The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1889-10-17
now MANY INDIANS ?

ant Tor their friends and the friends of
humanity, to discover by actual counts
that they are not diminishing"
True, like certain Danish and Celtic
clans that once migrated from place to
place on British soil, and then vanished
from history, many Indian tribes have
disappeared; others, like Anglo-Ameri-
can households, have diminished till but
few scattered names remain to mark the
strange ways Of a strange people.
Cocnise, the Apache chief, shortly be-
fore his death said "The Whites began
war with me years ago. l have slain
ten for every Indian killed, but my peo-
pie grow less and less; l want peace"
A few such warlike tribes, as above in
timated, have been altogether or nearly
exterminated, but other large tribes
have increased; some greatly and some
but little.
With few exceptions, the Indians of
the United States have been gathered
upon portions of the public lands. These
portions, called Indian Reservations, dot
the United States maps with their little
squares-uniformly representing lands
which the surrounding white men desire
to possess. Energetic pushers want to
cross them with railroads, pasture sheep
and cattle thereon, prospect for gold and
silver within them, and ever regard it as
a great hardship to be kept outside.
Many white people who live npighbors
to the Indians regard the land of those
Indians with a very different feeling
from that they would have if white men
owned it.
Each Reservation has an agent, "a white
man, appointed by the President. This
agent is virtually a king of a small
kingdom. He has white employees,
such as the farmer, teacher, blacksmith
and doctor; they constitute his counsel
ors OF state. Sometimes he adds to his
governing force three Indian judges and
ten or twelve Indian policemen.
Thus we see that with 80 many white
men among them it is easier than for
merly for us to number the Indians.
Not many years ago, the counting was
done by army officers and other Govern
ment officials; they simply estimated
the number of tribes and individuals; it
was when the nations were more noma.
die than at present; when tribes were
ever changing their habitations; when
they had to move great distances to sup
ply their wants; when the buffalo,
| LuOubduu utTu,
over our vast prairies.
Writers for papers or magazines Of
that time guessed at the population or
referred to the incomplete estimates, In
our time correct census has been taken
and the results put down. From a care
full study of these reports it IS evident
that now the Indians, as a whole, like
the negroes of the South, are increasing.
Thirty years ago there were several
causes which carried off the Indians !;
among these were contagious diseases
which unintentIally the white people
brought among them. Sad indeed were
the ravages of the small pox and the
measles.
That dreadful Whitman massacre, mot
far from Walla. Walla, where band Of
missionaries were savagely murdered
doubtless resulted from the simultaneous
incoming of Missions, and the measles
The measles was then a new disease.
The Indians imputed it to evil spirits in
DR.. Whtman's camp. The medicine
men did not know what to prescribe.
The sudden cold bath after the heat of a
sweat-house was followed by death.
Herbs and extracts, hitherto efficacious
in sickness, gave no relief. So, like
white people under yellew fever and
cholera, being unable to stay the hand Of
the destroyer, mullitudes of the race
miserably perished. Who under such
narrowing distress wonders at their su-
persttous folly and horrid resentment
But now Indians have more knowl-
edge. There are good Reservation doc
tors or army surgeons near at hand.
Contagion and epidemic are met at the
threshold and frustrated. There is no
more sweeping of men, women and
children, from these causes, into untlme.
ly graves
Another desolating scourge has ceased
There are no longer Indian wars. Those
fierce tribal conflicts, merciless, and long
continuing, have at last passed away,
Once the Chippewa was taught to hate
the Dakota, and the Dakota to return
the feeling with interest. The Nez
Perce detested the Snake, and the Snake
gave the hunters of the Nez Perce nc
rest Thus, like France and England in
olden times, each nation had its heredi-
tary enemy. Tribes combined to fight
other tribes and often fought to exter-
mination.
People who hold to the vanishing
theory declare that Indians do not thrive
on the white mans food; the great losses
are claimed from this fruitful source,
The contrary is nearer the truth. As
soon as they catch the whites mans
regularity of supply, OF preparation and
eating, taking as we do two or three
meals every day, they are healthier than
when they went days without food, and
then like gormands gorged themselves
healthier than when they seized upon
animals that had died, and to satisfy the
cravings of false appetites consumed the
poisonous flesh.
Making careful computation from
the latest reports which embrace all the
States and Territories, excepting Alaska,
we count 262, 500. The accompanying
table shows us how they are distributed