Will (aka 'Willie Dayea') Day

Willie was a Southern Navajo man

Apache County

Lupton area back roads

Shows Apache County location of Lupton along Hwy 40 at the New Mexico/Arizona state line

Source: Archway over the Arizona-New Mexico state line on United States Highway 66 at Lupton, [93-1873.jpg]. Arizona Memory Project, accessed 17/11/2024, https://azmemory.azlibrary.gov/nodes/view/224032

Charlie and Mary's Place, Lupton, Arizona

Lupton falls in the enumeration district known as St. Michaels, Railroad, and Zuni district.

Every Navajo belongs to a clan, the husband and wife are always from different clans, and the children belong to the clan of the mother. There are currently (12/20/1915) about 60 clans. The wife in nearly every instance is the head of the family. It has been the custom of the past that every marriageable man of 25 marries a woman of 35 to 40 with daughters. When the daughters grow to marriageable age they marry their step-father. Plural marriages do not exist to the extent believed in the past and are not allowed in the future. Currently, there are 183 men with two wives, 7 with three wives, and one with four wives.

The 1915 census shows 4,758 children eligible for school, but at present, there are only five government schools providing for 870 students, and three mission schools providing for 260 students, for a total student population of 1,130.

Biography:
Willie was born (according to an entry on Ancestyr.com) in Window Rock, Apache County, Arizona, in 1899, to unknown parents. This document suggests that he died in 1937 in Yolo County, California. (Curator Note: None of this has yet been confirmed.) However, he does not identify with those dates in Indian census reports. The best guess for his birth is based on 1942 military registration documents that suggest he was born December 28, 1898, near Lupton, Apache County, Arizona. Some documents identify Willies parents as Etcitty Begay and Ason Des as well as W.H. Day and Louisa Mrs. L.M. Day, which very well could be the same person, Indians given English names!

Willie attended various Indian schools between 1912 and 1916, different schools but all in the area between Apache County and eastern Phoenix, which also identifies parent 1 as W.H.Day in 1912, after variations of Mrs. L.M. Day in later census reports, indicating that his father had died c. 1912.

According to the book Vanished in Hiawatha, author Carla Joinson states that Willie was a Navajo admitted on either March 13 or April 13, 1922, and diagnosed with constitutional psychopathic inferiority. (Constitutional psychopathic inferiority was a term used to describe a range of conditions that included emotional and behavioral abnormalities, as well as criminal tendencies.)

Records from St. Elizabeths Hospital show an admission date at Canton of April 13, 1922, He was diagnosed by Dr. Silk at Canton during the three months of the closure of the asylum as not insane, and discharged at the asylum's closing, taken to St. Elizabeths (but not admitted) and released, and returned home on January 21, 1934

While at Canton, Willie was involved (or not) in an incident of historical import to the asylum. Cora Winona was born to Elizabeth Faribault. The superintendent alleged that another institutionalized person, Willie Dayea (Diné Nation), was Cora Winona’s biological father. Faribault assisted in the laundry and the Hummer household concurrently for some time. Institutional correspondence about the Dakota woman’s pregnancy claimed that she and Willie Dayea met in the laundry area.
Source: H. R. Hummer to Commissioner, September 29, 1926, Box 17, CA, CCF 1907–39, RG 75, NARA-DC; L. L. Culp to Solomon Faribault, February 26, 1934, Box 4, ibid.; L. L. Culp to Commissioner, February 26, 1934, ibid.

• Manfred Hill and his family used to visit the asylum. Hill would play with the caretaker's son on Saturdays, and he remembers the woman sitting on the floor, saying nothing. But Hill also remembers Willie Dayae of Arizona, who killed his brother in a fit of anger and was sent to Canton. "There was nothing wrong with Willie," Hill said. "I talked to him a lot. He was quite normal."

Years after being released from the Canton Asylum, Willie, at age 42, enlisted in the military at Ft. Defiance, AZ.
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At the time of Cora Winona’s birth, Elizabeth Faribault and Willie Dayea disputed the claim of Dayea’s paternity. The only extant sources are from Superintendent Hummer and the asylum staff, whom he directed to compose letters regarding the child’s birth. Hummer’s confident assertion to the BIA that Dayea fathered the little girl contrasts with the descriptions of cloudy paternity he offered later in correspondence with Faribault’s oldest son, Solomon. Allegations that institutionalized men impregnated institutionalized women fit a broader pattern at Canton and most other state-run psychiatric and carceral facilities. Superintendents Gifford and Hummer both consistently disregarded claims by women that male staff fathered their children.

