Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates https://archive.org/details/areindiansdyingoOOunse ARE THE INDIANS DYING OUT? PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS RELATING TO INDIAN CIVILIZATION AND EDUCATION. The within notes and correspondence are submitted for your examination in the hope that you, and others to whoso attention they may be called, may aid in obtaining and communicating further data necessary to a correct con¬ clusion regarding the question of increase or decrease of Indian population as dependent on civilization. Please address : JOHN EATON, Representative of the Department of the Interior at the International Exhibition of 1876. Washington, November 21, 1877 . e m» P^Mwfev,- l us s’ CORRESPONDENCE. fj X The subject to which the following correspoudeuce has reference is coming up in so many forms, that this brief preliminary resume is put in type as a means (1) of giving some of the facts known at the present stage of the inquiry, and (2) of affording an opportunity to submit them for the opinion and suggestions of numerous persons interested in the subject. Department of the Interior, Office of Indian Affairs, Washington , November 13, 1877. Sir: I understand that as representative of the Department of the Interior at the International Exhibition of 1876 you were able to collect much valuable information relative to the Indians, including that of their enumeration at various dates. If you have the data, I will esteem it a favor if you will furnish me with such enumeration at the various decades from 1790 to the present time. This information is just now needed for official purposes, and if re¬ ceived will save the time and trouble of my clerks, and thus aid in the dispatch of public business. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, E. A. HAYT, Commissioner. Hon. John Eaton, Commissioner of Education , Representative of the Department of the Interior at the International Exhibition o/1876. \ r % V \J Department of the Interior, Bureau of Education, Washington , D. (7., November 14, 1877. Sir : I have the honor hereby to acknowledge the receipt of your let¬ ter dated the 13th instant, requesting, in order to aid in the dispatch of public business and save your clerks the time and trouble of repeating an investigation already made elsewhere, that you be furnished with information respecting the number of Indians “at the various decades from 1790 to the present time,” as it appears in the historical view of Indian administration prepared in connection with the Centennial Ex¬ hibition. In reply, I have the honor to state that in preparing this outline of history, as required in connection with the catalogue and description of the exhibition, it was not originally intended to consider especially the question of numbers at different dates, but points iu reference to enu- 6 ESTIMATE OF 1834. In 1834, the number of Indians in the United States, according to an estimate of General Cass, Secretary of the Department of War, was as follows: Tribes with whom we have treaties, (30). 356, 310 Tribes with whom we have no treaties, (49). 156, 300 Total.'. 312, 610 This statement did not include any of the tribes north of Virginia and east of Ohio. ESTIMATE OF 1836. In a report of C. A. Harris, superintendent of Indian affairs, to Hon. B. F. Butler, Secretary of the Department of War ad interim , dated December 1, 1836, at a time when the question of the removal of the Indian tribes to the territory west of the Mississippi was being consid¬ ered, is found the following estimate of the Indian population : Indians east of the Mississippi. 57, 433 Indians who have been removed. 45, 690 Indians west of the Mississippi (indigenous tribes) .. 150, 341 Total.... 253,464 This estimate did not include the Indians in the territory of the United States west of the Rocky Mountains, nor, of course, those of • Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. ESTIMATE OF 1837. Schoolcraft, in liis history of the Indian tribes, reproduces an esti¬ mate of the number of thb Indians in 1837, made up, he states, from official reports to the Indian Office, which is as follows : Indians east of the Mississippi... 49, 365 Emigrants. .51,327 Indigenous tribes west of the Mississippi. 201, 806 Total.. 302,498 ENUMERATION OF 1850. In introducing the census of 1850, some general remarks are neces¬ sary. The first section of the Indian appropriation law, approved June 27, 1846, contained the following provision : u And it shall be the duty of the different agents and subagents to take a census, and to obtain such other statistical information of the several tribes of Indians among whom they respectively reside, as may be required by the Secretary of War, and in such form as he shall prescribe.” This was the first general legislation on the subject, though the gov¬ ernment had, from the time of its foundation in 1789, maintained offi¬ cial relations with the Indian tribes that could not be well understood nor administered without definite information respecting their numbers and condition. In 1847, a partial census, embracing the Indians in twelve agencies and subagencies, was reported. It enumerated about 35,000 Indians. The legislation of 1846 was deemed inadequate by those most interested in the welfare of the Indians, and in November, 1846, a memorial, signed by numerous well-known and influential gentlemen, was presented to Congress. To this and other efforts may be attributed the fifth section of the act approved March 3,1847, for “ a better organi¬ zation of the Office of Indian Affairs,” and to amend the “ trade and in¬ tercourse ” act. The section reads as follows : Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That in aid of the means now possessed by the De¬ partment of Indian Affairs through its existing organization there be, and hereby is, appropriated the sum of five thousand dollars, to enable the said department, under the direction of the Secretary of War, to collect and digest such statistics and mate¬ rials as may illustrate the history, the present condition, and future prospects of the Indian tribes of the United States. On the transfer of the Indian Office to the newly created Department of the Interior, under the act of March 3, 1849, the work of collecting statistics was continued; and under the direction of Henry R. School¬ craft, who had been appointed for that purpose in accordance with the act of March 3, 1847, an elaborate census of the Indians, embracing one hundred and seventy-two different points of inquiry, was undertaken, at great expense, the whole amount, including the expense of collecting and digesting historical as well as statistical material, approaching the sum of $130,000. The census in detail, as projected by Mr. Schoolcraft, does not appear to have been completed, or, if so, to have been published. A partial census, however, on the elaborate plan adopted will be found in his History of the Indian Tribes of the United States, published under the direction of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. In the first volume of the above work, page 523, appears an “ ultimate, consolidated table” of the Indian population of the United States, dated July 22,1850. Much of the material for this table was undoubtedly based on estimates and not on actual enumerations. It is impossible to give even the date of each estimate, Mr. Schoolcraft having contented himself with quoting the “latest authorities,” without generally giving names or dates. Thus the Indian population of California is given in the table at 32,231, on the authority of the Spanish missionaries, but their enumeration did not extend to Indians beyond the missionary establishments, and the above number is made up of about one-half mission Indians and one-half wild or mountain Indians, the latter number beiug apparently based on a purely conjectural estimate. Moreover, the number at two of the mis¬ sions is given for the year 1802, forty-eight years before the date of Mr. Schoolcraft’s table. The table in brief is as follows: Iroquois group, complete. 5, 922 Algonkiu group, incomplete..... 17,197 Dakota group, incomplete. 6,570 Appalachian group, incomplete. 5,015 Total of which a detailed enumeration has been made.,. 34, 704 Tribes of the new States and Territories south and west, now including Texas aud Mexican acquisitions. 183, 042 East of the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi, in high northern latitudes. 167, 330 Fragmentary tribes in the older States. 3,153 Total. • . 388,229 The following note is appended to the table : There may be, in addition to these numbers, 25,000 to 35,000 Indians within the area of the unexplored territories of the United States. 8 THE UNITED STATES CENSUS OF 1850. On page xciv of tlie report of the United States census for 1850 appears a table of Indian population. It includes a statement by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, dated November 10,1853, of the number of Indians in the United States at that time. The aggregate, according to this statement, was 400,761; but this does not profess to be accurate, for the number of Indians in the States of California and Texas, the Territories of Oregon, Washington, Utah, and New Mexico, and those belonging to the Blaekfeet, Sioux, Kiowa, Comanche, Pawnee, “ and other tribes,” numbering, according to the table, 271,930, are confess¬ edly “estimated.” Thus, while Schoolcraft, in the table dated July, 1850, before quoted, reports the California Indians at 32,231, this state¬ ment, three years later, “estimates” their number at 100,000. ESTIMATE OF 1855. The report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1855, pp. 575, 576, reports the number of Indians in the United States, “made up from the best data in the possession of the Indian Office,” at 314,622. The following note is appended to this table : Possibly some of the tribes embraced in this statement, especially those inhabiting the mountainous regions and the plains, are not correctly reported ; their number may exceed, or fall short of, the estimates here made of them. The Indian population within the limits of the United States territory, exclusive of a few in several of the States, who have lost their tribal character or amalgamated with whites or blacks, may be estimated at from 320,000 to 350,000. ESTIMATE OF 1857. In volume YI, pp. 686, 689, of Schoolcraft’s History of the Indian Tribes, is presented a table of the Indian population of the United States, deduced from the yearly reports of the preceding decade. The total, according to this table, is 313,264. Appended to the table is the follow¬ ing note: To this result may be added for tribes who are not reported by the agents who have been solicited for desiderata, or who have vaguely reported, and for tribes who occupy unexplored parts of the interior of Texas, New Mexico, California, Oregon, Washington, Nebraska, and Kansas, 66,000. Adding this to the footing of the table, we have an aggregateof379,264. But it is still to be remembered that these figures are largely based on conjectures and estimates. ENUMERATION OF 1860. In the report for the year 1861, the Indian Office published the first tabular “statement indicating the schools, population, and wealth of the different Indian tribes which are in direct connection with the Govern¬ ment of the United States. A similar report has been published each year since, and these reports have yearly increased in completeness and value, especially since 1870. The report for tho year 1861 may be taken as representing substan¬ tially the year 1860. The numbers of Indians belonging to tribes from which the outbreak of civil war prevented any report for 1861 are given as reported the preceding year. The total number of Indians, according to this report, was 249,965. According to the report of the United States census for 1860, there were 44,020 “civilized Indians” in the United States. Deducting from this number 39,685, apparently included in the statement of the Indian Office, there remain 4,335 to be added to 249,965, making an aggregate of 254,300. 