The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-11-22
TrBURoN ISLAND INHABITANTS.

1t is not very long since that reports
were received of the killing of a party
of Americans by the Seri Indians who
inhabit Tiburon Island, in the Gulf of
California, while within a few weeks
there was a report of the attempted
killing of another party of Americans.
Those Seri Indians seem to be a
queer set, if all that is said about them
is true First they are noted for their
large size and their abilities as athletes
on land and water. According to an
account of them in the Washington
Star, those who have witnessed their
aquatic sports at a safe distance de-
clare that many of them can actually
walk, or rather run, upon the water,
with no other assistance than broad,
rawhide shoes. They are expert fish
ermen and huntsmen, giving most of
their time to this sort of employment
They have rigid ideas of maintaining
the game preserve on their island, and
limit, under severe penalties, the killing
Of game. They destroy all children in
infancy that are malformed or appear
to lack a certain degree of intelligence.
In this way the standard of both ply
steal and mental conditions in both
sexes is kept very high. It is accu-
rately believed that at one time the
native women were exterminated to
make room for a whittier and superior
race of women. The nucleus of this
race Of higher women was formed from
captures made at various times, ex>
tending over a series of years, on land
and water. They have no schools, but
each home has system of mental and
physical training. The natives guard
their shores day and night, and no
man is allowed to penetrate the island
if he shall succeed in making land
ing. 1t is said no epidemics have ever
prevailed on the island, and disease of
every kind is scarcely known among
this extraordinary people. In conse-
quence of this the men and women are
magnificent in their physical endow-
ments. No man or woman is allowed
to live beyond the age of seventy, no
matter how well preserved in body and
mind. By careful selection a large per-
centum of the women have a trans
parent, peachy complexion and deep
auburn hair.
There is most likely a great deal of
romance in this account of them. for
little being known of them they read
lily become the subject of romance and
exaggeration. If they destroy children
who are lacking in physical or mental
development they are putting in prac-
tice one of the most advanced theories
of the day. It may be that the In
dams who live on Tiburon Island are
magnificent specimens of manhood.
such as Pigafreti, who accompanied
Magellan in his world circling voyage
described the Patagonians to be
though Darwin did not find them up to
the standard of tradition.
If it is these Selis custom to permit
no one to live beyond seventy years of
age, no matter what his or her physical
condition. they have approached the
Utopian ideal, though that ideal was to
dispose Of people when they had be-
come 50 old and infirm that they were
nothing but a burden. We know that
in some parts of Siberia the same Gus
tom obtains that more advocated. But
why forbid anyone to live beyond sew,
enty years? Is the idea derived from
a perversion of the teaching of some
early missionary that mans allotted
time on earth is three score years and
ten? 1t is not impossible.
These Seri Indians seem TO be an in.