People write in response to abuses in Iraq and the death and destruction there, what is this country becoming. And some write that if the media showed pictures on the television of the infants and children being killed, that the citizenry of America would rise up and put an end to the war, demand it.
I am cynical.
And it’s not comforting to be cynical about such matters. It’s not as if I want to be. I would prefer not to be cynical.
The following figures are from a 1900 census in OK Territory on the Otoe Reservation in Noble County, the number of children a woman had total and the number of those children surviving. These figures are from consecutive households on consecutive pages.
One thing I don’t want is anyone writing in the comments area talking about this being any kind of usual mortality rate for the era. It wasn’t. Compare these 1900 figures to white populations. It just didn’t happen. I have gone through scores of white censuses and you don’t get this kind of insane mortality.
Some may not view these figures from 1900 to be relevant to today. I do. I think we live with a myth of what we were. I do not find present aggressions to be out of the ordinary in respect of the past. If I give the figures from an Otoe census as opposed to another it’s because of being in part descended from the Ioway, which intermarried with the Otoe-Missouria. It’s not a matter of my ignoring other populations. I am simply familiar with these figures because I’ve gone through and transcribed them myself.
1 of 8 children surviving
1 of 10 children surviving
8 of 8 children surviving
2 of 3 children surviving
1 of 11 children surviving
2 of 4 children surviving
5 of 9 children surviving
3 of 7 children surviving
0 of 4 children survivng
2 of 10 children surviving
3 of 4 children surviving
2 of 12 children surviving
4 of 7 children surviving
3 of 5 children surviving
2 of 2 children surviving
4 of 14 children surviving
2 of 6 children surviving
5 of 10 children surviving
0 of 1 children surviving
6 of 8 children surviving
3 of 9 children surviving
3 of 5 children surviving
3 of 10 children surviving
4 of 6 children surviving
1 of 8 children surviving
1 of 3 children surviving
2 of 8 children surviving
2 of 6 chidlren suriviving
2 of 11 children surviving
1 of 2 children surviving
2 of 5 children surviving
4 of 10 children surviving?
3 of 10 children surviving
3 of 10 children surviving
3 of 10 children surviving
3 of 4 children surviving
5 of 11 children surviving
0 of 11 children surviving
1 of 4 children surviving
0 of 8 children surviving
illegible of 8 children surviving
1 of 2 children surviving
1 child surviving of illegible number
1 of 8 children surviving
5 of 12 children surviving
illegible of 7 children surviving
2 of 6 children surviving
2 of 7 children surviving
4 of 8 children surviving
2 of 4 children surviving
3 of 5 children surviving
0 of 1 children surviving
0 of 5 children surviving
2 of 3 children surviving
0 of 6 children surviving
0 of 5 chidlren surviving
2 of 2 children surviving
5 of 7 children surviving
1 of 6 children surviving
0 of 8 children surviving
0 of 6 children surviving
0 of 10 children surviving
2 of 4 children surviving
3 of 6 children surviving
0 of 9 children surviving
1 of 8 children surviving
3 of 5 children surviving
1 of 7 children surviving
4 of 9 children surviving
0 of 1 children surviving
0 of 1 children surviving
2 of 3 children surviving
0 of 1 children surviving
0 of 1 children surviving
3 of 3 children surviving
3 of 4 children surviving
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