“…Some people were chained to beds at night. I do not know if that happened to her. There were no lights at night. If you did not have one of the white pots you would have to empty yourself in your own bed. You would hear people screaming. The windows all had metal covers. It was hard to breathe…. I remember a boy chained to a hot pipe. The other end of the chain was around his leg. He slept on a mattress on the floor….”
IN MANY CASES, indoctrination into the “American” way of life was the only thing that separated those who stayed alive and those who were “disappeared,” never to be seen again. An estimated 350 people were committed in the Hiawatha insane asylum from 1903 to 1934 — and nearly 125 people died while in custody. A 20th century counterpart to Guantanamo, Canton and its deadly secrets have remained hidden to many Native people to this day.
The Girl Who Sang to the Buffalo reintroduces us to a Lakota elder named Dan whose sister Yellow Bird had long since disappeared after being taken to the Canton asylum. Yellow Bird appears to Nerburn in a haunting, recurring dream, and that propels the writer to inquire more deeply about what truly happened to the young girl so many years ago. The journey takes Nerburn from northern Minnesota to South Dakota and back again, and in the meantime, we are privy to personal conversations between Nerburn and Native elders about history and about life, and we are given a rare glimpse into the power of Native spirituality and a sense of how little we, as non-Natives, relate to their innate awareness of what can be learned from the energy all around us.
“…This time something was different. Country that before had always offered contemplative quiet now seemed to teem with voices and presences. Every rabbit that jumped, every bird that flew, felt like it was carrying a message. Winds, directions, even thoughts and dreams all were active forces, each issuing a caution or making a demand. Far from being a place of peace and contemplation, this great rolling unpopulated land had become a world of forces, seen and unseen, commanding constant vigilance and spiritual humility.”
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