Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 February 1879 — The Indians Increasing in Population. [ARTICLE]

The Indians Increasing in Population.

An examination of official statistics at Washington has developed the curious fact that the American Indians are not diminishing in number, as has generally been believed, but are really and sensibly increasing. The fact has become established through an investigation ordered by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and conducted by Dr. George Kellogg, a medical attache of the Indian Bureau. The ratio of increase’in the Indian population is not yet decided, but statistics gathered from more than seventy Indian agencies indisputably assert that the births among the Indian tribes are in excess of the deaths among them from normal causes, and this, too, when allowance is made for their destruction by dissipation, and all ordinary causes of death, except from gunshot wounds or casualties in warfare. The total Indian population is set down at about 170,000. The Czar is said to be resolved upon the thorough reorganization of the Russian navy. He is very dissatisfied with the insignificant part played by his fleet during the recent war, especially with the iron-clads, for which he has acquired a deep aversion. No important addition will be made to the Baltic fleet for several years to come, the energies of the Government being directed toward the creation of a fleet in the Black sea.