THE ABORIGINAL POPULATION OF AMERICA 

 NORTH OF MEXICO 



By JAMES MOONEY 



PREFACE 



BY JOHN R. SWANTON 



When the Handbook of American Indians (Bull. 30, Bur. Amer. 

 Ethnol.) was in course of preparation, the article on " Population " 

 was assigned to Mr. James Mooney, and he entered upon the inves- 

 tigation of this problem in his accustomed serious and thorough man- 

 ner. Soon, however, he found that the task grew to unexpected 

 proportions, his interest growing with it, and finally it was decided 

 to prepare a short article for the Handbook, embodying the main 

 results of his researches, and to publish a more complete statement 

 in the form of a bulletin. Mr. Mooney's untimely death in 1921 

 prevented the completion of this latter project, but he had made 

 provisional detailed estimates which, fortunately, have been preserved. 



The region covered by this projected bulletin was naturally that 

 which the Handbook had undertaken to treat, all of America north 

 of the Mexican boundary. Mr. J\Iooney planned to divide this into 

 a certain number of natural sections, discuss the population of each 

 in turn, first generally and then tribally, and conclude with a detailed 

 table giving figures at the period when disturbances from European 

 sources began and again at the period of writing or some nearby 

 date for which census figures were available. The discussion of the 

 first two sections then contemplated by him, the New England area, 

 and the territory covered by New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, 

 was completed and typewritten, as was the table to accompany the 

 study of the former, but at this point Mr. Mooney's work seems 

 to have been interrupted and all that remains of the other sections 

 of the more comprehensive undertaking is contained in loose notes, 

 with which practically nothing can be done. 



But, whether for use in the Handbook or for some other urgent 

 purpose, Mr. Mooney decided to prepare (1908-9), a briefer state- 

 ment of the Indian population embodying the principal results of 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, vol. 80, No. 7 



