Tag Archives: Canton Asylum for Insane Indians

What Next?

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum

Writers need to keep busy with writing projects, even though there’s a lot out there to distract us. I’ve been wanting to write a book about insane asylums in general for a long time, and after Vanished In Hiawatha was published, got busy with an outline and some thoughts on how to present the information.

Next came a round of reading and researching, and then the re-immersion into the writing process. It can be a real chore to write again once you take a break from it, but I find that I always enjoy it once I make myself sit down and get started. I finished a couple of chapters and wrote a proposal, hoping to send it out with a quick turnaround–approved, of course!

That hasn’t happened yet, so I am staying busy with an e-book on insane asylums. This will be quite different from the history that I have in mind for a hardback, but it will still give readers a lot of interesting information. I’ve been writing a blog about the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians for several years, and I’ve included many snippets of information about insane asylums in general, their history, and some of the practices and routines followed by many alienists (early psychiatrists). I hope that many readers will gamble on exploring a new topic or diving more deeply into one they’re already interested in with this e-book, since this format is so inexpensive.

Here’s hoping!

Where to Start

Early South Dakota Homesteaders, courtesy State Archives of the South Dakota State Historical Society

Early South Dakota Homesteaders, courtesy State Archives of the South Dakota State Historical Society

One of the difficulties of writing history is knowing where to find the relevant information. When I began writing about the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians, there wasn’t much out there about it–not in books or on the internet. My first real clue in the search was the mention of something called the “Silk Report,” which was the summary of an investigation made into the asylum in 1929. I knew it was something I needed to get.

Sometimes the best place to start is the most obvious place. Since this asylum had been in Canton, South Dakota, I figured the state’s archives would have at least some information about it. The State Archives of the South Dakota State Historical Society is the actual entity which reviews and preserves historical material for the state, and so I contacted them to ask about the Silk Report. They sent it to me for a nominal copying fee, and from there I was hooked. The report was full of information and description, and I knew right away that I had a story worth telling.