für Ethnologie, 1879, p. 211; Ch. Wiener, “Expédition Scientifique au Pérou et en Bolivie,” in Le Tour du Monde, 1878; W. Reiss, “Die Chibeha Sprache in Neu-Granada,” in Aus Allen Welttheilen, ix., 1878; V. A. Malte-Brun, Tableau Géographique de la distribution ethnographique des nations et des langues au Mexique, Nancy, 1878; V. Dumas, Les Indiens Peaux-Rouges, Paris, 1878; E. von Hesse Wartegg, Nord-Amerika, Land und Leute, Leipsic, 1878; Albert S. Gatschet, “Farbenbenennungen in Nord-Amerikanischen Sprachen,” in Zeitschr.für Ethnologie, 1879, p. 293; Fl. Ameghino, “L'Homme préhistorique dans La Plata,” in Rev. d'Anthropologie, 1879, p. 210; A. Stübel, Peruvian Antiquities, the Necropolis of Ancon, London and Berlin, 1881; Cl. R. Markham, Peru, 1881; Contributions to North American Ethnology, edited by J. W. Powell, Washington, Government Printing Office, 1877-81; numerous other papers on the American races and languages in Zeitschr. für Ethnologie, Reports of the Trustees of the Peabody Museum of American Archæology and Ethnology; The American Ethnological Transactions; Reports of the Smithsonian Institute; Colleccão de Noticias para a historia, . . das nações ultramarinas, published by the Lisbon Royal Academy. Further details of the bibliography will be found in H. E. Ludwig's Literature of the American Languages, London, 1864; W. Field, An Essay towards an Indian Bibliography, New York, 1873; Le Clerc, Bibliotheca Americana, Paris, 1878; J. W. Powell, Introduction to the Study of the Indian Languages, Washington, 1880. (A. H. K.)
Modern History and Present Distribution of North American Indians.
Copyright, 1880, by Henry Gannett
It is only very recently that the number of Indians on the North American continent has come to be known with any degree of accuracy. The best estimates at present accessible, based on the reports of Indian agents and on the United States census for 1880, give the total number in the United States as 303,248. The number in British North America is estimated, more roughly, at 103,969, making a total for the continent, north of Mexico, of 407,217. The following table, which is compiled from the census returns for 1880, and from the reports for 1879 of the superintendents of Indian affairs for the United States and for the British Possessions, may be relied on as approximately correct:—
| British Possessions. | |
| Ontario | 15,941 |
| Quebec | 12,054 |
| Nova Scotia | 2,126 |
| New Brunswick | 1,433 |
| Prince Edward's Island | 266 |
| Manitoba & N. W. Territory | 30,227 |
| Athabasca | 2,398 |
| British Columbia | 35,154 |
| Rupert's Land | 4,370 |
| Total | 103,969 |
| United States. | |
| Alabama | 170 |
| Arizona | 24,753 |
| Arkansas | 144 |
| California | 16,581 |
| Colorado | 4,316 |
| Connecticut | 230 |
| Dakota | 31,707 |
| Idaho | 6,248 |
| Illinois | 104 |
| Indiana | 186 |
| Indian Territory | 78,142 |
| Iowa | 801 |
| Kansas | 693 |
| Louisiana | 807 |
| Maine | 603 |
| Massachusetts | 341 |
| Michigan | 17,045 |
| Minnesota | 17,893 |
| Mississippi | 1,811 |
| Montana | 20,825 |
| Nebraska | 4,494 |
| Nevada | 7,728 |
| New Mexico | 22,860 |
| New York | 5,820 |
| North Carolina | 1,152 |
| Oregon | 5,854 |
| Pennsylvania | 156 |
| South Carolina | 113 |
| Tennessee | 238 |
| Texas | 869 |
| Utah | 1,166 |
| Washington | 16,786 |
| Wisconsin | 10,340 |
| Wyoming | 2,272 |
| Total | 303,248 |
| Grand total in N. America | 407,217 |
The popular idea has always been that these races are fast disappearing, and that their total extinction is merely a question of time. This conclusion has recently been called in question by Colonel Garrick Mallory, of the United States army, in a paper read before the American Association for the Advancement of Science. From the evidence he presents it appears that, while many tribes have decreased in number, and some have even become extinct, others have increased very decidedly, leading to the probable conclusion that the Indian population of North America as a whole has not decreased greatly since the earliest occupation of the country by Europeans. It is at least certain that the Indians have been brought under various influences which tend to prolong and preserve life. The murderous inter-tribal wars have ceased; the people are now better housed, clothed, and fed; many of them have regular avocations; and they have medical attendance when sick.
The general policy of the United States Government, in its management of the Indian tribes within its borders, has been to treat with them as separate but subject principalities. It thus makes treaties with the different tribes, purchases land from them, &c. Its policy further is to place all the tribes upon reservations, whence they are prohibited from wandering, and which are forbidden ground to whites, thus isolating them from the rest of mankind. In return for land ceded by them to the United States most of the tribes receive yearly grants, which are paid in the form of supplies of food, clothing, arms, and ammunition. Under such conditions, the experiment of civilizing them is being attempted,—in the case of some tribes with success, in others, thus far, with utter failure. As, however, all stimulus to self support is wanting, it seems surprising that any tribe should have made perceptible advance at all, and the progress attained is therefore encouraging for future effort. The policy of the Dominion Government is almost precisely similar to that of the United States, but the results are very different in the two countries. While the United States have had almost continual trouble with their aboriginal inhabitants, Canada has had no Indian difficulties of importance. This is due in part to a difference in the practical working out of the policy, but more to differences in environment. The Indian service of the Dominion Government is composed of a trained body of men, who remain in it through life, who thoroughly understand the Indian character, and who become known and trusted by their charges. The members of the United States Indian service, on the other hand, are appointed by political or church influence, and are in many cases unfit for the work; they are changed also as the balance of political power passes from one party to another. The Dominion has always fulfilled the conditions of its treaties, and has always administered punishment promptly and severely when the necessity arose. The United States have broken treaty after treaty, or have neglected to fulfil their obligations to such an extent that most tribes no longer have confidence in the promises of the Government. In cases of outrages by Indians, it has, as a rule, been very slow and dilatory in punishment.
But undoubtedly the principal reason for the immunity the British Possessions have hitherto enjoyed from Indian wars lies in the fact that the Indians have not yet been crowded by the whites. While the area is larger than that of the United States, the Indian population is but about two-fifths as great, and the whites are but one-tenth. The Indians still hold their favourite hunting and fishing grounds; the game and fish have not yet sensibly decreased; and the whites do not yet so press upon them as to arouse their jealousy and suspicion. The history of the Indian tribes in the United States, from the time of the first occupation of the country by the whites, has been one of forced migrations, always westward, to make way for the repeated encroachments of civilization. As the result of a succession of disastrous wars and forced treaties, nearly all the aboriginal population formerly living east of the Mississippi has either been destroyed or removed beyond that river. In the British Possessions they have been more fortunate. The first settlements in the provinces were made by the French, who associated freely with the natives, intermarrying to a large extent. This produced a bond of union between them, the effects of which, in both peoples, are to be seen to the present day. The country being still but thinly peopled, the necessity for removing the Indians, in large numbers, has not yet arisen; and their treatment by the Dominion Government has been more humane and just than in the United States. In consequence of all this, most of them remain in or near their original homes. Excepting those tribes which have
