Life at the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians ebbed and flowed as new patients arrived, died, or left through escape and discharge. A census report from June 30, 1921 (the end of the fiscal year) gives a snapshot of the asylum’s patient history.

Menominee Medicine Man, 1911

There were 90 patients at the asylum in June, 1921. More patients came from the Sioux than from any other tribe, with 20 Sioux patients in 1921 and 58 since the asylum’s opening. This skew probably resulted because the Sioux had a large presence in South Dakota, where the asylum was located. Other tribes with large numbers of patients were the Chippewa (15 in 1921 and 33 since the asylum’s opening) and the Menominee (14 and 20).

Squibbs Materia Medica, 1919

By 1921, 260 patients had been admitted to the asylum. There had been 115 deaths and 8 escapes. Full-blooded Indians accounted for 169 patients, half-blood or over, 57, less than half, 7, and unknown, 27.  Since opening, 146 males had been admitted, and 114 females. The mental disease with the greatest number of diagnoses was epilepsy, 23 patients in 1921 and 58 since opening.

In 1921 there were three patients under ten years old (six since opening) and no patients over 80. There had been three such patients since opening.