Robert Brings Plenty

Robert was an Oglala Lakota Sioux man

Curator note: It’s possible that the name “Brings Plenty” has been used by English Americans as a surname. Given the addition of the anglicized given name Robert, this seems logical. I am pursuing this question further with those with a background in Sioux history and genealogy. See the curator's note in the discussion on the profile of his father Brings Plenty here: Brings Plenty

Biography

Robert Brings Plenty was born in 1876 in Nebraska (probably on the piece of the Pine Ridge reservation in Nebraska). His father's name was Brings Plenty and his mother's name was Bend. The 1900 US Census lists him as living with his parents, but at some time he became a patient at St. Elizabeth Hospital for the Insane in Washington D.C. On Jan. 17, 1903, he was transferred to and admitted to the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians. Canton, South Dakota.

A note from the Keepers of the Story: “Family said he was sent there because he practiced traditional ways”

He passed away May 5, 1903, and was the first to be buried at the Hiawatha Asylum Cemetery (see below), Lincoln, South Dakota. His profile is part of the Canton Asylum One Place Study. (Curator note: the death date of May 5, 1903, comes from the cemetery monument plaque but the death date of May 20, 1903 ( used here) comes from the annual report submitted by then superintendent Oscar S. Gifford to the Indian Office in Washington D.C.)

“The Sioux typically dressed a dead person in his best clothes, including beaded moccasins so he could walk to the spirit world, and then sewed him into a deerskin or buffalo shroud. The body was placed in a tree so birds and small animals could feed on it until it dropped to the ground to feed bigger animals. Thus, the circle of life went on.

Canton Asylum’s Superintendent, O.S. Gifford, wrote to Pine Ridge reservation and asked what to do with Brings Plenty’s body. He didn’t get a reply. Robert Brings Plenty was buried on the asylum grounds with an Episcopal ceremony.” (Joinson, Carla. “Death at Canton Asylum.” Indians, Insanity, and American History Blog, 19 Aug. 2012, http://cantonasylumforinsaneindians.com/history_blog/tag/o-s-gifford/. Accessed 18 Sept. 2023.)

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

Sources

"United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MST6-HZG : accessed 13 January 2018), Robert Brings Plenty in household of Brings Plenty, Pine Ridge Indian Agency, Shannon, South Dakota, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 46, sheet 22A, family 854, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1972.); FHL microfilm 1,241,556.

Source: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Brings_Plenty-1 (edited)
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Patient name: Robert Brings Plenty (Sioux)
Date of admission: January 17, 1903
Diagnosis: Chronic epileptic dementia (a condition not currently identifiable by a Google search)
Notes: Transferred from St. Elizabeths; died on May 20, 1903, age twenty-one
Source: Listing taken from Dr. L.L. Culp to the commissioner of Indian Affairs dated February 17, 1934, located at NARA box 4

On January 10, 1903, the superintendent at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Washington, D.C. received permission to release its Indian patients to the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians in South Dakota. The first patients were:

• Chu-rah-rah-he-kah; Pawnee from the Ponca Agency; suffering from chronic mania
• Joseph D. Marshall; Sioux from the Rose Bud Agency; suffering from chronic epileptic dementia
• Miguel Maxcy; Mesa Grande from the Carlisle Indian School; suffering from chronic melancholia
• Robert Brings Plenty; Sioux from the Pine Ridge Agency; suffering from chronic epileptic dementia
• John Woodruff; Sioux-Mulatto from the Pine Ridge Agency; suffering from chronic melancholia
• Arch Wolf; Cherokee transferred from the penitentiary in Brooklyn New York; suffering from acute melancholia

These patients arrived at the Canton Asylum under the escort of Dr. J.E. Toner, who received $157.71 reimbursement for expenses.

