Another Take on Rarity

Richard F. Pettigrew, courtesy University of Minnesota Law Library

Insanity did not seem to be rampant among the Indian population at any time since Europeans came to the continent (see last two posts). An asylum especially for insane Indians was difficult to justify, except for the fact that it would save Indian patients from racial prejudice at community hospitals and would shelter them from being around white patients who might cause them to remember past bad experiences with whites. Even those who felt these two reasons justified an asylum never spoke to the irony of having a white staff managing Indian patients, however.

Many (perhaps most) experienced Indian agents and others who spent time with Indians felt that there were few cases of insanity among them. Senator Richard Pettigrew, who wholeheartedly supported an Indian insane asylum for South Dakota, vehemently repudiated this belief. He said, “There has been a letter read on the floor of this Senate chamber coming from some man in the West who claims that he has been all over Indian Reservations, and has never seen or heard of a crazy Indian. I do not even question the truth of this man’s statement for the very good reason that there is a pride among the Indians of their strength and shame for weakness, so when white men come among them their infirm members of the tribe are hid from the sight of the white man, and it is not unreasonable that this man says, with probably truth, “That he has never seen a crazy Indian.”

Pettigrew went on to give several instances of behavior which backed up his statement, primarily to do with tribal members who had physical problems. My next post will give responses from men who had vast experience with the question of Indian insanity.