40 R. Rueeres Gates AND Gro. E. Darsy.—Blood Groups and

These people remain with the status of Indians although many of them appear to have
more white than Indian blood. This is doubtless for the economic reason that as “‘ Indians,”
although they do not receive “ treaty money” from the Canadian Government, yet they live
on Reserves and are educated and looked after, which would not be the case if they ranked
as white. The situation is very different as regards the negroes of mixed breed, who have no
such incentive to remain classed as negroes but who “‘cross the colour line’ whenever opportunity
offers. Similar conditions regarding the Indians hold throughout Canada. In Nova Scotia
there are probably no Micmac Indians of pure blood left, but there are numbers of mixed bloods
on reservations and in special Indian schools, who would furnish material of great interest for
a study of race crossing.

It would appear that while the British Columbia coastal Indians have rather rapidly
absorbed white blood, yet living on reservations and being able to continue to a considerable
extent their former occupations or others of a similar character, they have remained contented
and have made remarkable progress in the adoption of the ways of civilization, even to electric
light, motor boats and other modern inventions. In this respect they are comparable with
the half-breeds between Ojibway Indians and whites studied some years ago (Gates, 1928) in
the Temagami region of Northern Ontario.

These conditions appear to be much more satisfactory from the point of view of making
the most of the Indians’ potentialities than those recently described by Mead (1932) on an
Indian reservation apparently in the vicinity of Oklahoma. The American government gave
Indians enfranchisement as a nominal gesture of equality, but divided up the reservations
so they were obliged to become individual landowners. The cupidity of the white man
frequently resulted in the Indian losing part or all of his land and with it his livelihood ; or if he
lived off rents, prodigality of spending for a short time was often followed by complete loss of
economic status. Moreover, the entrance of white men into the reservations as owners or
renters of land obtained from the Indians helped to complete the break-up of any possible
transition from native to civilized ways of livmg. The type of education offered a primitive
and simple-minded people appears to have been equally inappropriate to their status and
needs. These are examples illustrating the need for an anthropological approach to problems
connected with the administration of native races.

The Canadian census shows an increase in the “ Indian” population of Canada, but it
needs to be recognized that this is a case of assimilation with white blood mainly in the more
remote parts of the Dominion. The number of individuals classed as Indians has doubtless
increased but the number of pure blood is steadily decreasing, and a considerable proportion of
those ranking as Indians more nearly resemble whites in their appearance. As has been argued
elsewhere (Gates, 1928), this dilution of the Indian blood with white produces a type probably
having greater intelligence and energy than the pure Indian—a type which is well adapted
to the active life of a hunter or fisherman in the less populous parts of the country.

Summary.
Blood tests of 300 British Columbia coastal Indians gave results as indicated in Table 1
{p 24). The tests included members of the Haida, Kwakiutl, Salish and Nootka tribes. Only