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.

And The Flip Side

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Patients who came in malnourished or otherwise neglected often needed building up. However, doctors often had plenty of patients that they needed to settle down rather than energize. Sedatives like bromides (usually potassium or sodium bromide) were very popular for excitable patients.

Many patients at the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians were epileptics. Sodium bromide and potassium bromide were also used as anti-seizure medicines. At the time, bromides had a secondary (though related) use.  Many doctors thought epilepsy was caused by masturbation, and the drug calmed sexual excitement. There is no evidence that any of the doctors at Canton Asylum believed this theory, but they did rely heavily on bromides for their epileptic patients.

Bromide doses were difficult to adjust, since the drug stayed in the body a long time. Chronic overdoses could lead to a toxic condition called bromism, which itself presented neurological and psychiatric symptoms like confusion, emotional instability, hallucinations, and psychotic behavior.

Bromide Eruption Resembling Small-Pox from Materia Medica, 1918

Bromide Eruption Resembling Small-Pox from Materia Medica, 1918

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Tonics and Restoratives

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Coca-Cola as a Health Aid

Coca-Cola as a Health Aid

When the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians first opened, its medical care was in line with what was available elsewhere in a custodial facility. Many of Canton Asylum’s patients suffered several health issues, along with whatever mental distress they endured. Canton Asylum’s doctor, John F. Turner, was not an alienist (see 3/11/10 and 3/28/10 posts) so he concentrated on addressing physical issues.

He prescribed tonics and restoratives for his patients, and unless he concocted his own, they probably contained a potent dose of alcohol at the very least. Beef and Iron Wine tonic (made from beef juice, iron citrate and medicinal wine) was considered a powerful blood tonic, and may have actually held a bit of nourishment. Other tonics in the early 1900s contained cocaine, opium, herbs and barks, and plenty of alcohol.

The pictures included here are representative only, and not necessarily what Turner gave his patients.

Dr. Teacher's Syrup

Dr. Teacher's Syrup

Beef and Wine Tonic

Beef and Wine Tonic

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Other Healing Rituals

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Blackfeet Sweat Lodge in Montana circa 1900, courtesy Library of Congress

Blackfeet Sweat Lodge in Montana circa 1900, courtesy Library of Congress

Many Native Americans believed that illness came from evil spirits, so their rituals emphasized that aspect of healing.

The Shoshones believed that a ghost entering a person’s body caused sickness, and used incantations, prayer, drums, medicine whistles, and sweat lodges to prepare a patient to have the ghost extracted. Continue reading →

A Healing Touch

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Wako, a Healer, 1894, courtesy Library of Congress

Wako, a Healer, 1894, courtesy Library of Congress

Many early European and U.S. physicians realized that it was their presence, rather than their ineffective treatments, that brought comfort to patients. Psychologists today also recognize the power of the mind, and know that expectations of a cure can have a positive effect. Continue reading →

The Healing Arts

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Native Americans, of course, had recognized and treated various illnesses for many centuries. They relied heavily on herbal knowledge. Herbalists, or herb doctors, received their knowledge about medicinal plants from dreams or visions.

Many healers had a tradition of walking past seven of the desired plants before picking one, so that enough was left for seven generations. They often left offerings in the holes they dug to remove plants, and expressed gratitude to them. Herb doctors tended to specialize in certain illnesses, since their dreams or visions did not generally encompass a wide range of sickness.

Observant healers discovered valuable herbs by trailing sick animals to see what they ate to help themselves. They particularly liked to follow bears, a symbol of healing as well as strength, bravery, and leadership. Herbalists typically  studied the effects of the herbs they saw used by animals and experimented with dosages.

Here are how a few herbs were used:

Crane’s bill to stop bleeding.

Golden seal as a tonic.

Horse radish as a diuretic.

Sourwood for indigestion and dyspepsia.

These four examples are for information only and should not be considered safe and effective for actual use. They are taken from The Cherokee Physician, or Indian Guide to Health as Given by Richard Foreman, a Cherokee Physician printed in 1849.

Flathead (Salish) Medicine Man identified as Dead-dog, courtesy Library of Congress

Flathead (Salish) Medicine Man identified as Dead-dog, courtesy Library of Congress

Hopi Medicine Man

Hopi Medicine Man

Medicine and Herb Doctor's Sign and Tent, Maricopa County, Arizona (about 1940) courtesy Library of Congress

Medicine and Herb Doctor's Sign and Tent, Maricopa County, Arizona (about 1940) courtesy Library of Congress

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Alternative Healing

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In the heyday of medical schools (mid-1800s – 1920s) great philosophical differences existed in the practice of medicine. Regular medicine was more in line with what we know today–practitioners attended a medical college with standardized courses, and relied on drugs and “scientific” treatments.

Dr. John Franklin Gray, first U.S. Homeopathic Practitioner

Dr. John Franklin Gray, first U.S. Homeopathic Practitioner

Irregular medicine tended to be a reaction to the so-called “heroic” (and horrific) medical practices of the past, which relied on bleeding, purging, and blistering. Irregular medicine embraced practices like homeopathy, which was much gentler. Besides concentrating on sound nutrition and light exercise, homeopaths rarely used multiple drugs. They felt that “like cures like” and would prescribe a (highly diluted)  substance that mimicked a patient’s symptoms.

