The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-01-16
TURNING TO INDIANS.
We Are Growing Moro Like the
Aboriginal American.

W0 arc c1OWlo8 0Of0 IhR0 L18
Aboriginal American.
Fact, But American STUDENTS
Enter . Vigorous Pro-
test.
It is an extraordinary question in
archaeological science which has been
propounded popularity of late. The In
fiuence Of environment upon the race
resident in the United States must In
the course Of four centuries produce
certain marked and undeniable physic-
al results. 1t is not generally acl1nowl-
edged by American anthropologists
that there is tendency Of royersion
to the type Indigenous to the soil. But
foreign students of race, with more
perspective, have offered interesting
food for reflection. A writer in the
Chicago Times-Herald. commenting on
the assertion of the French suthors
that on this continent the American
white man. has varied toward the In
dian type offers a supporting study
which is curiously fascinating-pos-
Eibly vastly important.
First, the familiar faces of the carl.
.aturists' creation are called in as wit.
nesses. The Yankee and the Southron,
large and loose-limbed Of these pic
lures are types, even as the stout, full.
faced John Bull is type found in an
other environment. Both American
favorites of the cartoonist have high
cheek bones, and usually excellent
straight noses. These witnesses are
not, of course, scientifically admissible.
The faces given US by the caricature-
makers are impressions, not testimony.
Scientific, however, is the study of
fered of the Pennsylvania German
q happy, thrifty, frugal people, who have
been subjected to American conditions
for nearly two centuries, with very lit
tie intermingling with other races.
much less than the English people in
New England or in Virginia.
1t is true that the pervasive and be
quilting Irish have intermarried some
what with these old Pennsylvania set
tiers, but in the main It is a very ex.
elusive, pure-blooded Palatinate stock.
Data have been secured relative to
large number of school children, and
to adult males from Is to so years Of
age, and many copies of portraits OF
settlers. 1t appears that stat
ure increases and that other important
congratulations may be made, tentative.
IL, of course. The increase Of finger
reach is marked and the head measures
are important
THE anthropologist places consider
able value upon certain proportions or
relations between measures" says the
student of the subject. Thus the
length of the head and the breadth OF
the head, when compared, give nu-
merical expression which is called the
cephalic index. To find it the length is
divided into the breadth and the result
multiplied by 100, A head one-half al
wide as it is long would have an index
Of so; one three-fourths as wide as
long would have an index of IS; one as
wide as it was long would have an index
Of 100. There is no race whose head is
normally SO wide as TO have an index
Of 100, or so narrow as TO have one of
so. The higher the index, Of course,
the broader and souDder the head; the
lower the index, the longer and narrow
er the head. Germans generally are
notably round+headed. Topinard gives
for some people of Lorraine the index
Of s5.3. The average index of 100 Penn
sylvania Germans is S1.9, which Il not
ably less and narrower. The heads of
Dur northern and eastern Indians are
still longer and narrower. We cannot
1T present make further comparison
with profit. What we have already
said may prove erroneous when we
earn the actual Palatnate type. We
assume now that the Palatinate Ger
mans were of medium stature, Ugh.
haired, blue or light eyed. round head
ID, with a finger reach of 1,o43. We
ind that the Pennsylvania German
children are dark in hair and eyes; that
he men are probably of increased stat |
Ire; that heads appear to be length
ming; that arm reach appears to be
In ell these respects the |
German varies from the |
assumed Palatinate type and in the di. !
'ection of tho Indian II our assump- |
ion proves valid we may claim that our
vidence shows change, which, if con
inued, may form an Indian type from
he German"
AL this, it must be noted. is absolute.
v distinct from any of the reasons for !
discussing the tendency OF Americans
o revert to original types from the In
iltration Of the red Indian blood itself 1
n the veins of the white race. Prom 1
he days Of the old French and Indian |
vars, freside tales ofNew Englandinter.
nough. A recent novel has expressed
he country knowledgeinN New England
hat there is an occasional "streak"
rom ancestry that approached New
Ingland from the west as well az that |
which approached it from the east
cross the Atlantic. In the western
tates and territories the great num-
'ers of half-breeds whose descendants
md their way into the life OF cities
rings TO bear a curious and unreck-
ned force in the development of the
Der and sinew of the race IN North
NATURALIZATION Transcript
THE TOOLS or TO-DAY.