Joseph Louis Bruce

Joseph was a Chippewa man from the Turtle Mountain tribe

Fort Totten served American Indian policy from 1867 to 1959. Constructed as a military post, it also functioned as a Native American boarding school, tuberculosis preventorium, and reservation school. Initially, the fort policed the surrounding reservation. The soldiers enforced the peace, guarded overland transportation routes, and aided Dakotas who lived near Devils Lake after 1867. Fort Totten was decommissioned in 1890.

On January 5, 1891, the former post became the property of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The post served as a Native American boarding school until 1935. Academic and vocational training prepared American Indian youth for life off the reservation. Enrollment sometimes topped 400.

From 1935 to 1939, the site was a tuberculosis preventorium run by the federal government. This successful program was aimed at small groups of Dakota children who were at high risk for contracting the disease. While continuing their studies, the children also received care to prevent tuberculosis.

After this program was discontinued, the site returned to being a day and boarding school for the reservation in 1940, with more input and control gradually given to the tribal government of Spirit Lake Nation. The Bureau of Indian Affairs transferred ownership of the school to the tribe in 1959, and the facility and students moved to a new school just east of the site.
Source: “Fort Totten State Historic Site - State Historical Society of North Dakota.” Www.history.nd.gov, www.history.nd.gov/historicsites/totten/index.html.

Biography:
He was born c. 1882-1883 to Joseph Bruce and his wife Rosalie Ducept. Joseph had several siblings but annual census reports are indeterminate in names and numbers. It appears that Joseph preferred to live with his father who had moved to Montana after the birth of Joseph and lived near the west boundary of the Fort Peck Sioux Indian Reservation, where Joseph got into trouble with the law and was put in the Glasgow County jail. Based on the Sheridan County voting registration, Joseph Bruce age 42 in 1924 registered to vote in the November 4, 1924 election, but failed to vote and was removed from the role. A man age 42 in 1924 would have been born in 1882. Also, the voting registration indicated that Joseph had lived in Sheridan County for 16 years. If Joseph returned to Sheridan County after discharge from the Canton Asylum on December 17, 1908, the 16-year residency is accurate and confirms the likelihood that this is the same Joseph.

Medicine Lake, Sheridan County, Montana, and the Missouri River

According to the book Vanished in Hiawatha, author Carla Joinson states that Joseph Louis Bruce was admitted from the county jail, Glasgow, Montana to the Canton Asylum on July 5, 1908, by the Turtle Mountain Agency, and discharged on December 17, 1908. He was admitted based on a diagnosis of acute melancholia. (melancholia, or melancholic depression, is usually severe. Most people with melancholic depression experience 'slowing down' of their speech, thoughts, and movements, together with a complete loss of enjoyment in their usual activities.) However, it appears that Joseph was not acute, as he was discharged after only 5 months and 12 days in the Canton Asylum. He was discharged by Dr. Hummer as recovered after Bruce's father pressured the Indian agency to send his son home.

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

Research Notes:
-The Turtle Mountain Reservation census of April 1, 1932, shows Joseph Bruce (Chippewa age 83) and Rosalie Ducept Bruce (Chippewa age 72) living in Sheridan, Montana. this could be the father of Joseph and a 2nd wife who was Chippewa, 1st wife was Sioux
-Note that Sheridan County, Montana borders the Fort Peck Indian Reservation which was Sioux. Medicine Lake is is Sheridan County.
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Sources:

1892 Jul - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:74JS-6HN2 : Tue Jul 23 12:14:08 UTC 2024), Entry for Joseph Bruce, 1892, pg. 87/650, line xxx (age 10), census of Chippewa MIxed-Blood Indians, Turtle Mountain Reservation, Devils Lake Agency, North Dakota

1900 Jul 7 -"United States Census, 1900", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MST6-MMT : Thu Apr 11 20:41:31 UTC 2024), Entry for Joseph Bruce and Rosalie Bruce, 1900, pg. 999/1056, line 34 (b=7/1882), census of the urtle Mountain Indian Reservation, Rolette County, North Dakota

