Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/116

106 also acquiring some of the physiological peculiarities of the former. This blending of white and Indian blood is still further confirmed by the varied composition of the Indian male pupils in the Educational Home for Indian Boys in Philadelphia, as is shown by the report of this institution for 1886. From this source we learn that among the one hundred and seven boys there were only thirty-eight full-blooded Indians; of the remainder one was three fourths, sixty-one one half, and seven were one fourth white. Similar testimony comes from the reports of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. These reports not only show the existence of a very large proportion of mixed bloods among the 250,000 Indian population of this country, but also a marked increase of the former during the years 1885 and 1886—the only years in which a record of the total number of mixed bloods is supplied. Thus, in the year 1885 there were 18,412 and in 1886 there were 20,567 mixed bloods, an increase of more than 2,000 during one year. The pure Indian population for the former year was 259,244, and for the later 247,761, a decrease of over 11,000 during the same time.

It is furthermore evident from these reports that the number of mixed bloods in each agency is very naturally determined by the length of time which the Indians have been exposed to contact with the white race, as is shown by the following table, where are given the names of various agencies, the Indian population in each one, the number of mixed bloods in each, the proportion of mixed bloods to Indian population, and the dates of treaty:

—It may be stated that the dates of treaties may not be absolutely correct.—