Emmons County record. [volume] (Williamsport, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1884-current, 1909-09-02
A TALK ON INDIANS,
4 Veteran Inspector Speaks Enter
tainingly Regarding Our Neigh
bors Across the Big Muddy.

st. Paul. Aug. - MAJOR James
Mel aughlin, Of North Dakota. in
spector of the federal bureau OF In
dian affairs, doesn't agree with the
statisticians who belive that the
American Indians are more numer
Gus now than they were when C..
columbus crossd the ocean Blue =
He doesn't believe that half breeds
the world over are inferior to pure
bred humanity and possess the vices
of both the mingled races. Incident
Tally, he doesn't think that the
human craving far salt is natural or
necessary
NUMBERS Noa INCREASING.
Talking about the red men. to-
day, al the Merchants hotel. Major
Mclaughlin said
Il feel sure that there are not
more Indians nov than ever before
since the country was discovered
Why, when came to the Northwest
forty-siN years ago, there were esti-
mated to be 10000 of the SiouN.
Now there are only 10000. The
number of the Crows, too, has di-
minishcd nearly one half Whole
tribes along the New England coast
and out ON the Pacific coast have
disappeared entirely. as everybody
knows.
DEATH- HAlls LON rREp.
But the Indian population at
least in the Northwest is not fall
ing off by any means as rapidly as it
did. In fact. taking the region
through from the great lakes to the
Rockies, shonl,l say that the In
dian population is now about station
AIRY. On the Devils Lake and the
Sisseton reservations ON all of the
reservations east Of the Missouri
the population is increasing. West
of the Missouri, ON the new rcserva-
tions, there is still some falling off
each year, and the rate of increase
is getting steadily smaller.
When the Indian ran wild. so to
speak, he got plentiful supply of
fresh air in the woods and out ON the
prairies. and sufficient exercise chas-
ing the dinner he had To catch or
lose. At the camp on village the
tepee had window open all night :
If 1T didn't have open plumbing
The squaw and the papooscs spent
tmost of their time out of doors, and
the squaws were always busy with
their domestic duties. Everybody
ate fresh, wholesome food and led as
sanitary a life as Medicine Man
Wiley, the government pure food
expert at Washington The Indians
We're then robust enough. The
Sioux We're especially vigorous the
finest tribe physically and mentally,
| think, of all the Indians within our
borders. y
ADJUSTMENT TO NEW UoNDllloA,.
But, when these wild and free
huntsmen started to live upon reser-
vations, to sleep in close, badly
ventilated cabins; to eat canned
goods and the white mans pork and
bacon, together with badly-coolScd
bread why, then the Indian s
health began TO fail. The first gen
GRAFTON on the reservations died fast
1t has taken about thirty years, as a
rule, for the race to adapt itself To
fertilization, but now, on the other
reservations, the change has been
made, and the Indians are beginning
to get healthy and fairly prolific in
their new surroundings.
INTERN AissI.Ao.E 10 SETTLE PROBLEM.
Our Indians are not going to be-
l.swept away by the whites, as the
melancholy poets used To sing The
red men will disappear. it is true;
but believe that they will simply
be absorbed into the white race
through interniarriage
Won that produce, temporari-
Ily,a half breed race inferior toeither
the whites or the Indians
oh. not at all That theory is
| all a mistake. Certain half breeds,
of course, are worthless, like certain
lpure-bred white or Indians But,
as rule, the halt breed Indian is a
superior man, both physically and
|mentally, to either of his parents
Ills 1pEAI- CHANGED.
1t has been unreasonable TO cx
poet any sudden civilization If the
Indians. You are not going to be
converted yourself i'm any hurry to
the belief that Your fathers and
mothers ways and ideas were all
wrong Neither is the Indian going
to do so. But he is now SO far IN
sympathy with the whites. and 50
out of sympathy with any general
ideals Of his own race. that all flu
ture outbreaks, massacrcs, etc, are
not to be thought of. 1t would be
/