# Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/American Indians

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​INDIANS, American. The application of the name Indians to the native peoples and tribes of the New World is an erroneous usage, originating in the belief of the Spanish discoverers of America that they had reached the eastern shores of Asiatic countries already partially known. As it happens, the name is now, even apart from the addition of American, customarily applied to the aborigines of the western hemisphere, while it is used with far less frequency as a collective name for the inhabitants of the great country of the East known from the remotest times as India.
Various questions in regard to the American Indians have been discussed in the article America. It is here intended to treat more particularly their ethnographical position, and to give what may be called a working classification of the races. This is followed by a separate notice of the present distribution and condition of the North American Indians.
It may be asserted with some confidence that there is nothing in the physical and mental condition of the aboriginal Americans which requires us to postulate for them a foreign origin. If man was evolved originally from several centres, America assuredly included one at least; if he sprang from a single pair, then we can even conceive that pair to have been first established in the New World, and the arguments brought forward in support of an Asiatic origin of the American would not lose their point if adduced in favour of an American origin of the Asiatic peoples.
Andreas Retzius, the founder of scientific craniology, arguing on insufficient materials, grouped all the American aborigines in two great divisions—(1) a western or highland, occupying the main ranges of the Rocky Mountains and Andes, with the intervening lands thence to the Pacific; and (2) an eastern, mainly lowland, whose domain stretched from the western uplands to the Atlantic seaboard. The former, being characterized by brachycephalous or round heads, he felt disposed to connect with the brachycephalous Mongolians and Malays of Asia and Australasia. The latter, being of a decided dolichocephalous or long-headed type, he traced to possible Berber and Guanche migrations from north-west Africa and the Canary Islands, doubtless because the historical arrival of the dolichocephalous Norsemen in the New World was of too recent date to serve his purpose. But Virchow (“Anthropologie Amerika's,” in Verhandlungen der Gesell. für Anthropologie, 1877, p. 144-56) has amply shown that this classification is untenable, and it will be seen further on that there are long and round-headed types often intermingled in every part of the continent. Virchow himself, while denying the claim of the American race to be considered autochthonous, declines to commit himself as to the probable regions whence they may have reached their present habitat. The theory of an Asiatic immigration via Behring Strait has been somewhat revived since ethnologists have, so to say, rediscovered the lost Tchuktchis of the north-east coast of Siberia through Nordenskjöld's Swedish polar expedition of 1878-9. These Tchuktchis are supposed to form the connecting link between the races of the two worlds, and the supposition is strengthened by the invention of an American branch of the tribe. Professor Nordenskjöld himself remarks that “this race, settled on the primeval route between the Old and the New World, bears an unmistakable stamp of the Mongols of Asia and Eskimo and Indians of America” (Petermann's Mittheilungen, 1879, p. 330). But Lieutenant Palander of the same expedition says that "they undoubtedly descend from the Greenland Eskimo" (ib.) which would at once deprive them of all value as a connecting link, while Peschel (Races of Man, p. 391) much more probably allies them to the Itelmes (Kamtchadales), the ​two languages being “as closely related as is Spanish to Portuguese.” W. H. Dall (Contributions to American Ethnology, vol. i., Washington, 1877) further points out that the Innuit (Eskimo) tongue, said to be spoken by the Tchuktchis, is merely a trading jargon, a mixture of Koriak, Tchuktchi, Innuit, English, Hawaiian, and others. It is also to be noted that the Samoyedes and other Asiatic Arctic peoples, assumed by many to be the progenitors of the Eskimo, are of Mongoloid stock and distinctly brachycephalous, while the Eskimo are the most dolichocephalous race on the globe next to the Kai Colos of Fiji (Flower). Thus the Eskimo, instead of being a connecting link, form an anthropological barrier between the populations of the two hemispheres at the very point geographically most convenient for effecting the transition.
Nor would the question be much furthered by allowing the arrival of a few barbarous tribes via Behring Strait in prehistoric times. Their presence would leave the Aztec, Mayan, Peruvian, and other local cultures unexplained, except as independent developments. And more recent historic migrations of Chinese, Japanese, and other civilized peoples, otherwise involved in tremendous difficulties, would leave equally unexplained the primeval mound-building races of the Ohio valley and the still more ancient Brazilian races of the Santa Catharina and Santos shell-heaps. Because a stray vessel has been cast ashore on the western seaboard since the discovery of America, Virchow suggests the possibility of similar arrivals in remoter times. But if the Chinese arrived so recently as even 8000 years ago (an extreme supposition) in sufficient numbers to build up a civilization in Central America, the Chinese origin of such a civilization would to this day be as self-evident as is the Chinese origin of the neighbouring Japanese civilization. The foreign founders of these communities would necessarily have brought with them their arts, their domestic animals, their more useful plants and cereals, without which they must have themselves speedily perished or been absorbed in the surrounding native populations. But no trace of these things was found in the New World on its discovery. There was neither the rice of the Chinese, nor the wheat, barley, oats, or rye of the Western nations, nor the iron now proved to have been known to the ancient Assyrians and Egyptians, nor the horse, camel, ox, sheep, pig, dog, or poultry of the eastern hemisphere. Instead of these, there was little beyond one cereal (maize), one esculent root (potato), one feeble beast of burden (llama), limited to the uplands of the southern Cordilleras, one species of dog elsewhere unknown. Most of the useful plants and animals of the East have since been introduced, and flourish vigorously even in the wild state, a sufficient proof that they would have been propagated had they been introduced at an earlier epoch. The knowledge of metals was limited to copper, both wrought and, in Wisconsin, apparently cast (J. S. Butler), bronze, lead, gold, and silver. Otherwise most of the nations were at the discovery still in the Stone Age; and, although Virchow's assertion may be true that the most practised archæologist will fail to detect any material difference between the stone implements of the two hemispheres, this merely implies that the arts of Palæolithic and Neolithic man were pretty much the same everywhere.
Nor is there anything in the religions, systems of government, architecture, and other arts of the native Americans, by which they can be connected with the corresponding systems of the East. That the Toltec builders of the low obtruncated Mexican pyramids were a different people from the pyramid builders of the Nile valley, and that the mummies of the Ancon necropolis and other parts of Peru were of a different stock from the Egyptian mummies, is sufficiently evident from the texture of the hair alone. The hair of the old cultured races of America was the same as that of all the later American races, uniformly lank, because cylindrical in section. The hair of the old Egyptians, like that of the modern Fellahîn, is, on the contrary, uniformly wavy, because more or less oval in section. The religions, again, of the Red Man, we are told by Carl Schultz-Sellack, Oscar Loew, and other good observers, are “essentially astrological, based on star, sun, and moon worship,” with which was often associated an intricate method of measuring time built on a series of twenty constellations" (Zeitschr. für Ethnologie, 1879, p. 209). “The sun,” says Loew, “is the god of most Indian tribes. ‘He diffuses warmth and nourishment for us and our animals; why shall we not worship him?’ observed to me on one occasion Masayamtiba, a Moqui Indian (New Mexico)” (ib. p. 265). This Masayamtiba was a better philosopher than those ethnologists who seek for the origin of such a simple cult in the remote corners of the globe, rather than in the beneficial influence of the heavenly bodies which shine alike for all mankind. The four great gods of the Mayas, the “props of the heavens,” answered to the four great Mexican gods of the four quarters of the compass, all being associated with the four elements of wind, water, fire, and earth. But to what does either system answer in the polytheistic creeds of the Hindus, Assyrians, Babylonians, or other nations of antiquity? There is something similar in the Neo-Buddhistic teachings; but Buddhism, even of the oldest type, is much too recent to explain anything in the religious worlds of Mexico or Yucatan. The hare is associated in America, in Asia, and even amongst the Bushmen of South Africa with the moon. But this association was obviously suggested independently by the spots which, especially in the first quarter of the moon seem to present the outlines of a hare on its form. Waitz (Anthropology, p. 255) well observes that a common belief in a universal flood, or in the periodical destruction of the world, whether by fire, water, storms, or earthquakes, and analogous or parallel lines of thought—taken individually—afford no proof whatever in favour of affinity, and even resemblances in several points possess only a secondary importance; for they may partly, under like conditions, arise spontaneously among peoples who have always lived in a state of separation, or may have partly resulted from periods of short intercourse between two different peoples.
