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.

Making Reservations

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Indian Reservations in Continental U.S., courtesy National Park Service

Indian Reservations in Continental U.S., courtesy National Park Service

When the U.S. negotiated treaties forcing Native Americans to move from their land, they obviously had to live somewhere else. Early treaties allowed tribes to keep a certain portion of ceded land to live on. This reserved portion was given as an “allotment.” After 1871, reservations were created by acts of Congress.

Reservations are concentrated in the western United States, but they exist in all parts of the country. Approximately 1.1 – 1.3 million (non-Alaskan) Native Americans live on or near 330 reservations.

Indians From Pine Ridge Reservation, S.D., 1909, courtesy Library of Congress

Indians From Pine Ridge Reservation, S.D., 1909, courtesy Library of Congress

On the Indian Reservation, courtesy Library of Congress

On the Indian Reservation, courtesy Library of Congress

Indian Homes, Moapa Reservation, Nevada, 1940, courtesy Library of Congress

Indian Homes, Moapa Reservation, Nevada, 1940, courtesy Library of Congress

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A Dreadful Act

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Senator Henry L. Dawes

Senator Henry L. Dawes

Policy makers in the U.S. government thought that tribal ownership of land was inefficient and kept Indians from assimilating into American culture. In 1887, Congressman Henry Dawes of Massachusetts sponsored  the General Allotment Act (The Dawes Severalty Act).

Each head of a family would get 160 acres of land (or 320 acres of grazing land) and the surplus reservation land would be sold. (The Supreme Court had decided that the US government held title to Indian land and Indians enjoyed only a right of occupancy). The allotted land would be worked by Indian families, creating responsible farmers and ranchers who were self-sufficient and no longer dependent on government assistance.

The allotted land could not be sold for 25 years, and after that period, the Indian participants would become American citizens. Like much legislation of the period, it did not work out well for Indians, who were usually relegated to unprofitable land that couldn’t sustain them. They fell into poverty, sold or were cheated out of their land, and never became the prosperous small farmers that Congress had envisioned.

From 1887 to 1934, 90 million acres of Indian reservation land were transferred to non-Indian ownership and control.

Indian Teams Hauling Wheat to Market, 1900

Indian Teams Hauling Wheat to Market, 1900

One Result of the Dawes Act

One Result of the Dawes Act

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How to Make an Indian Vanish

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Cherokee Chief John Ross Fought Against Migration

Cherokee Chief John Ross Fought Against Migration

In 1830, a year after he took office, President Andrew Jackson (see 7/8/10 post) pushed a piece of legislation called The Indian Removal Act through Congress. The Act authorized Jackson to grant unsettled land in the west to Indians living in the east.

In his message to Congress, Jackson said:  “It gives me pleasure to announce to Congress that the benevolent policy of the Government, steadily pursued for nearly thirty years, in relation to the removal of the Indians beyond the white settlements is approaching to a happy consummation.”

Though a few tribes migrated peacefully, many did not want to leave their lands. Jackson’s “happy consummation” came to a head during the winter of 1838 – 1839 when 4,000  Cherokees died on a forced 1,000-mile march to Indian Territory called “The Trail of Tears.”

Cherokee Trail of Tears

Cherokee Trail of Tears

Map of Trail of Tears, courtesy National Park Service

Map of Trail of Tears, courtesy National Park Service

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Vanishing Land

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Daguerrotype of Andrew Jackson

Daguerrotype of Andrew Jackson

The U.S. government never hesitated to relocate Native Americans when it decided white people needed their land. In 1814, U.S. military commander Andrew Jackson (later, 7th president of the U.S.) divested the Creek nation of 22 million acres of land in Georgia and Alabama after its defeat at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend.

Jackson’s troops  later invaded Spanish Florida and took land from the Seminoles in 1818. He was ruthless in battle and was known as Sharp Knife by the Seminoles.

From 1814 through 1824, Jackson helped negotiate nine treaties that gave the government substantial Native American land holdings in the eastern United States. In exchange, tribes were given land in the west. Many of the treaties were little more than sanctioned arm-twisting. Tribes agreed to their terms because they wanted to appease the U.S. government and protect what little land they had left.

Battle of Horseshoe Bend

Battle of Horseshoe Bend

Horseshoe Bend, courtesy National Park Service

Horseshoe Bend, courtesy National Park Service

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Showing Off

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Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show Poster

Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show Poster

Americans in the middle and eastern parts of the country were fascinated by the West, with its notions of freedom, discovery, and untamed horizons. Buffalo Bill Cody (1846-1917) tapped into their vision by organizing shows that painted Western life with exciting, romanticized brush strokes.

Cody had herded cattle, trapped fur, and mined for gold before joining the Pony Express in 1860. He was famous for his exploits in the West before he created his shows: first the “Buffalo Bill Combination” and later his “Wild West Show”, which brought staged roundups, attacks and rescues, races, and cowboy skills like roping and bronco busting to enthralled audiences.  Rather than using actors, he hired working cowboys and authentic Native Americans for his shows. He included hundreds of animals like buffalo, elk, and cattle in his production; when Buffalo Bill’s show came to town, it was an event.

Cody had a good relationship with Indians, and there is evidence that he treated his Native American workers with respect and paid them a fair wage. In 1890 the U.S. army asked him to help resolve some Indian uprisings associated with the Ghost Dance (see 4/11/10 post).

