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

Moral Imbecile, (later called "moron")

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