In any case, these slight coincidences are of little account when weighed against the argument based on diversity of speech. The tremendous force of this argument, as applied to the American aborigines, is scarcely realized by anthropologists such as Waitz or Virchow, who have not cultivated philological studies, and it is significant that, in the already quoted paper by Virchow on the “Anthropology of America,” the linguistic element is not even referred to. On the other hand, it has been greatly depreciated and even brought into contempt by the vagaries of certain etymologists, who discover affinities where there is nothing but the vaguest verbal resemblance. Science has demonstrated beyond all cavil that, while differing widely among themselves, the American languages not only betray no ​affinity to any other tongues, but belong to an absolutely distinct order of speech. They are neither isolating or monosyllabic like the Indo-Chinese group, agglutinating like the Ural-Altaic, Bantu, or Dravidian, nor inflexional like the Semitic and Aryan. They come nearest in structure to the Basque, which is the only incorporating language of the Old World, but differ from it essentially inasmuch as their capacity of incorporating words in the sentence is not restricted to the verb and a few pronominal elements, but extends in principle to all the parts of speech. This faculty, which, with one or two doubtful exceptions, seems to be characteristic of every American idiom from Behring Strait to Cape Horn, has received the name of polysynthesis, literally "a much putting together." Hence, in a comprehensive classification of articulate speech according to its inner mechanism, a special place must be reserved for the American group; and, if we assume as the most probable theory that all speech has slowly evolved from a few simple beginnings, passing successively from the state of crude roots to the isolating condition, and so onwards to the agglutinating and other orders, then in such a scheme the American will stand apart in some such position as under:—
Here it is not intended to imply that American derives from Malayan or Dravidian, but only from some now extinct agglutinating forms of speech of which Malayan or Dravidian may be taken as still surviving typical instances. The disappearance in America of all such assumed forms, unless the Otomi of Mexico is to be accepted as a solitary lingering specimen, argues both a very great antiquity and an independent evolution of the American languages. And as the course this evolution has taken differs entirely from that pursued by the idioms of the Old World, it follows that the first peopling of America, if from the Old World, must be thrown back to a time when all speech itself was in its infancy, to a time when slow diffusion might be conceived as equally probable from an eastern or a western starting-point. It is this feature of polysynthesis that gives the American race its first and greatest claim to be regarded as truly autochthonous, in the same sense that we regard the Mongolian and Caucasian races as truly autochthonous in Asia.
There is a general consensus amongst anthropologists that on the western continent we are in presence of two distinct original types, the brachycephalous and dolichocephalous. But these are no longer confined to separate geographical areas, as Retzius supposed. The very general practice of artificially flattening or otherwise deforming the skull has naturally caused less value to be attached to the craniological test in America than elsewhere. The practice has been traced back even to prehistoric times, and a clay figure recently found associated with the remains of a child by Reiss and Stübel in a grave in Ancon puts in a clear light the method adopted by the ancient Peruvians (The Necropolis of Ancon, Berlin and London, 1881, plate 90). Still, careful investigations have placed it beyond doubt that the normal skull both in North and in South America is now mesaticephalous, or of a type intermediate between the two extremes, a fact supposed to imply a general intermingling of the two primeval stocks. On the other hand, Virchow (loc. cit., passim) shows perfectly normal ancient and recent crania from both sides of Greenland, from El Carmen on the Rio Negro, Patagonia, from the Botocudo tribe, East Brazil, from a tumulus of Santa Fé de Bogota, and even a Peruvian mummy exhumed at Pancatambo, all of which are distinctly, in some cases extremely, dolichocephalic. In the same way he produces brachycephalic skulls from the Brazilian shell-mounds of Santos and Santa Catharina, from the barrows of the Ohio valley mound-builders, from the Carib and Araucanian tribes, and from the Pampas of La Plata, the last mentioned of an extreme type, in close proximity to the extreme dolichocephalous specimens from Patagonia. Were it safe to argue from the analogy of Britain, where the dolichocephalic builders of the long barrows seem to have preceded and afterwards become intermingled with the brachycephalic builders of the round barrows (Dr Thurnam), the western continent might be supposed to have been successively occupied first by a long-headed and then by a round-headed race, which kept aloof in a few places, while more generally becoming fused in a normally mesaticephalic type. But we have in America no guide to the relative priority of the two forms of head, nor are there now any long-headed races on the eastern Asiatic seaboard whose ancestors might be taken as the precursors of the corresponding element in the West. The obvious alternative also remains, that the two forms may have become differentiated on the American continent, just as similar differentiations must, by those who do not accept the doctrine of fixity of species, be assumed to have taken place in Asia. For such an evolution America offered a more ample field even than Asia, for it is not confined to the northern hemisphere, but stretches from the Arctic nearly to the Antarctic Circle, presenting in this wide range almost every conceivable variety of climate, atmosphere, soil, and temperature.
We thus see that the two cranial forms do not necessarily militate against the possible primordial unity of the homo Americanus. This unity seems on the other hand implied in certain physical and mental features, common to all the native races. Of the physical traits the most important and uniform are—(1) the hair, which is always black, coarse, glossy, and long, like a horse's mane, round in transverse section and persistent to extreme old age; (2) slight beard, but always straight, never wavy; (3) eyes small, black, somewhat deep-set, always horizontal; (4) eyebrows narrow, very arched, and black; (5) prominent cheek bones and nose, the latter often very long and aquiline.
The native American being popularly spoken of as "The Red Man," it might be supposed that colour should be included in this brief list of common characteristics. But, notwithstanding the general impression, there is perhaps no ​other region of the globe where so great a variety of colour prevails. The more general tints are a copper or cinnamon brown, and olive yellow; but the subjoined table of tribes, grouped according to their colour, shows that the extremes of a deep brown almost approaching a true black, and of a light or fair hue almost approaching a true white, also occur, altogether independently of latitude, climate, or elevation of the land:—
| Leather Brown, Coppery, Cinnamon. | Dark Brown to Blackish. | Olive-Brown and Yellowish. | Fair to Whitish. |
| Iroquois: New York, Canada.  Algonquins: north-east States, U.S. | Guaicuri $\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,$ : Lower California.  Pericui  Charruas: Uruguay | Guarani: Brazil, Paraguay.  Coroados (women): Minas Geraes  Puris (women): Rio Janeiro. | Pehuenches $\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,$ : Chili, 35° to 40° S.  Boroanos  Tocomonas: Beni river, Bolivia. |
| Chiriguanas (settled): Pilcomayo river.   Coroados (men): Minas Geraes.  Puris (men): Rio Janeiro. | Coast Arawaks: Guiana.  Quichuas: Peru.  Aymaras: Bolivian uplands. | Aucas: Chili, east slopes of Andes.  Rangueles: Chilian pampas.  Chiquitos: between Paraguay and river Negro. | Hydas: Queen Charlotte Islands.  Cayawas: Rio Branco, river Mamore, Brazil.   Pammas: Madeira river, Brazil. |
| Araucanians: Chili.  Fuegians: Tierra del Fuego.  Mataguayas: Gran Chaco. | Payaguas: Paraguay.  Yaros: east side of Uruguay river.  Charruas: Uruguay. | Otukes: north-east Bolivia.  Tupi $\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,$ : north-east Brazil.  Tupinamba | Aguanos $\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,$ : Huallaga river.  Barbudes  Inland Arawaks: Guiana. |
| Maropas $\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,$ : Moxos, Bolivia.  Apolistas  Vilelas: Vermejo river, La Plata. | Puelches: Pampas, La Plata.  Tehuelches: Patagonia.  Changos: coast of Peru. | Moxos $\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,$ : prov. Moxos, Bolivia.  Itonamas  Cayubabas | Chiriguanas (wild): Pilcomayo river.  Yuracares: Bolivian plains.  Tacanas: Beni river, Bolivia. |
| Mbocobis $\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,$ :  Gran Chaco.  Tobis Pilcomayo river.  Abipones: west bank of upper Parana. | Atacameños: Tarapaca, Peru.  Quichés: Guatemala lowlands  Galibi: Guiana. | Botocudos: Brazilian coast range.  Timuena $\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,$ : Florida  Seminoles | Blackfeet: Saskatchewan river.  Mandans: Middle Missouri.  Guarayos: Moxos, Bolivia. |
| Dakotas: Upper Missouri.  Apaches: North Mexico, Arizona.  Quichés: Guatemala uplands. | Minnanes: between rivers Parana and Uruguay.   Bohanes: Lower Uruguay river. | Eskimo: Arctic seaboard.  Unalaskans $\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,$ : Aleutian Islands.  Akkhas | Mosetenos: river Beni, Bolivia.  Guarives: Venezuela.  Siriones: Moxos, Bolivia. |
Similar tables might easily be drawn up of stature, varying from the dwarfish Eskimo, Fuegian (mean 5 ft. 1 in.), and Peruvian (mean 4 ft, 9 in.) to the gigantic Patagonian, the tallest race on the globe.
