IS THE RED MAN DOOMED

Hokitika Guardian, 30 June 1928, Page 4

IS THE RED MAN DOOMED

Contrast with magri population. The gratifying increase in the .Maori population during the past few decades is accentuated by the reverse picture sV;.-i in report ; the American Indian Defence A«s-:einti«a o;i the stoailv derro.i •« of the nborinignl red ir.au in the United State--. 111 l -d ■ r.'parl bis city extinction is e-uiye ?. Tit’s or auisation played an important part i:i persuading the U. S. Senate to-approve a recent Bill nutbari-imi a searching investigation ol lb' eindi,.ons under which the Pel Indians are now living, and ol their r-latain-with the Indian Bureau, which net* under the Department «•!’ the InLii .r as theirjegal guardian. It i-i -probable that the investigat'd!* will intensify rather than abate the highly acrimonious, arguments which have been raging, for some m::nth« rm-.v over the results c.f the Indian Bureau's administration. ‘‘According to the l*.S. Bureau of Census, Division if Vital Staticics. the steady and swift riso of the Indian death-rate through the four preceding census years, including 1921, was continued through 102-3,” declared the association. ‘‘The censv; data is far thirty-three Sln’es, the District of Columbia-, and States containing large Indian populations, such a.s California, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, Michigan, Kansas V;.*T.», .Nebrnithe.. Utah and North

Carolina. “Tbe death-rate of the general population is below 12 per 1000 a year. Tbe Federal census gives tbe Indian deathrate* in tbe registration area as 17.5 for 1.921. 19.2 for 1922, 22.5 in 1929, and 25.9 in 1924. “ The now tabulations of the U.S. census complete the year 1925. They show an Indian death-rate of 28.5 deaths for each 1000 Indians. This carries the Indian death-rate higher than tbe birth-rate. “ Tbe Indian death-rate is now one per 1000 of population higher than the average Indian birth-rate for 1922, 1923, and 1921. It is 3.4 a 1000 higher than the Indian birth-rate for the whole country as stated hy the Indian Bureau in its current annual report. The Indian death-rate in this last census year rose ten per cent over the rate of the preceding year. The total increase in the death-rate since 1921 is 02 per cent and the Indian death-rate as thus disclosed is more than two and a-third times the death-rate of the general population. “ These figures mean rate extermination. Their greatest significance lies in the steady upward curve of the death-rate year after year. “ AVe call your attention, to complete the picture, to tho Indian Bureau’s mortality tables for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1927. These tables, in contrast to tbe Federal census tables, show an Indian death-rate in 1925 only slightly increased over that of 1921. They show a 1925 deathrate of 23.4 a 1000. high enough, being nearly twice the general death-rate, but tbe Federal census for that year was ten per cent higher. “ In 1920 the bureau pushed down its showing of Indian deaths to 21.8 a 1000. Thus the census figures now Stand 30.7 per cent higher than the Indian Bureau figures.