9 ENUMERATION OF 1865. The report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the year 1865 states the population of the Indian tribes within the United States at 294,574. The report for the next year, when the disturbances of the war had ceased, showed 295,774; a slight increase. ENUMERATION OF 1870. The first attempt to embrace a general enumeration of the Indian population in the United States census was made by Gen. F. A. Walker, superintendent of the ninth census. On page xv T i of the volume on Population and Social Statistics will be found the excellent reasons given by General Walker for making this attempt. In the same place he says: With a view, therefore, to reaching the true population of the couutry as nearly as is practicable in the absence of distinct authority for the appointment of assistant mar¬ shals to enumerate the several tribes and bands of Indians, inquiries were conducted extensively through the agents of the Indian Office during the year 1870, the result of which, it is believed, has been to secure a closer approximation to the true numbers of this class of the population than has ever before been effected. A detailed statement of the result, by States and Territories, includ¬ ing Alaska, will be found on page xvii of the volume before quoted. In brief, it is as follows: Sustaining tribal relations (enumerated). 96, 366 Sustaining tribal relations (estimated)... 26,875 Sustaining tribal relations, nomadic (estimated). 234,740 Out of tribal relations (enumerated^. 25, 731 Total. 383,712 It will be seen at once that, notwithstanding all the efforts made, these results are far from being satisfactory, and that they must be accepted with the greatest caution. Of these numbers 261,615, or more than 68 per cent., are based on u estimates,” with all their imperfections and uncertainties. Included in the estimated population are 70,090* Alaska Indians, occupying a terri¬ tory never thoroughly explored. Deducting this number, which is in the nature of the case only conjectural, we have 313,712 as the total Indian population (exclusive of Alaska Indians) in 1870. The report of Indian affairs for the same year gives the total number of Indians, excluding the Indians of Alaska, at 287,640. Adding to this 25,721 Indians “ out of tribal relations, 7 ’ reported in the census, we have 313,371; a substantial agreement with the returns of the United States census. ENUMERATIONS OF 1875 AND 1876. The report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1875 contains a list of the Indian tribes and their numerical strength. The total is 279,337. The report for 1876 shows but 266,151; but this apparent decrease of 13,186 is easily accounted for by reference to the enumeration of the Dakotas; a part of these tribes being engaged in hostilities against the United States, and consequently not included in the census. In comparing the last two enumerations with the census returns of 1870, 25,731 should be added for Indians “ out of tribal relations”; thus increasing the number in 1875 to 305,068, and in 1876 to 291,882. * Excessive. * \ 10 RECAPITULATION. For convenience of reference the following summary is presented, but it should not be considered apart from the remarks which accom¬ pany each separate period : 1. 1789.—Estimate of the Secretary of War. 76,000 2. 1790-91.—Estimate of Gilbert Imlay. 60, 000 3. 1820.—Report of Morse on Indian Alfairs. 471,036 4. 1825.—Report of Secretary of War. 129,366 5. 1829.—Report of Secretary of War. 312,930 6. 1834.—Report of Secretary of War. 312,610 7. 1836.—Report of Superintendent of Indian Affairs. 253,464 8. 1837.—Report of Superintendent of Indian Affairs. 302, 498 9. 1850.—Report of H. R. Schoolcraft. 388, 229 10. 1853.—Report of United States census, 1850. 400,764 11. 1855.—Report of Indian Office... 314,622 12. 1857.—Report of H. R. Schoolcraft. 379,264 13. 1860.—Report of Indian Office. 254,300 14. 1865.—Report of Indian Office. 294,574 15. 1870.—Report of United States census. 313,712 16. 1870.—Report of Indian Office.. 313, 371 17. 1875.—Report of Indian Office. 305,068 18. 1876.—Report of Indian Office. 291,882 Jf, x X W TV* W Tv vr W Very respectfully, your obedient servant, JOHN EATON, Representative Department Interior at the International Exhibition Hon. E. A. H-AYT, Commissioner of Indian Affairs. MEMOEANDA. IMPORTANCE OE THE INQUIRY. The solution of the problem of Indian civilization depends greatly on the conclusions reached respecting Indian population. If, as is gener¬ ally believed, the Indians are a vanishing race, doomed to disappear at a not remote period, because of their contact with civilization, or for any other reason, then the efforts in behalf of their civilization will assume, iu most minds, a sentimental aspect, and will hardly be considered in their true relation as regards their practical importance. But, on the contrary, if it is shown to be true that the Indians, instead of being doomed by circumstances to extinction within a limited period, are, as a rule, not decreasing in numbers, and are, in all probability, destined to form a permanent factor, an enduring element of our population, the necessity of their civilization will be at once recognized, and all efforts in that direction will be treated as their importance demands. REMARKS ON ESTIMATES OF INDIAN POPULATION. "Reference has been made in the introduction to the preceding state¬ ment of Indian population at different periods since 1790 to a fact not generally recognized, that estimates of such population almost invariably exceed the true number. This is due to a variety of causes, several of which may be mentioned: 1. The estimates of the Spanish adventurers, whose explorations were more extensive than those of any other nation in the sixteenth century, ♦ 11 were accepted and seldom questioned for a long period ; some of them are still accepted. The Spanish estimates were largely based on their previous experience in the more densly populated countries of Mexico and Peru; besides, they warred with the natives, and it has never been a Spanish trait to underrate the numerical strength of an enemy. 2. The first French explorers were largely composed of ecclesiastics whose imaginations were kindled by a contemplation of the heathen multitudes they were to win to the cross. The extravagance of many of their estimates has been shown, and yet they are to a considerable extent accepted to-day. 3. The early English colonists formed permanent settlements. Their little towns were naturally seated on water-courses which were the great highways of Indian travel, and at points on the coast to which the In¬ dians had long resorted. They thus came in coutact with a very large proportion, relatively, of the Indian population. They were also en¬ gaged in hostilities with the Indians, and were naturally misled as to the number of their foes by the ubiquity of the savages whose mode of warfare enabled them to strike a hamlet here to-day and another fifty miles away to-morrow. 4. There were other reasons more general why estimates were exag¬ gerated : Trade brought to the points of exchange large numbers of Indians from great distances. The Indians naturally, for purposes of their own, magnified their own numbers and importance. The vast extent of the country compared with the more limited areas to which the English, French, and Spaniards were accustomed, and which were densely populated, led them to greatly magnify the actual population of the new world. A few instances of the discrepancies between different estimates may be mentioned, as they have a direct bearing on the subject. The Cherokees. Adair, who lived forty years among the Southern Indians, estimated the number of Cherokees in 1722 at 6,000 warriors,or 30,00.0 souls and forty years later at 2,300 warriors, or 11,500 souls. Another authorityt estimates the same tribe in 1774 at 3,000 gun men, or 15,000 souls. Drake, the Indian historian, evidently following Adair, estimates the number of Cherokee warriors in 1721 at 6,000, or 30,000 souls; and states that, in 1738, the small pox having been introduced among them by the slave-dealers, one-half the population was swept away by it.f In his Notes on Virginia, Mr. Jefferson estimates the number of Cherokee war¬ riors in 1768 at 3,000, or 15,000 souls ;§ another author || estimated them, in a work written in 1790-91, at 2,500 warriors, or 12,500 souls, an esti¬ mate probably based on the authority of Dodge, 1779. In 1809, accord¬ ing to an .actual enumeration made by the United States agent, there were in the Cherokee country 12,395 Cherokees, about one-half of whom were mixed bloods, 583 negro slaves, and 341 white persons.fi Drake, * History of the American Indians, by Janies Adair. Loudon, 1775, pp. 227, 257. It is generally assumed in estimating Indian population that tlie whole number is five times the number of warriors. t Stevens. History of Georgia, vol. 2, p. 93. | Chronicles of the Indians. Boston, 1836, p. 179. $ Notes on Virginia. Trenton, 1803, p. 142. || Irnlay. Topographical Descriptions, &c. London , 1797, p. 290. Morse. Report on Indian Affairs. New Haven, 1822, appendix, p. 152. 12 above quoted, in another work, written during the Florida war (1835-’42), says of the Cherokees: “In 1819 there were about 1(),000 inhabitants, and in 1825 they had increased to 13,508, all natives ;* * * § while Gallatin, writing about the same time (1830), estimates their number, on the authority of the Indian Department, at about 15,000.f The number of like estimates of the Cherokee population might be increased indefi¬ nitely, but enough has been quoted to serve the present purpose. A study of these several estimates reveals discrepancies that it seems impossible to reconcile; but it is true that year by year more exact in¬ formation regarding the real numbers of the Cherokees is being obtained; and, taking the enumeration of 1809 as a starting point, it is likewise true that notwithstanding the depressing influences of removal,| and the destruction of life attending the civil war which swept over their ter¬ ritory, the Cherokees have substantially increased in numbers. Accord¬ ing to the report of the Indian Office for 1870 they numbered— In the Indian Territory.,. 18,672 In North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee. 2,400 Total.. 21,072 r Hie Seminoles. Several estimates of the numbers of the Seminoles will be interesting. In July, 1821, according to the observations of Mr. Peniere, communi¬ cated to General Jackson,§ they numbered 4,500; in 1822 another au¬ thority estimated the number of “ Seminoles and other remnants of tribes in Floridaat 5,000.|| Captain Young’s MS. journal (date not given) notes their geographical distribution and places the entire number at 0,385.^] According to another estimate** of 1822 they numbered 1,594 men, 1,357 women, and 993 children, making in all 3,899. Besides these there were 800 negro slaves, 150 men and 050 women and children, making an aggregate of 4,699. Admitting that all the men were capable of bear¬ ing arms, and including the negro slaves, who, in the succeeding war, generally fought on the side of their Indian masters, it is found that the military strength of the Seminoles composed more than 36 per cent, of the whole population, instead of 20 per cent, as usually estimated—a fact * Book of the Indians. Tenth edition. Boston, 1848. Book IV, p. 97. t Synopsis of the Indian Tribes. Archceologia Amerioana, vol. 2, p. 91. The same author, on page 135 of the same volume, estimates the entire Indian population of North America at 345,000 ; of whom he assigns 60,000 to tribes north of the present boundary of the United States, on the Pacific coast; 20,000 Algonkin-Lenape and 1,000 Iroquois to the British Dominions; leaving, in the United States, 264,000. f Enforced expatriation has probably done more to retard the increase of Indian pop¬ ulation than war, pestilence, or famine; perhaps more than all combined. The history of the Cherokee removal in 1838 is a case in point. They were accompanied on their journey by the devoted missionaries who had long labored among them. On page 14, volume 36, of the Missionary Herald, will be found a brief account of this journey. It contains the following : “ From the time they were gathered into camps by the United States troops in May and June, 1838, till the time the last detachment reached the Ar¬ kansas couutry, which was about ten months, a careful estimate shows that not less than 4,000 or 4,500 were removed by death, being on an average from thirteen to fif¬ teen deaths in a day, for the whole period, out of a population of 16,000, or one-fourth of the whole number. It does not appear that this mortality was owing to neglect or bad treatment while on the journey. It was probably necessarily involved in the measure itseif, however carefully the arrangements might have been made, or however faithfully executed.” § Morse. Report on Indian Affairs, appendix, pp. 310, 311. || Ibid., appendix, p. 364. . II Ibid., Joe. cit. ** Sprague. The Florida War New York, 1848, p. 19. This was e vidently from actual enumeration. 