No less varied are the other physical traits, while the wide divergence of mental capacity is sufficiently indicated on the one hand by the Cherokees of the southern Alleghanies, who in 1824 invented a complete syllabic writing system, and who can reckon to a million and upwards, and on the other by the Chiquitos of the Bolivian lowlands, who, D'Orbigny assures us (op. cit., ii. p. 163), "cannot get beyond one (tama), after which they have nothing but terms of comparison." The only real intellectual faculty common to all the American races is that implied by the peculiar polysynthetic mechanism of their speech. But beneath this general morphological structure, the substance of the languages themselves varies greatly in all that concerns their phonetic systems, vocabularies, relational forms, syntax, and methods of combination. While, for instance, the Thlinkeet of the extreme north-west Pacific seaboard, the Apache of Arizona, the Quichua of Peru, and the Aymara of the Bolivian uplands are amongst the very harshest and most guttural tongues in the world, the Otuke of the Bolivian plains, the Mohave of Arizona, the Chiquito of the upper Paraguay basin, the Samucu on the north frontier of Gran Chaco, and many Amazonian dialects are distinguished by great softness, often rivalling in euphony the most musical languages of the eastern hemisphere. The linguistic families differ from each other, not only in the measure to which their polysynthesis has been developed, but even in its very character, so that while some have scarcely yet arrived at a clear differentiation of verb and noun, others, like the Iroquois, have a purely verbal, others again, such as the extinct Timucua of Florida, an exclusively nominal inflexion. In the same way some are partial to prefixes, some to suffixes, some to infixes. Many of the Californian idioms seem to be still verging on the agglutinating stage, while the just-mentioned Timucua, the Aztec, Choctaw, Shoshone, Cree, Matlalzinca, and others of the Anahuac table-land, have reached the very acme of polysynthesis, in which all the parts of the sentence often become by indefinite composition and syncope fused into one interminable "bunch-word" of from ten to fifteen syllables and upwards. As these languages also differ entirely in their vocabularies, often possessing not a single root in common, it follows that they can be no more classed together than can for instance the various agglutinating tongues of the Caucasus or the Soudan.
It thus appears hopeless to look for any unity of details in the mental and physical faculties of the American aborigines. What they have in common is reducible to one physical and one mental quality, the universal texture and black colour of the hair, and their polysynthetic speech. These two properties point directly at primordial unity of origin; the endless varieties of detail argue a prodigious antiquity and an independent development of the race on the American continent. The variety renders the work of classification a labour of extreme difficulty and uncertainty. Amidst all these endless points of divergence, it seems impossible to find any common basis round which to group the various tribes and races, and the problem becomes further complicated by the fact that, while many of these tribes differ in speech, though evidently of one racial stock, others belonging to the same linguistic connexion present the widest physical discrepancies. Thus the Chiquitos and the Moxos peoples of Bolivia, obviously of one ethnical type, speak several fundamentally distinct languages. The same is true of the Moqui, Queres, Islettn, Tegua, Zuñi, and other New Mexican Pueblos, while the reverse phenomenon is presented by the Montagnais and Nasquapees of Labrador, both of whom speak closely related Cree dialects, yet differ so much in appearance that, "judging from their exterior, one would suppose them to belong to different families of the human race" (Hind's Labrador, i. p. 332). Within comparatively narrow areas occurs occasionally every conceivable element of confusion, as in California and the south-western States, occupied by the morally debased and physically degraded Pah-Utes, the tall and manly Mohaves, the ferocious Apaches, the mild and intellectual Indians of the New Mexican Pueblos, some fishers and hunters, some living on roots and berries, some skilled agriculturists, all speaking fundamentally distinct languages.
It is evidently impossible in such a case to adhere throughout to any one method of classification, and the following tentative survey is consequently based partly on the linguistic and partly on the ethnical elements, but partly also on mere geographical grounds. Fortunately there are in all the divisions of the continent a few great families, occupying vast regions, in which the ethnical and linguistic elements largely coincide. Foremost amongst these are the sub-arctic races and the Athabascans, Algonquins, and Dakotas in the north, the Maya-Quiché in the centre, and in the south the Caribs, Quichua-Aymaras, and Guaranis. These eight stocks cover jointly an area of not less than 11 millions of square miles, with a total ​aboriginal population of about four millions. But the seven millions of pure and mixed Indians occupying the remainder of the land, 5 millions of square miles in extent, are divided into a multiplicity of tribes, whose racial and linguistic affinities present problems the solution of which must long tax the utmost ingenuity of science. The total number of distinct languages alone is estimated at about 760, of which 430 are in the north and 330 in the south. In the northern division Balbi reckons, exclusive of California, thirty-two stock languages, far too low an estimate, while Rivero and Tschudi consider that of the southern idioms as many as four-fifths are radically distinct. But all such calculations are mere vague guesses at the truth; and in the present state of our knowledge it is impossible to form an estimate of the actual number of languages still current in Gran Chaco, Chiquitos, the Amazon valley, Central America, Mexico, California, the Columbia basin, regions where an extraordinary complexity of speech prevails. Nevertheless language forms on the whole perhaps the most convenient basis of classification, and without its aid it would have been impossible to determine the affinities of many wide-spread races, such, for instance, as that of the Arizona Apaches with the Canadian Chippewyans, or on the other hand to separate nations apparently closely related, like the Iroquois from their Algonquin neighbours, or the Araucanians from the Peruvians. The true relations of many tribes are, on the other hand, still doubtful, because of uncertainty regarding the languages they speak. Such are the Cheyennes, Blackfeet, and Arapahoes, classed by some with the Dakotas, by others more probably with the Algonquins. Such also are the so-called Diegueños (Kizh, Netela, and Kechi) of South California, oscillating between the Shoshone (Snake) and Yuma connexions, and the Pawnees of Nebraska and Kansas grouped by Bancroft with the Shoshone, but by Morgan regarded as an independent race. So close is the physical resemblance in these and many other cases that the question must ultimately be decided by a more exhaustive study of their languages.
The American races may be conveniently grouped under the following eighteen divisions:—
I. Hyperborean Races.—This division may on the whole be regarded as possessing a certain ethnical, linguistic, and geographical unity. Still the Aleutians differ so greatly in language, and in some respects in type, from the Eskimo proper that it seems desirable to class them separately. The Eskimo (or "Innuits," as they call themselves) are thus distributed by Dall:—
Kopagmut, mouth of the Mackenzie; Kangmâtigmut, thence to Manning Point; Nûwukmut, about Point Barrow and Icy Cape; Kowagmut, east end of Hotham Inlet; Salawigmut, at Salawik river; Chuklukmut, Gulf of Anadyr, Asia, often confounded with the Tchuktchis, from whom they are entirely distinct; Okee-ogmut, the islands north of 63° N. lat.; Kikhtogamut, St Lawrence Island; Kaviagmut, between Kotzebue and Norton Sounds; Mahlemut, neck of Kadiak Peninsula; Unaligmut, from Norton Sound to mouth of the Yukon; Ekogmut, Yukon Delta; Magemut, from Yukon to Kuskokwim river; Kuskwogmut, Kuskokwim Bay; Nushagagmut, Bristol Bay, west to Cape Newenham; Ogulmut, north side of Alaska peninsula; Kaniagmut, south side of Alaska peninsula and Kadiak Island; Chugachigmut, Prince William's Sound to Atna river; Ugalakmut, from Atna river to Mount St Elias.
The last-named, the Ugalenzes of the Russians, call themselves Chilkhatmut, and are undoubtedly true Eskimo, although frequently confounded with the Thlinkeets, on whose domain they converge. The few Innuit tribes east of the Mackenzie have not been classified, but two of them, the Netchillik and Uquîsiksillik, were met by Lieut. Schwatka in 1879, who received from them some particulars regarding the remains of the Franklin expedition.
Of the Aleuts, whose collective name is "Ungungun," or "People," there are two divisions:—
1. Unalashkans, who call themselves Kagataya Kung'n ("Men of the East"), occupying the extremity of the Alaska Peninsula, as far as 160° W., and the Unalashka or Fox Islands. 2. Atkhas, occupying all the other Aleutian Islands.
II. Thlinkeets.—These form a distinct ethnical and linguistic group, occupying a compact geographical area along the Pacific coast from about Mount St Elias to the Simpson river, and including Sitka and the other adjacent islands. They are often called "Koloshes," a term of doubtful origin, but the national name is "T'linket," "man," or "T'linketantûkwan," "men belonging to all villages." The tribal divisions are:—
Yakutat, between Mounts St Elias and Fairweather; Chilkhatkwan, Chilkhaht river valley; Sitkakwan, Sitka Islands and part of Prince of Wales Islands; Stâkhinkwan, lower course of Stikine river; Takukwan and Skatkwan, Taku Inlet, Alaska; Hudsunu, Hood's Bay and Huchinu Rapids; Iliknu and Tungass, about Simpson river.
