Where did these red people come from? Nobody knows any more than he knows where or when the first human being appeared on this earth. There have been a good many guesses--for they are little more--to tell how the Indians came to be on this continent. Some have thought they are descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel, who passed across Bering Strait from Asia, and, in the course of centuries, spread over and peopled both North and South America. Why their color changed to the well-known copper tint must have been due to the climate, though it is hard to understand why other persons should become yellow, brown or black. Then, too, a learned man once said there was no reason why the Indians might not have crossed Bering Strait from the other way, and peopled the Eastern Hemisphere. No doubt we shall have to wait a long time before learning all about the origin of man. You hardly need be told how these red people got their name. Christopher Columbus, when he caught sight of land, after sailing so many weeks to the westward over the Atlantic, thought it was a part of the Indies. So, quite naturally, he called the natives _Indians_, and the name will never be changed. You have heard of the Mound Builders, and many of you have seen some of the vast piles of earth which they heaped up hundreds of years ago. Ohio has ten thousand such mounds, and one near St. Louis covers eight acres. For a long while, it was believed that the Mound Builders were a race different from the Indians, who in the course of time gave place to them. This is a mistake. They belonged to the same race, and when Columbus discovered America, the Mound Builders were working like beavers in many parts of the country. I am quite sure that you boys and girls, when reading or thinking about the Indians, have believed they were dying off, and the day would come when there would not be one of them left in America. No doubt you have felt sad over the thought (I remember when I was a little fellow how I shed a tear, and sniffed and hoped a few of them wouldn't die till I had become a man and gained a chance of seeing them.) This mistake is one of the most curious of which I know. There are to-day as many Indians in this country as there were four hundred years ago. The last census of the tribes in Canada shows a slight increase. True, some tribes have been destroyed, but others have grown in number. There are more Iroquois or "Six Nation" Indians now than during the Revolution. When the end of all things comes, and the white men of this country are called to be judged, plenty of red men will be among them. They are in the United States to stay, and stay they will as long as the white man remains. [Illustration: AN OLD INDIAN FARM-HOUSE]