13 that should not be forgotten in considering the estimates of the Presi¬ dent and the Secretary of War in 1835, given below. General Porter, Secretary of War, estimates the number of Seminoles in 1829 at 4,000, and this number was repeated in a report of General Cass, Secretary of War, to the President, under the date of February 16, 1832. On the eve of the outbreak of the war with the Seminoles in 1835, President Jackson estimated their military strength at 400 warriors, indicating a total population on the above basis of 1,111; at the same time General Gass, then Secretary of the Department of War, estimated their number at 750 warriors, or, on the same basis, 2,083 in all.* * * § These estimates indicate a remarkable decrease compared with all preceding estimates ; but they must have been based on the best official information attainable at the time; probably on that furnished by Lieut. C. A. Harris, disbursing agent, charged with the duty of providing sup¬ plies and transportation for the emigrating Indians, who was at Fort King, Florida, in the summer of 1835, actively engaged in that duty. After consulting with. General Thompson (the Indian agent) upon tli < necessary means, and both having made diligent inquiry, aided by the intimate knowledge of officers of the Army at the post, he reported to the War Department that the entire nation, including negroes, did not exceed 3,000 souls. Of this number, he estimated that 1,600 were females'; and that the various bands, comprising the Flo ida Indians, could bring into the field 450 or 500 efficient warriors.! Another authority! 'States that the number was variously estimated at 3,000 to 5,000. .“I am of the opinion they will be found to have ex¬ ceeded 3,700 when the war commenced.” The same author estimated the military strength of the Indians, including negroes, at between 1,700 and 1,900 warriors. Sprague says:§ “The number of warriors in the field at this time (January 1, 1836), as has been subsequently ascertaiued, was 1,060, to which may be added 250 negroes capable of bearing arms.” General Scott, then commanding in Florida, in a report to the Secretary of War, dated April 30, 1roper to quote Lieutenant DalPs own estimate of the Indian population of Alaska in connection with this estimate of 65,000 in the cyclopedia. He says :f “The information contained in this article forms a summary of investigations which I have [pursued since 1865, while engaged in duties which took me, at one time or ( another, to nearly the whole of the coast herein mentioned, and over a considerable portion of the interior.” After describing the habits and noting the geographical distribution of the several tribes he sums up the population, as follows Total Alaska Indians... 11,650 Total Alaska Orarians (coast Indians). 14,054 - 25,704 Add Russians. 50 Add half-breeds or Creoles. 1, 500 Add citizens (including 100 military). 250 -1,800 Total population of the Territory §. 27,504 Lieutenant Dali adds: “This estimate is p>robably over rather than under the real number, except for white citizens, whose number fluc¬ tuates, and who, during the mining season, may number as many as fifteen hundred.” Lieutenant DalPs estimate in 1870 agree s substantially with the above being as follows: |j Russians and Siberians. 483 Creoles or half-breeds. 1,421 Native tribes. 26, 843 Americans (not troops). 150 Foreigners (not Russians). 200 Total. 29,097 It will be noted that the later and x>robably more accurate estimate is slightly lower thau the first. In the refiort of Mr. Henry W. Elliott, agent of the United States Treasury Defiartment, will be found considerable information respecting the native population. He divides it into two classes: first, the Christian Aleuts j and, second, all other Indians. Of the first he says: The Aleuts, as they appear to-day, have been so mixed with Russian, Koloshian, and Kamschadale blood, &c., that they present characteristics in one way or another of the various races of men from the negro up to the Caucasian. * * * The number of these people * * * is about 5,000, but when first discovered by the Russians they were four or five times as many. In 1834 they numbered only about 4,000, Ivodiaks included, and, therefore, they have not diminished nor increased to any noteworthy degree during the last forty years. There has been a slight increase, if any, up to the present time. ) Of the second class, he says: The number of Indians now living in the Territory is, according to best authority and my judgment, between eighteen and twenty thousand. Of this number between ten and twelve thousand belong to that district bounded on the north by Cook’s Inlet, * Johnson’s New Universal Cyclopedia. New York, 1876. Article on (t Alaska.” t Tribes of the Extreme Northwest, by W. H. Dali. Washington, 1876, p. 7. + Ibid., p. 40. $ This table slightly modified, will also he found in the report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1875, pp. 203, 204. || Alaska and its Resources, by W. H. Dali. Boston, 1870, n. 537. If Report on Alaska. Washington, 1874, pp. 21, 22. 16 and south by Fort Simpson ; the remainder inhabit that stretch of country reaching Lorn Bristol Bay to Kotzebue Sound, and back into the far interior, whore there are several tribes, supposed to be quite numerous, about which very little is known, even by the traders.* Thus, according to Mr. Elliott, the total native population of Alaska in 1874 was 23,000 to 25,000, a substantial agreement with the estimates of Lieutenant I)all, in 1870, 1875, and 187G. Taking the reports of Dali and Elliott (and they are undoubtedly the most trustworthy) as a basis, it is safe to conclude that any estimate which assigns to Alaska an Indian population exceeding 25,000 is ex¬ cessive. It is highly probable that an actual enumeration will reduce these figures as low as 20,000, perhaps still lower; and when that is done it is to be hoped, but hardly to be expected in the light of past experience, that nobody will gravely point to the forty or fifty thousand difference between the census estimates of 1870 and the numbers ascer¬ tained by actual enumeration, and inform us that the Indians of Alaska are rapidly dying out, and will in a few years become extinct. California Indians. The relation of food-supply to savage population is intimate, but some writers on the subject seem to have confounded cause and effect iu a wonderful manner. While it is indubitably true that a large savage population cannot exist where there is not an abundant natural supply of food, as fish, fruit, or wild grain, the converse, that where there is an abundant supply of such means of subsistence there must necessarily be a large number of savages to consume it, is not true. An estimate of the number of Indians in California before the ad cent of the whites was, however, made up on the latter basis. It is well known that those Indians subsisted mainly on fish, nuts, aud native fruits, until the Spaniards began their missious among them about a liuudred years ago, and many of them long after. The estimate referred to proceeds to figure up their number about as follows: In 1870 tlie Indian population of one valley, 40 miles long, was 67-| to the square mile. Before the whites came there were doubtless 100. Let us suppose that there were 6,000 miles of streams in the State yielding salmon ; that would give a popula¬ tion of 405,000. The idea that wild oats furnished a very large part of the subsistence is probably erroneous ; but in all oak forests, acorns yielded at least four-sevenths of their subsistence, and fish two-sevenths. On the treeless plains the proportion of fish was considerably larger, and various seeds contributed, say, one-seventh. There are far more acorns in the Sierra and the Coast range than on the river in the valley before mentioned, and all the interior rivers yielded salmon almost as abundantly as that river In consideration of the greater fertility of Central and Southern California, there might be added to the above figures (405,000) 300,000 ; this would give 705,000 I ndians in the State. So easy is it to populate unexplored countries. The estimate con¬ tinues: Let us take certain limited areas. The pioneers estimate the original population of Round Valley when they first visited it all the way from 5,000 to 20,000. One thou¬ sand white people in it would be considered a very fair population, if, indeed, not crowded. Mr. — t -estimates that there were from 300 to 500 Indians in Coyote Val¬ ley, near Ukiah; now there are eight white families there, and they think they have none too much elbow-room. General B. states that in 1849 there were at least 1,000 souls in the village of Karusi (Colusa). A Mr. R. pointed out the site of a village on Van Dusen’s Fork, which he thought contained 1,000 people in 1850. Several other instances might be adduced if necessary. Now, while it is granted that 705,000 Indians in a savage state could hardly subsist anywhere without large supplies of fish and nuts, or * Report on Alaska. Washington, 1874, p. 28. 17 other natural means of subsistence, it is certain that the sturdy oaks on the hills and mountain sides of California might have regularly borne bountiful crops of acorns from year to year for centuries, and the salmon of her teeming rivers gone on increasing and multiplying for countless ages without suffering ahy inconvenience, if there had not been a single red man in all that broad territory. The theory hinted at in the above estimate, that a given area will sup- , * port a greater savage than civilized population, is surely novel if not startling. The Spaniards were the first Europeans who occupied California, and obtained any general idea of the numbers of the Indians. The number of Indians at their missions was 20,000 to 25,000, and they estimated the wild or mountain Indians at a somewhat less number, making about 40,000 altogether; and it is to be remembered always that whatever might have been the failings of the Spanish missionaries and explorers, underestimating the native population of their New World possessions was not one of them. Schoolcraft, in a table elsewhere referred to, under the date 1850 gives the number of Indians in California at 32,231 ; another estimate, purely conjectural, also quoted, assigns to California an Indian population of 100,000 in 1853. It should not be forgotten that the numbers thus estimated included not only those Indians comprised in the present State of California, but also many inhabiting the territory now embraced within the limits of Arizona, Nevada, and, Utah, and, it is believed, some in Oregon. According to the United States census of 1870, the total Indian pop¬ ulation of California was 29,029, of which 13,025 were enumerated, and 16,000 estimated. According to the report of the Indian Office for 1870, the number of Indians in California was 21,627 $ adding 7,241, reported in the United States census taken the same year as “out of tribal rela¬ tions,’ 7 and therefore not included in the report of the Indian Office, we have 28,868, a substantial agreement with the census report. According to the report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1876, the number of Indians in California was but 8,424 ; adding to this number 7,241, as before, we have 15,665, an appareut decrease in six years of 13,203, or nearly 50 per cent. But it does not follow from this . that the actual decrease is so great, or that there has been any diminu¬ tion whatever. If such a rule were followed, no allowance made for ex¬ cessive estimates at an early period, imperfect reports, emigration, with¬ drawal from agencies and tribal relations, and a comparison made between the report