The Thlinkeet language seems to be completely isolated, showing nothing beyond the faintest verbal resemblance to the Aleut and more southern Hydah. It has a plural in k, and an instrumental form in tch or tsh, the combination of which produces a heaping up of final consonants, which none but the natives can pronounce. Thus ass, tree; asstsh, by a tree; isk, trees; assktsh, by trees. (See "Notes on the Sitkakwan Dialect," by J. Furnhelm, in Contributions to American Ethnology, vol. i.)
III. Columbian Races.—The general grouping of these is purely geographical, the main divisions largely ethnical and linguistic; the area, British Columbia, Queen Charlotte and Vancouver Islands, Washington, and Oregon. Here are five stock races speaking an immense number of dialects, which, owing to their extremely evanescent character, it is very difficult to classify. The Puget Sound district, in the north-west of Washington, is in this respect specially remarkable. But great light has recently been thrown on this Babel of tongues by the labours of G. Gibbs, published by Dall, in North American Ethnology, vol. i. p. 240. The five stock races with their chief tribal subdivisions are as follows:—
1. Hydahs.—The Kaigani of Prince of Wales Islands and north coast of Queen Charlotte Islands; the Klue, Kiddan, Ninstence, Skid-a-gate, Skid-a-gatee, Cum-she-was, and Chut-sin-ni of Queen Charlotte Islands; and the Tsimsians, including the Kispachloht of Fort Simpson, the Kl'kuskamoluk of river Naas, and the Kittistzu, Hailtzukh, Bilikûla, and Kwa-Kiûtl of Milbank Sound. 2. Nutkas.—The Ahts, including Pachînaht, Nitinaht, Ohyaht, Howchuklisaht, Klah-oh-quaht, Manohsaht, Nishquayaht, Ayhuttisaht, and Khahosaht, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, in their order going northwards; the Makaor Klasset, about Cape Flattery; and the Quoquoulth, Komux, Kowitchan, Klallum, Ukletas, Sokes, Pachina, and Sankaulutuch, of the east coast of Vancouver Island. 3. Selish or Flat Heads.—The Kwantlum and Haitlin or Tait, Fraser river below Fort Yale; the Kalispelm, Quarlpi, Spokane, Pisquouse, Soniatlpi, of middle Columbia basin; the Nisqualli (including the Skokomish, S'hotlmamish, Sawamish, Segwallitsu, Puyallupahmish, Dwamish, Snohomish, Snokwalmu, Yakama, Skagit, Lummi,and S'klallam) of Puget Sound; the Chihalis or Tsihalis, Grey Harbour; and the Shushwaps (including Shewhapmuch, Kutenais, and Okanagan) of Upper Columbia. 4. Sahaptins or Nez Percés.—The Taitiuapam, right bank of Columbia to Adam's Mount; the Klikatat, about Mount St Helens; the Yakima, Yakima Valley; the Walla Walla, Palouse, Tairtla, Cayuse, and Mollale of upper Clear Water and Snake rivers; and the Kamai and Lapwai of Idaho reserve. 5. Chinuks.—The Watlala, Skdlût, Kathlamet, Wakiakum, Klatsop, Klakama, Kalapuya, Yamkally, and Killamuk of lower Columbia basin, mostly extinct. Speech radically distinct, but now represented only by the Chinuk jargon.
The names of Nos. 1 and 2 are purely conventional. Hydah or Haida was originally applied by Francis Poole to the Queen Charlotte tribes, and was afterwards extended to all the members of that family. Nutka, from Nutka Sound, west coast of Vancouver Island, came gradually into use as the collective name of the eastern Vancouver tribes, and of some peoples on the opposite mainland ethnically related to them. But the languages differ so widely that they cannot be reduced to a common root. Though possessing great intelligence and even considerable artistic skill, shown especially in their wood and bone carvings and plastic works, these north-western nations betray an absolute incapacity for adapting themselves to civilized institutions. Sproat tells us that many of those who have been settled, under the most favourable circumstances, in different parts of Vancouver, simply die out through inanition, or from sudden change of life.
IV. Californian Races.—This is mainly a geographical grouping, but with three large ethnical and linguistic families—the Klamath, Pomo, and Runsien. Many of the others belong to the Shoshone, Athabascan, and Yuma connexions. But the rest form a chaos of tribes, generally of a debased physical and moral type, and speaking rude dialects which baffle all attempts at classification. They are all rapidly disappearing into the "reserves," or off the face of the land. The Klamath family, in the Klamath river basin, and thence eastwards to Nevada, comprises the Lutuami or Klamaths proper, the Cahrocs and Eurocs ("Upper and Lower Rocs"), the Modocs, Yacons, Shastas, Weitspeks, Wishosks, Wallies, Yukas, and others stretching south to the Humboldt river. South of them are the Pomos, or "People," mainly in the Potter valley, including the Kahto, Choam, Chadela, Kalamet, Shebalne, Lama, Comacho, Socoa, Sanel, and the Gallinomero of the Russian River. Still further south are the Runsiens of Monterey Bay, with linguistic affinities stretching all along the coast northwards to San Francisco, and southwards beyond Cape Concepcion to the islands of San Miguel and Sta Cruz. The chief members of the group are the Eslenes, Olhones, Mipacmacs, Yolos, Talluches, Waches, Powells, and others about Lake Tulare. In the Napa valley is a small family including the Ulukas, Suskols, Kalayomanes, Myacomas, and Caymus; and in the Sacramento valley are the Secumne, Kosumne, Yasumne, Ochecumne, Chupumne, and some twenty others, whose tribal names all end in umne, and who may perhaps be regarded as forming a distinct linguistic group. But they will have vanished before the point can be settled.
​V. Shoshone and Pawnee Families.—These form one ethnical, but apparently two linguistic groups, for L. H. Morgan regards the Pawnee as distinct not only from the Shoshone but from all other languages.
The Shoshone or Snake family occupies a wide domain, including most of Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming, besides parts of Oregon, Nevada, West Montana, Arizona, North Texas, South California, and New Mexico. There are six distinct groups:—
1. Wininasht, or Western Shoshones, Oregon and Idaho. 2. Bannacks, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada. 3. Utahs or Utes, with numerous subdivisions (Utes proper, Washoes, Pah-Utes, Gosh-Utes, Pi-Edes, &c.), Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and South California. 4. Comanches or Yetans, three branches (Paducas, Yamparaks, and Tenawas), North Texas, New Mexico, North Mexico. 5. Moqui, New Mexico; all the seven Moqui pueblos except the Oreibe (Haro), in which the Tegua language is current. 6. Diegueño (Kizh, Kcchi, and Netela), about S. Diego, the south-west corner of California; but, by Gatschet these are now affiliated to the Yuma stock (Zeitschr. für Ethnologie, 1877, p. 365). The Benemé and Cobaji of south-east California are also included by Gatschet in the Shoshone family.
The Pawnee (Pani) area is confined to Kansas and Texas, besides the Pawnee reserve, Indian territory, with three main divisions:—
1. Pawnees proper, including the Chäné, Kitkä, Skidi and Petähänerot, Kansas and Pawnee reserve, Indian Territory. 2. Arikarees or Rikarees, formerly in the Missouri Valley, 47° N. 3. Wichitas, upper course of Red and Canadian Rivers, Texas, with whom should be grouped the Kichai, Waccoe, and perhaps the Towiak, Towakoni, Wacho, and Caddo of Texas and Louisiana. To the same connexion probably belonged the extinct Adaize, Nachitoch, Chttimach, Attacapa, and others of Louisiana, figuring in Gallatin's synopsis as stock languages (Schoolcraft, iii. p. 401).}}}}
VI. New Mexican Pueblos.—This is a strictly ethnical family occupying a compact area in New Mexico, but according to W. C. Lane (Schoolcraft, v. p. 689) speaking six distinct languages sprung of one original stock, as under:—
1. Queres, current in the Acoma, Cochitimi, Kiwomi, Laguna, and four other pueblos. 2. Tegua or Taywaugh, current in the Nambe, Tesugue, San Juan, and three other pueblos, besides the Haro, a Moqui pueblo. 3. Picori or Enaghmagh, current in the Picori, Isletta, Taos, and five other pueblos. 4. Jemez, current in Jemez and Pecos only. 5. Zuñi, current in Zuñi only, and said to be a radically distinct language, 6. Moqui, a Shoshone dialect (see V. above), current in all the Moqui pueblos except Haro.
