— 150— 
TheIndians nent, usually straight, but sometimes with the Roman 
bend. The cheek bones are very high and prominent, 
the chin almost square. The beard is thin, the chief 
reason for which may be their habit of plucking it 
out early. 
There has been much fabulous talk about the In- 
dian character. Some pose them as Roman heroes 
and unspoiled sons of Nature; others as cowards 
and the scum of humanity. The truth is between 
these extremes. First of all, we must differentiate 
between the Indians with some of the varnish of civi- 
lization and the cruder but freer tribes of the Far 
West. The former have no longer a marked char- 
acter. The pursuit of agriculture, forced on them 
by necessity, has eradicated the virile traits of their 
old hunter’s life, without inoculating them with the 
mild poison of civilization. To get a correct con- 
ception of the character of the freer North American 
Indian tribes, let us consider somewhat more closely 
the mode of life and customs common to them all. 
The Indians inhabiting the western territories of 
the United States are split into numerous separate 
tribes, that consider themselves entirely independent 
of each other. They all live by hunting, especially 
buffalo hunting; and each tribe claims a wide terri- 
tory with very vague boundaries as its own. In ad- 
dition they recognize certain districts, where buffalo 
usually abound, as common hunting and war ground, 
where various tribes roam at will, subjecting their 
conflicting rights to the test of strength. Between 
