Sioux San Hospital
 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
|
The Sioux San Hospital is a public hospital located in Rapid City, South Dakota. It was built in 1898 as a boarding school for Native Americans and turned into a sanitarium in 1933. It is said to be haunted. Preservationists are trying to save the building from being demolished to make a state-of-the-art medical complex. Construction is years away.
History
Boarding school
Located in the west side of Rapid City, South Dakota's, it started out as a boarding school for Native Americans in 1898. Members of the Sioux, Cheyenne, Shoshone, Arapaho, Crow, and Flathead tribes were forced into the government institution to be taught the white man's way of life. Abuse, neglect, and death were prominent.[citation needed] Runaways were caught and dragged back to the school.[citation needed] It has been reported that many children died due to abuse or neglect.[citation needed] It was closed in 1933.
Sanitarium
The building remained empty for many years until the outbreak of tuberculosis in the early 1900s. The building was then converted into a massive hospital called the Sioux Sanitarium for Native American TB patients in 1939. These years were the worst in its history. Experimental procedures were tested on the patients. The disease spread like wildfire with no cure in sight. Although sanitariums were considered to be the most advanced treatment centers for TB patients, the treatments were brutal and grisly at best. All the doctors could do was try experimental surgeries. Many patients went insane or committed suicide.[citation needed] In all, death was prominent. The patients were rarely outside, and many were simply left in rocking chairs. After the patenting of streptomycin, the hospital closed in the 1960s.
Present state
The building remained empty for several years until it was converted into a public hospital and named the Sioux San Hospital (derived from sanitarium). The hospital still has numerous unmarked graves around the campus, not only of the TB patients, but also of Native American children. No one has dug to find the bodies yet. It has currently been renovated into a public hospital.
Recent events
In 2009, for the first time, the hospital temporarily cancelled all regular appointments due to an overload of H1N1 patients.[1] Recent reports have said that the city plans to demolish the old, run-down buildings to make way for state-of-the-art medical buildings.[citation needed] As the buildings are historic, debate was sparked almost instantly. Despite this, people in charge of this change say the construction is several years, and maybe even a decade, away.[2]
External links
- http://www.hospitalsworldwide.com/listings/3829.php
- http://web2.userinstinct.com/39839484-indian-health-service-sioux-san-hospital.htm