of the Indian Office for 1870 and the report of the same office for 1872, it would be found that in two years the number of Indians in California had decreased 18,828, or more than 65 per cent. A careful study of the reports of the Indian Office from 1870 to 1876, and of information from other sources, will probably show that the de- > crease from 1870 to 1876 has not.been so great as a comparison of the i reports for those two years would seem to indicate, though it is proba¬ ble that, owing to certain causes, detailed in the reports of the Indian Office, from year to year, the number of Indians in California is some¬ what less now than seven years ago. But the fact should not be forgot¬ ten that actual enumeration always reduces the estimated number of Indians by a much greater ratio than any or all causes reduces their actual numbers. The Iroquois Confederacy. This confederacy, comprising the Mohawks, Oneidas, Cayugas, Ouon- dagas, Senecas, and, since about 1712-’15, the Tuscaroras, affords 2 18 peculiar opportunities to study the changes and limitations of Indian population under many conditions. Its numbers have been a subject of speculation, estimate, and enumeration for more than two hundred years, first as a study of their military strength as enemies or as allies ; next as a commercial element, on which the extent of the fur trade was largely dependent; and finally as a constituent of the legitimate settled population. During this period they have been subjected to most of the usual severe tests encountered by every people struggling upward from barbarism toward civilization; and to one, war, in an extraordinary degree, as alternately the allies and enemies of the French and English in their giant contests for supremacy in North America, and as the allies of one or other side in the war of Independence, and a part of them again in the war of 1812. Their villages have been destroyed and their fields ravaged repeatedly by the French and American armies. More than Jhalf have been removed once; a large part twice. Some of them have rbeen always secluded on reservations, and had but limited intercourse with whites; while others have mingled freely with their white neigh¬ bors, by whose settlements they have been surrounded for nearly a cen¬ tury. Some have attained the dignity of citizenship, and a judicial tri¬ bunal in the State of New York has lately decided that the Oneidas liv¬ ing in that State have the right to vote. These Indians are usually, it Jm4y almost be said universally, spoken and written of as “ a remnant of-jthe Six Nations,” thus conveying the idea that at some period in the dim past the Six Nations were tribes whose immense numbers justified the imposing title “ nations.” Let us try to lift the veil, and, by such light as history affords, study the question of their numbers in the past and present, without reference to any cherished theory, or being misled by>conjecture. Estimates will be of some assistance here for purposes Micomparison, if we steadily bear in mind that they are almost invaria¬ bly greater than the true number. The tribes composing the Iroquois Confederacy are fully described in a recent work* by Dr. Morgan. ; The force of the thoughtful remarks of Dr. Morgan on the natural liniitations of Indian population living under gentile institutions will appreciated by every student of the subject. He says: u Numbers within a given area were limited by the amount of subsistence it afforded. After farinaceous food was superadded to fish and game, the area occu¬ pied by a tribe was still a large one in proportion to the number of the people. New York, with its forty-seven thousand square miles, never contained at any time more than twenty-five thousand Indians, includ¬ ing with the Iroquois the Algonkins, on the east side of the Hudson and-upon Long Island, and the Eries and Neutral Nation in the western section of the State. A personal government founded upon gentes was incapable of developing sufficient central power to follow and control the increasing numbers of the people, unless they remained within rea¬ sonable distance from each other.” f * Ancient Society. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1877. A most valuable contribu¬ tion to the ethnical history of man has appeared within the present year, under the -above'title, from the pen of an American author. Five of the fifteen chapters of that part of this instructive and interesting work relating to the “ growth of the idea of government,” are exclusively devoted to a description of the ethnical history and prog¬ ress of the North American Indians; and a proportionate space is allotted to them in the three other parts into which the volume is divided. This work is destined to rank high among the very first on the subject to which it relates.. The eminent author, Lewis H. Morgan, LL. D., is widely known by his other works, “ The League of the Iroquois,” “Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family,” &c. His investiga¬ tions have covered a long series of years, enriched by personal observation. He is by adoption a member of the Seneca tribe. t Ancient Society, p. 111. 19 And again : u They [the Iroquois] resided in villages which were usually surrounded with stockades, and subsisted upon fish and game and the products of a limited horticulture. In numbers they did not at any time exceed 20,000 souls,* if they ever reached that number. Precari¬ ous subsistence and incessant warfare repressed numbers in all the abo¬ riginal tribes, including the village Indians as well. The Iroquois were enshrouded in the great forests which then overspread New York, against which they had no power to contend. They were first discov¬ ered A. D. 1608. About 1675 they attained their culminating point, when their dominion reached over an area remarkably large, covering the greater parts of New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, and portions of Canada north of Lake Ontario. At the time of their discovery they were the highest representatives of the red race north of New Mexico in intelligence and advancement, though perhaps inferior to some of the Gulf tribes in the arts of life. In the extent and quality of their mental endowments they must be ranked among the highest Indians in America. Although they have declined in numbers, there are still four thousand Iroquois in New York, about a thousand in Canada, and near that number in the West; thus illustrating the efficiency as well as per¬ sistency of the arts of barbarous life in sustaining existence. It is now said that they are slowly increasing.”! Rejecting La Hontaifis exaggerated estimate of 70,000 as unworthy of credit, because it is not supported by any trustworthy evidence, or corroborated by any other authority, the first estimate to be noted here is that of 1660. 1660. / The Jesuit Relation of this year makes the total number of warriors 2,200, which, computing at the rate of five persons to each warrior, a liberal allowance in the case of the Iroquois,! indicates a total popula¬ tion of 11,000. The author of the Relation remarks: ( * It is marvelous that so few should make so great a havoc, and strike such terror to so many tribes.” § 1665. There are two estimates for this year. I. The Jesuit Relation for 1665,|| which makes the number of warriors 2,350, a total population of 11,750, an increase of 750 compared with the estimate of 1660. II. In the account of the French expedition into the Iroquois country, which estimates the number of their warriors as follows: Mohawks, 300 to 400; Oneidas, 140; Onondagas, 300; Cayugas, 300; Senecas, 1,200. Total, taking the highest estimate of the Mohawks, 2,340 warriors, or 11,700. * A modification of the views entertained and expressed by the same author in 1851, when he wrote: ‘‘The period of their greatest prosperity and of their highest num¬ bers was evidently about the year 1650, shortly after the commencement of their ii> ercourse with Europeans. At that time their total population may be safely placed at 25,000.”—League of the Iroquois. Rochester, 1851, pp. 26, 27. t Ancient Society, pp. 125, 126. Dr. Morgan’s estimate of‘their present numbers is too low, as will be seen further on. t The word Iroquois, wherever it appears in these notes, is used to denote the Six Nations only, not all the Iroquois. $ Parkman’s Jesuits in North America, p. lxvi, note. || Ibid. Papers relating to Denonville and de Tracy’s Expeditions. Documentary History of New York, vol. 1, pp. 60,61. 20 The substantial agreement between these estimates will be noted. Both were based on information furnished by the Jesuit missionaries, whose personal observations in the Iroquois country had extended over a period of some years. Le Moyne had been sent as an envoy to the Onondagas in 1654, and had doubtless obtained much knowledge re¬ specting the numbers of the Iroquois generally, both from themselves and from the captive Hurons, among whom, before their captivity, he had labored many years, and who, at this time received him with joy.* * * § A Jesuit mission had also been founded at Onondaga nine years before (1656), and the Jesuits had made extensive tours of missionary observa¬ tion among the villages of the Iroquois during that period. 1677. Twelve years later two estimates of the number of Iroquois warriors were also made. 1. T6at of Wentworth Greenhalgh, who made a journey from Albany westward through the Iroquois country in the summer of 1677, visiting most of their towns. He estimates the number of their warriors as fol¬ lows:! Mohawks, 300; Oneidas, 200; Onondagas, 350 ; Cayugas, 300; Senecas, 1,000; total, 2,150; indicating a population of 10,750, a decrease of about 1,000 from the French estimate of 1665. 2. That of Colonel Coursey, at Albany, who estimated their whole number at 17,000. Morgan remarks of this estimate, “but it is known that his (Colonel Coursey’s) means of judging were very imperfect. 7 '! Of these two estimates that of Greenhalgh, based on personal obser¬ vation, is, of course, to be accepted as most trustworthy. 1681. The intendant of New France, Du Chesneau, in his Memoir on the Western Indians,§ dated October 13,1681, estimates the number of Iro¬ quois warriors at “ no more than 2,000 men at most, 77 or 10,000 persons. 1682. Governor de la Barre, when preparing for his expedition into the Iro¬ quois country in 1682, estimated the number of their warriors at 2,600, or 13,000 in all.|| He was estimating the strength of an enemy lie ex¬ pected soon to encounter. 1685. In a French “ Memoir concerning the present state of Canada, 77 dated November 12,1685, the number of warriors was estimated as fol¬ lows: Mohawks, 200; Oneidas, 150; Onondagas, 300; Cayugas, 200; Senecas, 1,200; total, 2,050, or 10,250 souls. 1687. Another French u Memoir on the state of Canada, 77 dated January, 1687, says: u The Iroquois force consists of 2,000 picked warriors. 77 ** This would indicate a total population of about 10,000, or perhaps a few more. * Parkman’s Old Regime In Canada, p. 13. t Doc. Hist. New York, vol. 1, pp. 11-14. | League of the Iroquois, p. 25. § New York Colonial Documents, vol. 9, p. 162. || Ibid. vol. 9, p. 196. y Doc. Hist. New York, vol. 1, p. 196. **New York Colonial Documents, vol. 9 r p. 321. 21 1689. In 1689, Governor Bellomont, in accordance with instruction, made a report, showing the number of whites and Indians respectively in 1689 and 1698, to show what decrease had ensued from the war during that period. He reported the number of Iroquois warriors in 1689 as follows:* * * § Mohawks, 270 ; Oneidas, 180; Onondagas, 500; Cayugas, 320; Senecas, 1,300; total, 2,570 ; aggregate, 12,850. Perhaps this estimate did not include the Iroquois who, under the influence of the French missiona¬ ries, had emigrated to Canada some years before. It is well to remark here that they, whatever may have been their numbers, were probably not included in Governor Bellemonfs estimate of 1698; and perhaps, though not probably, they were omitted from the estimate of Governor Hunter in 1720. As a general rule, they were included in all estimates preceding the Revolution. 