8 страница. The local physician at Sitka kindly gave very valuable information relative to the attitude of the native Indians in the matter of obtaining fresh sea foods

The local physician at Sitka kindly gave very valuable information relative to the attitude of the native Indians in the matter of obtaining fresh sea foods when foods that were very satisfying could be so easily obtained in concentrated form at the various stores. They could go to one of the piers at almost any time of the year and catch fish or secure them as they had been accustomed to do before the arrival of modern foods, but there is a constant striving to be like and live like the white people. They seem to think it is a mark of distinction to purchase their foods and that it is degrading to have to forage for one's foods. They very readily come to depend on white flour and sugar, jams and canned vegetables; and much prefer to have the government or charitable organization supply these when they cannot purchase them, rather than go out and secure their own nutrition. This physician stated that there were about 800 whites living in the town and about 400 Indians, and that notwithstanding this difference in numbers there were twice as many Indian children born as white children, but that by the time these children reached six years of age there were more white children living than Indian and half-breed children. This he stated was largely due to the very high child mortality rate, of which the most frequent cause is tuberculosis. While it does not take many decades to record a distinct physical deterioration, a deteriorating parenthood greatly speeds up this process. While physical defects acquired by the parent will not be transmitted as such, prenatal deficiencies may be established because of the physical defects of the mother resulting from her faulty nutrition, and these deficiencies, together with disturbed nutrition of infancy and early childhood will go far in determining whether there will be for the child a physical breakdown or whether the normal defense of the body will be adequate to protect it from various infections to which it may later be exposed.

Sitka has furnished the longest history of contact with white men of almost any community on the Pacific Coast. Indeed, it was a famous seaport long before any United States Pacific Coast communities had been established. It is of much interest that it was a shipbuilding center for vessels in the Russian trade. Its foundries were developed so efficiently that the bells of the early monasteries of California were cast in this town by the Russians. It contains some of the best examples of the early Russian architecture, particularly in its cathedral.

Anchorage is the principal city of western Alaska, since it is not only a base for the railroad running north to Fairbanks, but a base for aeroplane companies operating throughout various parts of Alaska. It is accordingly a combination of a coast city with its retail activities and a wholesale base for outfitters for the interior. It has an excellent government hospital which probably has been built around the life of one man whom many people told us was the most beloved man in all Alaska. He is Dr. Josef Romig, a surgeon of great skill and with an experience among the Eskimos and Indians, both the primitives and modernized, extending over thirty-six years. I am deeply indebted to him for much information and for assistance in making contacts. He took me, for example, to several typically modernized Indian homes in the city. In one, the grandmother, who had come from the northern shore of Cook Inlet to visit her daughter, was sixty-three years of age, and was entirely free from tooth decay and had lost only one of her teeth. Her son, who had accompanied her, was twenty-four years of age. He had only one tooth that had ever been attacked by tooth decay. Their diet had been principally moose and deer meat, fresh and dried fish, a few vegetables and at time some cranberries. Recently the son had been obtaining some modern foods. Her daughter, twenty-nine years of age, had married a white man and had had eight children. She and they were living on modern foods entirely. Twenty-one of her thirty-two teeth had been wrecked by dental caries. Their diet consisted largely of white bread, syrup and potatoes. Her children whom we examined ranged from five to twelve years of age, and in that family 37 per cent of all the teeth have already been attacked by dental caries, notwithstanding the young age of the children. The mother of this family is shown in Fig. 18 (upper, left). It is of great importance that not only was dental caries rampant, but that there were marked deformity of the dental arches and irregularity of teeth in the cases of the children.

Among the many items of information of great interest furnished by Dr. Romig were facts that fitted well into the modern picture of association of modern degenerative processes with modernization. He stated that in his thirty-six years of contact with these people he had never seen a case of malignant disease among the truly primitive Eskimos and Indians, although it frequently occurs when they become modernized. He found similarly that the acute surgical problems requiring operation on internal organs such as the gall bladder, kidney, stomach, and appendix do not tend to occur among the primitive, but are very common problems among the modernized Eskimos and Indians. Growing out of his experience, in which he had seen large numbers of the modernized Eskimos and Indians attacked with tuberculosis, which tended to be progressive and ultimately fatal as long as the patients stayed under modernized living conditions, he now sends them back when possible to primitive conditions and to a primitive diet, under which the death rate is very much lower than under modernized conditions. Indeed, he reported that a great majority of the afflicted recover under the primitive type of living and nutrition.

