Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 7.djvu/832

 INDIANS

754

INDIANS

flesh from the I)ones, which were then wrapped in a bundle and kept in a box within the dwelUng. Tree, scaffold, and cave l)urial were common on the plains and in the mountains, while cremation was the rule in the arid regions farther to the west and south-west. Northward from the Columbia the body was deposited in a canoe raised upon posts, while cave burial re- appeared among the Aleut of Alaska, and earth burial among the Eskimo, The dread of mentioning the name of the dead was as imiversal as the custom of destroying the property of the deceased, even to the killing of his horse or dog, while the custom of placing food near the grave for the spirit during the journey to the other world was almost as conmion. Lacera- tion of the body, cutting off of the hair, general neglect

Comanche Wakkiok and Wife in Full Uhess of the person, and ceremonial wailing, morning and evening, sometimes for weeks, were also parts of their funeral customs.

Language and Population. Seiirly two hundred native languages, besides minor dialects, were spoken north of Mexico, clas.sified into fifty-one distinct linguistic .stocks, as given below, of which nearly one- half were represented in Califoniia. Those marked with an asterisk are extinct, while several others are now reduced to less than a dozen individuals keeping the language: .Mgonquian, Athapascan (D^n6), Attacapan, *Beothukan, t'addoan, Chimakuan, *rhi- marikan, C'himmesvan, Chinookan, Chitimachan, (Wintun), Costanoan, Eskimauan, *Esselenian, Iro- quoian, Kalapooian, *Karankawan. Keresan, Kiowan, Kitunahan, Kolu.schan (Tlingit), Kulanapan (Pomo), Muskogean, Pujunan (.Maidu), Quoratean (Karok), Skittagctan (Haida), Takilman, *Timucuan, *Toni- kan, Tonkawan, Uchean, *Waiilatpuan (Caynse), Wakashan (Nootka), Washoan, Weitspekan (Yurok), Wishoskan, Yakonan, *Yanan (Nosi), Yukian, Y'u- man. Zufiian.
 * ('humashan, *Coa'huiltecan (Pakawa), Copehan
 * Kusan, Mariposan (Yokuts), .Moquelumnan (Miwok)
 * Salinan, Salishan. Shahaptian, Shoshonean, Siouan,

While the Indian population was never dense, the idea that the Indian has held his own, or even actually

increased in number, is a .serious error, founded upon the fact that most official estimates begin with the Federal period, when the native race was already wasted by nearly three centuries of white contact and in many regions entirely extinct. An additional source of error is the fact that the law recognizes anyone of even remote Indian ancestry as entitled to Indian rights, including in this category, especially in the former " Five Civilized Nations" of Indian Terri- tory (now Oklahoma), several thousand individuals who.se claims have always been stoutly repudiated by the native tribal courts. Moreover, the original Indian was a full-blood, while his present-day repre- sentative has often so little aboriginal blood as to be practically a white man or a negro. Many broken tribes of to-day contain not a singU' full-lilood, and some few not even one of half Indian blood. The Cherokee Nation, officially reported to number :{6,000 persons of pure or mixed Cherokee lilood contains probably not 4U(X) of even fairly pure blood, the rest being of all degrees of admixture down even to ono- sixty-fourth or less of Indian blood, besides some 7000 claimants officially recognized, but repudiated by the former Indian Government. In Massachu.'^etts ail official census in IStiO reported a " Yarmouth tribe" of lO.'j persons, all descended from a single Indian woman with a negro hu.sband residing there in 1797. It is obvious that the term Indian cannot properly be applied to such diluted mixtures.

The entire aboriginal population of Florida, of the mission period, numbermg perhaps :i,000, is long since extinct without descendants, the Seminole being a later emigration from the Creeks. The ab- origines of South Carolina, coimting in 1700 some fifteen tribes, of which the Catawba, the largest tribe, numbered some six thousand souls, are represented to-day by about a hundred mixed-blood Cata\vba, togethi'r with some scattered mongrels, whose original ancestry is a matter of doubt.

The same holds good upon the plains. The cele- brated Pawnee tribe of some 10,000 souls in l.S:5<S is now reduced to 050; the Kansa of 1-500 within the same period have now not 200 souls; and the abo- rigines of Texas, numbering in 17(10 jierhaps 40,000 souls in many small tribes with distinct languages, is extinct except for some itOO Caddo. Wichita, and Ton- kawa. The last-named, estimated at 1000 in 1S0.5 numbered 700 in ls4i). :il4 in IMil, lOS in 1SS2, and 4S in lOOS, incUiding .several aliens. Iii California the aboriginal population has decrea.sed within the same period from perhaps a quarter of a million to about 15,000, and nearly the same proportion of decrease holds good along the whole Pacific Coast into .\laska. Not merely have tribes dwindled, but wlmlf lin- guistic stocks have become extinct within the historic period. The only apparent exceptions to the general rule of decay are the Iroquois, Sioux, and Navaho, the first two of whom have kept up their mimber by wholesale adoptions, while the Navaho have been preserved by their isolation. The causes of decrease may be surnmarizcd as: (1) introduced diseases and dissipation, particularly smallpox, sexual diseases, and whisky; (2) wars, also hardship and general enfeeblement consequent upon frequent removals and enforced change from accustomed habit. The present Indian population north of Mexico is approxi- mately 400,000, of whom about 265,000 are within the United States proper.

.\RCTlc, .\LASKA. BRITISH .\merica.— Back, Arrlif Land Ex- pedition IISSS-S) (London. ls:jO); H. H. B.^Nl■ROFT, Hi^l. of ■ilntka (.'fan Fr.<inci-sco. 1SS6); Iue.m, Hi.il. o; Ihr .\nrlhwrsl Coiml (2 vols. San Francisco, 1886): Idem. //wI. of Brittsh Columlnn (rtan Francisco, 1887): Boas, StiiwA Tribes of Ike Interior o/ lir. Columbia in Can. Arch. Rept. (Toronto. 190.5): Idem, tndwn iMunuages of Canada, ibid.; Idem. Social Orpnnnatwn nf the Kwakiull in Repl. Nat. Mus. (Washington. 18<)<): Idem, J he Central Efkimo in Sixth Rept. Bu. Am. Eth. (Wa.shinKton. 1888); Idem, Tribes of the North Pacific Coast in Can. Arch. Rept. (To- ronto, 1905): Idem. Mi/thology of the Bella Coola Indians in Am. Mus. Mem. (New York, 1898); Idem, KwakiuU Textt in Am.