“It was dark and lonely inside the asylum when Gifford's first patient died. One unsupervised night watchman, making rounds in whatever manner he chose, flashed a lantern occasionally amid the dark walls of the nearly empty building. Since only eight people (counting Gifford) were employed at the facility, the probability is good that only a couple of them were on duty that night.
Robert Brings Plenty, a twenty-one-year-old Sioux from South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation, had been diagnosed with chronic epileptic dementia, denoting the era's judgment that epilepsy and insanity were intertwined. His seizure that night began with a cry, the involuntary scream or moan caused by spasms in the larynx. He fell, convulsed, rolled his eyes, and thrashed in violent spasms. Blood-specked foam dribbled from his mouth as he gasped for breath, lost control of his bowel and bladder, and died alone in his room about an hour after he had gone to bed. (6)
In most of Canton Asylum's reports, few words were wasted on people when the facilities could be praised. Brings Plenty's death was granted only a quarter of a sentence in Gifford's annual report to the secretary of the interior for 1903, though the assistant superintendent, Dr. John Turner, managed to give the incident a whole sentence in his portion. What neither man mentioned was Brings Plenty's lone grave, disturbing the bucolic grounds at Canton Asylum like a grim wound. Gifford had just run into what was to become a surprisingly common occurrence: no one would claim the body.
Whether the young man's seizure could have been prevented is anyone's guess; treatment for epilepsy at the time consisted primarily of dosing the patient with bromides and sedatives. Gifford made it clear (as did later inspectors) that Dr. Turner very properly administered these kinds of preventatives, along with sedating hot baths.
The real question is not about Brings Plenty's medical care, but why he died the way he did. Even if medical treatment couldn't have prevented his death, did he have to die alone?”
(6) Dr. John Turner reported that Brings Plenty died of a "violent nocturnal convulsion," which would likely translate to the classic grand mal seizures that frightened bystanders into believing the person experiencing them was insane.
This description of a seizure is taken from an article in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica; it is reasonable to assume that only an unattended, violent seizure of this kind would cause a young man to injure himself sufficiently to result in death. (Joinson, 47&48)

Robert Brings Plenty was the first patient to die in the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians buried in row 4 plot 40.

At least Gifford hadn't adopted the Indian Office's apparent attitude that Brings Plenty's death didn't matter at all. When the superintendent informed the young man's reservation agent of his passing and asked for instructions about the body, he received no answer. Gifford then took it upon himself to find a pretty area on the grounds to start a cemetery, draw a map that showed where the body was buried, and arrange for a service. When he asked the Indian Office for money to erect a marker, the agency did give him some attention- it replied that the expense was unwarranted. (Joinson, 53)

Source: Joinson, C. (2016). Vanished in Hiawatha: The story of the canton asylum for insane Indians. University of Nebraska Press.
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Sources

1900 Jun 20-21 - "United States Census, 1900", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MST6-HZ2 : Thu Oct 05 22:28:36 UTC 2023), Entry for Brings Plenty and Bend, 1900, pg. 177/649, line 20 (b. Sep 1876 in Neb), census of the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota

1903 May 5 - Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/14493820/robert-brings_plenty: accessed 21 December 2023), memorial page for Robert Brings Plenty (unknown–5 May 1903), Find a Grave Memorial ID 14493820, citing Hiawatha Asylum Cemetery, Canton, Lincoln County, South Dakota, USA; Maintained by Graveaddiction (contributor 46528400).

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

Peter Greenwood 9-22-05 · '''Robert Brings Plenty 5-20-03''' · Nadesooda 2-8-08

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Further Reading:
1) Wikipedia contributors. "St. Elizabeth Hospital." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 7 Aug. 2023. Web. 11 Aug. 2023.
2) Joinson, C. (2016). Vanished in Hiawatha: The story of the canton asylum for insane Indians. University of Nebraska Press.
3) Burch, Susan. Committed: Remembering Native Kinship in and Beyond Institutions. United States, University of North Carolina Press, 2021.
4) Burch, Susan. “‘Dislocated Histories’: The Canton Asylum for Insane Indians.” Women, Gender, and Families of Color, vol. 2, no. 2, 2014, pp. 141–62. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.5406/womgenfamcol.2.2.0141. Accessed 12 Aug. 2023.

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Additional References

• https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/GKX1-S2X