sorcery and incantation controlled diagnosis 
and treatment. The eolor, shape and mark¬ 
ings of plants indicated the human organs 
■which they were supposed to cure. 
“Another misconception concerns the In¬ 
dian woman, and through it she is pictured 
as a drudge and slave, tolling incessantly 
while her indolent husband idles away the 
time and exists chiefly by the fruits of her 
labor. Although in Indian society the po¬ 
sition of woman has always been subordi¬ 
nate. the division of labor among the sexes 
was not so unequal as it might seem to the 
casual observer, and It is difficult to. under¬ 
stand' how the line could have been more 
fairly drawn in a state of society where 
the military spirit was so dominant. There 
is' also an adage that the ‘half-breed’ is a 
moral degenerate, exhibiting few or none 
of the virtues of either, but all the vices of 
both parent stocks. As a matter of fact, 
there are in many parts of the country 
many mixed bloods of undoubted ability 
and high moral standing. Where their 
morals are low environment rather than 
mixture of blood appears to be at fault. 
The ‘half-breed’ outstrips his Indian brother 
in the pursuit of either good or evil. 
Uo Pigmies, Giants or Princesses. 
“That there were giant and pigmy races 
among the Indians is another popular 
fallacy. The giant myth, perennial in the 
newspapers, is revived at times by the 
finding of bones of the gigantic animals of 
past geologic epochs, which the ignorant 
suppose to be human remains. Now and 
then, as among other races, are found skele¬ 
tons of Indians who were real giants. One 
exhumed in West Virginia, measured seven 
and one-half feet in length and nineteen 
inches across the shoulders. The popular 
myth that an ancient race of pigmies once 
dwelt in Tennessee ow r es its origin .to the 
discovery in that state of numerous small 
coffins containing human bones; but scien¬ 
tific examination disclosed that the bodies 
when prepared for burial in these small 
stone coffins .had been stripped of flesh and 
then disjointed. Mummies of children 
hastily supposed to be those of Swarfs gave 
rise to the myth that pigmies dwelt in the 
cliff ruins of New Mexico and Arizona. The 
discovery in the cliff dwellings of the south- 
-west of small apartments with small doors 
added weight to this myth, but research has 
proven that these spaces were cubby holes 
used by men,of normal stature for the stor- 
age.iof property. 
“Pocahontas is called an ‘Indian princess’ 
in much of the literature concerning her 
now being revived apropos of the James¬ 
town exposition. This idea that thefe was 
royalty among the Indians is also fal¬ 
lacious. As a matter of fact the government 
of each Indian tribe, at least m northern 
America, was a simple democracy, whose 
cardinal principles were equality and in¬ 
dependence. The offices were purely elect¬ 
ive, the ability, courage, eloquence, pre¬ 
vious service and, above all, the personal 
popularity of the candidates forming the 
basis for their election to any and all of¬ 
fices. No power In any wise analagous to 
that of the despot, no rank savoring of in¬ 
heritance, as we understand the term, ex¬ 
isted among our Indians. Even military 
service was not compulsory. Other com¬ 
mon fallacies are that the Indian disposition 
is universally stolid 1 and taciturn and that 
the tribes were nomadic. The Indian of to¬ 
day has a fair sense of humor and is by 
no means a stranger to Jest, laughter and 
even repartee. And as to the nomadic myth, 1 
the fact is that every tribe laid claim to 
and dwelt wfithin the limits of a certain 
tract or region, the boundaries of which 
were well understood.” 
The Indian's Future. 
“What, professor, will be the Indian’s 
future?” 
“In the great crucible of our civilization 
so many elements are now being mixed to¬ 
gether a racial strain so numerically weak 
as, the Indian will not only amalgamate 
with the other race, but disappear. It is 
insufficient to seriously affect the resultant 
race. When the white man first visited 
this continent there were probably 10,000,000 
or more Indians here, and> today there may 
be half that number of approximately pure 
bloods—one three-hundreth. of the world’s 
population. In the Inevitable course "of 
human history the individual races will 
probably fade out and disappear, and the 
world ’will be filled to overflowing with a 
generalized race in which the dominating 
blood will be that of. the race that today 
has the strongest claim, physically and In¬ 
tellectually, to take possession of all the 
resources of the land and sea. The resultant 
race will not have of the native American 
blood even this one three-hundreth part, 
because they are decadent as a result of 
conditions imposed by civilization. As 
diagrammed by the ethnologist of the far 
future the career of the Indian will appear 
as a lenticular figure—beginning in nothing 
ending in nothing—a figure of perhaps uni¬ 
versal application by the historian of mun¬ 
dane things.” 
JOHN ELFRHTH WATKINS. 
