Between 1904 and the 1960s, about 5,500 Alaskans were committed to a hospital in Portland, Oregon, after being deemed 'really and truly insane,' which was considered a criminal offense by a jury.
Between 1904 and the 1960s, about 5,500 Alaskans were committed to a hospital in Portland, Oregon, after being deemed 'really and truly insane,' which was considered a criminal offense by a jury.McCormick’s aunt, Fairbanks furrier Helen Callahan, claimed she was “insane,” and McCormick was admitted to Morningside on April 5, 1930. / Photo: AP
The weeklong Koyukon Athabascan burial ceremony in September was traditional in all ways but one: McCormick died in 1931. Her remains were only recently identified and returned to her family. Finding information has been laborious. Most records at the private hospital were lost in a 1968 fire, and territorial officials didn’t document those who were committed.Among them: former Alaska health commissioner Karen Perdue; two retired state judges, Niesje Steinkruger and the late Meg Green; and two other Fairbanks residents, Ellen Ganley and Robin Renfroe, aided by Eric Cordingley, a cemetery volunteer in Portland.
That entry provided his patient number, which they used to uncover more about Kriska, including that it was village nuns who had him committed.“He was mildly what we would call developmentally disabled today,” she said. He could read and write but had few life skills. In 1904 it received a government contract to care for mentally ill Alaskans, a contract that lasted until after Alaska gained statehood in 1959 and began to build its own mental health facilities.
Morningside’s treatment of its residents came under public scrutiny by the 1950s. Congressional hearings and public outrage eventually helped force its closure in 1968. A shuttered mall off Interstate 205 now sits on its former grounds.
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