HO does not remember the Indian stories of his boyhood days, those stories of Cooper which thrilled the youthful heart! What has become of the Indians who hunted the wild buffalo, attacked the immigrant train, fought pitched battles with picked soldiers and roamed the wide plains and deep forests of our country? Alas, the wild bands are scattered, having been driven further and further into the ever receding forests, and those that remained have tried to adapt themselves to the ways and means of the white man.

The Indian of today is a sorry spectacle. His fighting spirit has been broken and with it his stamina, his health and his morale. The onrush of the new civilization was too swift and sudden, and our Indian could and would not adapt himself to his new environment. Generations and generations are required to change the habits, customs and mode of living of a primitive race, for which reason most of the aboriginal tribes will go down in defeat before the so-called higher civilization of the white man; and the case of the Indian is no exception to the rule. Upon the advent of the pale face the red man took to the forest, but his flight was in vain; he either had to adapt himself to the ways of his new master, or seek refuge in the unoccupied plains and forests.

Few are indeed the virgin forests of the Northwest, and with every succeeding year they become smaller and the clearings and cut-over land larger and larger. Here in the woods, of northern Wisconsin and the upper peninsula of Michigan, the last remnants of the once so proud and powerful Indian race may be found. It is here that the Indian, at least to some degrees, preserves his habits, language and mode of living. His home is generally quite far removed from that of his nearest white neighbor; he is reclusive, preferring to live by himself. Often his home will be found on some old logging road, or sometimes only a narrow trail will lead to his homestead. The house, or, better, the log cabin, is situated in a clearing of about five to six acres. His homestead is fenced off with a rail, or wire, fence; the gate invariably consists of three or four rails and the rider has to dismount and push the bars back before he can gain admittance. On approaching the house he is greeted by a dog, or, better, an ill defined cur, who, with a cracked voice, will bark and snarl at him; but a bold approach will send the animal to his hiding place under the house.

The house itself is one of those log cabins, common among the pioneers. Its dimensions are generally twentyfive by fifteen to twenty feet, rarely more. Windows are few and consist of two panes of glass, rarely opened in summer time and never in the winter. The interior consists of one room and in this room the whole family, or sometimes members of several families, will dwell, cook and sleep. Occasionally the house will have an upstairs, but this is not usual. Furniture is scant and consists of a table, a few chairs, but more often of a couple of

benches, and a cook stove. A calendar and a few cheap pictures, or some advertising matter, will decorate the wall, and on the rafters will be found suspended one or several guns, a few wild animal skins, several deer horns and a few ears of corn from the last harvest.

I remember being called upon to see a little Indian girl. I arrived at about dinner time and found the whole family, or, maybe, members of several families, squatting on the floor around the dinner dishes. My patient was lying in

a corner on a few rags. A cursory examination revealed the fact that the little patient was in the last stages of consumption. I turned and, through the interpreter, I inquired: "How many people are living in this house?"

to two acres in extent. In this patch the Indian will raise his vegetable supply for the winter: a few heads of cabbage, some carrots, a few pumpkins, a few rows of potatoes and a few ears of Indian or squaw corn-just enough to keep the immediate family from starving during the winter. The rest of the yard is given over to pasture for the pony, or ponies, as the case may be. Not far from the house is the stable, also a log building, not very big, but big enough to house the few ponies the Indian may possess. Attached to the stable is a shed for the wagon, the plow or other implements.

In one corner of the homestead is found the family cemetery, a plot often of considerable dimensions, which speaks more eloquently than words of the toll the Indian has paid to the new civilization. The graves are in rows and it is pitiable to see those many little ones. The

The House of a Civilized Indian.

The lady of the house and her mother on the left. Her house was a model of cleanliness. She aimed to be the best dressed woman in the village. The woman on the top of the steps and the second man from the right, her husband, were both afflicted with trachoma.

The man of the house answered: "All you can see." I counted the people and found the number to be thir

teen.

Under such circumstances it is, of course, no wonder that tuberculosis and other infectious diseases should be rampant. Bedsteads shine by their absence; at least they are very rare. Everybody sleeps on the floor. With a few rags or blankets underneath them, the whole family will sleep huddled close together. Most of the houses are dirty, some even decidedly filthy; occasionally, however, one will find a house neat and clean, generally a sign that the woman of the house has attended an agency or boarding school.