The institutions that have been organized for the care of orphans and for the education of Eskimo and Indian boys and girls provide an opportunity to study conditions. A particularly favorable institution is located at Eklutna on the railroad north of Anchorage. Many of the individuals in the school had come from districts so remote from transportation facilities that their isolation had compelled them to live mostly on native foods, at least during their early childhood. They had come from districts very widely distributed throughout the Alaskan peninsula. Credit is due to the management of this institution for preparing and storing dried salmon for use throughout the winter. The beneficial effects of their good nutritional program were evident. The percentage of teeth attacked by dental caries was 14.6. A large percentage of these pupils were of mixed blood of native Eskimos or Indians with whites. The white parent had probably been largely responsible for their attendance at this training school. There were several full-blooded Eskimos and Indians from modernized communities where they had been living on modern foods throughout their entire lifetime. This gave an opportunity to study the rôle of nutritional deficiencies in the development of deformities and irregularities in the facial features, in the arrangement of the teeth, and in the inter-relationship between the dental arches. The typical irregularities and divergencies from normal were present in the full-blooded Eskimo and Indian boys and girls in as high percentage as in the mixed bloods. Some of the young people with parentage of mixed blood have beautiful features.

Another important institutional group was studied at Seward in the Jesse Lee Home which had first been established at Nome and had been moved to Seward to avoid the extreme isolation of that district. This institution is located at Resurrection Bay which is one of the most beautiful harbors in the world. It gives shelter and educational opportunities to Eskimos and Indians, chiefly of mixed blood, from a large area of Alaska, and particularly from the Aleutian Peninsula, the Aleutian Islands and the Bering Sea. These individuals, whether of mixed or pure blood, had come chiefly from homes that were in large part modernized. The incidence of dental caries found here was 27.5 per cent for all teeth examined. Here again all individuals were affected. Notwithstanding the unusually fine hygienic conditions and highly trained dietitians of this institution, a medical ward and trained nurses, tuberculosis was reaping a heavy toll. I was told that 60 per cent of all those students who had moved with the school from Nome to this location were already dead from tuberculosis. It is common knowledge that tuberculosis has played a very important rôle in decimating the Indian and Eskimo population in the Pacific Coast towns and villages. A very important phase of these investigations is the development of new light on the rôle of nutrition in lowering the defense of these individuals so that with their low inheritance of defensive factors they rapidly become susceptible to tuberculosis.

The problem of evaluating the influence of a particular environment on racial and tribal development is relatively simple when studying contemporary remnants of primitive racial stocks. However, groups that have lived and disappeared in the past do not permit of so simple a procedure for making physical estimates. Fortunately, we have in the burial grounds not only the skeletons, but also many of the implements used in daily life. Sometimes these contain samples of the foods. We may find also their art ware and hunting equipment. While the period may not be definitely recorded, the knowledge of the history of the pottery of the tribe often gives an important clue to the dates as will also the method of burial. Burials made before the advent of the Christian era will in many groups show the bodies in a flexed position with the arms in the lap, whereas in the Christian burials the bodies have been laid prone and the arms crossed on the chest. By this sign the pre-Columbian burials can readily be separated from the post-Columbian.

Using these guides, a study of the Indians of Florida, past and present, permits of comparing the pre-Columbians with those living today in that same territory. We will, accordingly, consider the dental caries problem and that of facial and dental arch form in the Florida Indians by comparing three groups: namely, the pre-Columbian, as evidenced from a study of the skull material in the museums; the tribes of Indians living in as much isolation as is possible in the Everglades and Cypress Swamps; and the Indians of the same stock that are living in contact with the foods of modern civilization. This latter group lives along the Tamiami trail and near Miami. In a study of several hundred skulls taken from the burial mounds of southern Florida, the incidence of tooth decay was so low as to constitute an immunity of apparently one hundred per cent, since in several hundred skulls not a single tooth was found to have been attacked by tooth decay. Dental arch deformity and the typical change in facial form due to an inadequate nutrition were also completely absent, all dental arches having a form and interdental relationship such as to bring them into the classification of normal. These are illustrated in Figs. 22 and 23. The problem of reaching the isolated groups living in the depth of the Cypress Swamps was complicated by the fact that these people had a dread of all whites growing out of their belief that they had been grossly taken advantage of in some of their early efforts to make a treaty with the whites. With the assistance of three guides, one, an Indian of their own group, another, a white man whom they trusted, and the third, a government nurse who had been very helpful in case of sickness, we were able to take the desired measurements and records and photographs. A group of these more primitive representatives is shown in Fig. 24. While their hunting territory had been grossly encroached upon by the white hunters, they were still able to maintain a very high degree of physical excellence and high immunity to dental caries. Only four teeth in each hundred examined were found to have been attacked by tooth decay.