1698. Governor Bellomont, in the report above mentioned, stated the num¬ ber of Iroquois warriors in 1698 as follows:! Mohawks, 110; Oneidas, 70; Onondagas, 250; Cayugas, 200; Senecas, 600; total, 1,230; aggre¬ gate, 6,150; thus showing a decrease of more than one-half their num¬ ber in nine years of war, during which they were active allies of the English against the French. In a letter | to the lords of trade, dated May, 1698, Governor Bellomont spoke of the Iroquois as having been u half destroyed by this war, 77 and stated that he had given an order to have them numbered. The activity of the Iroquois in behalf of their English allies does not appear to have been diminished by their losses and reverses, for we find Governor Hunter, of New York, writing to Secretary St. John, under date of September 12,1711, when the English and French were again at war, enumerating as part of the forces de¬ signed for an expedition against Canada “ the five nations, with their allies, 800. 77 § At a council held in Albany a few days before that, the Indians reported their warriors ready to engage in the expedition as follows :|| Senecas, 182; Shawanoes (Shawnees), u who are under the Senecas, 77 26 ; Cayugas, 127; Onondagas, 99: Oneidas, 93; Mohawks, 155; total, 682. 1720. In 1720 Governor Hunter, in answer to an inquiry of the lords of trade, reported the Iroquois as “ not making in all above 2,000 fighting men. 77 !f It cannot now be ascertained whether this estimate included the Tuscaroras, which tribe, between 1712 and 1720, emigrated from North Carolina to New York and became a member of the Iroquois con¬ federacy. 1736. In this year an u Enumeration of the Indian tribes connected with the Government of Canada 77 was prepared. Of course the figures given are based on estimates, not on actual enumeration. The author of the esti¬ mate is not known with certainty. Dr. O’Callaghan attributes it in one * Doc. History New York, vol. 1, p. 690; New York Colonial Documents, vol. 4, p. 420. t Ibid. f New York Colonial Documents, vol. 4, p. 305. § Ibid., vol. 5, p. 254. || Ibid., vol. 5, p. 272. II Ibid., vol. 5, p. 557. 22 work* to Joncaire, from the fact that the author describes himself as an adopted member of the Seneca tribe, to which Joncaire belonged by adoption ; but in anotherf he says: “This cannot well be, as that officer was on the Ohio at this date, and the writer was at Michilimacina.” He might possibly have been at both places the same year. Schoolcraft, in his History of the Indian Tribes, attributes the estimate to M. de la Chauvignerie, but on what authority is unknown. It bears evidence of care and extensive personal observation, and maybe regarded as among the most trustworthy of the early estimates of Indian population. The Iroquois warriors were estimated as follows, including those within the present limits of Canada: Iroquois, Sault St. Louis (Canada), 300; Iro¬ quois, Toniata (Canada), 10; Iroquois, Lake of Two Mountains (Can¬ ada), GO; Onondagas, 200; Mohawks, 80; Oneidas, 100; Cayugas, 120; Senecas, 350; Tuscaroras, 250; a total of 1,470. This vould indicate a total Iroquois population, including those whose descendants now live in Canada, of 7,350. One fact in this estimate should be noted. The author was an adopted member of the Seneca tribe, and it may reasonably be supposed, there¬ fore, that his information regarding it was more definite than that re¬ specting anv other. His estimate of the Senecas vas 350, or in all 1,750. 1738. The commissioners of Indian affairs for the province of New York, in reply to inquiries of the governor and council, in a report dated Febru¬ ary 4, 1738, estimated the numbers of the Indian warriors as follows :| “The Six Nations, including the Biver and Schaachkook Indians, are about 1,500 fighting men. * * * The Indians living near about Montreal and Quebeck are about 1,000 fighting men”; total, 2,500, or in all 12,500. But these included the “ Biver and Schaachkook Indians,” the former of which, according to the estimate of Earl Bellomont, numbered 450, or about 7 per cent, of the Indian population; estimating their strength in 1738 according to the same ratio, they numbered 525, and deducting this number from 7,500 (1,500 x 5) leaves 6,975 Iroquois in New York. The estimate of the commissioners, regarding the Indians in Canada of all tribes, was of course entirely conjectural. The French estimate of 1736 was based on much better information, and was as follows: Hurons, 60 warriors; Abenakes of St. Francis, 180; Algonkins, &c., 85; Iro¬ quois, 370; total, 695, or in all 3,475. Combining the English estimate of the Iroquois in New York and the French estimate of the Iroquois in Canada, we have 8,825. 1763. We come now to an estimate made in November, 1763, which may be accepted with more confidence than any that preceded it. The period was favorable to a fair statement based on the best evidence that could be procured. The contest between France and England for ascendency > in North America, which began in 1613, and continued with few inter¬ missions for one hundred and fifty years, was definitely terminated by the treaty of peace of February, 1763, when Canada passed into the possession of Great Britain. The military strength of the Iroquois, no longer interposed as a barrier to protect the English frontier and to form a contingent for military expeditions against the French, was now * Doc. Hist, of New York, vol. 1, p. 23, nole. t New York Colonial Documents, vol. 9, p. 1C58, note. X Doc. Hist. New York, vol. 4, p. 240. 23 a matter of less consequence, and the opportunities to ascertain their - actual numbers and condition were greatly bettered. Sir William John¬ son, an enlightened, public spirited man, who had long lived among the Iroquois, and who enjoyed their highest respect and affection, was the superintendent of Indian affairs. He took a warm interest in their affairs and in all efforts to improve their condition; he doubt¬ less understood* * their circumstances better than any other man of his century. His estimate of their numbers, based on extensive personal observation and diligent inquiry, was as follows:* Mohawks, 100 men; Oneidas, 250 men ; Tuscaroras, 140 men ; Onondagas, 150 men ; Cayu- gas, 200 men ; Senecas, 1,050 men ; Oswegatchies,f 80 men; Caghnawa- gas,f 300 men; total, 2,330. Allowing live persons to each man, the total number was 11,650. Besides these, there were “ Nanticokes, Conoys, Tutecoes, Saponeys, &c., 200 men. 7 ’ These were tribes from the county south of New York, who had removed from there and settled on the Susquehanna, on lauds allotted by the Six Nations. Sir William Johnson speaks of them as being “immediately under the direction of the Six Nations.” Some of these dependents and allies of the Six Nations may have been event¬ ually incorporated into that body, but it appears, according to Sir Will¬ iam Johnson’s letter to Governor Tryon, in October, 1773, that, though still allies of the Six Nations, many of them had removed from the Sus¬ quehanna westward.§ 1768. The next estimate is that of Capt. Thomas Hutchins, who, according to Mr. Jefferson,|| visited most of the tribes in 1768, and published the results of his observations in London ten years afterward. His esti¬ mate was as follows : Oswegatchies, 100; Caghnawagas, 300; Mohawks, 160 ; Oneidas, 300 ; Tuscaroras, 200 ; Onondagas, 260 ; Cayugas, 200 ; Senecas, 1,000 ; total, 2,520, or 12,600 persons, besides the subject-tribes on the Susquehanna, which he estimated at 310 warriors, or 1,550 per¬ sons, making 14,150; an increase over Sir William Johnson’s estimate, five years before, of 950 Iroquois and 550 of the Indians on the Susque¬ hanna.^} 1770. In a letter to Bev. Charles Inglis, dated November, 1770, Sir William Johnson estimated the numbers of the Iroquois warriors as follows :** Onondagas, 200; Cayugas, 260; Senecas, 1,000. The numbers of the Mohawks and Oneidas are not specifically given, but the letter contin¬ ues : “ There are, besides, many of every nation settled with other tribes at and about the Susquehanna, &c., which, if added to their respective nations, would increase the number, and the Tuscaroras alone since the last body of them came from the southward to joyn the rest may now [make] abt. near 250, so that the whole of the Six Nations without includ¬ ing any others will amount to 2,000 fighting men, by which the number of souls may be calculated in the usual manner.” This would indicate a total Iroquois population of 10,000, and shows a slight decrease from the estimate of the same author seven years before. * Doc. Hist. New York, vol. 1, pp. 26-27. t Emigrants from the Six Nations, chiefly Onondagas. t Emigrant Mohawks in Canada. § New York Colonial Documents, vol. 8, p. 459. || Notes on Virginia, p. 138. IT Ibid., pp. 139, 140. * * Doc. Hist. New York, vol. 4, p. 427. 24 1773. In June, 1774, Governor Tryon, of New York, made a report on the state of the province to the British Government, in which he embodied a report* * * § of Sir William Johnson, dated October 22,1773, respecting the number and disposition of the Indians. This report is especially inter¬ esting as giving the latest information regarding the numbers of the Iroquois before the beginning of the Revolution. The whole number of the Six Nations was estimated at 2,000 fighting men, or 10,000 souls, of which one-half were thought to be Senecas. There is some obscurity regarding one part of this report relating to the Indians in Canada; but if none of them are included in the above 10,000, and all are estimated as Iroquois, they would swell the entire numbers of the Iroquois to 13,500. Probably 1,000 should be deducted for Hurons, Algonkins, &c., who were never members of the confederacy, leaving 12,500; an increase of 850 in ten years, compared with Sir William Johnson’s estimate of Mr. Jefferson reproduces the estimatef of John Dodge, an Indian trader, under this date, which assigns to the Mohawks 100 warriors; to the Oneidas and Tuscaroras combined, 400; to the Onondagas, 230; to the Cayugas, 220; and to the Senecas, 050; total, 1,000, or 8,000 souls. This estimate, it will be observed, does not include the emigrant Mo¬ hawks, Onondagas, &c., which were comprised in that of Sir William Johnson. 1791. The war of the Revolution, in which a large majority of the Iroquois warriors served as active allies of the British, the remainder taking sides with the colonies or remaining neutral, doubtless prevented any increase, if it did not actually reduce the Iroquois population. It has been estimated that 1,810 of their warriors joined one or the other army.f The first estimate of their numbers after the Revolution was that of Imlay, corrected, he says, “from Croghan, Bouquet, Carver, Hutchins, and Dodge, and by the comparative testimony of the best-informed men I have been able-to meet with, and whose knowledge upon this subject, though they have not written, I should prefer to either of the above authorities, who were obliged to take the greatest part of what they have related from hearsay or proceed upon conjecture.” The letter§ containing the estimate is not dated, but was written from Kentucky soon after the defeat of General St. Clair, in 1791. The Iroquois are numbered as follows: Oswegatchies, 100; Caghnawagas, &c., 240; Sene¬ cas, 550; Cayugas, 180; Onondagas, 200; Oneidas, 250; Tuscaroras, 170; Mohawks, 140; total, 1,830, indicating an aggregate population of 9,150. Comparing this with Dodge’s estimate, we must subtract the first *New York Colonial Documents, vol. 8, p. 458. t Notes on Virginia, p. 140. This is identical with the estimate given by Schoolcraft in vol. 6 of his History of the Indian Tribes, made, he says, “under the ausjbces of the War Department.” $ Schoolcraft, Notes on the Iroquois, p. 17. This would indicate a total population of 9,050. Schoolcraft remarks: “ This estimate, which appears to have been carefully made from authentic documents, is the utmost that could well he claimed. It was made at the era when danger prompted the pen of either party in the war to exhibit the military strength of this confederacy in its utmost power ; and we may rest here > as a safe point of comparison, or, at least, we cannot admit a higher population.” § Topographical Description of the Western Territory, p. 294. two items in this estimate, amounting to 340, or 1,720 persons, which leaves 7,430 as against his estimate of 8,000 dated twelve years before. It seems improbable that the net Iroquois loss daring the Revolution was less than 600, as it would be made to appear by a comparison of these two estimates; but both are probably entitled to about equal credit, and both are probably excessive. 