Regular doctors relied on drugs such as calomel (mercury) which destroyed the health of anyone taking it regularly. Many citizens preferred alternative treatments (of which homeopathy was only one) because they tended to do no harm. Many illnesses run their course and patients recover with or without medicine, so alternative treatments were generally as successful as regular ones.

Regular doctors fought the irregular ones tooth and nail, and eventually managed to shut down both their colleges and most of their practitioners.

University of Iowa Homeopathy Class of 1882, courtesy UI College of Medicine

University of Iowa Homeopathy Class of 1882, courtesy UI College of Medicine

A Pennsylvania Homeopathic Company, 1880s

A Pennsylvania Homeopathic Company, 1880s

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The Insane Cherokee

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Map of Cherokee Nation, circa 1903

Map of Cherokee Nation, circa 1903

The Cherokee Nation actually established an asylum for insane Indians before the U.S. government did. The Cherokee National Council selected a site for the Cherokee  Home for the Insane, Deaf, Dumb, and Blind six miles south of Tahlequah in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) in 1873. The asylum was governed by a board of trustees composed of the principal chief, assistant principal chief, the national treasurer, and three trustees appointed by the principal chief, with the consent of the Cherokee Senate.

Construction began in 1874 and on December 5, 1876, John A. Foreman was elected steward of the asylum at a salary of $400/year. The asylum opened March 1, 1877, and by October had accepted 14 males and 8 females. Foreman made a telling request in his first report: “I would hereby have to suggest that a change be made in the manner of receiving inmates into the asylum, and that such lines be drawn, as will prevent the Asylum from being made into a hospital.”

The Canton Asylum for Insane Indians never drew such a line, and quickly became a dumping ground for many inconvenient Indians who were not necessarily insane.

Cherokee National Female Seminary (1851-1887) Tahlequah

Cherokee National Female Seminary (1851-1887) Tahlequah

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Comparing Canton Asylum

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O.S. Gifford

O.S. Gifford

The Canton Asylum for Insane Indians was too small to compare to the large institutions created by Kirkbride, and it wasn’t built with any particular treatment plan in mind. Its first superintendent, O.S. Gifford, (see 2/25/2010 post) was not even a medical man. He had to travel to Washington, D.C. to see an example (St. Elizabeths) of the kind of institution he was to run.

Canton Asylum was a two-story building with four wings, and had a seven-foot fence around it. In keeping with other government institutions of its kind, however, it was lushly landscaped with over 1,000 trees and bushes that in time looked lovely.

Because Gifford wasn’t an alienist, he defaulted to a type of moral treatment that consisted of giving patients chores to do, allowing them to fish and play games when possible, and even allowing them to act like Indians. He allowed native dancing except when it proved too much for excitable patients, and let women create beadwork. This was in direct contrast to most governmental attitudes toward Indians.

His laissez-faire approach both helped and hurt the patients at Canton Asylum. Though he had no pet psychological theories to impose, he also couldn’t be bothered with setting up real programs to enable cures. When patients ran away or became hard to handle, his staff just got out the shackles.

Beaded Vest (1890-1900), courtesy Western History/Genealogy Department, Denver Public Library

Beaded Vest (1890-1900), courtesy Western History/Genealogy Department, Denver Public Library

Tobacco Bags (1895) courtesy Western History/Genealogy Department, Denver Public Library

Tobacco Bags (1895) courtesy Western History/Genealogy Department, Denver Public Library

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A Female Crusader, Part Two

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After Dorothea Dix visited a jail in 1841 and discovered the appalling conditions that mentally ill people suffered there, she began to gather information to present to legislators. She visited every jail and poorhouse in Massachusetts (her home state) and compiled a graphic report. Dix described a woman who was tearing her skin off, bit by bit, with no one to stop her. She had seen a man confined to an outbuilding (presumably at a hospital) next to the “dead room” so that he saw only corpses. Others she had seen were locked into rooms without heat, daylight or fresh air.

She was immediately called a liar, but newspapers reprinted excerpts of her report. She persuaded a group of men to take up her cause, and they were able to persuade the legislature to appropriate more money for the state hospital for the insane.

During her lifetime, Dix played a direct role in founding 32 mental hospitals. One in particular, the Government Hospital for the Insane, (later named St. Elizabeths) provided “the most humane care and enlightened curative treatment of the insane of the Army, Navy, and the District of Columbia.”

From 43rd Congress, First Session, courtesy Library of Congress

From 43rd Congress, First Session, courtesy Library of Congress

One of St. Elizabeths’ doctors became superintendent of the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians.

Men Working in Broom Factory at Oak Forest, IL Poorhouse, circa 1915, courtesy Library of Congress

Men Working in Broom Factory at Oak Forest, IL Poorhouse, circa 1915, courtesy Library of Congress

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Other Indian Prisons

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Indian School at Pine Ridge, courtesy Library of Congress

Indian School at Pine Ridge, courtesy Library of Congress

Commitment to an insane asylum would be a horrific experience for any Indian, but fortunately that happened to only a few within the population as a whole. What happened far more often, and affected more people, was the BIA’s invasion into Indian family life. Continue reading →