Eugenics in Minnesota

In Minnesota, developmentally disabled people, most of whom were women, were involuntarily committed to state guardianship and sterilized, but today, many of those who were either committed to state guardianship or sterilized would not be considered disabled. Native Americans who lived in the state were also subjected to discriminatory eugenic actions in residential schools, as well as eugenic sterilizations by the Indian Health Service. Eugenic ideals were popular in the state during much of the early-mid 1900s.