Administrators at St. Elizabeths Hospital similarly assumed that an institutionalized man impregnated an Oglala Lakota woman held in their locked wards in the 1930s. This patterned interpretation reinforced settler ableist-eugenic logic that rendered Indigenous people problems, buffered institutions and staff from allegations of harm and mismanagement, and buttressed claims for the need to sustain institutionalization and institutional structures.
(See, for example, L. L. Culp to Commissioner, March 1, 1934, Box 4, CA, CCF 1907–39, RG 75, NARA-DC; L. L. Culp to Commissioner, February 26, 1934, ibid.; H. R. Hummer to John M. Thompson, August 18, 1928, SA, ibid.; H. R. Hummer to Commissioner, March 2, 1928, Box 17, CA, ibid.; Winfred Overholser to James G. Townsend, November 17, 1937, Folder 7448, ibid.; CA abstract, Willie Dayea, 1933, Box 3, ibid.; H. R. Hummer to BIA, March 26, 1921, Box 7, ibid.; and Burch, “‘Dislocated Histories,’” 157–59.)

Elizabeth Faribault and Willie Dayea were among many institutionalized people who regularly labored on behalf of the Indian Asylum. According to the superintendent, “a very large percentage” (often 25–30 percent) of the people detained at Canton were assigned work details. Incarcerated indefinitely, Willie Dayea and many others were motivated to serve the institution as a way to survive. According to archival sources, “good workers” like Dayea typically received additional food rations, time away from the padlocked dormitories, access to more people and spaces, comparatively less surveillance, and sometimes comparatively greater status and influence.

Elsewhere on the grounds, Willie Dayea also had compulsory work. The Diné man from Lupton, Arizona, apparently plowed the surrounding fields during the warmer seasons. In addition to driving the tractor, he may have overseen others doing harvesting work. Asylum employees trusted the young man as a laborer, describing him as “a good worker and needs no supervision.” During Dayea’s thirteen-year incarceration, the Asylum significantly expanded its acreage, which created additional demands for farmhands. References to his “fine work” and “good-natured” demeanor suggest that his efforts notably helped the staff and the institution. It was taxing ongoing labor. In 1925 alone, for example, Dayea and other institutionalized
Men and paid employees enabled the Asylum to cultivate ten acres of potatoes, ten acres of oats, and twenty-five acres each of corn and alfalfa, in addition to pasturing hogs and cows. When indoors, Dayea also contributed to the Asylum's workings, sometimes assisting with menial tasks. Daily, he would have observed other institutionalized people similarly working on behalf of Canton, bathing and feeding especially frail members, preparing the meals he and others ate, washing dishes, and mopping the floors.

As with other settler enterprises that often loaned their charges to neighboring businesses, there is evidence to suggest that both of Canton’s superintendents supplemented the budget by detailing men like Willie Dayea to nearby highway and agricultural work. Other settler institutions with outing and other involuntary labor practices included Indian boarding schools, prisons, and state asylums.
Source: Burch, Susan. Committed: Remembering Native Kinship in and Beyond Institutions. The University of North Carolina Press, 2021. (edited for grammar by Grammerly.com)

He is reported to have died in or been buried in Woodland, Yolo County, California.

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

Research Notes:
-Even though he was admitted in March of 1922 he does NOT identify in the June 30, 1922 male census.
-Ancestry suggests that Willie was a Southern Navajo born in Window Rock, Apache County, but this does not seem to be supported by Souther Navajo census reports
-Will Day from the Preston Kiger family tree on Ancestry is the source of some information (dates, locations, and parents) tbd...
-A search of cemeteries in Woodland, CA turns up NO entries for Willie Dayea or Will Day
__________
Sources:

1923 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=31/1140, line 7, Canton Asylum male census

1924 Jun 30 - “Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, archive.org/details/indiancensusroll138unit/page/n137/mode/1up?view=theater. Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 513/519, line 10, Canton Asylum male census

1925 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=116/1140, line 7, Canton Asylum male census

