The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1905-02-03
DISCUSS THE ASYLUM
FOR INSANE INDIANS
The Institution at Canton Is
Well Attended and as
Prosperous.
FILLED WITH PATIENTS
Agents Are Out in Neishboring States
Seeking Demented Redmen and
4 More Wards Will Have to Be
Added to Asylum Soon.

Canton, S. D., Jan. 2S.--Copies Of the
Congressional Record and eastern pa
pers which have been received here
which show that there is much discus
sion in the east. on account of the
asylum for insane Indians, established
in this city by the general govern
iment some three years ago.
At the time the proposition to estab
llish the asylum was being agitated IN
congress many statesmen, as well as
newspapers, declared that there was no
such thing as insane Indians: that
1t was one of the peculiarlties of the
copper colored race to be incapable OF
becoming mentally unbalanced and this
idea still prevails to a very great eX-
tent in the public mind. not ony in
the east, but to Il less greater extent
lin the west also. Contrary to ths
common notion that there is no in
sanity among the American Indians,
the asylum management has already
discovered that there is not only an
abundance of insanity among them,
but that there are very many serious
cases of fermentation, while the num-
Der of incurable Is considered even
greater than among their white breth-
rem.
Hon. o. S. Clifford. superintendent OF
the asylum. reports that the institu-
ition has already 81 cases of insanity
within It's walls, and they are all as
clear and unmistakable as any he has
ever seen. Besides there are several
more patients on the way here. or
the number of patients now confined in
the asylum nine are women and twen-
ty-three men. AS the two wards at
the institution have a capacity of only
twenty-four patients, the male ward
Will be capable of receiving but one
more patient. AS soon as this one
n NIL
become necessary to make room for
future arrivals by means of the 'doub-
ling up process. which Is TO put two
or more patients in the same apart
ment and this plan Is adapted to only
limited number of cases and even in
these 1t Is numbered with considerable
danger. AS an evidence of the fact
that there are plenty Of insane In
dams In the country that should be
brought to the asylum for treatment,
Superintendent Clifford pointed to the
fact that Assistant Superintendent ],
i. Turner and Financial Agent c. M.
Seely are both out at this time after
patients in Arizona and Idaho, and as
soon as they return they will each
be obliged to start out Immediately on
another trip, one to Wisconsin and the
other to northern Minnesota.
Superintendent Clifford declared fur
Their that another ward building will
ne Heedeu at the asylum as quickly as
+. the same can be erected and put in
condition for use, and unless the pres
ent congress adds to the appropriations
n sufficient sum for the erection OF
such a building, the practical work.
ings of the asylum will be materially
interfered with.
As for the benefits of the asylum to
the Indian race there can be no cues
ton, and the Indians themselves as
we'll as the whites are beginning to see
and recognize them, as is evidenced
from the fact that when the asylum
was first opened 1t was practically i'm.
possible to get the relatives of an in.
sanity stricken Indian to give theil
consent to have him taken to the In.
stitution for treatment, while now
many of them are becoming willngl,
and In many cases anxious to have
their demented relatives taken there
Many of the leading tribes have sen
delegations to Canton to inspect TIL,
asylum and It's workings and in ever,
case went away pleased.