FIG. 22. Skulls of primitive Indians showing superb dental arches typical of Nature's normal plan. Note the splendid position of the third molars which are so frequently defective in position and quality in our modern white civilization. In many districts where I have made studies among primitive Indians and in many collections of their skulls close to a hundred per cent of the teeth have been free from dental caries or faulty position.

FIG. 23. The Indian skulls that have been uncovered in many parts of the United States and Canada show a degree of excellence comparable to those seen in this Figure. These levels of excellence were the rule with them, not the exception as with us. The parents of these individuals knew what they and their children should eat!

FIG. 24. The Seminole Indians living today in southern Florida largely beyond contact with the white civilization still produce magnificent teeth and dental arches of which these are typical. They live in the Everglade forest and still obtain the native foods.

Practically all of the dental arches were normal in contour with freedom from facial distortion. In contrast with this, the Indians of Florida who are living today in contact with modern civilization present a pathetic picture. Forty out of every hundred teeth examined were found to have been attacked by tooth decay, typically illustrated in Fig. 25. In the latest generation, many dental arches showed a typical deformation with crowding of the teeth and narrowing of the face, conditions that have been found in all human stocks when on an inadequate nutrition during the formative and early growth period. A group of these is typically illustrated in Fig. 26.

FIG. 25. The Seminole Indians of Florida who are living in contact with our modern civilization and its foods suffer from rampant dental caries.

FIG. 26. Seminole Indians. Note the change in facial and dental arch form in the children of this modernized group. They have a marked lack of development of the facial bones with a narrowing of the nostrils and dental arches with crowding of the teeth. Their faces are stamped with the blight which so many often think of as normal because it is so common with us.

It is of interest that the quality of the skeletal material that is taken from the mounds showed unusually fine physical development and freedom from joint involvements. In contrast with this, many of the individuals of the modernized group were suffering from advanced deformities of the skeleton due to arthritic processes.

The effects of the excellent nutrition of the pre-Columbian Indians is indicated in the comparative thickness of the skulls. In Fig. 27 are shown two pieces of a pre-Columbian skull in contrast with a modern skull. The specimen of a trephined lower jaw, shown in Fig. 27 (right) indicates a knowledge of surgery that is very remarkable. The margins show new bone growth. The operation opened a cyst.

FIG. 27. Left: Example of greater thickness of pre-Columbian Indian skulls in Florida than modern skulls. Right: Illustration of bone surgery of ancient Florida Indians. Note healing of margins of trephined opening into a cyst, of the lower jaw. This is typical of the advanced surgery of the Peruvian Indians.

For the study of a group of Indians now living in a high western state, Albuquerque, New Mexico, was visited.

Several other Indian studies have been made including studies of living groups, recently opened burials and museum collections, all of which support the findings recorded here. I am indebted to the directors and to the staffs of these institutions for their assistance.

Notwithstanding the wide range of physical and climatic conditions under which primitive Indians had been living, their incidence of tooth decay while on their native foods was always near zero; whereas, the modernized Indians of these groups showed very high incidence of dental caries. A summary of percentages follows: Primitive Indians: Pelly Mountain, 0.16 per cent; Juneau, 0.00 per cent; Florida Pre-Columbian, 0.00 per cent; Florida Seminoles, 4.0 per cent. Modernized Indians: Telegraph Creek, 25.5 per cent; Alaska Frontier, 40.0 per cent; Mohawk Institute, 17 per cent; Brantford Reservation Public School, 28.5 per cent; Brantford Reservation Hospital, 23.2 per cent, Tuscarora Reservation, 38.0 per cent; Winnipeg Lake Reservation, 39.1 per cent; North Vancouver Reservation, 36.9 per cent; Craigflower Indian Reservation, 48.5 per cent; Ketchikan, 46.6 per cent; Juneau Hospital, 39.1 per cent; Sheldon Jackson School, 53.7 per cent; Sitka, 35.6 per cent; Eklutna, 14.6 per cent; Jessie Lee Home, Seward, 27.6 per cent, and Florida Seminoles, 40.0 per cent.

