Blue Sky aka Mrs. Charlos

Blue Sky was a Chippewa woman of the Mashkiiziibii: The Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. She probably resided on the north shore in Grand Marias, MN, a few miles south of the Canadian border. In those days, there was no road and Grand Marias was unreachable except by ferry from Deluth, MN.

“La Pointe Agency Records” < link > In 1858, an agency was established for the Chippewa of Lake Superior, which for five years had been under the Mackinac Agency. The new agency's correspondence was filed under "La Pointe," although it was not located at La Pointe and was known for several years as the Chippewa of Lake Superior Agency or the Lake Superior Agency. By 1865, now known as the La Pointe Agency, although it operated from Superior, Wisconsin, from the Red Cliff Reservation, or Bayfield, Wisconsin, opposite La Pointe. The Indians assigned to La Pointe were then living on several reservations in Wisconsin and Minnesota. In 1927, the La Pointe Agency, the Laona Agency, the Red Cliff Agency, and the Mackinac Agency consolidated into the Lac du Flambeau Agency, effective July 1, 1927.

The Bad River Reservation: Bad River’s Missing Creek

In the winter of 1854 a general survey was made of the Bad River Indian Reservation.
Bad River Headman

Joseph Stoddard contemplating his experiences as a young man working on the U.S. General Land Office’s crew surveying the original boundaries of the Reservation.

In his memoir from 1937, Stoddard asserted the following testimony:
“As a Christian, I dislike to say that the field representatives of the United States were grafters and crooks, but the stories related about unfulfilled treaties, stipulations entirely ignored, and many other things that the Indians have just cause to complain about, seem to bear out my impressions in this respect.”

It did not take very long to run the original boundary line of the reservation. There was a crew of surveyors working on the west side, within the limits of the present city of Ashland, and we were on the east side. The point of beginning was at a creek called by the Indians Ke-che-se-be-we-she (large creek), which is located east of Grave Yard Creek. The figure of a human being was carved on a large cedar tree, which was allowed to stand as one of the corner posts of the original boundary lines of the Bad River Reservation.
After the boundary line was established, the head surveyor hastened to Washington, stating that they needed the minutes describing the boundary for insertion in the treaty of 1854.
We kept on working. We next took up the township lines, then the section lines, and lastly the quarter lines. It took several years to complete the survey. As I grew older in age and experience, I learned to read a little, and when I ready the printed treaty, I learned to my surprise and chagrin that the description given in that treaty was different from the minutes submitted as the original survey. The Indians today contend that the treaty description of the boundary is not in accord with the description of the boundary lines established by our crew, and this has always been a bone of contention between the Bad River Band and the government of the United States.

Source: Mello, Amorin. “Chequamegon History: Wheeler Papers: Bad River’s Missing Creek.” Chequamegon History, 3 Oct. 2018, chequamegonhistory.com/.
(The word Chequamegon comes from the Ojibwe word zhaagawaamikong or jagawamikiong, which means "place of shallow water" or "sand bar place". It refers to Chequamegon Bay on Lake Superior.)

Biography:
Born c. 1845...

According to the book Vanished in Hiawatha, author Carla Joinson states that Blue Sky was admitted to Canton on March 9, 1903, and diagnosed with dementia, arteriosclerotic or senile (arteriosclerotic dementia, also known as vascular dementia, is a type of dementia caused by damaged blood vessels that reduce blood flow to the brain. "Senile dementia" is an old-fashioned term that doctors may have used to refer to dementia.), and discharged in September 1908, only to be readmitted. Minimal notes indicated that she was released to family in 1908.

Blue Sky is in the August 4, 1910 Canton Asylum Narrative and diagnosed with circular insanity in Table 7 (Circular insanity is a term for a mental illness that is now known as bipolar disorder. It is characterized by alternating cycles of depression and mania, with periods in between when there are no symptoms). Table 8 identifies the revised diagnosis of those in Asylum, June 30, 1910, revised. This form suggests that Blue Sky suffered from manic-depressive insanity (manic-depressive insanity, now known as bipolar disorder, is a mental illness that causes a person to experience recurring periods of depression and mania), unchanged except in termiinology.

