By reason of the care with which the bones were collected from the
Minisink cemetery, those of the different adult skeletons were kept
apart as found and are thus perfectly identifiable as to individuals.
Excluding those of adolescents and children, there are present the
bones of 32 adult skeletons, and in the majority of cases these are
almost complete. Of these 32 individuals, 17 were male and 15 female,
thus affording a fair series for comparison.
The bones in general are practically normal and almost free from
important anomalies. They indicate people of medium to somewhat above
medium stature, and of good though not excessive muscular development.
In their morphological features they approximate in many respects the
bones of whites, yet differ in numerous interesting particulars.
Although a number of the subjects represented by the skeletal remains
were old people, there is an absence of light bones or of other
evidences of senility. The proportion of such bones in modern whites is
in fact much larger than among any of the Indians, either prehistoric
or modern, a fact of considerable physiological importance.