An Investigation of Historical Injustices in the South Dakota Medical Journal 1912-1930

Historians' recent exploration of the role of the New England Journal of Medicine in perpetuating historical biases and injustices in medicine prompted us to examine the journal of the South Dakota Medical Association for similar themes. Known as the Journal-Lancet in the years 1912-1930 covered by our study, the journal's content was searched using key words in four categories: Native American, Blacks, the feeble-minded and eugenics. Relevant articles containing key words were archived in databases (DEVONthink and Claris FileMaker) structured to permit systematic examination of the material. For eugenics, South Dakota newspapers were also searched. We found that Native Americans were frequently denigrated as savages and incapable of participating in efforts to change reservation environments to reduce the twin scourges of trachoma and tuberculosis. Blacks were incorrectly viewed as racially less susceptible to trachoma. There was widespread acceptance of the eugenic assertion that individuals regarded as defective, tubercular or feeble-minded, including many Native Americans, inherited their conditions and could pass them on. The belief in the greater fecundity of "defectives" fueled the fear that they would displace "normal" people in the population which led to their sterilization, removal to institutions, and attempts to restrict their right to marry. Public support for eugenics in South Dakota came largely from women's clubs. We concluded that physicians writing in the Journal-Lancet during this time perpetuated unjust views of Native Americans, blacks and the mentally impaired that significantly harmed these populations. Harms included restriction of their personhood, continued persistence of disease among them, social denigration, and racial bias.