INDIANS, AMERICAN. The name applied first by Columbus and his immediate successors to the natives of the newly discovered islands and mainland of America, under the mistaken im pression that these regions were a part of the outlying roast of Asia. The name most fre quently used by scientific writers, especially in Europe, is simply A merican. while the term merind has recently been suggested as a substi tute. Recent authorities class the Eskimo with the yellow rather than with the red races: the reader will find them treated under EsioNfo.
Granting the exi-tenee of a group of charae teristic races which may be termed American, the problem of their origin remains unsolved. It is almost certain that no common origin for all of them can be assumed, but that various sources of population and centres of dispersion must be considered. Failing accurate knowledge of the geological conditions existing in earlier epochs, the Twist probable soarers of immigration were Asia by way of the northwest coast of North America. Europe by way of Greenland. and the general region of Polynesia by way of South America. There are vorrespondences in physical types and cultures which tend to support particularly the idea of Asiatic and Polynesian relations. However, the theory of the Americas as an independent centre of origin has much in its favor, and must be taken into amount. For example. the Eskimo, who form a strikingly homogeneous group wherever found. would ap pear from the evidence to have occupied, in for mer times. the territory in the neighborhood of Hudson Bay, and to have spread from that focus north and east and west, followirm the Arctic coast-line. and it is unquestioned that the
Asiatic group of Eskimo is of American origin.
III short, the problem i- complex and deals with a very remote period, which prevents satisfactory treatment. 'Hie most popular explanation is, of course, that of Asiatic origin, based upon the striking similarities in type amid culture which are evident to even superficial ukervattion. It most be remembered. however, that any relation is mutual. and it is quite as easy to argue for an Asiatic origin from America as for :III American from Asia.
A striking characteristic of the race is the marked uniformity of physical type throughout the two continents of North and South America. III general the color is brown, frequently with reddish tint, light in some tribes and lark in others. The hair is glossy black, either straight or slightly wavy, and baldness is al most unknown. The beard is usually scanty. and is seldom allowed to grow, although a light mustache is somewhat common. The •ied:lames are prominent: the nose usually good, and in some tribes strongly aquiline: the eves dark and apparently small, from being held less open than in the white man. In cubical brain capacity and structural development the Dalian hold- it middle place between the white man and the negro. In mental capacity, physical strength and en durance, as well as in vital force to resist i r overcome disease, he is far below the white man.