| OCR Text |
Show LESSER INDIAN DEATH RATE Statistics Seem to Show That the Race Is Beginning to Build Up Again. The physical decline and the alarm- tng death rate of the American Indian In-dian of today is perhaps the most serious seri-ous and urgent of the many problems tliat confront him at the present time. The death rate Is stated by government govern-ment officials at about thirty per thousand thou-sand of the population double the average rate among white Americans. From the same source we -learn that about seventy thousand in the United States are suffering from trachoma, a serious and contagious eye disease, and .probably thirty thousand have tuberculosis in some form. The death rate from tuberculosis la almost three times that among the whites. These are grave facts and cause deep anxiety to the intelligent Indian and to the friends of the race. Some hold pessimistic views looking to Its early extinction; but these are not warranted by the outlook, for, In spite of the conditions named, the last three censuses show a slight but continuous con-tinuous Increase in the total number of Indians. Nor la this increase among mlxed-bloods mlxed-bloods alone; the full-blooded Indiana are also increasing In numbers. This Indicates that the race has reached and passed the lowest point of Its decline, de-cline, and is beginning slowly but surely sure-ly to recuperate. |
