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Show REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. XLIU of mo~tality. The total number of cases under treatment <or the year ending June 30, 1883, was 86,665. Total deaths? 1,283; total births, 1,862. The peculiar custom prevailing among the Indians of maiutaiu-ing strict secrecy in regard to births and deaths renders the collection of reliable information on these points extremely difficult. During the year trhe Indian police have reported 197 deaths in addition to those occnrring among cases treated by the physicians. The prevailing dis-eases in the north have been rheumatism and affections of the respira-tory organs, with some malarial disorders in the extreme Northwest. In the south the affections hare been chiefly malarial. On pages 304 to 313 will be found a tabular exhibit of the number of cases and charac-ter of diseases treated. During the autumu and winter of 1882-'83 a small.pox epidenlic was threatened in the south and southwest; also in the White Earth country in Minnesota; but prompt action in vaccinating the Indians and estab-lishing quarantine prevented any serious consequences. The number of cases reported vac:cinated for the Fear is as follows: Successfully, 4,OiG; unsuccessfully, 1,906. Syphilis andits pathological sequencesare prevalentamongmaug tribes and are difficult to control on account of the lack of self-restraint among those treated and the tendency to disregard theinstructions of the physi-cians. There seems, however, to bea slight improvement in this respect. The evil influence of the native ~~uledicinmee n" is one of the greatest obstacles to be overcome. in the civilization of the Indian. These native doctors realize that the advanceof civilizatiou and enlightenment means a termination of their power an11 infloenee, and the1 employ all their arts apd work up011 the superstitions and fears of their people in order to prevent them from applying to the "white man's doctor," hopiug thus to perpetuate their own power and sources of revenue. Hence the task of inducing the Indians to abandon their ancient customs in the treat-ment of disease is a diEcult one, and must, of necessity, be the rrork not of years only, but of generations, as they adhere tenaciously to the faith of their fa.thers in the power of the medicine meu to exorcise the evil spirits, to whose presence they attribute all disease. It is gratifying, however, to note that as the older Indiaus pass to the "happy hunting grounds" their time-honored remedial rites gradually die out, and tbat the younger generations are evincing more faith in the medicines used and the treatment pursued by white physicians. Another serious obstacle to the successful treatment of disease among the Indians is the inadequacy and in most cases the entire absence of hospital accommodations. Wheu an Indian is treated by a white phy-sician he expects to be cured by a single dose of medicine, and if he is not, he becomes disconraged and thinks the rl~edicineo f no value and will take no more. Again, he thinks that if a spoonful of medicine will benefit him, a bottle-full mustnecessarilgdo him a proportionate amount of good if all taken at one dose. This tendency to become discouraged and this disposition to disregard the instructions and admonitions of |