One of the most remarkable of existing linguistic phenomena is the number of widely diverging languages spoken in these twenty-six New Mexican pueblos, where the uniformity of institutions, agricultural habits, town life, and social intercourse might be supposed to establish a community of speech.
VII. Yuma Stock.—This linguistic and ethnical group in South Arizona and South California is named from the typical Yuma tribe formerly at the junction of the Gila and Colorado rivers. The family has been learnedly treated by A. S. Gatschet (Zeitsch. f. Ethnologie, 1877, pp. 341 and 366), who regards the Yuma as fundamentally distinct from all the surrounding forms of speech. The tribes are now mostly gathered in the three reserves of the Colorado river (right bank, 34° N.), San Carlos, Gila river, south-east Arizona, and Pinia and Maricopa, South Arizona, with a joint population of 5249, to which must be added about 750 for those who are still independent, making 6000 for the whole race. Chief tribes:—
1. Yavipai or Yampai, formerly west and north-west of the Aztec Mountains. 2. Konino or Casnino, San Francisco Mountains; said to be extinct. 3. Tonto or Tonto-Apache, between the Green River and Aztec Mountains, distinct from the Tonto-Apaches of Athabascan stock. 4. Maricopa or Cocomaricopa, middle course of the Gila. 5. Haalapai or Wallapai, between the Colorado and Black Mountains. 6. Mohave or Mojave, properly Hamukh-habi ("Three Hills"), largest of all the Yuma tribes, both sides of the middle and lower Colorado. 7. Yuma or Kutchan, at junction of Colorado and Gila rivers. 8. Cocopa or Cucapa, at mouth of the Colorado. 9. Comoyei or Quemeya, collective name of all the Yuma tribes between the lower Colorado and the Pacific, including (according to Gatschet) the Diegueños (see V., No. 6), and the Kiliwi near Sun Tomas mission. 10. Cochimi, Pericui, and Guaicuri of lower California. Probably to the same family belonged the extinct Cajuenches, Cucapas, Jalchedums, Noches, Cawinas. Niforas, and others of South and East Arizona.
VIII. Athabascan or Tinney Family.—This is the most wide spread ethnical and linguistic group in North America, comprising most of Alaska and the Canadian Dominion from the Eskimo domain to the Churchill river north and south, and from the Rocky Mountains to Hudson Bay west and east, besides isolated enclaves in Oregon, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and North Mexico. The term Athabascan is geographical, from Lake Athabasca, a great rallying point of the northern tribes, while Tinney, suggested by Petitot, variously pronounced Tinné, Thynné, Déné, Tena, Itynai, lanai, Dtinné, &c., and meaning "People," is the general tribal name. About the spelling, sound, and identification of the individual tribal names, the greatest confusion prevails. Thus Kenai, used by Francis Müller as the collective name of a distinct group, is supposed to be an Innnit word by Dall, who says that it should consequently be applied to no tribes of Tinney race. Kolchaina or Kolshane, figurine in most tables as a special tribe, appears to be a term vaguely applied by the Russians to all the interior Tinneys of Alaska, about whom they knew little or nothing. The Chippewyans of Lake Athabasca are constantly confused with the Algonquin Chippewas of Upper Canada, just as the Tonto-Apaches of Yuma stock are with the Tonto-Apaches of Athabascan stock. The Alaska division especially was in a chaotic state until Dall (op. cit.) surveyed the field anew, and supplied the subjoined corrected and apparently complete list:—
Kaiyuhkhotâna, lower Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers; Koyûkukhotâna and Unâkhotâna, right bank of lower Yukon; Kutchins or "People" (including the Tenan-Kutchin, Tananah river watershed; Tennuth Kutchin and Tatsah Kutchin, between the Yukon rapids and mouth of the Porcupine, extinct; Kutcha-Kutchin, about Junction of Yukon and Porcupine; Natsit-Kutchin, from the Porcupine to Romanzoff Mountains; Vunta-Kutchin, from the Porcupine to the Arctic Innuits; Tukkuth-Kutchin, head-waters of the Porcupine; Han-Kutchin, Yukon river above Kotlo river; Tutchone-Kutchin, about White River; Tehânin-Kutchin, Kenai Peninsula; Abbato-Tena, Pelly and MacMillan rivers; Nehaunees, about source of Pelly river; Acheto-Tinneh, head-waters of Liard river; Daho-Tena or Sikanees, Liaré river; Tâhko-Tinneh, Lewis river basin; Chilkaht-Tena, Lewis and Lebarge livers; Ahtena, Atna river basin.
The other members of the Tinney family may be grouped in four geographical divisions as under:—
1. Mackenzie Basin: Sawessaw Tinney (Chippewyans). Lake Athabasca; Tant-sawhoots of the Coppermine; Beavers, Dog-ribs, Strongbows, Red Knives, Hares, Sheep, Brushwood, and others enumerated by Petitot, whose theories are wild, but whose facts form a substantial contribution to science. 2. New Caledonia: the Tahkali or Tacullies, Mackenzie's Nagallers, and the Carriers of the Canadian trappers include the Nascotin, Nathliautin, Chilcotin, Taîitotin, and several others. 3. Oregon: the Umpquas on the Umpqwa river, the Tlaskanai of the lower Columbia, and the Hoopahs near the north frontier of California. 4. South-Western States: the Apaches and Navajos, who roam over the region between Utah and Sonora.
IX. Algonquin Family.—This ethnical and linguistic group, next in extent to the Tinneys, but far more important historically and numerically, stretches from the Tinney domain southwards to the latitude of South Carolina, and from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains. Most of the tribes on the Atlantic seaboard have either disappeared, migrated westwards, or been collected into the reserves. But many have acquired such celebrity in the stirring records of Indian warfare that the more noted with their original geographical domain will be included in the subjoined list of all the Algonquin races.
1. Northern Branch: Chippewas or Ojibways, Upper Canada and Michigan; Ottawas, Ottawa river valley (some now in Manitoulin Island, Lake Huron, others in Indian Territory); Nasquapees, interior of Labrador; Montagnais, south coast of Labrador; Crees or Knisteneaux, between Lakes Winnipeg and Athabasca north and south, and from Rocky Mountains to Hudson's Bay, west and east. 2. Eastern Branch: Abenakis, Maine, New Hampshire (later on, Lower Canada); Mikmaks, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Lower Canada; Tarratines, New Brunswick; Etchemins or Milicetes, New Brunswick and Maine; Penobscots, Penobscot river, Maine; Passamaquoddies, East Maine; Amariscoggins, New Hampshire; Mohicans or Mohegans, Connecticut and New York; Natics, Massachusetts (speech survives in Eliot's Bible); Pequods, Massachusetts, west of Cape Cod; Adirondacks, New York highlands; Manhattans, Manhattan Island, site of present city of New York; Leni-Lennappes or Delawares, Delaware, now in Indian Territory. 3. Southern Branch: Powhattans, Virginia and Maryland; Accomacs, Accomac river, East Virginia; Rappahannocks, Rappahannock river, Virginia; Panticoes, North Carolina, southernmost of all the Algonquin tribes; Shawnees, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Ohio, now in Indian Territory. 4. Western Branch: Illinois, Illinois river basin; Miamis, Great Miami river basin; Pottawattamies, Michigan; Kaskaskias, Kaskaskia river, Illinois, now in Indian Territory; Michigamies, south shore of Lake Michigan, named from them; Sacs or Sawkee and Foxes or Outtagaumi, middle course of Mississippi, now in Indian Territory and Nebraska reserves; Cheyennes, Lake Winnipeg (later on, Missouri and Platte rivers); Arapahoes, upper Aikansas and Platte rivers; Blackfeet, Saskatchewan forks, south to Maria's river; Ahahnelins, Milk river, Montana.
The linguistic affinities of the four last named are somewhat doubtful, but Albert Gallatin shows good grounds for connecting them with the Algonquin group.
X. Wyandot-Iroqnois Family.—This is a distinct and historically famous group, allied ethnically to the Algonquins, and linguistically, Morgan thinks, remotely to the Dakotas. Their area is Upper Canada, about the great lakes, New York, and the Virginian highlands; they nowhere reach the Atlantic coast, and are everywhere surrounded by tribes of Algonquin stock. There are three main divisions:—
1. Wyandots or Hurons, including the Eries or Erigas, Ahrendahronons, and Attiwandoronk or “Neutral Nation,” Canada. 2. Iroquois, or “Six Nations,” chiefly in New York, a famous political confederacy collectively known as the Ongwehonwe, or “Superior Men,” and comprising the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Senecas, and Cayugas, besides the Tuscaroras, who joined the league from North Carolina in 1712. 3. Monacans or Monahoacs of Virginia, including tho Nottoways, Meherries (Tutelos), and others, who later on joined the Iroquois confederacy.