An Indian Chief and His Family.

This man was a great hunter and trapper. Tuberculosis was rampant in his family; during a few months he lost four of his children. He himself was afflicted with quiescent pulmonary tuberculosis.

individual graves are covered by a shingle roof, and at the head is invariably found a supply of eatables, a glass or two, a pipe and some tobacco, so that when the spirit

Close to the house is the garden, a plot about one

returns he may not go hungry or thirsty, and may even enjoy a pipe of tobacco.

The wealth of an Indian is measured by the number of his ponies. His ponies are his pride, and, incidentally, one of the sources of his income. Care he lavishes very little on his animals; he may make some hay during the summer months, but often he will not even do that. Many, many times I have seen ponies in the midst of winter chewing off the bark of saplings, which they had industriously uncovered with their hoofs, or eating a few blades of dry grass. For obvious reasons the barns of the logging camps are the favorite stamping grounds for the animals, and when an Indian wants his mounts he generally knows where to find them. In the woods the pony is "the" animal. It will travel where no horse would dare to go, over logs, frail bridges, never making a misstep, always carefully feeling its way across. One feed of hay in the morning is sufficient to last the pony all

An Indian Madonna.

An Indian Church and Community Center in Northern Michigan.

This church was built, administered and maintained entirely by Indians. An example of what forty years of contact with the white man will do.

By nature the Indian is gentle and stoical, and quite capable of enjoying a good joke. In his home life he is a kind husband and good father. Desertions occa

sionally happen but are very rare. In spite of the fact that the whole family and, in many instances, several families occupy a single room, their family life is pure. In all my experience among the Indians, I have seen only one case of gonorrhea and this was acquired from a white woman. Syphilis I have never seen, and it is my firm conviction that the disease has originated across the water in some of the older civilizations. The bad and unhygienic conditions, the poor and often inadequate supply of food and his disinclination for steady work have undermined the Indian's vitality. In stature he is still

day; oats are a luxury and only indulged in when in the stable of some white man. By nature the pony is very gentle and, in fact, resembles more a big St. Bernard dog than a high-bred horse. In some instances, the gov

home remedies and the office of his Medicine Man. His home remedies are mostly infusions and decoctions, made from barks and herbs. Cough mixtures, liniments, salves and senna tea are his old stand-bys. This reminds me

theless made a very superficial examination and then prescribed a tonic-a tonic he was very fond of prescribing. After the Indian got his bottle he walked out, and at the porch I noticed him taking off his coat,, rolling up his sleeve, pouring some of the medicine on the palm of his hand and rubbing the tonic on his elbow. I was curious to know what he was doing and to my surprise found he had a big olecranon bursitis.

Surgery is not to the Indian's liking; he will often rather die than submit to an operation. It takes a great deal of persuasion to have an Indian enter a hospital, but of late this fear is on the wane. Once a big, strapping buck came to me and asked me to give him some medicine for a badly lacerated finger. I decided to insert a stitch. or two. Hardly had the needle pricked his finger when he jumped up and left the room. I called him back and proceeded to instill a few drops of cocaine. But the

An Indian Family.

needle had merely touched the skin when he jumped up again and escaped before I could get hold of him.

The Medicine Man is still in existence. He has lost some of his prestige, yet not only the old, but also some of the younger generation, have implicit faith in his power. . Apparently the tribe of medicine men is divided in two classes, the major and the minor kind. The minor kind is quite common and is found in almost every Indian settlement. The major kind is more rare and the representative of this kind has supervision or jurisdiction over quite a considerable territory. In summer he will travel over his territory and hold festivals of medicine dances. At these dances the sick are brought to the designated place, and the members of the tribe, under the incantations of religious songs, dance around the sufferers. Among some tribes it is customary to place the afflicted outside the circle of howling red men. The songs are not uniform but vary with the different tribes and different idioms and

An Indian Family of Northern Michigan. On my visit, I found several open cases of tuberculosis in this family.

sician just outside of the reservation. One day a big, husky Indian came to the doctor's office and said: "Me sick, me wan's some medicine." The doctor was not very enthusiastic about his Indian clientele, but never