Tag Archives: San Carlos Agency

Food Woes

Smoking Fish for Preservation

Smoking Fish for Preservation

Choices concerning Bran Flakes and Shredded Krumbles (see last post) weren’t the only food problems patients at the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians suffered. They, like most Native Americans, had already lost a basic underpinning of life–their traditional foods. This loss led to nutritional deficiencies and diseases that had never affected them before encountering the white man’s culture. Continue reading

No Discounts on Ration Day

Receiving Rations at San Carlos Agency, AZ, circa 1892, courtesy National Park Service

Receiving Rations at San Carlos Agency, AZ, circa 1892, courtesy National Park Service

Annuity payments could be a time of festivity (see last post) even though merchants and alcohol traders were often on hand with bad deals for Native Americans with spending money. Ration disbursements, though also eagerly anticipated, could be an opportunity for outright fraud at the hands of the people trusted to make them. Continue reading