Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/117

Rh After making due allowance for the remote location of some of the oldest agencies, this table shows very conclusively that the mixed bloods are most numerous in those tribes that have been longest in contact with the white race. This is illustrated by the first seven agencies. Of course this is quite natural, but it demonstrates still further that in the older agencies, like those of New York, Green Bay, and Mackinac, there are nearly as many mixed as pure bloods. This is indeed surprising, for, if we consider the fact of the increase of the mixed bloods in connection with the fact that the pure Indian is probably decreasing in numbers, it is quite evident that the day will not be far distant when the remnant of the once proud American Indian will be incorporated into the white race.

This, then, so far as the American Indian is concerned, is the natural drift of things as best it can be divined at the present time, and that which becomes of absorbing interest to us is the question of the stability of this new product. Will it be better able to resist disease and death than the original Indian stock, or will it, like the latter, tend to disappear because there is a want of harmony between itself and its surroundings? While this question can not be determined positively on account of a lack of reliable statistics, there are reasons for believing that the offspring of such an alliance is stronger and more vigorous than the pure Indian. This is in accord with what might have been expected on a priori grounds alone, for the mixture of a lower with a higher blood will certainly improve the nature of the former, while it will just as certainly impair that of the latter.

The experience of the teachers of the Lincoln Institution confirms the views here expressed, that the mixed Indian is more exempt from pulmonary disease than the pure Indian; and, further, that if the former are attacked by disease, they offer greater constitutional resistance to it than the latter. This view is also confirmed by the large experience of Captain R. H. Pratt, Superintendent of the Carlisle Indian School, who says in his last report: "Our experience is, that the mixed bloods resist disease and death from pulmonary troubles better than the full-bloods; and our best health conditions are found among those we send out into families—due, I think, very largely to the regular occupation and varied diet."

Similar views have been expressed by others who have resided among the mixed or half-breed races in the northwestern part of Canada. These people are said to be strong and hearty, long-lived, and not subject to disease, so long as they remain in