ROCKY MOUNTAIN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 59 
they were removed from Georgia in 1838. Many of 
them are industrious and thrifty agriculturists, and 
some are good mechanics. They have invented an 
alphabet and have a written language and laws. The 
Creeks, also a southern tribe, now living in the In- 
dian Territory, are advancing in civilization and peace- 
ful pursuits. The Choctaws, and also the Chickasaws, 
were once powerful tribes in the State of Mississippi, 
but are now in the Indian Territory, and are advancing 
in civilization and a knowledge of the peaceful arts, 
and have in existence nearly one hundred schools. 
The Seminoles, another southern tribe, were removed 
to the Indian Territory, and are adopting the habits 
of civilized people. 
It is a notable fact that Indians showing the greatest 
capacity for acquiring a knowledge of the arts and 
methods known to civilization, and at the same time 
increasing in population, are mostly of a southern 
origin. But while it is true that, in the few instances 
given, they have shown a capacity for advancement 
in the scale of civilization, yet it must be confessed, 
and with sadness, that as a people the Indian is be- 
lieved to be disappearing, in consequence of not being 
able to conform readily to peaceful and civilized habits. 
On this point, however, Maj. J. C. Powell takes issue 
with the generally accepted view of their gradual de- 
crease, and states that the Indians of North America, 
notwithstanding they are confined to very much nar- 
rower limits, are as numerous as at any period in the 
past. As a general fact, the Indians of the United 
States are but little more advanced than they were 
when first seen by the Europeans. It is true that, 
