, 1879-01-16
THE IMpIANS NOT DYING OUT.

from the Indians and their means of
life, broken up their habits of living,
dri ZEN them on to reservations, with
their limits circumscribed, their op.
portunities of hunting abridged,
their game disappearing, sickness in
their lodges from change of life and
food, and the latter irregularly sup
piled. lnsutliciency Of food was the
cause of the recent raids by the Ban.
nocks and Cheyennes, who naturally /
chose to fight rather than starve.
He points to the dangers which must
flow from this policy, especially with
the army 50 limited in numbers that
there is but one soldier for every
seventy.fve square miles of terri
tory.
The brutality with which The Indi-
ans have been treated by the whites
springs largely from mistaken con-
tempt for them as an inferior race
bound to disappear before the march
of their superiors. AS they are to
fade away, it is Of little consequence
how they are treated. the sooner
thev are exterminated the better.
But what if they are not to fade
away, but to remain as integraI parts
of our national community for all
time to come p? Can we afford to 90
on irritating dangerous foe who is
to be always with us
1t is declared by Col. MaIlery, and
by Rev. DR.. Riggs, a well known
Indian scholar, that it is a mistake to
suppose that the Indians are rapid y
!, dying out. In spite of bad whiskey
frequent wars, the decrease in bula
lo, the rifle of the frontiersman, and
the swindles of Indian agents, there
is good reason for believing that the
Indians are slowly increasing on our
hands. There is abundant evidence
that the original Indian population Of
the country was overestimatrd. Col.
). Mallery concludes, after thorough in
;, vestigation, that there were not more
than half a million of Indians north
r of Mexico on this continent when
Columbus discovered America, and
he shows that after the lapse of near
: lv four centuries of contest with a
' destroying civilization there are now
: three hundred thousand, without
S counting half breeds. The Iroquos
q now number 1868 as against H..
$50 in 1868. The Sioux Confeder.
=, acy have quadrupled their numbers
in one hundred and forty years, and
!, doubled them in twenty years
, In the last four years, in population
of one hundred thousand Indians
belonging to near y one hundred
tribes, there has been an actual
though slow increase, the excess ol
II births over deaths varying from six
v tenths OF one per cent. to 2.32 pei
q cent. The Semnoles, in forty years
d despite the efforts Of the govern
" ment TO kill or remove them doubled
= their numbers. The Indians in the
State of New York have shown ;
:. very large increase in the last quar-
H., ter of Il century. Missionaries
among the Sioux declare that ther,
=, is nothing to justify the belief tina
the Indians are vanishing race.
=. If, then, their future is inseparabI,
30 hound hp with ours, for good or evil
=. it becomes question whether W
i can afford to go on treating them a
nc enemies to be exterminated, instea,
y of race who are permanently par
to of MS, as Col. Mallery says:
On the present theory the India
is perlorcc tramp. He cannot ow
f. property indlviduaIly--at least he
lr not encouraged to do so. If he sep