The foods used by the primitives varies according to location and climate. The foods of the modernized groups in all cases were the typical white man's foods of commerce.

While the primitive groups constantly presented well-formed faces and dental arches reproducing the tribal pattern, the new generation, after the adoption of white man's foods, showed marked changes in facial and dental arch form.

The Indians like several primitive races I have studied are aware of the fact that their degeneration is in some way brought about by their contact with the white man. The dislike of the American Indian for the modern white civilization has been emphasized by many writers. In my studies among the Seminole Indians of Florida I found great difficulty in communicating with or making examination of the isolated Seminoles living deep in the Everglades and Cypress Swamp. Fortunately, I had the able assistance of one of their own tribe, a government nurse who had been very helpful to them and also a white man who had befriended them and whom they trusted. With their assistance I was able to carry out very detailed studies. It was of interest, however, that when we arrived at a settlement in the bush we practically always found it uninhabited. Our Indian guide would go into the surrounding scrub and call to the people assuring them it was to their advantage to come out, which they finally did. I was told that this attitude had grown out of the belief on their part that their treaties had been violated. These isolated Seminole Indian women had the reputation of turning their backs on all white men.

A United States Press report (1) provides an article with the heading "Tribes 'Fed Up' Seek Solitude, Indians Dislike Civilization, Ask Land Barred to White Men." The article continues:

The Bureau of Indian Affairs revealed today that five Indian tribes in Oklahoma are "fed up" with white civilization and want new, secluded tribal lands.

So widespread is the discontent among the 100,000 Indians living in Oklahoma, officials said, that serious study is being given to the possibility of providing new lands where the redman may hunt and fish as his ancestors did.

Dissatisfaction has been brewing for a long time as a result of an increasing Indian population, decreasing Indian lands and unsatisfactory economic conditions. It was brought officially to the notice of bureau officials several days ago when a delegation, headed by Jack Gouge, a Creek Indian from Hanna, Okla., told Indian Commissioner John Collier that most of the Oklahoma Indians wanted new tribal lands away from white civilization.

So anxious are his people to escape from the white man and his influences, Jack Gouge said, that an organization of about 1000 Indians has been formed to press the demands. It is known as the "Four Mothers," apparently representing four of the "civilized tribes"--the Creeks, Choctaws, Cherokees and Chickasaws.

The fifth civilized tribe, the Seminoles of Oklahoma, are negotiating with the Mexican government for tribal lands in that country.

These tribes are described as "civilized" because of the high degree of culture they attained in their original tribal lands along the eastern coast. As their eastern lands became valuable the Indians were moved to the area which is now Oklahoma. At the turn of the century, however, with the discovery of oil there the new tribal lands were broken up. The Indians were forcibly removed to small tracts despite their desire to remain together. Indian Bureau officials do not conceal their bitterness over the white man's "treachery." One official pointed out that about 300 treaties have been signed with the Indians and that practically every one has been violated.

It will be most fortunate if in the interest of science and human betterment such a program as this will be carried out in order to permit these Indians to live in accordance with the accumulated wisdom of their various tribes. Their preservation in isolation would preserve their culture. The greatest heritage of the white man today is the accumulated wisdom of the human race.

REFERENCE

1. Tribes "Fed Up" Seek Solitude. Cleveland Press, June 19, 1938.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 7

ISOLATED AND MODERNIZED MELANESIANS

SINCE our quest was to gather data that will throw light upon the cause of modern physical degeneration among human racial stocks in various parts of the world, it became necessary to include for study various groups living in the hot sultry climates of the tropics. Again it was desirable to obtain contact with both highly isolated and, therefore, relatively primitive stocks for comparison with modernized groups of the same stock. In order to accomplish this an expedition was made in 1934 to eight archipelagos of the Southern Pacific to study groups of Melanesians and Polynesians. The Melanesians described here were living in New Caledonia and the Fiji Islands.

If the causative factors for the physical degeneration of mankind are practically the same everywhere, it should be possible to find a common cause operating, regardless of climate, race, or environment.

