These figures are, however, in part conjectural, and all based upon varying data, and limited by varying boundaries. They do not show any constant movement of increase or decrease.
In regard to particular tribes, the Cherokees, since 1809, notwithstanding the depressing influences of removal, and loss by civil war, have increased from 12,395 to 21,072. The Seminoles have, since 1870, increased from 2,638 to 3,000. The Iroquois, 100 years ago numbering about 11,500, are now 13,668. Within forty years the Sioux are computed to have increased from 25,000 to 40,000.
A comparison of births and deaths for the last three years has been made, but it is too incomplete to be the basis of any conclusions.
Major Clark says, in summing up, that several years of study have convinced him that the usual theory that the Indian population is destined to decline and finally disappear, as a result of contact with white civilization, must be greatly modified—probably abandoned altogether.
—Missionaries Riggs and Williamson substantially agree that (1) the Indians, in their wild state, increase quite rapidly, unless disturbed by some violent agent, as war, famine, or pestilence; (2) the first effect of a change to civilized life is to diminish their numbers; (3) the final effect, however, is to a recovery and more rapid growth, even, than in their former state.
—From the best official estimates, there are in the country about 275,000 Indians. Of this number, 56,630, or only about one-fifth, receive subsistence from the government. Perhaps a majority of the whole number are self-sustaining. The tribes in the Indian Territory are said to compare favorably in moral, social and material condition with many of the white communities in the neighboring States. Schools, courts, church organizations and local legislatures are among their cherished institutions.
—The only Congregational Church in Indian Territory was dedicated Sunday, December 2d. Its site is in the town of Caddo, on the line of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad. Having been begun in the year 1876, it is known as the “Centennial Church.”
—Official statistics lately published show that, for the past forty years, the military operations against the Indians by the United States have cost $12,000,000, on an average, each year. The wild Apaches, 10,000 in number, cost the government nearly $2,000,000 annually for the pay of the army that takes care of them; while the 60,000 Cherokees, who are civilized and quiet, cost us almost nothing.