Mrs "Lucy" Two Teeth

Mrs Two Teeth was Lakota (Lower Brule) from the Crow Creek Tribe, Crow Creek Indian Reservation, South Dakota

Biography
Mrs. Two Teeth was born c. 1846. She was admitted to the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians on August 22, 1919 diagonesed with Dementia, senile. She died at the asyulum on January 1, 1925 at the age of 69 in a uremic coma, of chronic nephritis. (Curator Note: there is also a list dated January 7, 1922 in which she is stated as being 89)
Mrs Two Teeth was buried in the asylum cemetery, row 6, plot 42.

"Interestingly, records relating to Mrs. Two Teeth reveal that two years after she was confined to the institution, her husband was committed for similarly vague reasons relating, ostensibly, to senility in old age. A letter from Hummer to the Commissioner documents the Indian Office’s typical disinterestedness in the state of affairs at Canton, once again illustrating how Hummer’s decisions were rarely challenged, or even questioned by higher-ranking U.S. officials; in one example, in 1909 Dr. Joseph Murphy, the Indian Service’s chief medical officer, was tasked with investigating Hummer and found him to be “‘above reproach’.”70 In reference to whether Two Teeth should be released back home along with his wife at the request of her brother, in 1921 Hummer wrote the Commissioner, “I have the honor to report that Mr. Two Teeth is in approximately the same condition as his wife, suffering from senile dementia and is considerably more disturbed and more difficult to manage, so that I feel compelled to advise against returning him to his home and recommend that he be continued under treatment in this institution.”71 Two Teeth was thus retained at the institution and would endure the loss of his
wife the following year. Records relating to Mr. and Mrs. Two Teeth are relatively sparse; beyond Thick Hair’s request for his sister’s release and Hummer’s announcement to the Indian Office that Mrs. Two Teeth had died,

• The phrase “care and maintenance” appears routinely in the archive, mostly in contexts related to finances—payments requested and sent from Indian agents to Hummer, for example— but not always. Sometimes, the couplet—or some variation thereof—appears in letters authored by Indian women and men inquiring after a loved one held at the facility, as reflected by one document stamped “received” on June 9, 1921. In this instance, a Yankton man named Thick Hair wrote the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Charles Burke, to request his sister’s release from the facility where she had been held since August of 1919.5 “Dear Commissioner,” he began, “My sister Mrs. Two Teeth has now been confined in the Insane Asylum at Canton close onto two years, she never was violent but seemed to have some hallucinations of some sort or another. I presume its [sic] affection of the brain therefore incurable.”6 He continued, “We here her relatives desire her return as she has funds with [the] office, Individual money which may be used to provide for her care & support while she shall live out the rest of her existence near her relation[s], we desire to have her with us and regret to be unable to go and see her as often as we would were she here amongst us.”7 He closed, “Please direct the office of the Asylum to send her back to this Agency as soon as possible and you will be conferring a great favor on us. I am yours Truly, Thick Hair.”8 Like many other Indian people impacted by the unending confinement of their relatives at Canton, Thick Hair’s appeal for his sister’s release was unsuccessful, and Mrs. Two Teeth died a year and a half later.9

[5] Mrs. Two Teeth, Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M595, 692 rolls);
Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Record Group 75; National Archives, Washington, D.C. Year: 1909;
Roll: M595_89; Page: 17; Line: 15. Ancestry.com
[6] Thick Hair to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, June 1921, RG 75, CCF 1907-1939, box 19, folder 2632, Canton Asylum, NARA-DC.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Harry Hummer to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, January 7, 1922, RG 75, CCF 1907-1939, box 19, folder 2632, Canton Asylum, NARA-DC.
Source: Whitt, Sarah. “‘Care and Maintenance’: Indigeneity, Disability and Settler Colonialism at the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians, 1902-1934.” Disability Studies Quarterly (DSQ), 2021.

