THE DECREASE OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 301 
still shows evidence of Indian blood; while in the vast Manitoba region the 
entire body of the inhabitants, farmers and hunters, is of this mixed descent. As 
to the physical powers and development of the hybrid stock (except where the 
offspring of vagrant intercourse) the testimony of experience is uniformly favora- 
ble. They are a robust, enduring people among their neighbors of pure white 
blood, with the Indians on the other hand they stand deservedly high. Alexan- 
der Henry, in his travels of 120 years ago, reports a Knistenaux chief as saying 
that the half breeds excelled the pure Indians, both as hunters and warriors. 
Among the Indian tribes of the West and Northwest it is no unusual thing to-day 
to meet chieftains and distinguished braves in whom white blood is easily dis- 
cernible. The excellent characteristics derived from the healthful intermingling 
of the races are so marked as to warrant the designation of the descendants by 
eminent authorities as a new and persistent variety of man. 
It is just herein, I am persuaded, that we shall find a real and possible solu- 
tion of the somber problem of the steady diminution of the Indians. The policy 
of the Canadian government, while the French regime continued, at least 
indirectly encouraged this blending of the white and red races. Peter Kalm, a 
most extensive and critical observer, in his narrative does not scruple to commend 
the system. No doubt it would meet much earlier and ready application with 
the facile Frenchman than with the more unyielding Saxon; but it evidently is 
not impossible. That it has occurred, and with beneficial results in case of some 
of the southern tribes, was sufficiently presented in a paper in a previous number 
of this journal (November, 1879). In these tribes the preponderance of white 
blood is more manifest with each succeeding veneration, and ultimately it will 
completely absorb or assimilate the Indian element. The same event would 
occur with our entire Indian population were the blending once to begin under 
favorable circumstances. The Indian would disappear, but only in name. 
Whatever of vital force or quality in him is worthy of conservation would sur- 
vive and enure to*the advantage of the dominant race. 
It seems, therefore, that it were become a fit question whether it may not be 
made a matter of governmental consideration or policy with us to encourage 
some such system. Certainly the conviction is gaining strength in the minds of 
most intelligent men who have longest been intimate with the Indian’s condition 
and needs, that such a blending, under suitable limitations, is desirable and for 
the Indian necessary; without it our Indian policy must remain an anomalous 
dmperium in imperio, a prison-house system alien and repugnant to our national 
instinct and finally ruinous to the Indian. 
Joun B. Dungar, Deposit, N. Y. 
