Committed: Remembering Native Kinship in and beyond Institutions

Critical Indigeneities

by Susan Burch

Between 1902 and 1934, the United States confined hundreds of adults and children from dozens of Native nations at the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians, a federal psychiatric hospital in South Dakota. But detention at the Indian Asylum, as families experienced it, was not the beginning or end of the story. For them, Canton Asylum was one of many places of imposed removal and confinement, including reservations, boarding schools, orphanages, and prison-hospitals. Despite the long reach of institutionalization for those forcibly held at the Asylum, the tenacity of relationships extended within and beyond institutional walls.

In this accessible and innovative work, Susan Burch tells the story of the Indigenous people—families, communities, and nations, across generations to the present day—who have experienced the impact of this history. Drawing on oral history interviews, correspondence, material objects, and archival sources, Burch reframes the histories of institutionalized people and the places that held them. Committed expands the boundaries of Native American history, disability studies, and U.S. social and cultural history generally.

Genres: Disability, History, Nonfiction, Indigenous, Disability Studies, Medicine, Native American

233 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2021

About the author

Susan Burch is an associate professor of American Studies and the director of the Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity at Middlebury College. Research and teaching subjects “at the margins” draws Burch’s attention, and particularly the historical impact of race, ethnicity, disability, gender, and material culture on lived experiences in America, Russia, and beyond.

--from the author's website

Reviews

[Jack]

Devastating and horrifying to read. Any dismissal of US treatment of indigenous peoples is willfully ignorant at best and straight up immoral at worst.

[Allie Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Using the lens of kinship, Burch tells the compelling and heartbreaking story of people who were institutionalized in the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians, a terrible name befitting the terribleness of the institution. Most of the people who went to ‘Hiawatha’ died there and Burch does a beautiful job telling the stories of not only the victims of the American government’s attempts at erasure and assimilation but also in showcasing how deeply the generational trauma from these actions lie.

I recommend this book to everyone.

[Margaret Kirchner · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is successful in what it endeavors to do - it tells stories that have historically been erased or ignored. It was interesting, compelling, and often horrifying. That said, as Burch herself acknowledges, “Committed is not intended to provide a neutral or balanced account of history.” This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; all historical writing makes an implicit argument of some kind. I simply think that you’d be wise to tread lightly if this were to be your only exposure to asylum history / native history / etc.

[Kora Dzbinski · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is not an easy read. burch’s fragmented archive of settler colonial violence against indigenous sovereignty and psychiatry as a tool of torture sticks in your throat. the stories of kinship as resistance & relatives tracing their loved one’s stolen histories are heartbreaking, but also incredibly beautiful. an important book that works to decenter the historical whiteness of Mad studies and critical carceral studies. hope Hummer rots in piss.

[Milford Public Library Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read on the history of the forced institutionalization of hundreds of Native peoples at the Canton Asylum of South Dakota and the continuing legacy of those individuals who lived and died there.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting story but not an easy read. What these poor people endured is heartbreaking and wrong. It’s written by a college professor and I felt like it jumped around a bit as it told their stories.

[Ren Rhodes · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very important read, though a deeply saddening one.

[Anna Tiritilli · Rating 3 out of 5]

for school. so boring i don’t know how i got through it

[Ellie W · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the case-study format for understanding a larger story in American history. Very very interesting and important, but sometimes a little hard to follow narratively