Editing Canton, South Dakota (section)

==Hiawatha Insane Asylum==
{{main|Canton Indian Insane Asylum}}

The first and only institution for insane Indians in the United States was Hiawatha Asylum for Insane Indians.  It was placed in Canton because of the central location among the Western states with a large Indian populations and because of the influence of South Dakota's Representative O.S. Gifford and Senator R. F. Pettigrew. In 1898, Congress passed a bill creating the institution. The bill establishing the Hiawatha Asylum for Insane Indians passed in 1899, and the Indian Appropriation Act for 1900 set aside $3,000 for land purchase and $42,000 for building construction. One hundred acres were purchased a mile east of Canton on the hills overlooking the Sioux River. The asylum was closed in 1934.

The asylum grounds and buildings were used for a short time by South Dakota as a penitentiary for first time offenders. In 1946, in what Cantonites refer to as the "second Manhattan Purchase," the city purchased for $1.00 the 337 acres and buildings of the old institution.  The only stipulation of the purchases was that it be used for the welfare of the community. For a time, the asylum hospital was used for the Canton-Inwood Hospital, but today the old asylum buildings are gone.  The land is now home to Sanford Hospital Canton-Inwood, Three Rivers Gun Club, the 4-H fairground and Hiawatha Country Club and Golf Course.

Today, a cemetery for 121 patients of the asylum is located on the original grounds of the asylum. The National Park Service added the cemetery to the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 1998.<ref>[http://crm.cr.nps.gov/archive/22-9/22-09-16.pdf "Canton Indian Historical Society"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111015031033/http://crm.cr.nps.gov/archive/22-9/22-09-16.pdf |date=October 15, 2011 }}, National Park Service. Retrieved July 2, 2011.</ref>