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.