Physiological and medical observations among the Indians of southwestern United States and northern Mexico / by Ales Hrdlicka.

  • Hrdlička, Aleš, 1869-1943.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Physiological and medical observations among the Indians of southwestern United States and northern Mexico / by Ales Hrdlicka. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    The fauna &,nd flora of the region are diminishing in importance to the Indian. The dangerous animals of prey as well as the larger game are, in many localities, being thinned out or exterminated, and the cultivated products of the soil are gradually superseding more and more the roots and seeds of wild plants used for food. There remain the smaller noxious animals, the parasites and insects (ticks, lice, worms, mosquitoes, fhes, ants, spiders, centipeds, etc.), scor- pions, and snakes, and also the ivies and other poisonous plants. These impose on the native not only a considerable struggle, but also much danger to health and even life. III. INDIAN POPULATION In the vast region which has been briefly described there are still to be found somewhat more than 100,000 Indians of piue blood. This aboriginal population, as well as the much more numerous white and mixed elements, increases, generally speaking, in density from north to south. In southwestern United States all the tribes, with the exception of a portion of the Papago, reside on reservations. The densest native population is found in Mexico, along the Rio Mayo in Sonora, in the Otomi country of the state of Hidalgo, and in the Tarasco region of Michoacan. The territory southwest and southeast from that covered by this paper has an Indian population that largely outnumbers the whites. Available official data give the numerical strength of the tribes studied as follows: Population A. UNITED STATES TRIBES VISITED Tribe. 1890.a 1900.6 1903.b 1904.c 1905.6 1906.6 I. Southern Ute ' . . «985 (d) (/) 513 808 C995 1,928 2,542 482 815 941 2,028 g 2,578 439 774 962 2,058 2,226 ft 452 782 e887 2,090 2,148 460 795 845 II. Apache: • White Mountain 2,072 San Carlos . 2,145 Mesealero 460 Jiearilla 784 o Eleventh Census. 6 Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. c Special reports of agents and Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. d In the enumeration of 1890 the White Mountain, Fort Apache, and San Carlos Apache are stated to have numbered together 4,041 individuals, which is undoubtedly an underestimate. « The Report on Indians of the Eleventh Census contains the clause: 57 Southern Utes have recently been removed to the Uinta agency, Utah. Some of this number, apparently not counted with the Southern Ute in 1890, may have returned before 1900, thus causing the seeming increase in the tribe. In 1905 the Southern Ute are reported as follows: Fort Lewis school (unallotted Ute), 502; Southern Ute school (Capotes and Moache), 385; in 1906: Fort Lewis school (Wiminuche, unallotted), 464; Southern Ute school, 381. /San Carlos, 1,066; Coyoteros, 489; and Tontos, 667; in addition to which {here were 2 San Carlos and 2 Tonto pupils in the school at Phoenix. 9 1902. h In the 1905 and 1906 counts are apparently included the Lipan, about 25 Individuals, who formerly lived about the Santa Rosa mountains, northern Mexico.