Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 December 1901 — INSANE INDIANS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

INSANE INDIANS.

Civilization Spreads Another Grave Malady Among the Red Men. It is expected that within six months the National Indian Insane Asylum, just completed in Canton, S. D., will be taxed to its utmost capacity. Insanity among the Indians is growing, most cases having resulted from religious fanaticism. They are naturally superstitious ana habitually work themselves into frenzies by their ghost dances and other weird ceremonies. As these feeble-minded red men received little care or attention from their relatives or tribesmen. Senator Pettigrew took the matter in hand and after asking for an appropriation of $45,000 in 1899, which was later increased to $<50,000, he had plans drawn and immediately commenced construction. It is a peculiar but significant fact that there was practically no insanity among Indians until their association with the whites. As it is, a very large percentage of cases are found among the half-breeds. This is entirely consistent with the criminal records, which show that the halfbreeds, instead of being bettered by the introduction of white blood, seem to rather combine the iniquities of the two races. Even the insanity cases among the fullbloods are shown by their maladies to be the indirect result of the supremacy of the paleface. According to this it is a fact that as civilization grows among the Indians the number of patients will increase. The structure is a handsome one, even for the government. Pressed briek and white stone were used exclusively and the roofing ia of slate. The building is in the form of a Maltese cross, 164 feet long and 144 feet wide in the center and will accommodate about 75 patients. There are new at the national asylum in Washington eight or nine insane Indians, and there is illustrated among these the dlf-

ferent types of insanity as well as the degrees of Indian blood among the patients.

NATIONAL INDIAN ASYLUM AT CANTON. S. D