296 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
claims made by the Indians as to their numbets. Hence the comparison of tneir 
numbers as reported by these explorers, and subsequently by those who have 
simply repeated their estimates, with their now more accurately ascertained num- 
bers makes the rate of decrease appear much greater than it actually is. In close 
connection also with this fact it must beremembered that the Indians (as /ndzans) 
are not a prolific race. To one at all familiar with Indian life and history this is 
a most obtrusive characteristic. With the normal birth-rate continued it is 
that under the most favorable circumstances in their mode of life the numerical 
increase of a tribe from generation to generation would be very perceptibly below 
the ordinary rate of increase among the whites. Notwithstanding their constitu- 
tional vigor and permitted polygamous life, the children of an Indian family that 
survive infancy rarely number five, and quite usually are only two or three. And 
the statement admits of demonstration that at times tribes in a state of ordinary 
prosperity scarcely more than hold their own from year to year in point of 
numbers. 
Again, in some cases small tribes and remnants of tribes, instead of perishing 
utterly, as is often stated of them, are merely incorporated into the larger con- 
tiguous tribes and so disappear only in name. In frequent individual instances, 
too, Indian blood is simply absorbed by the whites. Whoever is conversant with 
the older and more recent Indian history and border annals meets constant evi- 
dence of such incorporation of Indian blood into white stock. Personal obser- 
vation in all parts of the country presents not infrequent illustrations of the same 
fact. The degree to which this silent transference has occurred is far higher than 
is usually supposed. 
But after all, the considerations just adduced do not invalidate the fact of a 
significant decrease among the Indians; they only call for an abatement in the 
rate. And this brings us to the real question, why is this decrease? What are 
the active causes that have borne part in producing it ? 
Undoubtedly the most noticeable agency has been war among themselves 
and more especially with the whites. Warfare is the Indians’ inspiration, his 
chief avenue to tribal position and influence. In his view, life and warfare are 
quite interchangable terms. Their wars with each other, however, though inces- 
sant, are seldom bloody or to any considerable extent destructive of life. The 
Indians’ proverbial fear of death is generally a sufficient motive to him to forego. 
the shedding of the blood of an enemy wherever it seems likely to involve too: 
great a peril of his own life. Intertribal warfare, therefore, consists mainly 
of petty forays, made by small parties or single individuals, and entailing com- 
paratively unimportant destruction of life. To be sure there are instances where 
entire tribes are reported to have been annihilated, but these are exceptions. 
Such destruction has had place, if at all, only where combined action on the part 
of many, a rare event among Indians, has been made against the few; or where 
both sides have been encouraged or supported by outside influences. It is rather 
their wars with the whites that have proven disastrously destructive. The com- 