A problem for the BIA, Blue Sky spoke no English at all. Correspondence on this issue can be found here: https://www.geni.com/documents/view?doc_id=6000000209716074886. According to Canton Superintendent Oscar Gifford, Blue Sky lived in Grand Marias, MN, between the Sawtooth Mountains and Lake Superior's north shore just south of the Canadian border, which was hard to get to, and was at the time under the jurisdiction of the LaPointe Wisconsin Indian Agency, some 200 miles by today's coastal highway, which did not exist in 1908. Access seemed to have been by ferry from Deluth, after an overland trek from Ashland County to Deluth. The bottom line question is if she spoke no English, how were doctors able to communicate and discuss symptoms to determine a (any) diagnosis?

Superintendent O. S. Gifford wrote to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Francis Luepp, in 1908, with a dilemma. A woman named Blue Sky had been admitted to the asylum from the La Pointe Agency at some earlier time but seemed to be ready for discharge. The snag was how to get her home. Since she didn’t speak or understand English, Gifford was reluctant to just release her on a difficult journey. He asked Luepp for funds to provide an escort to her home in Minnesota.

Though the correspondence seems to end there, escorts were provided to other discharged patients and Blue Sky probably received one. The real problem is how she could be committed if she couldn’t understand English. Gifford and his assistant, Dr. Turner, would have found it difficult to diagnose any real complaint or provide treatment unless she had a physical, rather than a mental problem. Yet, Blue Sky recovered from whatever had sent her to the institution and displayed some sort of behavior that indicated that she had. Perhaps she had suffered an emotional blow that led to depression or excessive grief. Perhaps she had problems with family members and simply needed a break from them. Speculation is all that is possible at this point, but the language barrier is a particularly ominous aspect of the case.

Source: Indians, Insanity, and American History Blog: Asylums And Insanity Treatments 1800 – 1935. “Suspect Diagnosis”. < link >

Blue Sky died at the Canton Asylum, on June 18, 1914, at age 68, for reasons not identified. She is buried in the Canton Hiawatha Cemetery, Tier 5 Plot 21, on 20 June 1914.

Her profile is part of the https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Canton_Asylum.

Research Notes:
-1976 Dec 22 Blue Sky is listed as the mother of David Smith in his entry into the Minnesota Death Index, 1908-2002
-AKA as Mrs. Charlos is identified in Culp, L.L. Culp to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, February 17, 1934, RG 75, CCF 1907-1939, box 4, folder 7448-150 Part 2, Canton Asylum, NARA-DC.
-The June 30, 1921 census shows son David b=1888 in the Cass And Winnibigoshish Lakes Chippewas, Minnesota census pg. 356/528, line 375 BHS
-The June 30, 1921 census does NOT have an entry in the Bad River Chippewa for Smith, BlueSky or Carlos
-The June 30, 1928 census shows David b=1888 in the Cass And Winnibigoshish Chippewas, Consolidated Chippewa Agency, pg. 1027/1070, line 394 BHS
-There is NO entry in the June 30 1914 Bad River Chippewa census for the death of Blue Sky, indicating that she was not on the reservation when she did died probably somewhaere else, records say the Canton Asylum on June 18, 1914.
-The diagnosis assigned to Blue Sky is different when considering the source. Carla Joinson in her book Vanished in Hiawatha states her diagnosis as dementia, arteriosclerotic or senile, whilie the CAnton Asylum Aug 4, 1910 census identifies it first as circular insanity then revised to manic-depressive insanity.
-There is NO entry for Blue Sky in the 1897 census of the Bad River Indians (if she lived in Grand Marias this may be the reason)
__________
Sources:

