There is no better illustration of the soundness of the views regarding the types of diets which succeed in inducing good nutrition, and the importance of selecting foods so as to produce combinations which are satisfactory for the maintenance of well-being, than the experience of the non-citizen Indian of the United States. All who observed the Indians in their primitive state, agree that most of them were exceptional specimens of physical development. During two generations they have deteriorated, physically, with few exceptions, in a manner more marked than has the last generation of Americans of European stock. The reason for this is brought to light through a consideration of the kind of food to which they have restricted themselves for years past.

There is no group of people anywhere having a higher incidence of tuberculosis than the non-citizen Indians. Wards of the Government, they have been provided with money and land, but have in general shown no interest in agriculture. Under such conditions most of them have lived in idleness and have derived their food supplies from the agency stores. In addition to meats, they have, therefore, for two decades or more, taken large amounts of milled cereal products, syrup and molasses, and canned foods, such as beans, peas, corn, etc. In other words, they have come to subsist essentially upon a milled cereal, tuber and meat diet. On such a regimen their teeth have rapidly become inferior, and badly decayed, and they suffer much from rheumatism and other troubles which result from invasion of the blood stream through infected teeth. Faulty dietary habits are in great measure to be incriminated for their susceptibility to tuberculosis.

Other classes of Indians who have become successful farmers, have not deteriorated as a result of contact with civilization, except in so far as they have suffered from alcohol and venereal infections. The non-citizen Indian has suffered most, not because of contact with civilization, but because of a detail in connection with that event, which can easily be remedied. He has suffered little if any more than white people living under similar conditions would have done, and indeed are actually doing today in many places.