1796. Dr. Morse w r rote that when he visited them in 1796, on a missionary journey, “The whole population of the Six Nations, including their adopted children, was 3,748.”* By “ adopted children” Dr. Morse meant the Moheakunnuk, or New Stockbridge, and the Brotherton Indians, who had removed to New York and settled near the village of the Oneidas on land given them by that tribe. It is to be noted that this and following estimates deal with the Iro¬ quois population as a whole, the warriors not being specifically estimated, and that one element of uncertainty is thereby eliminated. 1818. Between 1796 and 1818 a portion of the Iroquois again engaged in hostilities against the United States as the allies of Great Britain, and in consequence many more emigrated to Canada. In the latter year, according to an official return to the War Department by Jasper Parrish, Indian subagent, they numbered 4,575f in the State of New York. 1819. According to a report made to the New York legislature in March, 1819, the number of Iroquois in New York at that time was 4,538. 3821. The next official estimate of the Iroquois was made in 1821, by Rev. Jedidiah Morse, from personal observation and the best official and other data he could obtain. It is as follows, by reservations :J Oneidas, 1,031; Tuscaroras, 314; Onondagas, 229; Senecas and Onondagas, 597; Sene¬ cas and Delawares § (two reservations), 729; Senecas, Cayugas, and Onondagas, 700; Senecas and a few of other tribes, 456; total, 4,056; a decrease of 519, compared with the report of Parrish three years before. This decrease may be explained by the removal of a number of the Oneidas and others to Canada, and the fact that a portion of the Onei¬ das were then making preparations to remove to Green Bay, and may have been absent at the time the examination was made. They began to remove from New York some time in the following year. 1825. i In 1825 the Secretary of War made a report respecting the removal of the tribes then east of the Mississippi, in which the numbers of the * Morse’s Report on Indian Affairs, appendix, p. 76. t Ibid., appendix, p. 77. t Ibid., appendix, p. 361. $ These were a few individuals, probably not exceeding thirty, who had become amalgamated with the Senecas. 26 Iroquois were rated as follows:* Oneidas, 1,096; Ouonclagas, 416; Cay- ugas, 90; Senecas, 2,325; Tuscaroras, 253 ;t St. Regis, 300; total, 4,510. Besides these, it was estimated that there were 551 Senecas in Ohio; making an aggregate of 5,061. 1829. General Porter, Secretary of War, in his report on the Indians in the United States in 1829, enumerates the Iroquois as follows :$ Senecas in New York, 2,300, in Ohio, 600; Oneidas in New York, 400, in Wiscon¬ sin, 700; Onondagas, 450; Oayugas, 100; Tuscaroras, 250; total, 4,800. But it will be noted that the St. Regis Indians, numbering 300, accord¬ ing to the report of 1825, are omitted. Including these, the total would be 5,100. 1845. In 1845 an official census of the Iroquois Indians in New York was made by H. B. Schoolcraft, under the authority of the State. His report to the secretary of state of New York, dated October 31, 1845, enumerates them as follows :§ Senecas, 2,441; Onondagas, 398; Tusca¬ roras,281; Oneidas, 210; Oayugas, 123; Mohawks, 20; St. Regis, 360; Senecas (in Pennsylvania), 51; total, 3,884. The number' of Oneidas in Wisconsin the previous year (1844) was officially reported || at 722; Senecas in Indian Territory, 125; Senecas and Shawnees, 211; total, deducting one-half of the last number for Shawnees, 925; which, added to those officially enumerated as above, makes 4,836. Schoolcraft estimates the number of Iroquois in Canada at the same time at 2,106, making the total number of that confederacy 6,942. He remarks:If u I cannot, however, submit this result without expressing the opinion that the Iroquois population has been lower between the era of the revolutionary war and the present time than the census now denotes; and that for some years past, and since they have been well lodged and clothed and subsisted by their own labor, and been exempted from the diseases and casualties incident to savage life and the empire of the forest, their population has recovered, and is now on the increase. 77 The number of births the previous year was reported at 121; the number of deaths at 120; the number of marriages at 36. 1850. Although official estimates of the numbers of the Iroquois might be presented for nearly every year since 1845, it will serve the present pur- * History Indian Tribes, vol. 3, 583, seq. t These Indians are descendants of Iroquois, chiefly Mohawks, who emigrated to Canada in the seventeenth century, under the influence of the Jesuit missionaries. They appear in some of the ante-revolutionary estimates as Caghnawagas. Part of those Indians afterward settled on the St. Lawrence River, and when the boundary- line between the United States and Canada was established it divided their settlement, one portion remaining in Canada and the other falling within the limits of the United States, so that part are now reported in the Canadian and part in the United States census. + History Indian Tribes, vol. 3, p. 590, seq. $ Notes on the Iroquois, New York, 1846, p. 17. It is impossible to reconcile these figures with those given in the tabulated statement of Mr. Schoolcraft, p. 191 of the same volume, which foots up 3,753, instead of 3,833 (51 in Pennsylvania deducted from 3,884). The net difference, excluding the Senecas in Pennsylvania, is 80. It may be that these were reported as living off reservations and out of tribal relations. || Doc. No. 2, H. R., 28th Cong., 2d session. I Notes on the Iroquois, p. 17. 27 pose and economize space to give them at periods of five years each from that time and for the year 1877, the figures for which year have been courteously furnished by Hon. E. A. Hayt, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, from his forthcoming annual report. It is only necessary to remark that the reports from year to year do not denote any state of facts different from that presented, there having been no remarkable fluctuations of Iroquois population from any cause. The following figures are from official enumeration :* * * § Oneidas in New York, 153; in Wisconsin, 7(52; Onoudagas, 376 ; Cayugas, 150; Senecas in Pennsylvania, 55; in New York, 2,563; in Indian Territory, 158; Senecas and Shawnees, t Indian Territory, 273; Tuscaroras, 285; St. Regis, 450; total, 5,225. 1855. Two enumerations of the Iroquois at this period are presented : 1. The report of the New York State census for 1855 is as follows, J by reservations: Allegany, Tonawanda, and Cattaraugus, chiefly Senecas, 2,535; Oneida, 161; Onondaga, 349; St. Regis, 413; Tuscarora, 316; total, 3,774 ; but it is shown in a note that the marshal’s enumeration of Cattaraugus reservation is too small, 1,388 having been reported in May, 1855, on the annuity rolls; adding 209, the difference between 1,388 and 1,179, we have 3,953. This, it is to be noted, included only, those living on reservations, besides whom there were scattered throughout the State 235 other Indians, who had abandoned tribal relations and were living among the whites. Probably most of these, except 8 in Kings, 7 in Queens, and 11 in New York Counties, were Iroquois; but there are no means of ascertaining with certainty. § 2. An official statement by the Indian Office. || It is as follows : Cayu¬ gas, 143; Oneidas in New York, 249; in Wisconsin, 978; Onondagas, 470; St. Regis (1849), 450; Senecas in New York, 2,557 ; in Ohio, 180; Senecas and Shawnees, Lewiston, 271; Tuscarora, 280; total, 5,578. To form a comparison with the New York census it is necessary to de¬ duct 1,429 Indians above reported not in that State, leaving 4,149, an excess over the New York census report of 199. 1860. The enumeration for this 3^ear is taken from the report of the Indian Office for 1861. It is as follows: Cayugas, 151; Oneidas, 291; Onon¬ dagas, 298; Senecas, 2,871; Tuscaroras, 334; total, 3,945. This is an imperfect report, the Oneidas in Wisconsin, and the Senecas, and Sene¬ cas and Shawnees in the Indian Territory not being enumerated at all. The report of the New York agent for 1860 is brief and imperfect, and there is no published report of that agency for 1861. 1865. For this year two enumerations are presented; the first of the Iro¬ quois in the State of New York alone and the second of all the Iroquois in the United States. * History Indian Tribes, vol. 1, p. 441. tThe population of each is not given. This small band, now known as “ Eastern Shawnees,” early united with the Senecas; they have been officially considered together since the Senecas resided in Ohio; and doubtless were uuited and lived with them as early as 1711, when Shawnee warriors figured in the contingent furnished the English for the expedition against Canada. f Census of New York, 1855, p. 500. § In 1855 the subjeet of Indian education came before the New York legislature, and according to a report of a committee of the assembly the Iroquois were “ about 18 per cent, more numerous than they were twenty-three years ago, and are steadily increas¬ ing.” )| Report of Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1855, pp. 575, 576. 28 1. The report of the New York State census remarks The census shows a slow but steady increase of population among the Indian tribes of the State, thus opposing facts to the favorite theory of the gradual and final extinc¬ tion of the Indian race. The discontinuance of wars prosecuted for revenge or for the purpose of replacing deceased members of families and the protection -secured under the laws of civilized life appear to promise the indefinite continuance of these people among us, and suggest the importance of introducing intelligence and industry as the surest means of raising them to the degree of improvement that may entitle them to the duties and privileges of citizens. The enumeration is as follows, by reservations: Allegany, Cattarau¬ gus, and Tonawanda, 2,681; Oneida, 155 ; Onondaga, 350; St. Regis, 426 ; Tuscarora, 370; total, 3,992. The number of Indians in the State not on reservations is not given. 2. The report of the Indian Office, which is as follows:! Iroquois in New York, 3,956 Oneidas in Wisconsin, 1,064; Quapaws, Senecas, and Shawnees, and Senecas in the Indian Territory, 670; total, 5,690. From this must be deducted* * * § the Quapaws, the number of which sep¬ arately reported in 1864 was 431 and in 1866 350; they may be esti¬ mated at 390 in 1865. Deducting this number from 5,690, we have 5,300 as the total number of the Iroquois in 1865. 1870. For this year also two enumerations are presented : 1. The report of the United States census :§ Sustaining tribal rela¬ tions, 4,705 ; out of tribal relations, 439 ; total, 5,141. From this should probably be deducted 7 in Kings, 4 in Queens, 9 in New York, and 162 in Suffolk Counties ; total, 182 ; which would leave 4,962 as the Iroquois population of New York in 1870. 2. The report of the Indian Office for 1870 does not show separately the Oneida population in Wisconsin nor the number of Senecas in the Indian Territorj 7 . The number of Iroquois in New York is given at 4,804. 1875. For this year we have the New York census and the report of Indian Affairs. 1. According to the first, the total number of Indians in New York was 4,880. By deducting from this the number in Kings, New York, and Suffolk Counties, 208 (who are probably Algonkins), we have 4,672 as the Iroquois population of New York in 1875. 2. According to the report of the Indian Office for the same year, the Iroquois population of the United States was as follows : In the Indian Territory, Senecas, 240, Eastern Shawnees, 97; New York, 4,955; Wis¬ consin Oneidas, 1,332 ; total, 6,624. 1877. The enumeration for the present year is as follows: Senecas in New York and Pennsylvania, 2,963, in Indian Territory, 235; Eastern Shaw¬ nees, 115; Oneidas in New York, 249, in Wisconsin, 1,324; Onondagas,. 