loggers began to clear-cut the forests. As the forests were systematically destroyed, concerned citizens moved to preserve some of the beautiful land that had belonged to the Chippewa. In 1908, Theodore Roosevelt created the Minnesota National Forest, composed of 225,000 acres of Chippewa land which had been lost through the allotment system. The land was renamed the Chippewa National Forest in 1928.

Leech Lake Chippewa Delegation to Washington, 1899

Leech Lake Chippewa Delegation to Washington, 1899

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