Baptiste Gingras

Baptiste was an Okanagan (First Nation Interior Salish) man
(Curator Note: Baptiste is frequently referred to as a Flathead, but he was the son of an Okanagan man and a Kootenai woman, making him Okanagan which was a band of the Salish of the First Nation in Canada. He later migrated at an unknown date and resided on the reservation of Flathead and Confederated Tribes. The Flathead Indian Reservation is home to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes. The tribes are a combination of the Salish, the Pend d'Oreille, and the Kootenai.)

The Syilx, also known as the Okanagan, Suknaqinx, or Okinagan people, are a First Nations and Native American people. The Syilx People of the Okanagan Nation are a transboundary tribe separated at the 49th parallel by the border between Canada and the United States. The Nation is comprised of seven member communities in the Southern Interior of British Columbia: Okanagan Indian Band, Osoyoos Indian Band, Penticton Indian Band, Upper Nicola Band, Upper and Lower Similkameen Indian Bands, and Westbank First Nation; and in Northern Washington State, the Colville Confederated Tribes. The members share the same land, nsyilxcən language, culture, and customs. They are a distinct and sovereign Nation.

Okanagan Indians
The Interior Salish living in the Okanagan Valley and along the Similkameen River are known as Okanagan or Syilx, although they form part of a larger group now known as "Okanagan-Colville" by some linguists and anthropologists. Okanagan-Colville territory occupies south-central British Columbia and northeast Washington state.

Biography:
Born c. 1889 in Montana and was of the Okanagan band due to his father being Okanagan and born in Canada while his mother was of the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho but born in Montana.

According to Carla Joinson in her book Vanished in Hiawatha, Baptiste was Flathead (he was an Okanagan of the First Nation), admitted to the Canton Asylum on December 26, 1906, and diagnosed with sexual neurasthenia (Sexual neurasthenia is also known as nervous exhaustion. Neurasthenia is a condition that causes fatigue, anxiety, headaches, impotence, neuralgia, and depressed mood. Other symptoms may include mental or physical fatigue, dizziness, dyspepsia, muscular aches or pains, tension headaches, inability to relax, irritability, and sleep disturbance.)

According to the letter dated February 23, 1934, from Dr. L.L. Culp to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Baptiste was committed from Dixon, Montana (location of the Flathead Agency), and died at the asylum on December 19, 1909, and was buried in the Canton Hiawatha Cemetery tier 4 plot 33.

His profile is part of the The Canton Asylum One Place Study.

Research Notes:
-The 1900 census shows a large contingent of three families named Gingre, possibly interrelated
-Per the 1904 census his mother had died, and he was an orphan with an orphan sister named Christine living in the household of Joseph and Thersa no last name recorded. By 1904 he was living on the Flathead Reservation in Montana, as a member of a Confederated tribe.
-The South Dakota Grave Index has his name misspelled, Popsite Gingras
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Sources:

1900 Jun 6 - "United States Census, 1900", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MSTZ-KS2 : Fri Oct 06 13:22:25 UTC 2023), Entry for Isabel Gingre and John Gingre, 1900, pg. 651/892, line 9, census of the Flathead Reservation, Missoula County, Montana

1904 Jun 30 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPT9-L9Y3 : Tue Oct 03 03:21:24 UTC 2023), Entry for Baptiste Gingre, 1904, pg. 450/507, line 1110, census of teh Flathead and Confederated Tribes, Flathead Agency, Montana

1906 Jul 15 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6D1D-S2ZC : Fri Oct 06 14:55:53 UTC 2023), Entry for Baptiste Gingra, 1906, pg. 35/746, line 901 (listed as a nephew of Frank and Julia McCloud), census of the Flathead and Confederated Tribes of Indians, Flathead Agency, Montana

1907 Sep 1 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:66HF-BB2T : Wed Oct 04 12:58:55 UTC 2023), Entry for Baptiste Gingras, 1907, pg. 88/746, line 861, census of the Flathead and Confederated Tribes, Flathead Agency, Montana

1908 Jun 20 - "United States Bureau of Land Management Tract Books, 1800-c. 1955", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6KKN-33T2 : Tue Jan 23 22:36:51 UTC 2024), Entry for Baptiste Gingras, 20 Jun 1908, pg. 674/774, tract book pg. 155, Township 23N Range 20W, purchase of 80 acres of land on the Flathead Reservation with a person named Ohare Gingras, patented by the Flathead?

(Curator Note: How could this purchase have taken place with Baptiste having been committed to the Canton Asylum in 1906? One must consider the possibility of a "land grab", forgery, etc.)

1909 Dec 19 - "South Dakota, Grave Registration Records, 1940-1941", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:CYZL-T9ZM : Fri Dec 15 07:07:49 UTC 2023), Entry for Poptiste Gingras, no image

1909 Dec 19 - Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/14493848/baptiste-gingras: accessed February 18, 2024), memorial page for Baptiste Gingras (unknown–19 Dec 1909), Find a Grave Memorial ID 14493848, citing Hiawatha Asylum Cemetery, Canton, Lincoln County, South Dakota, USA; Maintained by Graveaddiction (contributor 46528400).

1909 Dec 19 - Hilton, M. (Ed.). (2023, July 10). Hiawatha Asylum for Insane Indians Historical Marker. Historical Marker. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=183486 Photo by Ruth VanSteenwyk, July 10, 2023, courtesy of HMdb.org

George Beautiste 5-30-09 · Baptiste Gingras 12-19-09 · Lowe War 12-24-09

1910 Aug 12 - Camp Verde School: 1910-27; Canton Insane Asylum: 1910-22, Series: Superintendents' Annual Narrative and Statistical Reports, Record Group 75: Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 7th and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20408 @ https://catalog.archives.gov/id/155854182?objectPage=675, line 82, Superintendent Narrative, Table 7 Form of mental disease of those admitted since opening of Asylum,