In such a society the spirit of action is intense. If there are few
philosophers, there is remarkable diffusion of popular knowledge and
elementary education. The dry atmosphere and the cold winters are
nerve-stimulants, and life seems to have a higher tension and velocity
than in other parts of the country.

THE INDIAN QUESTION.

The Northwest presents a series of very interesting race problems. The
first one, chronologically at least, is the problem that the American
Indian presents. It is not so long ago since the Indian was in
possession of a very large portion of the region we are now considering.
A number of tribes were gradually removed further West, or were assigned
to districts in the Indian Territory. But most of them were concentrated
in large reservations in Minnesota, Nebraska, North and South Dakota,
Montana, and Wyoming. The past few years have witnessed the rapid
reduction of these reservations, and the adoption of a policy which, if
carried to its logical conclusion with energy and good faith, will at an
early date result in the universal education of the children, in the
abolition of the system of reservations, and in the settlement of the
Indian families upon farms of their own, as fully enfranchised American
citizens.

OTHER ELEMENTS OF POPULATION.

[Illustration: LAKE-SHORE DRIVE, CHICAGO.]

The most potent single element of population in the Northwest is of New
England origin, although more than half of it has found its way into
Iowa, Minnesota, the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Kansas, by filtration
through the intermediate States of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois. But there has also been a vast direct
immigration from abroad; and this element has come more largely, by far,
from the northern than from the central and southern races of Europe.
The Scandinavian peninsula and the countries about the Baltic and North
Seas have supplied the Northwest with a population that already numbers
millions. From Chicago to Montana there is now a population of full
Scandinavian origin, which, perhaps, may be regarded as about equal in
numbers to the population that remains in Sweden and Norway. In
Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota, as well as in
northern Iowa and in some parts of Nebraska, there are whole counties
where the population is almost entirely Scandinavian. Upon all this
portion of the country for centuries to come the Scandinavian
patronymics