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Show THE INDIAN'3 FOTOSH. j It is vory generally believed that the Indians of this couytry are diaap j pcaring; that the increase is not equal j to the decrease, and that the aborigi-. nos are rapidly becoming extiuct. ' Fticts aud figures do not sustain this popular beliof. Last year the govern-, meat commissionerof education, John Eiton, prepared and submitted to Commissioner Hayt estimates of the . ludian population. These have been ; published, and afford, perhaps, the beat attainable basis of fact3 for the opposite theory to the one above, that the red man is destined to absolute -.1 flf ll glfamnll In trace the advance or decline ol the Indian population are attended with difficulties; aud gueaa work I muBt he resorted to in a groater or less degree. However, the figures ob tainable are sufficiently correct to warrant the belief that the Indiana, if they are not increasing in number are at least holding their own. Ba tween 1789 and 1S7G eighteen estimates esti-mates of the Indian population were made. The information contained in these cannot be considered as a faithful statement of the red men in t,n ni.iml.rv Da in frpniifmt IO' stances the area covered in one census differed from that covered in a previous one; and the good judment of the estimator Q3ceisanly forms n important ele ment io the calculation. The estimates estim-ates previous to 1S50 did not include the Texas tribes and those of the Rocky Mountain and Sierra Nevada stales and territories beiug the country won from Mexico. Tho tablta since that date a,re as follows: I860 Report of II. K. .School - craft, - 388,220 1853 Boi-orl of United Mutes consu, 1850 40J,76f 1855... Report of Indian otBce 3H,(U2 lbi7- Kepo.-t of 11. K bchcol- cril 379,264 1860-ucpo.tof IndU'i office 2ol,bt)0 IStii Report of Indian cflico 294 574 1S70- Kouort of United iStalcj censui 313,712 1870 Iteunrt of I"diau olhce U13.371 1875 Kepoui'f Indian uffico 306,008 1316 Report of Indian otlica .... 2Jl,8tiJ The apparent decrease in lS7Gisdue to the nan enumeration of the Daco-tanuand Daco-tanuand Indians at war with the government. gov-ernment. Therefore, accepting these figures a3 approximating to the true ones, we may assume that the Indians are not becoming extinct very rapidly. ' The examination of particular tribes ia aljo argument against the dying-! out theory. Iu the estim ite of 1S21 the Seminole were set down at 4.560; in 1835 tuey had decreased to 2,083; tea years later they were 3,000; in 1S60, 2,267, and io '70 had come up to 2,553. The Iroquois were esli-mtted esli-mtted at 11.700 in 1G60; in 1703, at 11,650, and last year, they actually numbered 0,715 in the United States and 6,950 iu Canada, being acondiderable locrerfea. Other tribes whbre exct figures can be obtatneu m-iKe snowing similar to the Iwj noticed. Ttie Sioux, perhaps the mot powerful branch ol aborigines in the ojuutry, have never been correctly ea imated; bat Mi. Eaton says that from the best information attainable, being the tes timony of missionaries, he thinks the Sioux are steadily increasing, despite their wars. It ia certain that the proportion of births and deal ha among Indians, when the estimates can be correctly taken, shows a steady in crease of aboriginal population. At the principal reservations, aud among the tribes more friend y and immediately immedi-ately under the control ol govern ment, these birth and death statistics i i ...i.. .-,; inTj have beeu taken annually since lot i, the figures showing as above stated. These figures indicate that the Iu diios would soon become a most powerful pow-erful element in the couctry were a difJ-irent policy pursued with them. The extraordinary number of deaths among them are due chiefly to inlec-tious inlec-tious diseases and famine. Toe first ul these government haa never eeri-ously eeri-ously interested itself to prevent; and its efforts to remedy the latter have not been as complete as they should have been considering the money that has been spent in the matter. If it is desirable to protect the aborigines aborig-ines and preserve them from extinc-tiau, extinc-tiau, it seems that a wiser treatment should be adopted. The scourges of disease ought at least to be prevented, aud if it is necessary to fight them, the slaughter should be only euoh as will bring them into subjection. |