Upon the Pacific Coast there is the greatest possible linguistic diversity among the Indians. Many different families are represented within small areas, and any attempt to describe them would result in failure.

Characteristics of the Indians

When first made known to the civilised world, the various tribes differed widely among themselves, in degree of civilisation, in habits, customs, and disposition. Some of them were sedentary, others roving without fixed habitations, some of them supported themselves almost entirely by hunting, others by fishing; while most of them carried on a rude primitive agriculture by which they supplied themselves, in part at least, with food. Some tribes were almost constantly at war, while others were very peaceful. Probably the most warlike tribes were the Six Nations, the great tribe of the Dakotas, and the Apaches.

While Indians differ physically, mentally, and morally among themselves like other men, still they have certain features which are more or less common to the race. They are inordinately vain, and delight in adornment, and their adornments are of a sort which we would call grotesque. Bead-work covers the Indian's leggings and his buckskin shirt, a necklace of bears' claws or the fingernails of his victims adorns his neck, his hair is decked with feathers, and his face and body are painted in hideous figures. Thus decked out he is the admiration of himself and of all the women.

The Indian is cruel beyond belief. The tortures which he inflicts upon his prisoners are excelled by nothing in history, unless it be the Spanish Inquisition. He is a coward. Although with most tribes war is his

trade, such a thing as engaging in open fight and risking his precious person is something never contemplated by the Indian. He seeks to take every advantage of his enemy. His mode of fighting is by ambush, by treachery. His glory is to destroy the weak and defenceless. The Indian is reputed to be grave, taciturn, and dignified. This, however, is true only when among whites. When off his guard and among his fellows, when he is no longer on dress parade, he is gay and jolly and as full of fun as any other child.

Physically the Indian is quite different from the popular idea. On the whole the race is not a strong one. They are wanting in vitality, and their systems easily give way to attacks of disease; in particular, they are extremely subject to consumption and rheumatism. They are not long lived, nor are they prolific. In physical endurance they bear no comparison with the trained white man. Indeed the Indian is easily excelled in any and all of his peculiar avocations. a better rider, the white hunter will find game, the white scout will follow a trail more surely and more rapidly than will the Indian.

by the white The cowboy is and kill more

Partly from his nature, partly from the fact that for a generation he has been supported, the average Indian is probably the laziest mortal on the continent. It is scarcely matter for surprise. Few of us could maintain habits of industry if we were fed and clothed without any effort on our part, if all incentives to exertion were thus withdrawn.

The "Indian Policy"

The United States has never had any settled policy in its treatment of the Indians. The history of its relations with them has been one of makeshifts, each to

suit a separate emergency. Still, all these makeshifts have one feature in common. They recognise the tribes as sovereignties, and treat them as such. In the early colonial days this stand was perfectly consistent; but now, when the United States claims jurisdiction over the whole country, the absurdity of its position, in treating as with a foreign power a people who dwell within and subpossess its own land, is apparent. It makes treaties with them, affects offensive and defensive alliances, purchases land from them (and then fails to pay them the purchase money), and then, suddenly forgetting that they are foreign powers, it imprisons them on reservations. On one pretext or another, in payment for land, or for the purchase of peace, the Government feeds and clothes. nearly all the tribes which will accept donations of food and clothing; and as the Indian is at least no more inclined to work for a living than the average white man, most of the tribes have availed themselves of the munificence of the Government. And not only does "Uncle Sam" supply them with food and raiment, but with the best of breech-loading rifles and fixed ammunition, which are, in very many cases, put to use by our red brother in depopulating the border settlements and in resisting the authorities. This policy of supplying the Indian with all necessaries of life is what is known as the "peace policy." It is a beautiful policy. Let us see how it works. The average Indian immediately jumps to the very rational conclusion that the Government is afraid of him, or it would not purchase a peace, and he is apt to act accordingly. If things are not to his mind-if provisions, blankets, or ammunition are not forthcoming when and in such quantities as he wishes-he dons the war-paint, and a disastrous war is the result. The upshot of the war probably is, that he gets what he fought for, and he is confirmed

in his belief that to get what he wants he has only to demand it under threat of war.

The theory is that the Indian, kept quiet on reservations, and supported there, may be in time educated to civilised pursuits. But it is a pertinent question whether, under such circumstances, even the average white would labour to support himself. If all his wants were supplied, what incentive would there be to labour ? And if, under such circumstances, the white man would prefer a life of inglorious ease, how much less would the red man be disposed to exertion,—the noble red man who regards all manual labour as degrading, and as worthy only of squaws. Under such circumstances, it is strange that any success whatever has attended the project of civilising the Indians, and it would seem to be rather in spite of this system than because of it that any considerable portion of this people have adopted civilised ways. Yet such is the case, and it shows that they can be civilised, and that if managed properly they might be made into good citizens with comparative rapidity.

At present, all Indians who still maintain tribal relations, are established upon reservations. These reservations are forbidden ground to whites, while the Indians are permitted to leave them only by the consent of the “ Agent." Upon the reservation the Indians are supported either entirely or in part by the Government, partly from the interest on trust funds held by the United States which the Indians have acquired by sale of their lands, partly by direct gifts by Congress. Upon most of the reservations are “ agents,” who are in charge of the Indians, so far as concerns their relations with the Government. In most cases, also, he is reinforced by a physician, to look after the physical welfare of his charges, a teacher to attend to their intellectual welfare