Page:EB1911 - Volume 14.djvu/494

Rh

From the tables it will be seen that the American Indians in some parts of North America are not decreasing, but either holding their own or even increasing; also that thousands of them are now to all intents and purposes the equals in wealth, thrift, industry and intelligence

of the average white man and citizens with him in the same society. In certain regions of the continent small tribes have been annihilated in the course of wars with other Indians or with the whites, and others have been decimated by disease, famine, &c.; and over large areas the aboriginal population, according to some authorities, has vastly diminished. Thus Morice estimates that the Athabaskan population at present in Canada (about 20,000) is less than one-seventh of what it was a century or more ago; Hill-Tout thinks the Salishan tribes (c. 15,000) number not one-fifth of their population a hundred years ago, and equally great reductions are claimed for some other peoples of the North Pacific region; Kroeber thinks probable an Indian population in California of 150,000 before the arrival of the whites, as compared with but 15,000 now; by some the arid regions of the south-west are supposed to have sustained a very large population in earlier times; certain of the Plains tribes are known to have lost much in population since contact with the whites. But under better care and more favourable conditions generally some tribes seem to be taking on a new lease of life and are apparently beginning to thrive again. A considerable portion of the “disappearance” of the Indian is through amalgamation with the whites. Undoubtedly, in some parts of the country, exaggerated ideas prevalent in the early colonial period as to the numbers of the native population have interfered with a correct estimate of the aborigines past and present. Mooney thinks that the Cherokee “are probably about as numerous now as at any period in their history” (Hndb. Amer. Inds., 1907, pt. i. p. 247), and this is perhaps true also of some other tribes east of the Mississippi. Major J. W. Powell was of opinion that the Indian population north of Mexico is as large to-day as it was at the time of the discovery. This, however, is not the view of the majority of authorities. The total number of Indians in Canada (Ann. Rep. Dept. Ind. Aff., 1907) for 1907 is given as 110,345, as compared with 109,394 for the previous year, not including the Micmac in Newfoundland and the Indians and Eskimo in that part of Labrador belonging to Newfoundland. In 1903 the figures were 108,233. The gain may be largely due to more careful enumeration of Indians in the less well-known parts of the country, but there is evidently no marked decrease going on, but rather a slight increase in

Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, &c. In the United States (exclusive of Alaska, which counts about 30,000) the Indian population (Ann. Rep. Ind. Aff., 1906) is estimated at 197,289, no including the “Five Civilized Tribes,” of whose numbers (94,292) some 65,000 can be reckoned as Indians—a total of 382,000. The figures of 197,289, according to the report, show an increase in population “due mainly to increase in number of Indians reported from California.”

While the general constitution of the American aborigines north of Mexico is such as to justify their designation as one “American race,” whose nearest congener is to be found in