POPULATION. The theory of a former large Indian population has been found to be erroneous, but on the other hand the frequent assertion that the Indian has held his own, or is even increas ing, is equally incorrect. It must be remembered that the Indian of the discovery was a full-blood, while the officially recognized Indian of to-day may be full-blood, mixed-blood, white man, or negro.
The population varied according to the district, being naturally greatest along the coast, and in rich agricultural regions where the means of subsistence were most abundant. The best sum marizing of trustworthy early writers would seem to make the original Indian population east of the Mississippi about 200,000. Beyond this we have no reliable data for any large area, al though it may be noted that so careful an ob server as Powers estimates the Indian population of California just before the gold discovery to have been greater than that of all the rest of the United States together. Some examples may serve to show the terrible decrease in almost every section since the advent of the white man, taking only tribes still in existence, and making no account of tribes and whole linguistic stocks which have utterly disappeared.
In 1701 Lawson crossed the Carolinas from Charleston to Albemarle Sound, meeting in his journey sixteen different tribes. Of these only two have any representatives to-day, viz. the Tus carora and Catawba. The Tuscarora at that time were estimated at 1200 warriors. They number to-day, all told, perhaps 700, of whom probably not one-fourth could make a valid claim to pure blood. The Catawba, who about the first settle ment of Carolina had 1500 warriors, were reduced by 1743 to 400 warriors, in 1775 to about 100 warriors, and now number altogether about 100 souls, of whom hardly a dozen are of pure blood. Furthermore, the Catawba themselves in 1743 represented all that were left of more than twenty broken tribes.
The tribes of the ancient Iroquois league, with the larger tribes of the Gulf States, the latter now constituting the five civilized tribes of the Trdian Territory, seem to form exceptions to the general bistoi y of aboriginal extermination, their numbers now being apparently as great as at any previous era. The figures are deceptive,
however, for the reason that an overwhelming majority of those now so enrolled are mixed bloods—sometimes with but an infinitesimal pro portion of Indian blood—adopted whites, negroes. or Indians of other tribes. Thus in 1890 the so called 'Cherokee Nation' of 27.000 souls included 2000 adopted whites. 3000 adopted negroes, and about 1500 Indians of other tribes, while those of full Cherokee blood were estimated at not more than one-fifth of the remainder. Since then the rolls have been swelled by the compulsory admis sion of some 7000 claimants repeatedly repudi ated by the tribal Government.
On the plains the decrease has been appalling. The confederated Mandan. :klinitarf. and Arikara in 1SO4 numbered nearly S000 souls in eight vil lages. In 1900 they were 110 in one village. The Osage and Kaw at the previous date were esti mated on good authority at 6300 and 1390 respec tively. In 1900 they numbered 1751 and 217. in cluding all mixed-bloods. The Pawnee numbered over 12,000 in 1534, S400 in 1547. 3416 in 1961. 1440 in 1879, and 650 in 1900. The Tonka•a were estimated at 1000 in 1505. 700 in 1849. counted 314 it IS61, 108 in 13S2, and now nunu her but 51. The confederated Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache have decreased over 10 per cent. since 1690. The Navaho and Ilopi, who as yet have remained almost mlisturbed, seem to hold their own, but in California the native population has been almost wiped out. All that remain of s(ane twenty tribes of the Oregon coast are now gathered upon Siletz reservation to the number of 482 in 1000, with the record for the year of •2 births and 31 deaths. On the North Pacific coast the Aleuts have dwindled within a century from an estimated 25,000 to a present 2000. The cele brated liaida, with 30 villages and 7000 souls in 15•0. are now reduced to two villages with a population of but 600.
The chief destruction has been from changed conditions, new diseases and dissipation intro duced by the white man. The present Indian population north of :Mexico, according to the best official estimates, is approximately as fol lows: United States proper, 260,000; 'British America. 100,000; Alaska, 20,000; or a total considerably under 400,000 souls.