... there are few existing documents that might provide insight into what their life was like at the institution or the nature of their relationship together. Despite the relative scarcity of personal information about the Two Teeth family, however, letters exchanged between the Indian Office, Hummer, and H.E. Wright, the clerk in charge at
the Crow Creek Agency, offer additional insight into the many ways in which confinement at Canton could exacerbate simultaneous social and legal vulnerabilities, and demonstrate how U.S. officials rationalized the simultaneous confinement of relatives to this facility.72

"...in 1921 a Sioux man by the name of Thick Hair wrote the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to demand the release of his sister, Mrs. Two Teeth, who had been confined at Canton for nearly two years. Unsuccessful in his petition to secure his sister’s freedom, Thick Hair would learn of her death a year and a half after writing to the Commissioner. A letter dated June 18, 1921, written nine days after Thick Hair’s original plea was received, reveals Hummer’s rationale for refusing Mrs. Two Teeth’s release. As he explained to the Commissioner, “…Mrs. Two Teeth is an old lady from the Crow Creek Reservation, suffering from senile dementia and is totally unable to care for herself. She was sent here to receive the treatment that her condition requires, has no chance of improving and should remain here until her death, which is only a matter of time.”68 In another letter in this series of correspondence, the Indian agent at Crow Creek agreed with Hummer’s decision, stating that he felt Thick Hair’s motives were dishonest: “she has no relatives upon this reservation who are willing to care for her and see that she does not harm herself or others.”69 As was the case with others who died during their incarceration at this facility, Hummer obscured the conditions of Mrs. Two Teeth’s death with opaque medical verbiage. This language would have been difficult, if not impossible, for any non-specialist to understand or decipher, and thus would have left concerned Indian relatives entirely uninformed of their loved one’s condition, and entirely without recourse—legal or otherwise.

Interestingly, records relating to Mrs. Two Teeth reveal that two years after she was confined to the institution, her husband was committed for similarly vague reasons relating, ostensibly, to senility in old age. A letter from Hummer to the Commissioner documents the Indian Office’s typical disinterestedness in the state of affairs at Canton, once again illustrating how Hummer’s decisions were rarely challenged, or even questioned by higher-ranking U.S. officials; in one example, in 1909 Dr. Joseph Murphy, the Indian Service’s chief medical officer, was tasked with investigating Hummer and found him to be “‘above reproach’.”70 In reference to whether Two Teeth should be released back home along with his wife at the request of her brother, in 1921 Hummer wrote the Commissioner, “I have the honor to report that Mr. Two Teeth is in approximately the same condition as his wife, suffering from senile dementia and is considerably more disturbed and more difficult to manage, so that I feel compelled to advise against returning him to his home and recommend that he be continued under treatment in this institution.”71 Two Teeth was thus retained at the institution, and would endure the loss of his
wife the following year. Records relating to Mr. and Mrs. Two Teeth are relatively sparse; beyond Thick Hair’s request for his sister’s release and Hummer’s announcement to the Indian Office that Mrs. Two Teeth had died, there are few existing documents that might provide insight into what their life was like at the institution or the nature of their relationship together. Despite the relative scarcity of personal information about the Two Teeth family, however, letters exchanged between the Indian Office, Hummer, and H.E. Wright, the clerk in charge at the Crow Creek Agency, offer additional insight into the many ways in which confinement at Canton could exacerbate simultaneous social and legal vulnerabilities, and demonstrate how U.S. officials rationalized the simultaneous confinement of relatives to this facility.72

On July 27, 1925, three years after the death of Two Teeth’s wife, Wright wrote the Commissioner to inquire about Two Teeth’s assets, and whether they might be used to cover costs relating to his confinement at Canton. Wright explained,

• Receipt is acknowledged of Office letter…requesting information as to whether or not Two Teeth, an inmate of the Canton Insane Asylum, is so financially situated so as to be able to pay for his maintenance at Canton at the rate of $400.00 per annum.
• In reply, I have to inform your Office that Two Teeth has to his credit in this office as Individual Indian money the sum of $622.48 which is available for the purpose mentioned above. He also has 160 acres of farm land, appraised at $3000.00, which can be sold and used for this purpose.73

As indicated from this letter, once the balance of Two Teeth’s Individual Indian Money (IIM) account had been depleted, Wright surmised that the Indian Office might be inclined to dispose of his land in order to pay for his confinement at the facility. It is unclear whether Two Teeth’s allotment was sold out from under him at this time; a subsequent letter from Crow Creek Agent W.E. Dunn reflects that he was of the opinion that the land should be retained until the price per acre increased, at which point he recommended it be sold to pay Hummer. As Dunn explained in a letter dated September 29, 1925, “this old gentleman has funds in the amount of $633.12 on deposit to his credit at this agency that would be available for [the purpose of his maintenance at Canton], as careful inquiry among the members of this tribe has failed to disclose any near relatives or dependents who are in need of assistance.”74 Dunn continued,