Owing to the vast extent of the Pacific waters and the limited number of transportation lines, it became very difficult to arrange a convenient itinerary. This, however, was finally accomplished satisfactorily by going southward through the more easterly archipelagos; namely, the Marquesas Islands, Society Islands and Cook Islands, then westward to the Tongan Islands in the southern central Pacific near New Zealand, and then westward to New Caledonia near Australia. From this group we went northward to the Fiji Islands, also in the western Pacific, then to the Samoan Islands in the central Pacific south of the equator, and then to the Hawaiian Islands north of the equator. These island groups were all populated by different racial stocks speaking different languages. The movements from archipelago to archipelago were made on the larger ships, and between the islands of the group in small crafts, except in the Hawaiian Islands where an aeroplane was used.

The program in each group consisted in making contact with local guides and interpreters. They had generally been arranged for in advance by correspondence with government officials. By these means we were able to reach isolated groups in locations quite distant from contact with trade or merchant ships. To reach these isolated groups often required going over rough and difficult trails since most of the islands being of volcanic formation are mountainous.

On reaching the isolated groups our greetings and the purpose of the mission were conveyed by our interpreters to the chiefs. Much time was often lost in going through necessary ceremonials and feasting. In every instance we received a very cordial reception and excellent cooperation. In no instance was there antagonism. Through the underground telegraph they always seemed to know we were coming and had prepared for us. When these formalities were once over and our wishes made known, the chiefs instructed the members of their tribes to carry out our program for making examinations, recording personal data, making photographs, and collecting samples of foods for chemical analysis. The food samples were either dried or preserved in formalin.

The detailed records for every individual included data on the tribe, village and family, his age, previous residence, physical development, the kinds of foods eaten, the physical condition of every tooth, including presence or absence of cavities; the shape of the dental arches; the shape and development of the face; and detailed notes on divergencies from racial type. Special physical characteristics were photographed. A comparsion was made of these factors for each of the more isolated members of the same tribe and those in the vicinity of the port or landing place of the island. Through the government officials detailed information was secured, usually in the form of the annual government statistical reports, showing the kind and quantity of the various ingredients and articles that were imported, and similarly those that were exported. Contact was made in each island group with the health officers, and the studies were usually made with their assistance. In many instances the only contact with civilization had consisted of the call of a small trading ship once or twice a year to gather up the copra or dried coconut, sea shells and such other products as the natives had accumulated for exchange. Payment for these products was usually made in trade goods and not in money. The following articles consisted nearly always of 90 per cent of the total value: white flour and sugar. Ten per cent consisted of wearing apparel or material for that apparel.

While the missionaries have encouraged the people to adopt habits of modern civilization, in the isolated districts the tribes were not able to depart much from their native foods because of the infrequency of the call of the trader ship. Effort had been made in almost all of the islands to induce the natives to cover their bodies, especially when in sight of strangers. In several islands regulatory measures had been adopted requiring the covering of the body. This regulation had greatly reduced the primitive practice of coating the surface of the body with coconut oil, which had the effect of absorbing the ultra-violet rays thus preventing injury from the tropical sun. This coating of oil enabled them to shed the rain which was frequently torrential though of short duration. The irradiation of the coconut oil was considered by the natives to provide, in addition, an important source of nutrition. Their newly acquired wet garments became a serious menace to the comfort and health of the wearers.

The early navigators who visited these South Sea Islands reported the people as being exceedingly strong, vigorously built, beautiful in body and kindly disposed. There were formerly dense populations on most of the inhabitable islands. In contrast with this, one now finds that on many of the islands the death rate has come to so far exceed the birth rate that the very existence of these racial groups is often seriously threatened.

The Island of New Caledonia is one of the largest of the Pacific. It is situated in the vicinity of 23 degrees south latitude and 165 degrees east longitude. The New Caledonians are pure Melanesian stock. They are broad shouldererd, very muscular and in the past have been very warlike. These Islands are under French control. The foreign population is chiefly French, and limited mainly to the vicinity of the one port of Noumea. The subjugation of these people has been very difficult and as recently as 1917 a band from the interior in protest against efforts to establish a white colony and sugar plantation on a desirable section of coastal land swept down on the French colony in the night and massacred almost the entire population. Their contact with the required foods from the sea had been cut off. They believe they require sea foods to maintain life and physical efficiency. The physical development of the primitive people including their teeth and dental arches is of very high order. A comparison of the individuals living near the ports with those living in the isolated inland locations shows marked increase in the incidence of dental caries. For those living almost exclusively on the native foods the incidence of dental caries was only 0.14 per cent; while for those using trade foods the incidence of dental caries was 26 per cent. The splendid facial and dental arch development of these quite primitive Caledonians is shown in Fig. 28. Note also their kinky hair and strong neck and face muscles.

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