Asal-Tchee - Who was Asal-Tchee?

Started by Private User on Monday, November 6, 2023
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  • Ascension-courtesy of artist Jerry Fogg, a member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe
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Please Help, research assistance is requested!

I am unable to build out a branch for this person because of the many still unanswered questions regarding her identity. I am not aware of a Navajo expert on the platform so I am requesting that anyone who identifies as Navajo, and those who do not, or have previously been involved with research on Navajo families, review the data that is known and presented in this profile, with the intent to further identify this person, or more about her; her parents, siblings, partners and/or children, where she lived, etc. I have personally spent the past 5-6 days and found nothing other than what I've presented in the profile in the way of documentation, the few messy documents from the Canton Asylum in South Dakota. I suspect that she was born on the Navajo Indian Reservation in AZ., c. 1880, in a location under the jurisdiction of the Fort Defiance Indian Agency, who, for reasons known only to them, had her institutionalized at the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians in South Dakota on July 18, 1906, at the age of 26, and where she died less than three years later on February 11, 1909, at the age of 29, and where she remains today, buried in the asylum cemetery, in an unmarked grave.

Who was Asal-Tchee?

This may be nothing:
Louis H Asal

Name Events Relationships
Louis H Asal
Principal
United States Bureau of Land Management Tract Books, 1800-c. 1955
Land Assessment 25 May 1905
Dakota Territory, United States

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6K6L-J4T9

Ancestry has this which is indexed as Osal--- so maybe consider another spelling--- phonetically FS is coming up with Issel and Ezell and Eisele.

Tchee Osal
in the Web: South Dakota, U.S., Cemetery Index, 1831-2008

Visit website
Web: South Dakota, U.S., Cemetery Index, 1831-2008
Name Tchee Osal
Death Date 11 Feb 1909
Burial Place Canton, Lincoln, South Dakota, USA
Cemetery Indian Asylum
URL https://apps.sd.gov/dt58cemetery/
https://apps.sd.gov/dt58cemetery/

Tchee search at Access Genealogy just gives TOWN names.... interesting:

https://accessgenealogy.com/?s=tchee&id=524682

Thank you,
I've seen the names Issel, Ezell, and Eisele on FS but have ignored them so far, I did not consider phonetics, but there are machine translations of census reports that are in error for any number of reasons. The name Asal is found but seems to be connected to white men. I will check this on FS.

Louis Asal may be a sibling, the date would work, but the tract book does not mention any other family member so he too is a stand-alone for now. We would need a census report that ties them together. This is also an SD land sale indicating a family there, Tchee comes from AZ so likely not related.

If Ancestry has anything can you provide copies and post to the profile without violating terms of service? I don't have access to Ancestry.

In the South Dakota State Historical Society website you reference I'm not getting results, probably because it has a paywall and I've not purchased a membership. But her death is a known fact, I need something from where she came.

Private User I have a World subscription at Ancestry at this time.
I try to use the SHARE link when able.

That Louis was the only Asal result I got with the Dakota Territory look up.
The Ezell and Issel and Eisele came form North Dakota state look up for Asal.

Issel pulled up a Canadian, Eisele I am familiar with because a friend married an Eisles and Ezell is the name some of my Israel directs are listed in Southern records.
I suspect her name was not what is listed on the Canton plaque.

Hopefully someone will see this and weigh in! There are some really great researchers here on Geni and many have different types of search engines and other sites they like to reference routinely, of course. I am often in awe of some of what is shared here.

*Eisele

Cynthia,
Can you tell me more about this attachment from Ancestry (what Ancestry says) which was attached to the media tab? It is identified as from the South Dakota death index, the curious thing is that it suggests that she was 42 at her death on 2/11/1909.

Carla Joinson says she was 29! This disparity would expand her birth from c. 1880 to between 1867 and 1880, which might help in identification.

https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/7526467?mark=7b22746f6b656e223a226...

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Let me look for the original---brb

Asal Tchee
in the South Dakota, U.S., Death Index, 1879-1955

Name Asal Tchee
Death Date 11 Feb 1909
Death Place Lincoln, South Dakota, USA
Certificate Number 15025
Page number 244

South Dakota, U.S., Death Index, 1879-1955 T

SURNAME GIVEN NAME CO MO DA YR

15025 TCHEE ASAL 42 2 11 09

I was looking up Carla Joinson-- she has a blog as well as the book(s)-- she may be reachable for info?

sorry--- that one isn't applicable to this project/Hiawatha but is mentioned by her as part of her research.

Following.

Yes, that's the record that was uploaded to the media tab...

Carla Joinson creates a blog whenever she writes a new book, she posts thoughts and ideas there to see the reaction she gets. She had one for her book Vanished in Hiawatha from which I have extracted some information and used it in my writings, in addition to owning a copy of the book itself.

The "Keepers of the Story" in South Dakota considered her the expert when her book was published. This new blog supports her new yet-to-be-published book on the bigger issue of mental institutions in general. I think she finds that insane asylums in general, not just the Canton Asylum, faced the same issues. While Canton is a product of Indian assimilation she finds similar conditions, unsympathetic courts, retribution, etc., applied to whites and the general population as well at other asylums. Her underlying premise seems to be how psychiatry developed over generations as a cultural institution. Her research is profound and well-documented, she visited the NARA document centers in Kansan City and Dallas and saw the documents she cites for her book on Hiawatha, something I cannot do.

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