The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1877-12-25
Are The Indians Diving Out?

There has been for n long time in the
public mind of this Christian country
an humble hope that the red man was
gradually fading out, being absorbed in
the setting sun, and that by a persist
ent application of Indian agent, rum
and the vices of civilization, he could
he ''scaled down. like an insurance
policy. There is a prospect that this
reasonable expectation of disappearance,
long delayed, will have TO be abandoned,
and this Christian nation will be com
PEELED to educate, Christianize and civ
ilize, in place of discriminating.
We may not, however, he entirely
discouraged, for we cannot yet tell
what effect q full suit of civilization
will have OF them. 1t may effect them
as il did the Sandwich Islanders. A
letter written last September from Da-
kota, by Mr.. Williamson, Il missionary
who has known the Indians for forty
years, (which is Il great while to know an
Indian says that the vision of the last
Indian jumping into eternity is a poets
dream. The Sioux tribes, which have
yielded but little to civilization. have
increased sixty per cent. in thelast forty
years-from about 5000 TO between
10000 and $4,000. His observation is
that the Indian land herein he rcsem-
hles all wild animals) when he roams ut
large and eats wild meat, is much more
healthy than when he is confined 10 one
place and fed on white mans food. In
their wild state, undisturbed by war,
pestilencc or famine, they increase
rapidly. The, first effect Of civilization,
with its strong drink, with other vices
and q dissatisfied state of mind, is TO
sweep them away rapidly. These causes
do not necessarily lead to extinction;
the deleterious Influences ~surmounted,
he Indians take n new start and in.
crease more rapidly than ever The
most civilized band of Sioux, the Elan
dreau, who are citizens and number
about $50, have increased a little in the
last four years. DR.. Riggs, another
missionary, takes the same view. lie
thinks that one reason of the apparent
diminution of Indians (say, in Minneso-
tai is that they are passing into civili-
zation, becoming ChristianiZed and
mingling with white people, that there
is going on on the frontier Il process of
mixture and merging, mot miscegena-
ton, but n proper and desirable mix
ture of the races, the inferior being ele-
waited and finally absorbed in the supe-
rior.n This may be desirable, but we
have generally noticed, rs to half
breeds, that the superior is lost in the
inferior. He says that the facts do not
Justify the belief that the ''Indians are
necessarily a vanishing race, crcept as
Indians; we do not care to raise upany
more Indians, but to raise Indians up to
take their proper place among white
men, civilized and Christianized." 1t
is IA very good idea to raise up Indians
us something else.
Major S. n. Clark, who has just made
u very interesting report to the bureau
of education is convinced that the the
DRY that the Indians are destined to
disappear as a result of contact with
civilization must be greatly modified,
and probably be abandoned altogether.
During tine past four years the sanitary
condition of the Indians has generally
improved, according to the reports of
lifty-six Indian agents. There are no
reports from the Indians as to sanitary
condition of the agents. The statistics
are necessarily very imperfect; reports
from one hundred tribes, scattered in
all the western states and territories,
for 1S74-5-6, show n slight of
births over deaths. What estimates
and statistics we have are not in favor
of the theory of a decrease.