493; Cayugas, 184; Tuscaroras, 401; St. Regis, 751; total, 6,715. * Report New York State census, 1865, p. 600. t Report of Indian Office, 1865, pp. 575-578. t On page 590 of the same report the number of New York “ Senecas and others ” ia given at 3,989. § Page xvii. 29 Iroquois of Canada. Mention Las been made of the Mohawks and others who, from time to time, emigrated to Canada, and regarding whose numbers some esti¬ mates at an early period have been given. The following statement of their numbers in 1868, 1874, 1875, and 1876 is presented. The data for the year 1868 are from the report of F. N. Blake, in 1870, United States consul at Hamilton, Ontario;* for the other years from the official reports of the Canadian Indian office. In 1868 the Iroquois in Canada were reported as follows: t Mohawks of Bay of Qninte. 683 Six Nation Indians of the Grand River..2,796 Iroquois of Sault St. Louis. 1, 601 Iroquois of St. Regis. 801 Total... 5,881 In 1874, 1875, and 1876 they were reported as follows: . 1874. 1875. 1876. Oneidas of the Thames. 604 604 604 Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte... 784 804 822 Six Nations of Grand River.... 2, 996 3, 052 3,069 1,511 947 Iroquois of Sault St. Louis. 1, 557 l' 511 922 Iroquois of St. Regis... '904 Total. 6, 845 6, 893 6, 953 Total Iroquois in the United States and Canada. Adding 6,715, the number of Iroquois in the United States in 1877, to the number of those in Canada as above reported, we have a total of 13,668, a number considerably exceeding any trustworthy estimate of their numerical strength for more than one hundred years. This con¬ clusion is undoubtedly rather under than over their true numbers, as will be shown at a future time. These Indians have in their history, as has been said, experienced almost every test that can be applied to the vitality oUa people emerg¬ ing from barbarism into civilization, aud we have here the results as affecting their numbers. A few remarks on the condition of those in New York may appropriately find place here. They are taken from the interesting report of the agent in that State for 1877, kindly furnished by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, in advance of its publication. He says: Of the 27 teachers in the Indian State schools of New York, 9 were Indians, who having been judiciously selected, and haviug previously received thorough education and training for their work, in high schools, with aid of appropriations from the United States, succeeded* admirably/ The day schools under instruction of the Indian teachers are generally better sustained by the Indian parents, and have larger attend¬ ance of scholars than the others. The largest school in the agency, being the oue connected with the Thomas Orphan Asylum at Cattaraugus, with an average daily attendance of about 90 students, is instructed by competent Indian teachers, and is in all respects a model school. I deem it quite desirable for the success of these Indian schools that an appropriation should be made for the training of teachers therein, and I respectfully renew the recommendation therefor in my last annual report. * H. R. Mis. Doc. No. 35, Forty-first Congress, second session. 30 Speaking of the Cattaraugus reservation lie remarks : The Iroquois Agricultural Society of the Indians of the State of New York, which is incorporated under its laws, held its annual fair and cattle-show upon this reservation during four days of the third week of the past month. More people attended it than at any preceding fair of the society, and the exhibition of fruits, vegetables, and grain was exceedingly creditable to the Indians. The receipts of the fair were over $1,400, which were mostly paid out in premiums to the exhibitors, who entered over f,30(> articles for exhibition. A temperance convention of the Six Nations of New York was held upon this reser¬ vation during three days of the fourth week of the past month. The movement was organized by the leading Indians, of whom seventy were present from the other reser¬ vations in the agency. Four Indian brass bands of music were in attendance, and nearly all the speakers were Indians. Much enthusiasm prevailed. The Indians of Cattaraugus reservation turned out en masse to attend the meetings on each occasion, tilling the spacious Presbyterian church to its utmost capacity. Some of the Indians came several hundred miles to attend this convention, besides the delegates who were present from Green Bay, Wis., and from Canada. The Indians of the agency ap¬ pear to be fairly aroused to the great importance of protecting themselves from the use of spirituous liquors, which have been so great a destroyer of their race. They have temperance organizations upon all the reservations, and I take pleasure in report¬ ing a marked improvement of late in the temperate habits of these people, and in their willingness to aid in the enforcement of the criminal laws against persons who sell them liquors. He thus concludes that part of his report relating to the Tuscaroras : Circumstances seem to have contributed in making the Tuscaroras more self-reliant than the other tribes in this agency. They have received no money annuities from any source, only an annuity in goods, in value of about 90 cents per capita. They are a temperate, industrious, and thrifty agricultural community, and in their farms, farm- products, buildings, aud agricultural implements, compare favorably with their white neighbors. These extracts show the general condition of the “ remnant of the Six Nations v in New York, and it is not very different from their condi¬ tion in other parts of the United States and in Canada. Everywhere they appear to be increasing in numbers as they advance in civilization. The Sioux. These Indians have, during the last fifteen years, engaged a large share of the public attention, especially as they have displayed their military strength in hostilities against the whites. The study of the question of their numbers at different periods has not yet developed facts that warrant the presentation even of estimates, at this time, and they are therefore reserved for the present. Information has been sought in different directions, and considerable has been collected. Several mouths ago, after the facts respecting the natural causes of increase and decrease of Indian population had accumulated to such an extent as to force a more definite inquiry on the subject, letters in the form given below were addressed (Augusts) to several gentlemen who, from long personal association with and study of the Sioux tribes, are peculiarly qualified to give information respecting them: One of tbe series of centennial reports on education will have for its subject Indian civilization and education. One phase of the subject requires further investigation, aud I address you, hoping that you will be able to contribute some facts bearing on it. There is a pretty general opinion that the Indians are a vauishing race, doomed to disappear at a not distant period. Many facts, however, have been developed which indicate that this opinion is not correct, and that the Indians generally are not decreasing in numbers, but, in¬ stead, are increasing in proportion as they yield to civilizing influences. The popular opinion now held is no doubt responsible for the apathy with which efforts in behalf of the Indians are regarded, and it is important that the theory should be brought to the test of facts and experience. Your long acquaintance with the Sioux has no doubt enabled you to form an accurate opinion regarding their increase or decrease and the causes which have governed the fluctuations of population in that tribe. I shall be greatly obliged if you will favor me briefly with a statement of the results of your observations in these particulars. 31 Two of the replies received are given below. The first is from Rev. Dr. Riggs, the eminent and well-known Indian scholar and missionary. The other is from Mr. John P. Williamson, whose life from childhood has been passed among the Sioux, and who has been for many years a missionary and teacher, and is now United States special Indian agent at the Flandreau agency, Dakota. Two men cannot be found who are more competent to describe the past and present condition and forecast the probable future of these Indians than Dr. Riggs and Mr. William¬ son. The substantial agreement between their estimates and conclusions, which were communicated independently and without conference with each other, will be noted. LETTER FROM REV. DR. RIGGS. Missouri River, Peoria Bottom, August 27, 1877. My Dear Sir : Your communication of the 8th instant has been forwarded to me from Beloit. The question of increase and decrease of Indian populations is one in which we have been considerably interested. At various times in the progress of our mission-work we have kept life-tables for a single Dakota village, and always, I believe, with the result that the births somewhat exceeded the deaths. Forty years ago the Dakota or Sioux nation was counted variously from twenty-five to thirty thousand souls. Now, it is known to number at least ten thousand more. But while it would not be fair to infer from this that the tribe had increased that much, it is certainly reasonable to conclude that during this time they have not diminished, but rather increased. And yet it accords with my observation, that for a certain period after the process of civilization has well commenced in an Indian community, we are quite likely to find their number diminishing. The Sioux, as a people, are scrofulous and syphilitic— many families exceedingly so. Any changes in their manner of life which develop these physical tendencies will necessarily increase the death-rate. The free use of flour and pork by the people who have heretofore lived on wild meat and roots and ber- f ries, or even if they have added the little patch of corn, will certainly develop scrof¬ ula. The same is true of living in a close, badly-ventilated cabin, supplied with a cooking-stove. Thus the first steps towards civilization naturally, almost necessasily, increase disease and death. So common is this that we have been led to note, in re¬ gard to many Dakota families, that they raise almost no children—some none at all. •And in carrying on boarding-schools among them it often happens that a scholar must be sent home to the wild (i. e. outdoor) life, if the health is to be restored. On the other hand, when this crucial period is oncepassed, the gospel of cleanliness becomes in a large sense the gospel of physical salvation. Then families and commu¬ nities commence to increase again in numbers. Some portions of the Sioux people are now passing through this stage of decline; some families, we think, are beginning to recuperate; while the larger part of the tribe are yet wild and not apparently « affected by the process of civilization. The published statistics of the Indians in the State of New York show a very large increase in the last quarter of a century. They have reached a stage of recovery. As your letter seems to suggest, there is another way of apparent diminution of In¬ dians who are passing into the conditions of civilization. The more civilized and Christianized portions of our Dakota people are now coming more and more into con¬ tact with the better class of white people. Many families and individuals are becom¬ ing detached from their own people and merged with the whites. Some of them are mixed-bloods, and all such come to be counted as half-breeds. Many such families are now scattered through the State of Minnesota. Other Sioux have gone off and formed colonies of homesteaders, as the colonies of Big Sioux and Brown Earth. They are in the process of mixture and merging. This is not miscegenation, but a proper and de¬ sirable mixture of the races, the inferior being elevated and finally absorbed and lost in the superior. • No, sir ; I do not think the facts which are before us at all justify the belief that the Indians are necessarily a vanishing race except as Indians. We do not care to raise any more Indians, but to raise Indians up to take their proper place among’white men, civil¬ ized, Christianized. The facts abundantly prove them capable of becoming such. And if this is not their history in the half century coming, the fault will be largely ours. We have no right to assume that they are a race given over of God to destruction, and we have less right to doom them ourselves. Yours, very truly, S, R. RIGGS, General John Eaton, Missionary. Commissioner of Education. 