• In view of the above, it is my belief that the money on deposit to his credit at this agency should be made use of for his benefit during his lifetime. This old gentleman also has an allotment of 160 acres on this reservation that could when his present funds become exhausted, and land prices advance, be sold and the proceeds of the sale used for his care. I would not, however, under present land values recommend its sale at this time.75

By December, Assistant Commissioner E.B. Meritt had authorized the expenditure of $100.00 per annum from Two Teeth’s IIM account for the time being, although it is likely that this rate was reassessed at a later date. But on July 18, 1930, Hummer wrote the Commissioner to inform him of Two Teeth’s death, employing the same obscure medical language that characterized all such reports to the Indian Office: “He was seventy-nine years of age and suffering from senectus, including advanced arterio-sclerosis and chronic interstitial nephritis and gradually faded away during the intense hot dry spell which we are experiencing.”76 Wright instructed Hummer to inter the elder at Canton; Two Teeth, like his wife, would never return home.77"
68 Hummer to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, June 18, 1921, RG 75, CCF 1907-1939, box 18, folder 47481, Canton Asylum, NARA-DC.
69 H.P. Marble to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, June 18, 1921, RG 75, CCF 1907-1939, box 18, folder 47481, Canton Asylum, NARA-DC.
70 Putney, “Canton Asylum,” 11.
71 Hummer to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, July 5, 1921, RG 75, CCF 1907-1939, box 18, folder 47481, Canton Asylum, NARA-DC.
72 Other relatives were confined at Canton together, as well. According to various archival records, I have identified the following relationships: sisters Susan and Jane B. (Southern Ute); after Charles C.’s death in 1909, his son Peter and daughter Mary were confined to Canton (Menominee); Zonna Y. and her mother Drag Toes (West Navajo); Juanita E. and her daughter Frances (Pueblo); Brothers Joe and Frank M. (Cherokee); Siblings James and Annie S. (Chippewa); Seymore and Mary, parents to son Edward, and his legal wife Mary (Menominee).
73 H.E. Wright to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, July 27, 1925, RG 75, CCF 1907-1939, box 8, folder 51361,
Canton Asylum, NARA-DC.
74 W.E. Dunn to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, September 29, 1925, RG 75, CCF 1907-1939, box 8, folder 51361, Canton Asylum, NARA-DC.
75 Ibid.
76 Harry Hummer to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, July 18, 1930, RG 75, CCF 1907-1939, box 20, folder 00,
Canton Asylum, NARA-DC.
77 According to Canton researcher Todd Leahy, Mrs. Two Teeth was interred at Canton on January 10, 1923; her husband was interred at the institution on July 18, 1930. For more information, see: “Appendix III: Names of
Indians Buried in the Hiawatha Asylum Cemetery” in Todd Leahy, They Called It Madness: The Canton Asylum for Insane Indians,1899-1934 (Baltimore: PublishAmerica, 2009).

Lucy is found in several of the annual census taken by the Rosebud Agency, however, I've found no independent reference to this being the given name of the person known as Mrs. Two Teeth.

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

Sources:
1. Joinson, Carla. Vanished in Hiawatha: The Story of the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians. University of Nebraska Press, 2016
2. Whitt, Sarah H. “False Promises: Race, Power, and the Chimera of Indian Assimilation, 1879-1934.” University of California, Berkeley, 2020.
3. Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/14493722/two_teeth: accessed ), memorial page for Mrs Two Teeth (unknown–10 Jan 1923), Find a Grave Memorial ID 14493722, citing Hiawatha Asylum Cemetery, Canton, Lincoln County, South Dakota, USA; Maintained by Graveaddiction (contributor 46528400).
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1920 January 30 - "United States Census, 1920", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M6J7-FPP : Thu Jul 13 05:36:48 UTC 2023), Entry for Mrs Two Teeth, 1920, pg 653/1130

1920 March 22 - "United States Census, 1920", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M6JW-FC1 : Sat Jul 22 07:46:22 UTC 2023), Entry for Cecil Two Teeth and Mary McCloskey, 1920, pg. 1125/1130

1933 April 1 "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:7NBX-WQT2 : Tue Sep 12 21:58:39 UTC 2023), Entry for Cecil Two Teeth, 1933, pg. 496/751. Rosbud Indian Reservation Census Roll

(Curator Note: this census shows Lucy at home alone in 1933 when canton records her death as Jan 1, 1925?)