claim, like the Shoshonee, descent from an ancient people
that immigrated into their present seats from the Northwest. During
the last thirty years they have considerably decreased, according
to the mountaineers, and have been demoralized mentally and
physically by the emigrants. Formerly they were friendly, now they
are often at war with the intruders. As in Australia, arsenic and
corrosive sublimate in springs and provisions have diminished their
number.

Now, why did Burton make this statement? In the same volume he describes
the Mountain Meadow massacre, and gives the story as related by the
actors therein. It is well known that the men who were engaged in this
affair tried to shield themselves by diligently publishing that it was a
massacre by Indians incensed at the travelers because they had poisoned
certain springs at which the Indians were wont to obtain their supplies
of water. When Mr. Burton was in Salt Lake City he, doubtless, heard
these stories.

So the falsehoods of a murderer, told to hide his crime, have gone into
history as facts characteristic of the people of the United States in
their treatment of the Indians. In the paragraph quoted from Burton some
other errors occur. The Utes and Shoshonis do not claim to have
descended from an ancient people that immigrated into their present
seats from the Northwest. Most of these tribes, perhaps all, have myths
of their creation in the very regions now inhabited by them.

Again, these Indians have not been demoralized mentally or physically by
the emigrants, but have made great progress toward civilization.

The whole account of the Utes and Shoshonis given in this portion of the
book is so mixed with error as to be valueless, and bears intrinsic
evidence of having been derived from ignorant frontiersmen.

Turning now to the first volume of Spencer's _Principles of Sociology_
(page 149), we find him saying:

And thus prepared, we need feel no surprise on being told that the
Zuni Indians require "much facial contortion and bodily
gesticulation to make their sentences perfectly intelligible;" that
the language of the Bushman needs so many signs to eke out its
meaning, that "they are unintelligible in the dark;" and that the
Arapahos "can hardly converse with one another in the dark."

When people of different languages meet, especially if they speak
languages of different stocks, a means of