THE FUTURE OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN. 107 



After making due allowance for the remote location of some 

 of the oldest agencies, this table shows very conclusively that 

 the mixed bloods are most numerous in those tribes that have 

 been longest in contact with the white race. This is illustrated 

 by the first seven agencies. Of course this is quite natural, but 

 it demonstrates still further that in the older agencies, like those 

 of New York, Green Bay, and Mackinac, there are nearly as 

 many mixed as pure bloods. This is indeed surprising, for, if we 

 consider the fact of the increase of the mixed bloods in connec- 

 tion with the fact that the pure Indian is probably decreasing in 

 numbers, it is quite evident that the day will not be far distant 

 when the remnant of the once proud American Indian will be in- 

 corporated into the white race. 



This, then, so far as the American Indian is concerned, is the 

 natural drift of things as best it can be divined at the present 

 time, and that which becomes of absorbing interest to us is the 

 question of the stability of this new product. Will it be better 

 able to resist disease and death than the original Indian stock, 

 or will it, like the latter, tend to disappear because there is a 

 want of harmony between itself and its surroundings ? While 

 this question can not be determined positively on account of a 

 lack of reliable statistics, there are reasons for believing that the 

 offspring of such an alliance is stronger and more vigorous than 

 the pure Indian. This is in accord with what might have been 

 expected on a jyriori grounds alone, for the mixture of a lower 

 with a higher blood will certainly improve the nature of the 

 former, while it will just as certainly impair that of the latter. 



The experience of the teachers of the Lincoln Institution 

 confirms the views here expressed, that the mixed Indian is more 

 exempt from pulmonary disease than the pure Indian ; and, fur- 

 ther, that if the former are attacked by disease, they offer greater 

 constitutional resistance to it than the latter. This view is also 

 confirmed by the large experience of Captain R. H. Pratt, Super- 

 intendent of the Carlisle Indian School, who says in his last re- 

 port : * " Our experience is, that the mixed bloods resist disease 

 and death from pulmonary troubles better than the full-bloods ; 

 and our best health conditions are found among those we send 

 out into families — due, I think, very largely to the regular occu- 

 pation and varied diet." 



Similar views have been expressed by others f who have re- 

 sided among the mixed or half-breed races in the northwestern 

 part of Canada. These people are said to be strong and hearty, 

 long-lived, and not subject to disease, so long as they remain in 



* See Report of Indian Commissioner for 1886, p. 22. 



f See "Mixed or Half-Breed Races of Northwestern Canada," by Dr. A. P. Eeid, 

 "Journal of the Anthropological Institute," 1874, vol. iv, p. 45. 



