POPULAR ERRORS. Before proceeding further in the subject, it is important to refute certain popular errors which must be eradicated, in order to properly understand and appreciate the Indian situation. INDIAN POPULATION. There are over two hundred and seventy-five thousand Indians in the United States exclusive of those in Alaska. They are not dying out nor are they decreasing in numbers, and the tribes which are most civilized are steadily increasing in population and wealth. On this point all the best recent authorities agree. Bancroft (chap. XXII, vol. 3), in his history of the United States, estimates that the maximum Indian population east of the Mississippi and south of the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes was, in the early part of the 17th Century, not over 180,000. Prof. Seelye, of Amherst College, has lately written : "The present number of Indians in the United States does not exceed three hundred thousand, but is possibly as large now as when the Europeans began the settlement of the North American Continent. Different tribes then existing have dwindled and some have become extinct, but there is reason to believe that the vast territory, now occupied by the United States, if not a howling wilderness, was largely an unpeopled solitude." * Col. Garrick Mallery, in a recent paper, has considered this question much in detail. † On the general question of Indian population, he says: "The conclusions submitted are that the native population of the territory occupied by the United States at its discovery has been wildly over-estimated, that while many " * Preface to "Century of Dishonor" 1881. + "Former and Present Number of Our Indians," published in proceedings of "American Association for Advancement of Science." Nashville Meeting, 1877, vol. xxvi, p. 340-66. of its component bodies have diminished or been destroyed by oppression and violence, their loss has been in large part compensated by gain among others, that the 'blight' and 'withering,' or ferae naturae theory, is proved absolutely false, and that though some temporary retrogradation must always be expected amongst individual tribes at the crises of their transition from savagery or barbarism to more civilized habits; yet now the number of our Indians is on the increase and will naturally so continue unless repressed by causes not attributable to civilization, but to criminal mis-government, until their final absorption into the wondrous amalgam of all earth's peoples which the destiny of this country may possibly effect." Col. Mallery treats the subject in considerable detail and gives the most reliable statistics by way of comparison with the wild over-estimates by various writers of the population of a number of the principal tribes. Some of the estimates may be useful here. SEMINOLES. Take the case of the Seminoles. In 1822, Sprague estimated them at 3899. In 1834, a Committee of Congress reported their numbers at 5000. In 1835, President Jackson calculated the number of warriors at 400. This would make the population 2000. In the same year the Secretary of War stated the number of warriors to be 750, or 3500 souls in all. Now, whatever their numbers may have been, it is a very striking and impressive commentary on Indian affairs to reflect that this tribe for seven years defied, in Florida, the whole force of the Federal Government. Nearly every regular regiment was at one time or another engaged in this war, besides marines and sailors. In addition to all this, it seems almost incredible, yet is nevertheless true, that nearly 50,000 volunteers at different times and for different terms of service, took part in the struggle. During its continuance, in a Congressional debate on the authority of a General officer, their warriors were said to be 2000, making a total population of 10,000. Doubt less, this was to counter-balance the unpalatable facts, that $30,000,000 were expended and 3000 lives lost in this contest. Col. Mallery considers President Jackson's estimate about right and adds: "With all the losses of two wars, those remaining in the United States have, in forty years, more than doubled in numbers." THE SIOUX. In 1736, the French estimated the Dakota Sioux at 12,000. In 1766, Captain Carver thought them not so numerous. In the year 1847, Schoolcraft considered the population to be 21,000. In 1876, on the authority of the Indian Commission, the Dominion Bureau and the reports of army officers, Col. Mallery says: "The actual strength of the Sioux Confederacy in the United States and Canada, cannot be less than 50,000. If the French were right in 1736, this body has quadrupled in 140 years. Without, however, relying on any comparison of estimates, it is enough to quote the report of the missionaries, who have lived continuously for the last half century among the Sioux, that they have increased onethird during that time." * * * IROQUOIS. The Iroquois first called the "Five" and afterwards the “Six” nations—a representative body of Indians, according to Dr. Lewis H. Morgan,* numbered in 1650, not less than 25,000. Yet the same author afterwards † expressed the opinion, that the "League of the Iroquois." "Ancient Society." entire Indian population of New York, did not, at any time, exceed that number. In the year 1677, Wentworth Greenhalgh made a kind of census of the Iroquois and found them to number 2150 warriors, or 10,750 souls in all. In 1763, Sir William Johnson estimated them at 2330 warriors, or 11,650 all told. According to the United States official reports for the year 1877, they numbered 6715, while for 1876, the Canada reports show 6953, making a total in the United States and Canada of 13,668, thus showing a small increase in numbers. CHEROKEES. Of this tribe, it is said, that no accurate census was ever made until 1809, when they were found to number 12,395. The Indian Bureau reports showed their population in 1876 to be 21,072, notwithstanding their great losses during the rebellion. CONFUSING NOMENCLATURE. Colonel Mallery suggests, that the exaggerated population theory-both as to original numbers and subsequent decreaseis, to a great extent, due to the numerous aliases of some tribes. On this point he says: "Besides the name by which each tribe called itself, its several neighbors on all sides gave it one wholly different, and as met by the Spanish, French and English, a new title was either independently coined, or one of those first encountered, adopted or translated with ever-varying pronunciation and orthography, so as soon to defy the recognition of etymologists." He then gives the following examples : The Mohawks were called also, Anies, Agniers, Agnierrhonons, Sankhicans, Conungas, Mauguawogs, Makwaes and Ganeagaonhoh. The Oneidas were also known as, Oneotas, Onoyats, Anoyints, Onneiouts, O-na-yote-ka-o-no and Onorochrhonous. The Senacas were also named Sinnikes, Chennissies, Genessees, Chenendoanes, Tsonnontouans, Ienontowanos and Nundawaronoh, Doubtless the reader is now satisfied that the Indian race is not dying out. THE PROPORTION OF MARAUDING INDIANS. Since the inauguration by General Grant, of the "Peace Policy," the number of Indians marauding has at no time exceeded a few hundred, and sometimes has been reduced to a very inconsiderable number. It will doubtless startle most readers to know that, taking the average of the last ten years, the percentage of marauding Indians to the entire Indian population has been less than the percentage of the criminal classes in prisons, reformatories and houses of correction to the entire population in municipalities both here and abroad. It is difficult to obtain exact statistics, particularly in the n the United States, in an accessible form, but notwithstanding all the influences of Church and State, and all the civilizing agencies of these great centres of population, it is very clear that in lawlessness the odds are greatly in favor of the Indians. During the period mentioned the average of marauding Indians has been less than one out of every thousand ! Compare this with civilization's criminal statistics. Its population is under 900,000. If it had no greater ratio of criminals than the Indians have of marauders, the number would not exceed 900. But what are the facts? On September 30th, 1880, Philadelphia had nearly 2,400 criminals—young and old, great and small-in actual confine ment! * Who can estimate the number at large? *Eastern Penitentiary (from Philadelphia County), about County Prison (convicts and awaiting trial) House of Correction House of Refuge Total, |