XI. Dakota or Sioux Family.—This is an independent and widespread ethnical and linguistic group, whose proper domain is the western prairies between the Mississippi and Rocky Mountains east and west, and stretching from the Saskatchewan southwards to the Red River of Texas. The chief divisions are:—
1. Dakotas proper, of the Missouri basin. This term means “Allies,” and includes the Isauntics, Yantons, Teetons, and Sissetons each with several subdivisions. 2. Assiniboines or Stone Indians, known to the Dakotas as “Hoha” or “Rebels” because they withdrew from the confederacy about 1600, and settled in the Assiniboine river basin. 3. Winnebagoes (“Puans” of the Canadians), ​parent stock of the Omahas, Iowas, Kansas, Quappas or Arkansas, and Osages of the middle and lower Missouri basin. 4. Upsarokas or Crows, of the Yellowstone valley. 5. Minnetarees, Hidatsa, and Mandans, of the upper Missouri, of doubtful linguistic affinities, but by Morgan regarded as intermediate between the Dakotas and Appalachians. W. W. Matthews also affiliates the Hidatsa language to the Dakota family.
XII. Appalachian Races.—These form an ethnical and geographical grouping, including four distinct languages, which, however, according to Morgan, are remotely related to the Dakota; area, the south-east corner of the United States, westwards to Arkansas and Louisiana, northwards to Tennessee and South Carolina, all inclusive; name purely conventional, from the Appalachian or sotithern spurs of the Alleghanies. Here was a large linguistic family forming a powerful confederacy, of which the Muscogees or Creeks of Alabama were the centre. The other members were the Seminoles of South Alabama and Florida; the Chickasaws of Mississippi; the Mobiles of Florida West; the Choctaws of the lower Mississippi; the Colusas or Coosadas, Alibamous, Appalaches, Uches, and Timucuas (?) of South Carolina and Georgia. Of distinct speech were the Natchez of the lower Mississippi, who were said to have spoken three languages; the Cherokees or Chelekees, of the Appalachian slopes, and the Catawbas of South Carolina, supposed by some to be the Eries, or the neutral nation who disappeared from the lake region about 1656. All these races are either extinct, or have been removed to the reserves of Indian Territory, where two of the stock languages (Cherokee and Creek) are still current. Natchez and Catawba are extinct. Special interest attaches to the extinct Timucua language, formerly current along the east coast of Georgia and Florida southwards to and beyond Cape Canaveral. It is a highly synthetic form of speech, regarded by Gatschet (“Volk und Sprache der Timucua,” in Zeitsch. f. Ethnologie, 1877, p. 245) as a stock language, and possessing in the grammar, dictionary, and catechisms of Pareja, published in 1612-13 in Mexico, the oldest written records of any native tongue east of the Rocky Mountains. Gatschet gives a full account of its structure, which philologists will find extremely interesting.
XIII. Mexican Races.—This is a geographical grouping, the region comprising an exceptional number of radically distinct languages, and apparently three or four ethnical types. There is one large and important linguistic family, the Aztec-Sonora, which stretches southwards to Nicaragua, and for which Buschmann has sought affinities as far north as the Shoshone group. Its chief members are:—
1. Aztec or Mexican proper, widely diffused throughout the Nahua empire, overthrown by Cortez. 2. Cora, in the state Jalisco. 3. Tarahumara, in Chihuahua and Sonora. 4. Cahita, in Sinaloa and Sonora. 5. Niquiran, of Nicaragua. 6. Tlascaltec, of San Salvador. With these are probably related the Pima and Opata of Sonora and Sinaloa, the Acaxee of Durango, and the Tubar of Chihuahua.
The other chief stock or at least not yet classified Mexican tongues are the Miztec and Zapotec of Oajaca, Tarasco current in the old kingdom of Michoacan, Matlalzinca north of Anahuac, Ceres and Cochita of Sonora, Tepecano of Jalisco, Zacatec of Zacatecas, Tamnlipec of Tamaulipas, and Otomi, an interesting form of speech still almost in the monosyllabic state, current in the mountains enclosing the Anahuac table-land. This is the more remarkable that most of the other Mexican languages are highly polysynthetic; but the attempt made to connect Otomi with Chinese has merely served to place their fundamental difference in a clearer light.
XIV. Central American Races.—Like the foregoing, this is a geographical grouping, with one wide-spread linguistic and ethnical family, the Maya-Quiché of Yucatan and Guatemala with an outlying branch in Vera Cruz and Tamaulipas. Of this family the chief members are the Maya, still generally current in Yucatan; Zendul and Zotzil of Chiapas; Mam and Pokomam of Vera Paz, Guatemala; Huastec of Vera Cruz and Tamaulipas; Totonac of Vera Cruz; Quiché, Chol, and Zutugil of Guatemala. The Mayas, like the Aztecs, possessed a writing system, of which three documents still survive,— the Dresden Codex, published in Lord Kingsborough's collection as an Aztec MS., the Mexican MS., No. 2 of the Paris National Library, and the Troano MS. in Madrid. Bishop Landa even credited them with the invention of an alphabet; but all attempts to interpret these documents by the key left by him have hitherto failed.
In Nicaragua and Honduras, besides the Aztec Niquiran, Squier (Nicaragua, ii. p. 308) reckons three distinct linguistic groups:—
1. Melchora, including the Wâlwa, Rama, Toaca, Poya, and Waikna or Mosco (Mosquito), collectively known as Bravos, probably of Carib stock, but with a mixture of Negro blood. 2. Chorontega, including the Dirian, between Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific; Nagrandan, north of the Dirian; Orotinan, about the Gulf of Nicoya. 3. Chondal, Chondales highlands, north and east side of Lake Nicaragua.
In Costa Rica and the peninsula of Panama there are a multiplicity of unclassified tribes, amongst whom are current at least five stock languages:—
(1) Doracho of Veraguas; (2) Savanerie; (3) Bayano, Rio Chapo Pacific coast; (4) Manzanillo (San Blas), Atlantic coast, Costa Rica; (5) Bribri, a Costa Rica dialect, has been compared, but on slender grounds, with some West African tongues.
XV. New Granada and Guiana Races.—The confusion of tribes is continued southwards into the Colombian and Venezuelan Cordilleras; but, as we proceed eastwards along the Orinoco plains and through the Guianas, greater order seems to prevail. In New Granada itself there is at least one marked ethnical and linguistic group, the Chibcha or Muisca of Bogota, a civilized people, noted for their remarkable taste and skill in the execution of gold ornaments. Some of these works recently discovered and exhibited by Mr Powles at a meeting of the Anthropological Institute, London, excited universal surprise and admiration. This little known but extremely interesting people formed an important link in the chain of civilized and agricultural nations stretching along the western uplands from the New Mexican Pueblos, through the Aztecs of Mexico, Mayas of Yucatan, Dorachos of Veraguas, Chibchas of Bogota, and Peruvian Quichuas, to the Aymaras of Bolivia. Elsewhere in New Granada the tribes are almost past counting. In the southern province of Popayan alone ninety-four distinct languages were reckoned at the time of the conquest; and, although most of these are extinct, the unclassified races both here and in the north are still very numerous. The only large linguistic group is that of the Salivi, including the Betois, Eles, Yaruras, Atures (extinct), Quaquas, Macos, and others about the western head-streams of the Orinoco and in the Popayan highlands. Further east is the Barré family, including the Maypuri, Baniwa, Achegua, and many others in Venezuela and Guiana, besides some tribes as far south as Moxos in Bolivia. From the recent ethnological researches of Everard F. im Thurn (British Guiana Museum, Georgetown, 1878), there appear to be at least four independent linguistic groups in the Guianas:— Warau and Arawack in the coast region, Wapiana or Wapisana, with Atorais, in the savannah region, and Carib everywhere. At the time of the discovery the Caribs represented the conquering element in the West Indies, whence they have since disappeared, unless a few survive in Dominica (Vivien de Saint Martin). But they are still numerous, either pure or mixed with Negroes and others, from Honduras round the coast to the Amazon delta. They are represented in French Guiana chiefly by the Galibi, Oyapok, Emcrillon, Nuragwe, and Rucuyennes, the last-mentioned on both sides of the Tumac-Humac range (Dr J. Crevaux in Tour du Monde, June 28, 1879). In British Guiana the Carib tribes are the Ackawais and Caribisi of the coast and forest regions, the Arecumas and Macusis of the savannah region. On the upper Orinoco are the Carinas or Calinas; in Dutch Guiana the Kirikiricots, Acuria, Saramacca, Aukan, and Mataarie; in Brazilian Guiana the Pianghottos, Parechi, Daurais (extinct?), Mandaucas, Masacas; in Venezuela the Tiverigotes, Guaraunos, Guayanos, Tamanacs, Avarigotes, Acherigotes, Piritus, Palencas, Chacopatas, and many others. On the affinities of the Carib race great uncertainty prevails, some regarding them as an independent stock, some tracing them across the islands to the Allighewis or Alleghans, who are supposed to have been driven by the Algonquins from the Mississippi regions in the 10th century, while others, with D'Oibigny (L'homme Americain, vol. ii.), affiliate them with some show of probability to the Guaranis of Brazil.
