Frank Starr

Frank was a Chippewa man (the specific band has not yet been determined)

In October 1898, Leech Lake was the site of the Battle of Sugar Point, commonly called the last military conflict between the U.S. and American Indians.
Source: Peck, Lauren. “The Battle of Sugar Point.” Minnesota Good Age, 25 Sept. 2017, www.mngoodage.com/voices/mn-history/2017/09/the-battle-of-sugar-point/. Accessed 16 Apr. 2024.

Project: A Damning

Deluge: The Rhetoric of Damming the Mississippi Headwaters Region and Ojibwe Resistance to Environmental Injustice
In the 1880s, the U.S. Government funded the construction of two dams in north-central Minnesota at Lake Winnibigoshish and Leech Lake—the start of a decades-long series of damming projects spanning the Headwaters of the Mississippi River in Minnesota, two such dams, which displaced thousands of community members from the Pillager, Winnibigoshish, Mississippi, and Leech Lake bands of Ojibwe who were living in the area at the Leech Lake and Winnibigoshish reservations.
Source: Rico, Chris. “Climates of Inequality — a Damning Deluge: The Rhetoric of Damming the Mississippi Headwaters Region and Ojibwe Resistance to Environmental Injustice.” Climates of Inequality, climatesofinequality.org/project/a-damning-deluge-the-rhetoric-of-damming-the-mississippi-headwaters-region-and-ojibwe-resistance-to-environmental-injustice/. Accessed 16 Apr. 2024.

Leech Lake Chippewa delegation to Washington 1899
Source: Minnesota Historical Society, Public Domain

Biography:
Born sometime between 1882 and 1889 to unknown parents, a survey of the Indian census reports from Leech Lake cannot determine specifically to which band or to which family Frank belonged.

According to Carla Joinson in her book Vanished in Hiawatha, Frank was admitted to the Canton Asylum on February 22, 1907, from Leech Lake (Agency), and upon arrival was diagnosed with Imbecility, high grade, later in 1910 this diagnosis was revised to dementia praecox, hebephrenic ("High-grade imbecile" is a term that describes someone odd, peculiar, or erratic, but without any definite stigmata. Hebephrenic dementia is a subtype of dementia praecox, also known as schizophrenia, that is characterized by thought disorder, affective deterioration, and childish silliness.). Ms. Joinson notes that Frank was recorded as being 20 in a 1909 report.

In the letter dated February 17, 1934, to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Dr. L.L. Culp indicates that Frank was Chippewa from Leech Lake, Minnesota, that he died in the Canton Asylum on April 28, 1913 (at age 31) which would give him birth in 1882 the earlier of the range 1882-1889, and was buried in the Canton Hiawatha Cemetery tier 4 plot 26.

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

Research Notes:
-I reviewed all Leech Lake Chippewa Indian census reports from 1906 and 1907 looking for an indication that one went to Canton or SD, but nothing.
-I reviewed all Leech Lake Chippewa Indian census reports from 1913 looking for an indication that one had died with a known date of death of April 28, 1913, at Canton SD, but nothing.
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Sources:

1910 May 13 - "United States Census, 1910", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MPFS-XVC : Thu Mar 07 14:25:23 UTC 2024), Entry for Frank Starr, 1910. pg. 82/1082, line 37 (Inmate, age 21), census of the United States Indian Insane Asylum, Canton Township, Lincoln County, South Dakota

1910 May 13-14 - "United States Census, 1910", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MPXP-W68 : Sat Mar 09 15:10:14 UTC 2024), Entry for Emily Waite and Mrs, Mrs Womack, 1910, pg. 80/1082, line 59, census of the United States Indian Insane Asylum, Canton Township, Lincoln County, South Dakota

1910 Jul 2 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:688C-DLXY : Sat Mar 09 15:56:24 UTC 2024), Entry for Frank Starr, 1910, pg. 504/522, line 25, census of the Asylum for Insane Indians

1910 Oct 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 85, Table 7 Form of mental disease of those admitted since opening of Asylum

1910 Oct 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=677, line 36, Table 8 Form of mental disease of those in Asylum, June 30, 1910, revised

1911 Jun 28 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:68Z1-VQHF : Sat Mar 09 23:03:31 UTC 2024), Entry for Frank Starr, 1911, pg. 507/522, line 14, census of the Asylum for Insane Indians

1913 Apr 28 - Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/14493872/frank-starr: accessed April 15, 2024), memorial page for Frank Starr (unknown–28 Apr 1913), Find a Grave Memorial ID 14493872, citing Hiawatha Asylum Cemetery, Canton, Lincoln County, South Dakota, USA; Maintained by Graveaddiction (contributor 46528400).

1913 Apr 28 - 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

Arch Wolf 7-2-12 · Frank Starr 4-28-13 · Joseph Taylor 9-20-13