TEE INDIAN'S HEALTH PROBLEM 49 



THE INDIAN'S HEALTH PROBLEM 



By CHARLES A. EASTMAN, M.D. (OHIYESA) 



AMHEBST, MASS. 



THE ph3'sical decline and alarming death rate of the American 

 Indian of to-day is perhaps the most serious and urgent of the 

 many problems that confront him at the present time. The death rate 

 is stated by government officials at about 30 per thousand of the popula- 

 tion — double the average rate among white Americans. From the same 

 source we learn that about 70,000 in the United States are sufEering 

 from trachoma, a serious and contagious eye disease, and probably 30,- 

 000 have tuberculosis in some form. The death rate from tuberculosis 

 is almost three times that among the whites. 



These are grave facts, and cause deep anxiety to the intelligent In- 

 dian and to the friends of the race. Some hold pessimistic views look- 

 ing 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 increase in the total number of Indians. Nor is 

 this increase among mixed-bloods alone; the full-blooded Indians are 

 also increasing in numbers. This indicates that the race has reached 

 and passed the lowest point of its decline, and is beginning slowly but 

 surely to recuperate. 



The Change to Eeservation Life 



The health situation on the reservations was undoubtedly even worse 

 twenty years ago than it is to-day, but at that period little was heard 

 and still less done about it. It is well known that the wild Indian had 

 to undergo tremendous and abrupt changes in his mode of living. He 

 suffered severely from an indoor and sedentary life, too much artificial 

 heat, too much clothing, impure air, limited space, indigestible food — 

 indigestible because he did not know how to prepare it, and in itself 

 poor food for him. He was compelled often to eat diseased cattle, 

 moldy flour, rancid bacon, with which he drank large quantities of strong 

 coffee. In a word, he lived a squalid life, unclean and apathetic physi- 

 cally, mentally and spiritually. 



This does not mean all Indians — a few, like the Navajoes, have re- 

 tained their native vigor and independence — I refer to the typical 

 "agency Indian" of the Northwest. He drove ten to sixty miles to the 

 agency for food; every week end at some agencies, at others every two 



VOL. LXXXVI.— 4. 