XVI. Peruvian and Bolivian Races.—Here the grouping is strictly ethnical and linguistic in the Cordilleras and upland plateaus, which are mainly occupied by one great historical and civilized race, with two well-defined branches—Quichua of Peru and Aymara of Bolivia. Under the Incas Quichua, one of the most highly cultivated but also one of the harshest of American tongues, was current along both sides of the Cordilleras, from Quito on the equator southwards to the Araucanian domain about 30° S., but in terrupted between 13° and 20° S. by the Aymara, which, like the northern Quiteño, seems to be an older and ruder form of the common stock language. Still more primitive forms were probably the extinct Cara and Puruha of Ecuador. But in this northern province, which was the last added to the empire (under the twelfth Inca Huaina-capac), there were said to be at the conquest forty other nations, speaking as many distinct languages, with three hundred different dialects. Of these a considerable number still people the banks of the Yapura, Pulumayo, Pastassa, Napo, and other northwestern head-streams of the Amazons, the most noteworthy being the Jivaros of the Pastassa, the Zapáros of the upper Napo, the Anguteras and Orejones of the lower Napo, the Colorados and Capayas of the uplands east of Quito, and the Copanes of the upper Aguarico. The secret language of the Incas was apparently the Aymara of Lake Titicaca, the cradle of their race; and remotely connected with the same branch are probably the Olipe or Atacameño, between 19° and 22° S., and the Chango, between 22° and 24° S., although R. A. Philippi (Reise durch die Wüste Atacama, Halle, 1860) regards this latter as fundamentally distinct both from the Quichua and the Aymara.
Antisuyo, the eastern division of the old empire, stretching along the eastern slopes of the Peruvian and Bolivian Andes between 10° and 19° S., is occupied by five nations, the Yuracares, Mocetenes, Tacanas, Maropas, and Apolistas, whom D'Orbigny (op. cit., vol. i.) collectively calls Antisians, affiliating them to the Quichua-Aymara family, from which, however, they differ in speech and physique as profoundly as they do from each other. Hence the so-called Antis or Antisians of more recent anthropological works have no ethnical or linguistic unity, and, like Chinchasuyo, Candisuyo, and ​Collasuyo, i.e., northern, western, and southern province, the term Antisuyo itself is purely geographical.
As we descend to the Bolivian lowlands, the confusion of races reaches its climax in the provinces of Moxos, Chiquitos, and Gran Chaco. Notwithstanding the disappearance of many tribes in recent years, E. D. Matthews (Up the Amazon and Madeira, 1879) still found in the Beni Missions, Moxos, besides the above-mentioned Maropas, six distinct tribes—Cayubabas, Mobimas, Mojeños, Canichanas, Itonamas, and Baures— "each having a language of its own." But the Baures would seem to be a branch of the Mojeños, who are again affiliated to the Maypuri of the Barre family (see XV.). Other nations in Moxos with distinct speech are the Chapacuras in the south-east, and the Pucaguaras and Itenes in the north.
Chiquitos is occupied by eleven distinct nations, all speaking radically different languages, but presenting a uniform physical type: Chiquitos in the centre; Samucus, Curaves, Tapiis, and Corabecas originally in the south-east; Saravecas, Otukes, Curuminacas, Covarecas, Curucanecas, in the north-east; and Paiconecas in the north-west. The language of the Chiquitos, of whom there are endless subdivisions, is one of the richest and most widely diffused in South America, serving, like the Tupi in the east, as a sort of lingua franca jn the Bolivian lowlands and the northern parts of Gran Chaco. The numerous tribes of this latter region seem to form an ethnical group related to the Chiquitos peoples, and like them speaking a great variety of distinct languages. The greatest confusion still prevails as to their mutual relations; but the main linguistic groups seem to be the Mocobi-Toba of the Salado and Vermejo rivers; the Mataguaya, including the Vilela, Lule, and Chanes between the Pilcomayo and Vermejo; the Abipone, on the right bank of the Parana, between 28°-30° S.; and the so-called Lengua (properly Jwiaje) in the centre of Gran Chaco, surrounded by Mocobi tribes. Here were also the extinct Guaycurus (probably akin to the Tobas), noted for their skill in horsemanship. Hence the term Guaycuru came to be applied generally to all the mounted Indians of Gran Chaco, and, though no longer the name of any particular tribe, it continues to figure in ethnographic works as a racial designation, increasing the confusion in a region already overburdened with obsolete or erroneous ethnical nomenclature.
XVII. Brazilian Races.—Here the grouping, with one great exception, is still mainly geographical. The exception is the wide spread Tupi-Guarani ethnical and linguistic family, rivalling in extent the Athabascan and Algonquin of the northern continent, and including, besides a great part of Brazil, all Paraguay, about half of Uruguay, large enclaves in Bolivia, and, if the Carib is to be regarded as a branch, nearly all the Guianas and Venezuela. Of this race the two main divisions are the Guarani, from about the neighbourhood of Monte Video to Goyaz south and north, and stretching west and east from the Paraguay to the Atlantic, and the Tupi thence northwards to the Amazon and Rio Negro. The southern division may be regarded as nearly compact, but the northern everywhere encloses a number of races apparently of different stocks, while along the Amazon and its great tributaries the tribes are as numerous as they are diverse in speech and often in physique. Over 15 distinct peoples are mentioned on the Xinga river alone, 20 on the Tapajoz, as many on the Ucayali, 50 on the Japura. R. S. Clough (The Amazons, 1872) gives lists of 33 on the Purus, and of 37 on the Naupes, a tributary of the Rio Negro; over 100 different dialects are current on the Rio Negro itself (Martius), and as many as 234 tribal names occur in Milliet de Saint-Adolphe's Diccionario Geographico do Imperio de Brazil (Paris, 1863). Here the only means of communication is afforded by the Lingoa Geral, or "general language," which is based on the Tupi, and which has gradually become current throughout the empire.
Of the Guarani-Tupi stock the most representative races are the Tupinambas, formerly dominant on the coast of Para; the Tupiniquins of Espirito Santo; the Petiguares of the Paraiba; the Tupuias of Bahia; the Tobajares of Maranhão; the Caetes of Ceara; the Obacatuaras of the Rio S. Francisco; the Mundrucus, Apiacas, and Mauhés of the Tapajos; the Tappés, Patos, and Minuanos of Rio Grande do Sul; the Piturunas of the river Curitiba; the Guanhanaris of the Parana; the Guarayos and Chiriguanos of the upper Memoré, Bolivia; the Omaguas of the Yapura; the Manaos, Juris, Terecumas, Caripunas, and nine others in the Rio Negro basin.
The Non-Guarani element in Brazil, often collectively known to the Tupis as Tapuyas, i.e., "strangers" or "enemies," has hitherto baffled all attempts at classification. The best known groups, mostly linguistic, are the Aimore or Botocudo of the Aimore coast range; the Pamacan, widely diffused in Bahia and Minas-Geraes; the Curys, with many subdivisions in Rio Janeiro, Espirito Santo, and Minas-Geraes; the Canecran, with five branches in Para and Goyaz; the Cairiri or Kiriri, a large nation in the Borborema mountains, with two branches (Velhos and Novos) in Pernambuco, Parahiba, and Ceara, grouped by Martins with the Moxos of Bolivia, the Cunamares of the Jurua, the Majurunas of the Javary, the Manaos of the Rio Negro, and many others under the collective name of Guck or Coco; the Gè with diverse prefixes (Au-Gè, Canacata-Gè, Cran-Gè, Payco-Gè, Pontaca-Gè, &c.) in Maranhão and Para, with whom must be grouped the Timbiras of Goyaz ("fallavão o idioma dos Gamelleiros on Timbiras," M. de Saint-Adolphe, i. p. 384); the Vouré of Matto Grosso, now united with the Choco, Pipian, and Uman, all of like speech; the Carijos, formerly very powerful in province São Paulo, now mostly fused with others; the Carajas and Chambioas of rivers Araguaya and lower Tocantins, Goyaz, and Para; the Goya, very numerous in Goyaz, to which province they give their name; the Charruas, formerly very powerful in the extreme south and in Uruguay, grouped by D'Orbigny with the Pampas Indians, and described by him as "peut-être la nation Americaine que l'intensité de la couleur rapproche le plus du noir" (ii. p. 85); the Bororos, formerly dominant over a vast region in Matto Grosso.