Nez Perce Chief Joseph Poses With Buffalo Bill, courtesy Library of Congress

Nez Perce Chief Joseph Poses With Buffalo Bill, courtesy Library of Congress

Indian Warriors, Wild West Show in England (1887) courtesy Library of Congress

Indian Warriors, Wild West Show in England (1887) courtesy Library of Congress

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Independent Skills

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Sioux Indians Hitting a Dime at 100 Yards, July 4, 1891, courtesy Library of Congress

Sioux Indians Hitting a Dime at 100 Yards, July 4, 1891, courtesy Library of Congress

Relationships between whites and Native Americans were not always antagonistic. Many settlers in the West had a healthy respect for Native Americans’  herbal knowledge (see 6/13/10 post) as well as their skills in hunting, tracking, riding, and shooting.

Americans had a fascination with these aspects of Native American culture, which were exploited in various “western” entertainments. Many times, however, groups of men simply indulged in games of skill or contests.

Apache Men Playing A Hoop and Pole Game Called Chees (1883-1888?) courtesy Library of Congress

Apache Men Playing A Hoop and Pole Game Called Chees (1883-1888?) courtesy Library of Congress

Canoe Tug of War, Tulalip Bay, circa 1912, courtesy Library of Congress

Canoe Tug of War, Tulalip Bay, circa 1912, courtesy Library of Congress

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And, What’s Not in a Name?

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Dipsomania (craving for alcohol)

Dipsomania (craving for alcohol)

One of the great tragedies of the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians was that many of its patients were not actually insane. Sometimes Indian agents or reservation superintendents (almost always white men) sent a disruptive or rebellious Indian to the asylum simply for convenience. Sometimes they sent old, indigent, sick, or helpless people there because they didn’t know how else to care for them. Canton Asylum accepted them all. Here are a few suspect diagnoses for Canton Asylum patients:

Sam Black Buffalo (Sioux) – mutism

Peter Good Boy (Sioux) – constitutional inferiority

Robert Hayes (Chippewa) – imbecility

Two Teeth (Sioux) – old man

Alex Zimmerman (Cheyenne) – hemiplegia (paralysis on one side of the body, usually from disease or injury to the brain)

Imbecility Scale

Imbecility Scale

Moral Imbecile

Moral Imbecile, (later called "moron")

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What’s In a Name?

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Woman Suffering From Acute Melancholia, 1869

Woman Suffering From Acute Melancholia, 1869, courtesy Wellcome Library, London

Alienists categorized the various psychiatric problems they saw, just as psychiatrists do today. Some terms can be understood fairly easily by the modern researcher; melancholia meant depression, for instance. Other terms are not quite so readily translated or understood today. Here are a few diagnoses for the patients at Canton Asylum for Insane Indians:

Omudis (Chippewa) – imbecility, demented, “mischeivous” (original spelling)

Red Cloud (Sioux) – dementia praecox (this is known today as schizophrenia)

Cleto Tafoya (Pueblo) – dementia praecox, paranoid type, and dazed religious spells

BlueSky (Chippewa) – circular insanity

Fred Tatsup (Bannock) – galloping paresis (paresis is a partial paralysis due to syphilis; “galloping” means a rapid progression of the condition)

Dementia Praecox Patient

Dementia Praecox Patient

German Psychiatric Book, Eugen Bleuler

German Psychiatric Book, Eugen Bleuler

Al Capone, Suffered Syphilitic Dementia

Al Capone, Suffered Syphilitic Dementia

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What’s Really on the Menu?

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Athens Insane Asylum Kitchen, circa 1930

Athens Insane Asylum Kitchen, circa 1930

Most insane asylums of the period put patients to work in gardens, considering their labor useful as occupational therapy as well as a way to defray operating costs. At the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians, patients tended gardens, picked berries, and fished if they were able. The bulk of their food (especially meat) would have been issued as government commodity rations–usually a lower quality grade than what appeared at a butcher shop or good grocery store.

By the end of 1909, both patients and staff (who received rations as part of their salary) were going hungry. Ward attendant Jesse Watkins told an investigator: “At breakfast, as a rule, the patients have only syrup and a little butter, with plenty of bread, and coffee. When there is milk, they have oatmeal and sometimes oatmeal without milk.”

Dr. Hummer

Dr. Hummer

Superintendent and chief physician, Dr. Harry R. Hummer, did not know how to use the ration tables supplied by the government. He distributed what he thought were the correct amounts of rations to his staff and patients, while allowing his wife to draw extra rations for himself and his family. An investigator uncovered his mistake and showed him how to use the tables properly.

Gladesville Mental Hospital Menu, 1929

Gladesville Mental Hospital Menu, 1929

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The Care and Feeding of Lunatics

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Early Oleomargarine

Early Oleomargarine

In any large institution, food is a big deal. In 1903, the American Journal of Insanity (see 6/3/10 post) reported that Dr. J.C. Dunlop reviewed the diets provided by state supported institutions, and found them mainly satisfactory. Dr. Dunlop made some additional suggestions that he thought would be adequate under most circumstances. He recommended:

–Bread should be given at all meals.

–A minimum of 24 ounces of meat (before cooking and without bone) should be given to each patient per week.

–A fish dinner or fifth meat dinner should be given weekly.

–Porridge and milk should be given daily.

–A minimum of three pounds of potatoes should be given to each patient per week.

–A pound and a half of other fresh vegetables should be given to patients weekly.

–Tea or coffee should be given as desired twice daily to patients.

–Patients should receive a minimum of five ounces or butter or six ounces of margarine each week.

Patients who worked could be given more food as required.

Women Working in Field

Women Working in Field

Patients at Missouri State Insane Asylum, 1912

Patients at Missouri State Insane Asylum, 1912

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