12 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 8o 



THE PLAINS 



At the beginning of regular white occupancy the Plains territory, 

 from the Canadian border to the Gulf, with some overlapping on 

 the east into the timber land, was held by some 32 tribes, confed- 

 eracies or tribal groups. For convenience these may be classified as 

 Northern and Southern ; the first including all those south of the 

 Red River of the North within territory dominated in the early 

 period by French and English influence, while the second includes 

 those of Texas and adjacent regions formerly subject chiefly to 

 Spanish influence. In the southern area the breakdown of aboriginal 

 conditions may be considered to have begun about 1690. In the north 

 it began nearly a century later, when many of the southern tribes 

 were already practically extinct. 



A detailed study for each tribe and group shows an aggregate 

 original population for the whole region of about 142,000 souls as 

 against the present official enumeration of about 53,000 souls, a 

 decrease of some 89,000 or about 60 per cent. The Sioux alone 

 have not only held their own, but have largely increased, by reason 

 of their greater resisting power and the adoption of numerous cap- 

 tives from weaker tribes. Leaving them out of both calculations 

 we should have for the others an original aggregate of about 117,000 

 souls as against about 25,000 souls today, a decrease of nearly 80 per 

 cent. It must be remembered that the original Indians were all full- 

 bloods, while whole tribes of today have a large percentage of 

 white blood. 



The chief causes of decrease have been smallpox or other epi- 

 demics of white origin ; removals, and restraints of mission and 

 reservation conditions ; liquor and general demoralization from con- 

 tact with civilization, and wars with the whites. The largest factor 

 has been smallpox, while the actual destruction by warfare seems of 

 minor importance, as the hostility of the warlike tribes saved them 

 from the demoralizing influences of intimate contact with the whites. 



The great epidemics in Plains history are as follows : 



i6gi. Epidemic of unknown character throughout east Texas and adjacent 



Louisiana, officially reported to have killed 3,000 of the southern Caddo 



alone. 

 1778. Smallpox ravaged same territory and nearly destroyed several small tribes. 

 1781-2. Smallpox over whole upper Missouri, Saskatchewan, Columbia and 



Great Slave Lake region, paralyzing the fur trade for two years. 

 iSoi. Smallpox swept the whole Plains, together with Louisiana from the 



Gulf to Dakota, with especial destruction in Texas and among the 



Omaha (see Sibley, and Lewis and Qark). 



