Tag Archives: WWI

Other Obstacles to Health Care

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Everyone Helped the War Effort, courtesy baylor.edu

The Bureau of Indian Affair’s efforts to provide health care to Indians was always hit or miss (see last post). One of the obstacles to providing quality–and timely–care resulted from the vast expanses of land out West. Reservation lands could include acreage that rivaled that of some states, but often only one or two doctors were assigned to cover these huge areas. Even if the Indian population had been in comparatively superb health, doctors’ travel time would have prevented them from seeing many patients. Officials knew that many Indians suffered from serious health problems, but didn’t have the personnel to minister to them effectively.

World War I created more problems. Physicians throughout the Indian Service bailed out to work instead for the U.S. Army or to work in the civilian sector; both venues usually meant better pay. The government concentrated most of its construction and supply effort on the army rather than civilian organizations, and there was little done in the way of new construction or even repairs, stateside. Even if the government had wanted to ramp up its efforts to build hospitals and clinics, or provide better health care, it faced the same manpower shortages affecting the rest of the country. Most young, healthy men were overseas or in war-critical positions stateside, and unavailable for more ordinary concerns. Dr. Harry Hummer had such a problem finding and keeping staff at the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians that he implored the Indian Office to raise wages so he could fill positions.

Base Hospital 21, Organized in One Week

Nurse Helen Grace McClelland, Who Served at Base #10 Hospital in France, courtesy University of Pennsylvania

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Shell Shock

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A Shell Shocked Soldier is on the Left

Professionals and laypeople alike have probably always observed that war could affect those who went through it, both physically and mentally. After the Civil War, some people who tried to put their finger on what had changed with returning veterans, discussed the “soldier’s heart” phenomenon. This was a (usually) negative change they saw in their loved ones, which they were sure came from being in a war and exposed to combat. Observers primarily believed that physical changes in the heart were responsible for the changes they saw in the person, though they also believed that pining away for their homes during their period of service could bring on nostalgia-related mental symptoms. During WWI, “shell shock” was a descriptive term for the physical effects constant bombardment took on soldiers engaged in long bouts of trench warfare, but physicians also recognized a mental component that they termed “traumatic neurosis.”

WWI era medical professionals had enough information about war-related mental trauma (now called PTSD) that they anticipated its occurrence. In 1917, the National Committee for Mental Hygiene  formed a task group called “the committee on furnishing hospital units for nervous and mental disorders to the United States Government” which began to canvas likely facilities in which to house mentally ill soldiers. Veterans Hospitals were obvious sites, and the committee also contacted the superintendents of the government’s two insane asylums: St. Elizabeths in Washington, DC and the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians in South Dakota.

My next post will examine their responses.

Doctor Attempting to Cure Shell Shock Through Hypnosis

Private Read Was Buried By a Shell in 1917, Which Resulted in Constant Swaying and Nose Wiping

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Character and Caricature

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Registration Announcement

Registration Announcement

Native Americans fought in WWI for many reasons: proof of their loyalty to America, a desire to go overseas, ties to friends and family who volunteered, a desire to fight and prove their manhood (as many young men at the time wanted to do), and for a myriad of other reasons. Though a few all-Indian units did exist within the army, military leadership at the highest levels wanted full integration. Continue reading →

Unbreakable Codes

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Choctaw Code Talkers

Navajo Code Talkers in WWII have received at least a measure of recognition for their great contributions to that war effort, but the Choctaw Code Talkers of WWI have received far less recognition. In 1917, a group of young Choctaw men began to use their supposedly antiquated and useless language to confound German eavesdroppers. Toward the end of the war when Germans routinely tapped into Allied radio and telephone communications, no code seemed unbreakable. However, Choctaw soldiers in France used their native language to negotiate a troop withdrawal that went undetected by the enemy. That success led to more Choctaw men becoming involved with coded transmissions in their language. Eventually nineteen code talkers contributed immensely to the deception of German eavesdroppers.

Germans were adept at breaking codes, but they had no background for breaking codes based on Native American languages. Traditional military codes were based on European linguistic frameworks, which Native American speakers did not necessarily share. Native Americans didn’t even have words for some essential military terms like “artillery” and “machine guns.” Instead, they called the former “big gun” and the latter “little gun shoot fast.” The Choctaw Nation’s service was highly valuable in turning the tide against Germans during the latter part of WWI.

Ironically, Choctaws (and most other Native Americans) were not U.S. citizens.