1910 May 13 - Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/14491720/blue-sky: accessed October 11, 2024), memorial page for Blue Sky (unknown–20 Jun 1914), Find a Grave Memorial ID 14491720, citing Hiawatha Asylum Cemetery, Canton, Lincoln County, South Dakota, USA; Maintained by Graveaddiction (contributor 46528400), HIAWATHA INDIAN ASYLUM: 1910 Indian Population Census -- "Special Inquiries." (TWO SECTIONS!), LOCATION: United States Indian Insane Asylum, Canton Township, Lincoln County, South Dakota, line 28 as Blue Skye (age 65, Inmate from Minnesota, parents from Minnesota)

1910 May 13 - "South Dakota, Grave Registration Records, 1940-1941", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:CY84-NZ2M : Tue Jul 23 08:53:02 UTC 2024), Entry for Blue Sky, no image available

1910 Jul 2 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:688C-DLFW : Sat Mar 09 15:56:24 UTC 2024), Entry for Blue Sky, 1910, pg. 504/522, line 34 (age 65?, married), Canton Asylum census

1910 Aug 4 - Camp Verde School: 1910-27; Canton Insane Asylum: 1910-22, Series: Superintendents' Annual Narrative and Statistical Reports, Record Group 75: Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 7th and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20408 @ https://catalog.archives.gov/id/155854182?objectPage=675, line 65, Table 7 Form of mental disease of those admitted since opening of Asylum

1910 Aug 4 - Camp Verde School: 1910-27; Canton Insane Asylum: 1910-22, Series: Superintendents' Annual Narrative and Statistical Reports, Record Group 75: Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 7th and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20408 @ https://catalog.archives.gov/id/155854182?objectPage=677, line 27, Table 8 Form of mental disease of those in Asylum, June 30, 1910, revised

1914 Jun 20 - "South Dakota, Grave Registration Records, 1940-1941", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:CY84-NZ2M : Tue Jul 23 08:53:02 UTC 2024), Entry for Blue Sky, no image
Name Blue Sky
Sex Female
Age 68
Birth Year (Estimated) 1846
Death Date 20 Jun 1914
Event Type Burial
Event Place South Dakota, United States
Event Place (Cemetery) Indian Asylum

20 Jun 1914 - 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

Kay-Zhe-Ah-Bow 6-22-12 · Blue Sky 6-20-14 · Louise McIntosh 4-12-15
- - - - -
Identifying Blue Sky through her suppposed son David W Smith b=1888

1976 Dec 22 - "Minnesota Death Index, 1908-2002," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V44N-DZH : 4 December 2014), David W. Smith, 22 Dec 1976; from "Minnesota Death Index, 1908-2002," database, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : 2001); citing Saint Louis, Minnesota, record 2664731, certificate number 033336, Minnesota Department of Health, Minneapolis.
Name David W. Smith
Mother's Name Blue Sky
Event Type Death
Event Date 22 Dec 1976
Event Place Saint Louis, Minnesota
Typed or Handwritten T
Birth Date 15 Sep 1888
Mother's Maiden Name Blue Sky
Born in Minnesota Y
Record Number 2664731
Certificate Number 033336
Certificate Year 1976

1976 Dec 22 - Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/167980191/david_w-smith: accessed October 9, 2024), memorial page for David W. Smith (15 Sep 1888–22 Dec 1976), Find a Grave Memorial ID 167980191, citing Calvary Cemetery, Duluth, St. Louis County, Minnesota, USA; Maintained by ❀ T Burt (contributor 47009168).
Birth 15 Sep 1888 Minnesota, USA
Death 22 Dec 1976 (aged 88) St. Louis County, Minnesota, USA
Burial Calvary Cemetery Duluth, St. Louis County, Minnesota, USA
Plot Sect P; Blk 6; Lot 9
Note: Minnesota, Death Index, 1908-2002, Cert# 033336 (1976), indicates Mother's Maiden Name "Blue Sky".