Contested Commitments

Native Self-Determination, Kinship, Institutionalization, and Remembering

Abstract

Indigenous Rights Roundtable, April 24, 2023.

Burch explores the profound impact of Canton Asylum, a federal psychiatric institution confining American Indians from 1902 to 1934. Focusing on Elizabeth Faribault's story, a Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota forcibly committed in 1915, it reveals the institution's erosion of self-determination and kinship ties. The exclusive reliance on Western biomedicine perpetuated prejudiced judgments, leading to prolonged detentions. Faribault's daughter, Cora Winona, experienced transinstitutionalization, illustrating a broader pattern of systemic erasure. The narrative underscores the collective violence of Canton Asylum within the context of settler colonialism, connecting it to wider Indigenous struggles.