This presentation draws on “removed histories” from the Hiawatha Asylum, a federal psychiatric hospital for American Indians located in South Dakota. It centers on three Dakota females: Elizabeth Fairbault, whom officials committed to the Asylum in 1915, detaining her there until her death in 1928; Elizabeth’s daughter Cora Winona, born in the Asylum in 1926 and kept there until she was four years-old; and teenager Nellie Kampeska, an inmate from 1917-1919. Their experiences invite us to consider what and who else remains in the margins of our historical work and why. These life stories, detailed in letters, court and government documents, and family oral histories, involve multiple removals—from and to kinship and cultural communities and to and from particular institutions.
Scholarly studies of people involuntarily removed commonly end at or shortly after their subjects cross the threshold from ‘original place’ to ‘removed space.’ There are practical reasons for this. But removal also contributes to a general de-valuing of people and their stories. Scholars’ tendency not to ask ‘who’s not here (and why)’ results in reinforcing the removal of people like the Fairbaults and Kampeska from our broader historical studies. Re-centering the story to consider more fully the experiences of those removed (and their communities) significantly changes our telling of the past.
Critical study of life stories of institutionalized individuals and groups illustrates the importance and evolving characteristics of community and networks as well as of place. Examining “removed histories” ultimately challenges us to expand the interpretations of who “belongs” in 20th century U.S. social and cultural history and in so doing provide new ways of re-membering and re-populating the past.
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