32 LETTER FROM MR. WILLIAMSON. Greenwood, Dak., September 3, 1877. Dear Sir: Your letter of August 8 is received. * * * My observation of the Sioux Indians since my childhood, forty years ago, leads me to think that the vision of the last Indian jumping into eternity toward the setting sun is a poet’s dream of the distant future. Forty years ago the Sioux were supposed to number 25,000, which was probably an overestimate, as it was based on the number of lodges, the rule being to count ten persons to a lodge, which I think very seldom the case. Now, the Sioux are estimated at 50,000, though 40,000 would probably be a better count, and as near the truth as 25,000 was forty years ago, which would show an increase of 60 per cent, in forty years. This increase, however, is with a tribe that has yielded but little to civilization. In changing from a savage to civilized life there is always a great check to the growth of any people. I look upon the Indians in their several stages about thus : 1. in their wild state they increase quite rapidly, unless disturbed by some violent agent, as war, famine, pestilence. The wildest portion of the Sioux tribe has been the Titanwan, including the Sicangu, Itazipcho, Sihasapa, Minneconjou, Oohenopa, Oglala, and Hunkpapa bands. These have had the least intercourse with the whites, and have not planted, but have suffered comparatively little from famine, living in the best buffalo country in America. And they have increased the most rapidly. They have probably more than doubled in forty years, now numbering about 25,000; though Sitting Bull allows no census-takers in his camp. My observation, as well as the tes¬ timony of the Indians, is that they are much more healthy when they roam at large and live on wild meat, than when they are confined for a long time in one place and fed on white man’s food. 2. The first effect of a change to civilized life is no doubt to diminish their numbers. Intercourse with whites brings in new diseases that are very fatal, especially those connected with licentious habits. Enriched diet and confined habits increase the fatality of all their diseases. The introduction of strong drink sweeps off many more. The very change produces a dissatisfied state of mind, which is unfavorable to fecundity or long life. 3. These causes, however, do not at all necessarily lead to their extinction. The transplanting of a tree will certainly retard its growth for a time, but, if it be placed in a better soil, it may in the end more than regain itself. So with the Indians. Were all deleterious influences cut off, and the spirit of a new life infused into them, I have no doubt they would not only recover from the change, but grow more rapidly than in their former state. The change among the Sioux is not of. sufficient standing, or has not been made un¬ der such circumstances as to furnish much evidence. The Santee or Minnesota Sioux, who have been under civilizing influences the longest, were so broken up and scattered by the massacre of 1862 that we can only get data at the points where they have been since that time. As near as I can estimate they have decreased a little in the last fifteen years. They may—I expect them to—decrease a little for the next fifteen years, perhaps for a longer time; then I expect them to take root and begin to increase. Per¬ haps the most civilized band of the Sioux is the Flandreau Sioux, who are citizens, and number about 350. For the last four years I have kept an account of the births and deaths, which I think quite accurate, and in that time there have been fourteen more deaths than births, though the last two years the births have exceeded the deaths. Yours, very truly, General John Eaton, Commissioner of Education. JOHN P. WILLIAMSON, Missionary of the Presbyterian Church. VITAL STATISTICS. From time to time the births and deaths in a given period have been recorded by individual observers who enjoyed opportunities for studying different tribes or bands; but these observations *have been so limited as to time and the numbers of the people studied, and have been alto¬ gether so fragmentary, that they afford no basis whatever for general conclusions. While our official Indian statistics have been improving from year to year, especially since 1861, they are still very imperfect in many respects; in none more so than in that relating to the actual in¬ crease by births and decrease by deaths. In 1874 the first attempt was made to present such statistics in the 33 * / published reports of the Indian Office. Similar Misties were handed, ; in the reports of that office for 1875 and 18/0. • Though very incomplete, and in some cases pern., ps iniaccura^ those statistics actually comprise the only known date ^ffiwhich ap^hing like a correct opinion regarding those fluctuations^ jail population which depend on births and deaths can be ^eu ig lfl greatly to be regretted that they are so imperfect; tnat tneyu > not cover a i 0D ger period, and that they do not include those tribes i t the i m ii ail Territory which are farthest advanced toward civiliza^Q. The following figures are given trom - for the years 1874, 1875, and 1876: 1S n t • 'll. . rlnnfllC! (in 4 / reports of the Indian Office for the years 15 / 4 , ia1875, births, 1,985; deaths, 1,601*; excess of births over deaths, 384; 1876, births, 2,401; deaths, 2,215; excess of births over deaths, 186. The number of deaths by violence is reported for the years 1874 and 1875 as follows: Killed by ^ em hers of th^ same tribe. 162 30 Killed 'Y hostile Indians. 52 27 Kill, i by United S^tes soldiers. 122 30 - ..’fd by citizen?. 55 23 Tota- 1 ..-.391 110 ii is not clear whether all these deaths by violence were included in tie first statement above or not. According to the same reports, the numbers of Indians that received medical treatment were as follows : (1874) 27,553 ; (1875) 46,594; (1876) 37,232. Any attempt to deduce ratios from the preceding figures would have yielded obviously false results, because the tribes reporting births and deaths from year to year, vary; and besides, while some are reported each year, others are reported but once, and many not once, in the whole period. The reports of the Indian Office for the three years were, therefore, carefully collated, and it was found that the reports from a number of the agencies afforded information respecting the number of births or deaths, or both, during each of the three years. The reported popula¬ tion on which the following statistics for 1874 are based was 113,424; for 1875 it was 129,789; and for 1876 it was 105,419. It is to be under¬ stood, however, that the births or deaths in the whole number for any year are not given. For example, in 1874 the number of births was re¬ ported from agencies comprising 48,009 of the 113,424 ; and the number of deaths was reported for 63,772 of the 113,424. The statistics from which the following figures are derived are drawn from the reports of 57 agencies for 1874; 59 ageucies for 1875; and 58 agencies in 1876. They represent members of nearly one hundred tribes and parts of tribes in Arizona, California, Colorado, Dakota, Idaho, In¬ dian Territory, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Iowa, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington Territory, Wis¬ consin, and Wyoming; included are some tribes like the Iroquois in New York, well advanced toward civilization and surrounded by white settlements, while others are still in a state of barbarism, secluded on res¬ ervations remote from white settlements; in brief, they represent all the conditions and circumstances that characterize the different Indian tribes of the United States. 3 34 these exj>!anaf vns the following figures are given : Bin£ 8 ln 48,009,' 1,495; deaths in 63,772, 1,047. V.S'i . in ! n '4,41/, 1,905; deaths in 99,309, 1 566. ^376. B*ths 1Q .81,734, 2,386; deaths in 90,590, 2,195. 1874. 1875. 1876. Increase rthg -. Decrease by .-JS' ths * — Excess of birttw <&,. ei ( ‘<‘aths. Increase by births .. . Decrease by deaths..... * - ■— Excess of births over cleftta 18 • Increase by births..> Decrease by deaths. Excess of births over deaths.. 44.82 in 1,000 23.28 in 1,000 21.54 in 1,000 25. 59 in 1, 000 15. 76 in 1, 000 9.83 in 1,000 29. 19 in 1, 000 23. 12 in 1, 000 6. 07 in 1, 000 These numbers and ratios are, not given for the purpose of drawing from them any general conclusions respecting the natural tendency of Indian population either to increase or decrease, for they are based on data much too imperfect and covering altogether too brief a period to give them any value for that. But they are presented to indicate the state of our actual knowledge on the subject, and il the hope tha jimp| v showing how meager the stock of information is, may resist in efiiciei^ measures being taken for its increase. The subject may be dismissed here with the remark that whatever positive evidence the figures afford is not in favor of the theory of a rapid decrease of the Indian population from natural causes. SANITARY CONDITION OF THE INDIANS. * The value of the above statistics would have been greatly enhanced had they been made to show the proportion of deaths from each disease that contributed to the mortality. In the absence of such information recourse was had to the published reports of the several agents, a care¬ ful examination of which reveals much of interest on the subject. Within the period mentioned (1874—’76) fifty-six agents have reported the sanitary condition of the Indians under their charge, and a number have stated the prevailing diseases among them. These reports came from ail the Territories except Alaska and Wyoming, and from the Stales of California, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada, and Oregon, and may, therefore, be assumed to represent fairly the average sanitary condition of all the Indians in the United States except the civilized tribes in New York and the Indian Territory, from which no reports on these points were received. In 1874, of 17 agents, 9 reported the sanitary condition of the Indians under their charge “good”; 1, “ good until the last month”; 1, “ ex¬ cellent”; 1 as “fair”; 2 as “greatly improved”; 2 as “improving”; and 1 as “not as good as usual.” In 1875, of 43 agents, 28 reported the health of the Indians as “good”; 4 as “fair”; 3 as “improved”; and 8 as “not good.” In 1876, of 24 agents, 17 reported the health of the Indians as “good”; 2 as “ fair ”; 1 as “ excellent ”; 1 as “ improved ”; 1 as “ not as good as usual ”; and 2 as “ not good.” From one agency in Arizona, one in California, and one in Nevada, reports were received each year; two showed uniform good health, and . one indicated improvement. From 29 agents reports of prevailing diseases were received for one or more years. The list includes pulmonary diseases, resulting from exposure, reported 8 times; malarial fevers, reported 7 times; scrofula and venereal diseases, reported 13 times; rheumatism, caused by expo- sure, reported 6 times ; measles (among chiffw reported 4 times; alcoholic poison reported once. Small pox, former y so dreaded, and so frequent among the Indians, was not reported ajnong the disease showing that the measures of the Indian Office ffi’ J heir vaeci* 4,11011 have been efficient. It has, however, prevailed the P" e °l° Di- dians ot New Mexico during the last few month« V / Two agents remark that the improved sa&cary con/^ 1011 the In¬ dians under their charge is due to the employment a regular physi¬ cian and the fact that the Indians have *er« erve r^ enough other facts may be obtained to warraut a genets] cone! "*k^ respecting the influence of civilization upon the In¬ dian popvi a ti|)n.|/ It may no.M impcBnent for the writer to observe that the above and a multitude >ther acts that have come to bis knowledge during several years ot su. dy of the question of Indian civilization have con¬ vinced him that the uau theory that the Indian population is destined to decline and anally disu rr >ear, as a result of contact with white civil¬ ization, mast be greatly moe-qe^ probably abandoned altogether. Bureau of Education, November 24, 1877. V V S. N. OLABK. f