1925 - "South Dakota State Census, 1925", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MMWR-1JY : Sun Mar 10 13:54:25 UTC 2024), Entry for Willie Dayea, 1925, pg. 1609/3376, card no. 692 (age 26), South Dakota state census

1926 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=167/1140, line 9, Canton Asylum male census

1927 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=185/1140, line 10, Canton Asylum male census

1928 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=210/1140, line 9, Canton Asylum male census

1929 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=328/1140, line 11, Canton Asylum male census

1930 Apr 7 - "United States Census, 1930", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XQVZ-1JS : Sat Jul 06 22:30:42 UTC 2024), Entry for Willie Dayea, 1930, pg, 610/1062, line 11 (age 31), census of the Asylum for Insane Indians, Canton Township, Lincoln County, South Dakota

1930 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=350/1140, line 11, Canton Asylum male census

1931 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=370/1140, line 13, Canton Asylum male census

1932 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=390/1140, line 11, Canton Asylum male census

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=427/1140, line 9, Canton Asylum male census

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(Curator Note: Links to documents on Ancestry.com to which I have no access, provided by a colleague Cynthia Curtis (Hicks) at Geni.)

1912 Jun 30 - Willie Day in the Arizona, U.S., School Census Records, 1910-1917
Name Willie Day
Age 8
Birth Year abt 1904?
Date 30 Jun 1912
Place Cochise, Arizona, USA
Parent 1 W H Day
District Number 2
School Bisbee
https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/26357931?mark=7b22746f6b656e223a22...

1913 Jun 30 - Willie Day in the Arizona, U.S., School Census Records, 1910-1917
Name Willie Day
Age 15
Birth Year abt 1898
Date 30 Jun 1913
Place Pinal, Arizona, USA
Parent 1 Mrs. L M Day
District Number 3
School Ray And Sonora
https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/26357679?mark=7b22746f6b656e223a22...

1914 Jun 30 - Willie Day in the Arizona, U.S., School Census Records, 1910-1917
Name Willie Day
Age 15
Birth Year abt 1899
Date 30 Jun 1914
Place Pinal, Arizona, USA
Parent 1 Louisa M Day
District Number 3
School Ray
https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/26357432?mark=7b22746f6b656e223a22...

1915 Jun 30 - Willie Day in the Arizona, U.S., School Census Records, 1910-1917
Name Willie Day
Age 16
Birth Year abt 1899
Date 30 Jun 1915
Place Pinal, Arizona, USA
Parent 1 Mrs. L M Day
District Number 3
School Ray And Sonora
https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/26357609?mark=7b22746f6b656e223a22...

1916 Feb 26 - Willie Day in the Arizona, U.S., School Census Records, 1910-1917
Name Willie Day
Age 17
Birth Year abt 1899
Date 26 Feb 1916
Place Pinal, Arizona, USA
Parent 1 Mrs. L M Day
District Number 3
School Ray, Sonora
https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/26357648?mark=7b22746f6b656e223a22...

1925 - Willie Dayea in the South Dakota, U.S., State Census, 1925 (doesn't give me a SHARE button)
https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/60161/records/108178
Name Willie Dayea
Age 26
Gender Male
Race Indian (Native American)
Birth Year 1899
Birth Place Arizona
Ethnicity Indian
Marital Status Single
Father Birth Place Arizona
Mother Birth Place Arizona
FHL Film Number 2368337
Sheet Number 692

1930 - Willie Dayea
[Willie Dayen]
1930 census-- Home in 1930 Canton, Lincoln, South Dakota, USA
https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/26357260?mark=7b22746f6b656e223a22...

1940 - William Dayen
1940 census--
https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/26357303?mark=7b22746f6b656e223a22...

1942 Feb 16 - Willie Day in the U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947
Name Willie Day
Race Native American
Age 43
Relationship to Draftee Self (Head)
Birth Date 25 Dec 1898
Birth Place Lupton, Arizona, USA
Residence Place Lupton, Apache, Arizona, USA
Registration Date 16 Feb 1942
Registration Place Lupton, Apache, Arizona, USA
Height 6 3
Weight 160
Complexion Light Brown
Hair Color Black
Eye Color Brown
Next of Kin M A South
Household Members (Name) Relationship
Willie Day Self (Head)
https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/26357411?mark=7b22746f6b656e223a22...