Watertower, Sioux Sanitarium, Rapid City, South Dakota
Posted by: 
NGComets
N 44° 04.540 W 103° 16.217
13T E 638502 N 4881731
Watertower at a former hospital.
Waymark Code: WMB4FC
Location: South Dakota, United States
Date Posted: 04/04/2011
Views: 6
Located in Rapid City, South Dakota's west side, it started out as a boarding school for Indians in the year 1898. The Native Americans from the Sioux, Cheyenne, Shoshone, Arapaho, Crow, and Flathead tribes were forced into the government institution. Abuse and neglect were prominent. Runaways were caught and brought back to the school and It has been reported that children died due to abuse or neglect. In 1933 it was closed.
The building remained empty for five 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 darkest in the institution's history. With no cure in sight, the doctors could only do experimental procedures such as removing organs to try and combat the disease. The patients were hardly outside. Many patients died. After the patenting of streptomycin, the hospital closed in the 1960s.
The building remained empty for many years until it was converted into a public hospital and named the Sioux San Hospital (derived from sioux sanitarium). The hospital still has numerous, unmarked graves around the campus; not only from the TB patients, but also from the Indian children. It has currently been renovated into a public hospital. Recently, reports have got out that the city plans to demolish the old and run down buildings to make way for state of the art medical buildings. As the buildings are so historical, debate was sparked almost instantly. Despite this, construction officials say the construction is years away. Possibly even a decade. Nevertheless, many preservationists are trying to get Sioux San on the NRHP.
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