1900 Jun 22 - "United States Census, 1900", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MSTC-W7M : Thu Apr 11 21:16:35 UTC 2024), Entry for Joseph Bruce and Rosalie Bruce, 1900, pg. 573/1244, line 11, (age 16, Note: I think the name is Lewey, not Sewey), census of the Chippewa Indian Reservation, Leech Lake Agency, Minnesota

1906 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:66G1-DC3Z : Wed Mar 06 18:37:52 UTC 2024), Entry for Josph Louis Bruce, 1906, pg. 110/869, line 598 (age 24), census of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, Devils Lake Agency, North Dakota

1907 Jun 30 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:66LQ-RL2B : Sun Mar 10 17:49:33 UTC 2024), Entry for Joseph Louis Bruce, 1907, pg. 293/869, line 611 (age 25), census of the Turtle Mountain Mixed=Bloods, turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, Devils Lake Agency, Fort Totten Indian School, North Dakota

1908 Jun 30 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:662V-TZ1W : Fri Mar 08 22:08:33 UTC 2024), Entry for Joseph Louis Bruce, 1908, pg. 502/869, line 637 (age 26), census of the Chippewa Indians, Devils Lake Agency, N.D.

1909 Jun 30 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:66P6-4Y4X : Fri Mar 08 17:23:35 UTC 2024), Entry for Joseph Louis Bruce, 1909, pg. 742/869, line 659 (age 27), census of the Chippewa Indians, Devils Lake Agency, N.D.

1916 Jun 30 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:W279-B2MM : Fri Mar 08 22:39:31 UTC 2024), Entry for Joseph Lewis Bruce, pg. 60/685, line 706 (b=11.5.1881), census of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Indians, Turtle Mountain Agency, N. Dak.

1920 Jun 30 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:4G9K-JBN2 : Sat Mar 09 15:37:35 UTC 2024), Entry for Joseph Lewis Bruce, 1920, pg. 254/617, line 714 (b-11.5.81), census of the Chippewa Indians, Turtle Mt. Agency

1922 Jun 30 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:WRMZ-V6ZM : Sun Mar 10 21:22:46 UTC 2024), Entry for Joseph Lewis Bruce, 1922, pg. 50/820, line 767 (b=11.5.81), census of the census of the Chippewa Indians, Turtle Mt. Agency, N.D.

1923 Jun 30 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:WTWN-YWT2 : Fri Jul 12 12:48:06 UTC 2024), Entry for Joseph Lewis Bruce, 1923, pg. 266/820, line 767 (b=11.5.81), census of the Chippewa Indians, Turtle Mt. Agency, N.D.

1924 Jun 30 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:WRJL-RV2M : Fri Mar 08 09:31:29 UTC 2024), Entry for Joseph Louis Bruce, 1924, pg. 517/820, line 794 (b=1881), census of the Chippewa Indians, Turtle Mt. Agency, N.D.

1924 Nov 4 - "Montana, County Voting Records, 1884-1992", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6Z3H-L2S3 : Fri Mar 08 11:55:22 UTC 2024), Entry for Louis J Bruce, 1924, pg. 54/575, line 21354 (age 42 farmer fm N.D., failed to vote removed from Register), Register of Electors, Precinct 28, Medicine Lake, Sheridan, Montana

1925 Jun 30 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:4G57-5YPZ : Sun Mar 10 01:44:15 UTC 2024), Entry for Joseph Louis Bruce, 1925, pg. 41/577, line 800 (b=1881), census of the Chippewa Indians, Turtle Mountain. Agency, No.Dak.

1926 Apr 6 - "United States, Native American Birth and Death Records, 1885-1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QLPD-W5CR : Wed Mar 06 01:46:20 UTC 2024), Entry for Joseph Louis Bruce, 6 April 1926, pg. 614/645, line 800 (age 45 report of death .6.1926), census of the Turtle Mountain Agency, Turtle Mountain jurisdiction, North Dakota

(Curator Note: this was a notification on the 1926 supplemental roll and does NOT indicate the location of death, Joseph is only being carried as enrolled in the Turtle Mountain Tribe.)

1926 Jun 30 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:4G7T-PVZM : Sun Mar 10 07:33:42 UTC 2024), Entry for Joseph Louis Bruce, 1926, pg. 208/577, line 800 (b=1881 Deceased), census of the Chippewa Indians, Turtle Mountain Agency, N.D.