Choctaw Code Talkers During WWI

Headquarters 142d Infantry, Vaux-Champagne

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WWI Christmas

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Photograph of Truce Participants

Photograph of Truce Participants

WWI (1914-1918) led to the death or wounding of 25 million people. It was the first true intercontinental conflict and introduced other firsts to the world of warfare: large-scale mechanical and chemical weapons and the aerial bombing of both soldiers and civilians, among other tragic innovations. Continue reading →

Native Americans And WWI

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Otis W. Leader, Depicted by a French Artist as the Ideal American Soldier

Many people are familiar with the military contributions of Native American Code Talkers during WWII, but don’t know about Native American contributions to the Great War. Over 17,000 males registered for the draft, but many other men volunteered to enter the military. Data on these volunteers are not as  firm, but perhaps half of all Native Americans who enlisted were volunteers. Proportionally, as many or more Native Americans served in the military as other adult American men. Tribal participation rates varied: Oklahoma tribes entered the military at the highest rates, while Navajo and Pueblo men served at the lowest.*

Students from Indian boarding schools like Carlisle volunteered in great numbers, which may have been due both to their familiarity with the military from their school experience as well as a desire to get away from the boarding school environment. Almost without a voice of dissent, whites in authority  over these students–all the way up to commissioner of Indian Affairs, Cato Sells–approved of this massive exodus into the military. They attributed it to the success of the Indian Office’s assimilation policy and patriotism on the part of students. Both these factors may have entered into student decisions to enlist, but a thirst for adventure and an equally powerful hatred of their substandard schools were probably just as contributory. Unfortunately, some of these enthusiastic students were underage, with teachers (as the only adults even able to stand in as pseudo-parents) usually turning a blind eye or actually encouraging enlistment.

*Statistics about Native American participation in the military during WWI are taken from Russel Lawrence Barsh’s “American Indians in the Great War; Ethnohistory 38:3 (Summer, 1991).

Gus Sharlow, Ojibwa WWI Veteran, courtesy Wisconsin Historical Images

Parade Field at Carlisle Barracks in Carlisle, PA, courtesy U. S. Army

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The Nation at War

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Decoded Zimmermann Telegram, courtesy National Archives

Decoded Zimmermann Telegram

In the early 20th century, Americans tended to be isolationists when it came to foreign policy. For the most part, WWI looked like a European conflict into which America need not enter, and president Woodrow Wilson pledged to keep the country out of the conflict. However, after Germany continued to attack unarmed merchant and passenger ships the U.S. severed diplomatic ties with it. Continue reading →

Doing Their Part

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Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin Promoting Liberty Bonds in 1918

During WWI, the U.S. government raised money to support its war efforts through Liberty Bonds. Private citizens could purchase bonds, and after the war redeem them for the purchase price plus interest. The government issued four sets of bonds:

* The Emergency Loan Act (April 24, 1917) which set interest rates at 3.5%

* The Second Liberty Loan (October 1, 1917) which set interest rates at 4%

* The Third Liberty Loan (April 5, 1918) which set interest rates at 4.5%

* The Fourth Liberty Loan (September 28, 1918) which set interest rates at 4.25%

Several patients at the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians purchased Liberty Bonds. As superintendent and chief disbursing agent for the asylum, Dr. Harry Hummer kept track of who held bonds, and their value. In a letter to the commissioner of Indian Affairs dated May 16, 1918, he listed the Second Liberty Loan Bonds held by patients. Kittie Spicer, Josephine Wells, Davis Roubideaux, Frederick Charging Eagle, Willie McCarthy, Luke Stands-by-Him, Robert Thompson, Joseph Marshall, and Edward Hedges owned bonds valued at $1,350 dollars on which $27 in interest had accrued.

Liberty Loan Poster

Third Liberty Loan Poster

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More Hardship

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Volunteers at St. Elizabeths Hospital who Worked With Shell Shocked Vets, courtesy George Washington University

Dr. Hummer faced other difficulties associated with the war effort (see last post), particularly a troublesome personnel shortage. He told the commissioner of Indian Affairs that “it is extremely difficult to fill the existing vacancies and I am compelled to keep two or three employees who should be separated.” Since Hummer was typically just fine with a bare-bones staff, his situation at this point was dire; in August, 1918, he had only one male and one female attendant on staff (he should have had three of each). Hummer suggested an increase in pay as a possible solution to his problem, to $40/month with board and lodging for male attendants, and $35/month with board and lodging for females.

A project near and dear to Hummer’s heart also gave way to the war effort: the Indian Office denied his request for an epileptic cottage. This was partly because the asylum still had some vacancies and didn’t seem to need additional rooms. More importantly, as the assistant commissioner of Indian Affairs pointed out, the administration was already in the middle of a huge building program that “will of necessity withdraw carpenters from every section of the country.” Hummer may have been able to counter this with an offer by locals to help with construction, but even he could not argue with E. B. Meritt’s second consideration: there was a need for economy elsewhere in the expenditure of public funds “in order to more successfully prosecute the war.”

U.S. Troops Cross Moselle Into Germany, courtesy Notre Dame University

Classroom of American Red Cross Students, 1917 or 1918, courtesy Library of Congress

Hummer had perhaps anticipated this emphasis on war concerns when he made the following suggestion: “It is possible that the present war will necessitate the construction of another building at this place to care for the insane Indian soldiers or sailors, provided your Office deems this proper.” One way or another, the superintendent wanted additional buildings and patients.

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