194 



liTATIVE INDIAN POPULATION OF BRITISH AMERICA. 



[1853, 



fwa centuries ago, from sixty to seventy thousand souls. Yet he 

 gives as int'onnauts persons who had lived twentj' yeara among 

 them. Little reliance can be placed on the estimate — the ancient 

 C'oureurs dcs Bo/'s were addicted to romancing, and the habit of 

 perverting facts in reference to the more remote tribes they visit- 

 ed, by way of discouraging rivalry in theh lucrative trade, must 

 have clung to them when discussing those nearer home. Equally 

 apochryphal, I cannot but susj)ect, must be the 20,000 warriore 

 wliom King Oppecancanough somewhat earlier, is related to have 

 led against the settlers in Virginia. Yet these and other similar 

 estimates, wliich it would be easy to miiltipily, if they fail to fur- 

 nish a numerical basis for comparison, convey a general idea of 

 populousuess which, as compared with what is known to our 

 times, would justify anything that can be said as to the decline 

 of the race. "There are abundant proofs," says Cathn, "in the 

 History of the country, to which I need not at this time more 

 particularly refer, to show that, the very numerous and respecta- 

 ble isart of the human famih', which occupied the difl'ercnt parts 

 of North America, at the time of its first settlement by Anglo 

 Americans, contained more than fourteen millions, who have 

 been reduced since that time, and undoubtedly in consequence of 

 that settlement, to somethinr/ less than two millions.'' (Catlin II., 

 p. 238.) In the elaborate alphabetical enumeration of Indian 

 tribes and Nations, upward of 400 in number, prefixed to Drake's 

 ■well-known Book of the Indians: 10th Edit., 1848. — we find the 

 estimated numbers of a large proportion of them state;!, but being 

 of a great variety of dates, and the data probably of very varia- 

 ble authority, no general estimate can be based on it, without an 

 analysis much more laborious, than the result is likely to be 

 accurate. 



In the course of a conple of summers spent a few years ago in 

 the Hudson's Bay territor}', I took pains to arrive at an estimate 

 of the actual numbers of Indians inhabiting that country, by 

 enquiries among the resident traders, and by procuring when- 

 ever possible, a specific statement of the number of huutei's fre- 

 quenting each Post, the number of young unmarried men, and 

 an estimate of their families. The two first were, no doubt, 

 ascertained very correctlj', as far as the enquiry went; the last 

 does not admit of much doubt. With respect to the districts 

 which I visited but from which I did not procure these data, it 

 is not diflicult to base a tolerable apprii\imatiou on the informa- 

 tion derived from observation and inquiry, and in respect to those 

 which I did not \ isit, which however form but a small part of 

 the territory, I am guided in the estimate by the focts that where 

 there are no trading posts, there ai-e no Indians, and that where 

 there are trading posts, all the Indians of the disti-ict frequent 

 them, habit having rendered the articles of European trade es- 

 sential to their existence; consequently we may infer the num- 

 ber frequenting any given post, pretty nearly, when the scale of 

 the establishment is known. There are, pei'haps, a few exceptions 

 to this remark in the district of Mackenzie's Ri\er, where our 

 interconi'se with many tribes is of recent oiigin ; but it is ti'ue 

 almo.st eveiywhei'c else. Whenever a conjectural addition was 

 made, by well-informed pei«ons, on the spot, to the more precise 

 numbers, it has been included in the following enumeration. 



The British territory in relation to its native population, may 

 be divided into four regions. J<^irst. — The region west of 

 the Rocky Mountains, and north of the ]5arallel of 49 ° . Second. 

 — The region east of the Rocky Mountains, but north of the par- 

 allel of 55 ° ; the whole of which is inhabited by tribes of a com- 

 mon origin, and grou]ied by Ethnologi-sts under the generic 

 designation of " Tinne." Third. — The region fi'om the ]iarallcl 

 of 55 ° to 49 ° , occupied ])artly by tribes of what is called the 

 Eythinyuwuk or Algonquin stock, and jiartl}' by tribes of an 

 intrusive race kindred to the Iroquois or Fi\e Nations. Lastlr, 

 — the British Colonies. 



Beginning with the Second of these subdivisions, we have — 

 North of Latitude 55 ° : 



*Frankliu gave, in 1820, 685 hunters 



t Franklin rated them at 200 men and boys. 



The foregoing enumeration, although it embraces a large extent 

 of country, does not bring us into contact with the more luuner- 

 ous tribes, which are to be found only on the plains, where count- 

 less herds of Bufiiilo furnish ample means of subsistence. With- 

 out going into any nicety of classification, founded upon affinities 

 of race, upon which subject Dr. Latham and Sh John Richard- 

 son, (Aictic Expedition,) have given much inforiuation the 

 tribes are inferred to here by the designiations they commonlj'- 

 bear among the tradere. iMr. Han-iet, "then, a gentleman who 

 had passed his life among them, estimated the six or seven tribes 

 going by the general name of Blackfeet, as mustering 1,000 

 to 1,700 tents, at 8 per tent, 13,200. 



Ml'. Rowand, one of the oldest resident traders, gives them 

 thus: — Sir John Franklin's estimate in 1820, is added — 



Franklin, 1820. 



Blackfeet, proper 300 350 



Pe-a-gans 400 400 



