Our native Americans are, and have been, a remarkable people. Their very manner of life, their striking and picturesque costumes, their peculiar color and their diversified languages seem to have challenged the attention of explorers, travelers, priests and scientists. It is to be doubted if there is another aboriginal race, on the face of the earth, concerning which more books, articles and reports have been published. In Europe, as well as in America, the Indian is celebrated in song and story, yet since the discovery of America his domination has gradually diminished, and the period of his greatest activity (since the advent of the white race) is very short lived compared with that of other tribes of men. From 1500 to 1700, he may be said to have controlled a sufficient extent of the United States and Canada, to dominate it. His power after the year 1700 rapidly diminished, and in 1800 we find that he did not control any large areas save west of the Mississippi and west of Lake Superior. Up to the year 1865, he dominated a large portion of the West, South West and North West. From 1880 down to the present time, his sun has rapidly declined and he may be said today to have passed out of the tribal estate, to have ceased to be a factor in national life as a separate race. He is rapidly becoming merged into our larger body of citizens, and while some thousands of Indians (perhaps 45,000) live and think in the past, the great majority of Indians, like the great majority of foreign immigrants, belong to the body politic. [Illustration: ARTHUR C. PARKER Iroquois. State Archaeologist of New York; Secretary Society American Indians. ] So, we consider the majority in this study of the Indian, rather than the minority; leaving that fraction to the scientist.