PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OP WASHINGTON. 115 



Mr. Gabrick Mallery commenced a paper on 



SOME COMMON ERRORS RESPECTING THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS, 



Mr. Alvord remarked on the disagreement between archaeo- 

 logists and others respecting the origin of the American Indians. 



132d Meeting. December 8, 187T. 



Vice-President Hilgard in the Chair. 

 Fifty-six members and visitors present. 

 Mr. Mallery continued his paper on 



SOME common errors RESPECTING THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 



(abstkact.) 



The traveller Catlin announced in his well-known Letters, dated 

 1839 — "the Indians of North America are copper colored . . . 

 were sixteen millions, and sent that number of daily prayers to 

 the Great Spirit, and thanks for his goodness and protection." 



The Sioux commission of 1876 urged, as an argument for po- 

 litical favor, that "the Indian is one of the few savage men who 

 clearly recognize the existence of a Great Spirit." 



De Tocqueville remarked of the American tribes — "there is 

 no instance on record of so rapid a destruction." 



The joint special committee of the two houses of Congress, in 

 1867, reported — "the Indians everywhere, with the exception of 

 the tribes within the Indian Territory, are rapidly decreasing in 

 numbers." 



McKenney and Hall in their magnificent work, published in 

 1S44, declare " all the tribes with wliich we are acquainted are 

 in a state of rapid and progressive diminution " 



One of the latest ethnological writers, Mr. Hubert H. Bancroft, 

 states in his " Native Races," with philosophic emphasis, " the 

 intercourse of civilized with savage people results in the disap- 

 pearance of civilization or the extinction of the barbaric race," 

 and bewails "all the millions of native Americans who have per- 

 ished under the withering influence of European civilization." 



These quotations exhibit some of the -most important current 

 errors regarding our aborigines. As read, the statements prob- 

 ably would receive general assent, but they are all seriously 

 incorrect. 



Mr. Catlin's designation of the color of copper for the Ameri- 

 22 



