Gertrude Gould

Gertrude was a Northern Navajo (Diné) woman from Northern Agency (Shiprock), New Mexico

Ship Rock, Navajo Nation in San Juan County, New Mexico, United States

Navajo Nation Map

Biography:
Born c. 1891 (or 1901)...

From the book Vansihed in Hiawatha, the author Carla Joinson states that Gertrude was Navajo, committed to teh Canton Asylum August 12, 1932, diagnosed with dementia praecox and Parkinson’s disease, and transferred to St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington D.C., nothing more. (Dementia praecox, invented as a diagnostic concept by Emil Kraepeling in 1896 for what is now called schizophrenia, is described as “a peculiar destruction of the inner cohesiveness of the … personality with predominant damage to the emotional life and the will”. Parkinson's disease is a chronic, progressive brain disorder that affects the nervous system and causes movement problems: typically tremors, stiffness, difficulty with balance and coordination, slow movement, and loss of balance.)

Gertrude was transferred to St. Elizabeths Hospital on December 22, 1933 when the Canton Asylum was closed. US Federal census reports for 1940 and 1950 identify her as a resident patient. She did sometime later, a legacy report on FamilySearch indicates the date of her death as April 23, 1954 at St. Elizabeths Hospital

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

Research Notes:
-From the April 1, 1934 Northern Navajo census, is Gertrude Gould the same as Toh-ahk-gleenih-yazzie-bitsih married to Leo (Lee) Gould and had three children, aka Leo Goulds wife? (Seems it cannot be if the birthdate is 1891, works with 1901 where she would be 33 as indiacated in the 1934 census with Lee Gould as husband. Could also be Jay Goulds wife b=Unknown. If she ws wife of Jay Gould no age indicated, and assumming the oldest living child is a 19-year-old daughter, the daughter would have been born in 1913, leading to the sife of Jay being about 22-yers-old if born in 1891.
-I've scanned 6,843 line entries in the 1932 Northern Navajo Agency Census, the last year according to dates from other sources, the Gertrude Gould would have lived on the Reservation. I searched for the name Gertrude and it was not to be found. I also looked at the current residence to confirm that she might be living elsewhere, and found no entries. It seems possible therefore that the given name Gertrude may have been a Caton Asylum creation to be used in lieu of the much more complicated Navajo name.
-There are a number of tenuous leads that suggest Gertrude Gould was living in and around Toadlena, NM in the far southwest corner of the Northern Navajo Reservation. Because Toadlena had a number of natural springs it became a well known Navajo horse raising community. "A small community in New Mexico located east of the Chuska Mountains and 60 miles north of Gallup. Its Navajo name "Tó Háálí" means “water flows up,” which references the numerous springs in the area. There is a trading post and a Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) boarding school in the town."

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Sources:

• ?1930 Apr 1 - “Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll303unit/page/n89/mode/1.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 90/632, line 1161 (age 33 as Toh-ahk-gleenih-yazzie-bitsih with children Dah-nih=bah (F age 4) and Tah-yazzie (M and 2)), census of the Navajo Reservation, Toadlena, San Juan County, Northern Navajo jurisdiction

1933 Jun 30 - Canton Insane Asylum: 1923-33; Cantonment School, pg. 370/1140: 1910-27, Series: Superintendents' Annual Narrative and Statistical Reports 1910 – 1935, Record Group 75: Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 7th and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20408 @ https://catalog.archives.gov/id/155855298?objectPage=428, line 20, Canton Asylum female census

1940 Apr 8 - "United States Census, 1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K733-7ZP : Sun Mar 10 18:58:29 UTC 2024), Entry for Gertrude Gould, 1940, pg. 137/987, line 3 (age 50), census of 1-462 Police Precinct 11 (Tract 96), District of Columbia, St. Elizabeth's Hospital

1950 Apr 5 - "United States Census, 1950", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6F73-QS8X : Thu Mar 21 02:11:52 UTC 2024), Entry for Henry T Goodman and James Goodman, 5 April 1950, pg. 85/244, line 26 (age 59, Inmate), cnesus of St. Elizabeth Hospital, Washington City, District of Columbia

1954 Oct 6 - "United States, Social Security Numerical Identification Files (NUMIDENT), 1936-2007", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6K4S-F7ZB : 10 February 2023), Gertrude G Gould:
Name Gertrude G Gould
Name Note Name and form dates: Claim: GERTRUDE G GOULD (06 Oct 1954)
Birth Date 3 Dec 1891
Social Program Claim Date 6 Oct 1954
Death Date 23 Apr 1954
Event Type Social Program Correspondence