The Front View of the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians, Canton, South Dakota, U.S.

A new book is exciting, even after you’ve read your manuscript a hundred times, proofed it over and over, and scrutinized it for errors and typos until you feel you could recite entire chapters in your sleep! Vanished in Hiawatha: The Story of the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians was published June 1, 2016, after literally years of research and writing.

In 2008 I was in writing limbo–I had finished a short biography for teens and wasn’t sure about my next topic. I knew I wanted to write historical material, but what? I began toying with the idea of a young adult novel that involved insane asylums . . . perhaps the main character’s father had been sent to one so his evil relatives could gain control of his fortune . . . perhaps the main character would be sent to one . . . the possibilities were intriguing. For some reason, I had associated insane asylums with England, but my beginning research showed that they had also been well-represented in the United States. Just as I began to get excited about fictional situations, I ran across a reference to the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians.

What!? An asylum just for Indians? Could this be real? I almost thought it wasn’t, until I dug around enough to understand that this institution had really existed. After that, I couldn’t get the place out of my mind and I began to put out feelers for additional information. Soon, I was digging deeper and starting to shape a book that would keep me interested and amazed for the next eight years.