XVIII. Austral Races.—These occupy four geographical areas, to which correspond four distinct ethnical and linguistic groups:—
1. Auca or Araucanian, Chilian and Patagonian Cordilleras; type very uniform, and by D'Orbigny affiliated to the Peruvian; speech entirely distinct from all others, and spoken with little dialectic variety throughout the whole area. The numerous branches are generally indicated by a geographical terminology, as Picunche, "northern people," Puelche, "eastern people," Huilliche, "southern people," &c., the final syllable che signifying "people." But the official Chilian divisions are:—(a) Moluche, or Arribanos, i.e., "Highlanders," and Abajinos or "lowlanders," between rivers Malleco and Cautin; (b) Lavquenche or Costinos, i.e., "coast people," between rivers Lebu and Imperial; (c) Huilliche, or "southerners," in two divisions, south of rivers Cautin and Tolten. Total population, 24,360 unmixed Araucanians (Edouard Sève, Le Chili tel qu'il est, Valparaiso, 1876).
2. Puelche, occupying the Pampas region from the Saladillo to the Rio Negro; hence known to the Spaniards as the Pampas Indians. Puelche or eastern people is their Araucanian name, answering to the Patagonian Yonce and Penck. There is great uniformity of type and speech, the latter, like Araucanian, being distinct from all others. No well-recognized tribal divisions exist. The race is dying out or becoming absorbed in the general mass of the Argentine population.
3. Patagonian, the Tchuelche, Chuelche, or Huilliche (i.e., "southerners") of the Araucanians; national name Tsoneca; area, Patagonia from the Rio Negro to Magellan Strait, and from the Cordilleras to the Atlantic. This is the tallest race on the globe, with mean height 5 feet 11 inches (Topinard, Anthropology, p. 320), and otherwise differing widely from all the American types, with which they have nothing in common except the structure of the hair and the polysynthetic form of their speech. The present race again seems distinct from the prehistoric in this region as represented by the skulls recently found by Moreno at El Carmen on the Rio Negro. These are highly dolichocephalous, whilst Dr A. Weissbach (Zeitschr. für Ethnologie, 1877, p. 8) represents the modern Tehuelches as amongst the most brachycephalous on the globe, approaching in this respect nearest to the chimpanzee type.
4. Fuegians, the Pescherais of some writers, Tierra del Fuego; no recognized collective national or tribal names; one ethnical type, entirely different from the Patagonian, and by D'Orbigny allied to the Araucanian; two apparently distinct languages, a northern and a southern variety, with no known affinities to any on the mainland or elsewhere. They probably occupy the lowest scale of culture in the American division of mankind, in this respect corresponding to the Negritos and Bushmen of the eastern hemisphere.
Bibliography.—Lafiteau, Mœurs des Sauvages Americains, &c., Paris, 1723; A. von Humboldt and Bonpland's Travels in the Interior of America, 1799-1804, Paris, 1807; A. Balbi, Atlas Éthnographique, Paris, 1826; Drs Spix and Martius, Reise in Brasilien, Munich, 1831; Pedro de Angelis, Coleccion de obras y documentos relativos a la historia antigua y moderna de las provincias del Rio de la Plata, 7 vols., Buenos Ayres, 1836; S. G. Drake, Biography and History of the South American Indians, Boston, 1837; D'Orbigny, L'Homme Americain, Paris, 1839; Dr C. Martius, "Die Vergangenheit und Zukunft der Amerikanischen Menschheit," in Deutsch. Vierteljahresschrift, 1839, p. 235; Capt. Fremont, Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, London, 1846; H. Hale, Ethnology and Philology, Philadelphia, 1846; E. Buschmann, "Spuren der Aztekischen Sprache im nördl. Mexico," in Memoirs of the Berlin Academy, 1854; Holumber, Ethnographische Skizzen über die Völker der Russ. Amerika, Helsingfors, 1855; Schoolcraft, Hist. and Stat. Information respecting the Hist., &c., of the Indian Tribes of the United States, 6 vols., Philadelphia, 1851-7 (336 pl.); Squier, Nicaragua, 1852, and States of Central America, New York, 1858; Cl. R. Markham, Expeditions into the Valley of the Amazons, 1539, 1540, 1639, London, 1859 (Hakluyt Society); J. J. von Tschudi, Reise durch die Anden, Gotha, 1860; A. S. Taylor, Bibliographia Californica, Sacramento, 1863; Milliet de Saint-Adolphe, Diccionario Geographico do Imperio do Brazil, Paris, 1863; H. Y. Hinde, The Labrador Peninsula, London, 1863; Dr Th. Waitz, Anthropologie der Naturvölker, Leipsic, 1864; Nic. Perrot, Mémoire sur les mœurs, coutumes, et religions des Sauvages de l'Amerique Septentrionale, Paris, 1864; Spix and Martius, Beiträge zur Ethnographie Amerikas, Leipsic, 1867; R. G. Latham, "Papers on the South American Races," in the South American Missionary Magazine, 1868; G. M. Sproat, Scenes and Studies of Savage Life, London, 1868; P. Marcoy, Voyage à travers l'Amerique du Sud, Paris, 1868; W. Schultz, "Natur- und Culturstudien über Süd-Amerika und seine Bewohner," Bul of the Dresden Geogr. Soc., 1868; Cl. R. Markham, "The Tribes of the Empire of the Incas," in Jour. R. Geogr. Soc., vol. xli., 1871; H. H. Bancroft, The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America, London, 1875; Jas. Orton, The Andes and the Amazon, 1876; M. Petitot, several papers on the Athabascan Indians, in L'Année Géographique, 1868, and in Bul. de la Soc. de Géogr., Paris, 1876-7; R. Virchow, "Anthropologie Amerikas" in Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, 1877, p. 144-56; J. W. Powell, "On the Philosophy of the North American Indians," in Bull. of the Amer. Geo. Soc., 1877, ii. p. 46; L. Simonin, "Les Indiens des États-Unis," in Bul. de la Soc. de Géographie, Paris, vol. xvl., 1878; Schultz-Sellack, "Die Amerikanischen Götter, &c., der vier Welt richtungen," in Zeitschr. ​für Ethnologie, 1879, p. 211; Ch. Wiener, “Expédition Scientifique au Pérou et en Bolivie,” in Le Tour du Monde, 1878; W. Reiss, “Die Chibeha Sprache in Neu-Granada,” in Aus Allen Welttheilen, ix., 1878; V. A. Malte-Brun, Tableau Géographique de la distribution ethnographique des nations et des langues au Mexique, Nancy, 1878; V. Dumas, Les Indiens Peaux-Rouges, Paris, 1878; E. von Hesse Wartegg, Nord-Amerika, Land und Leute, Leipsic, 1878; Albert S. Gatschet, “Farbenbenennungen in Nord-Amerikanischen Sprachen,” in Zeitschr.für Ethnologie, 1879, p. 293; Fl. Ameghino, “L'Homme préhistorique dans La Plata,” in Rev. d'Anthropologie, 1879, p. 210; A. Stübel, Peruvian Antiquities, the Necropolis of Ancon, London and Berlin, 1881; Cl. R. Markham, Peru, 1881; Contributions to North American Ethnology, edited by J. W. Powell, Washington, Government Printing Office, 1877-81; numerous other papers on the American races and languages in Zeitschr. für Ethnologie, Reports of the Trustees of the Peabody Museum of American Archæology and Ethnology; The American Ethnological Transactions; Reports of the Smithsonian Institute; Colleccão de Noticias para a historia, . . das nações ultramarinas, published by the Lisbon Royal Academy. Further details of the bibliography will be found in H. E. Ludwig's Literature of the American Languages, London, 1864; W. Field, An Essay towards an Indian Bibliography, New York, 1873; Le Clerc, Bibliotheca Americana, Paris, 1878; J. W. Powell, Introduction to the Study of the Indian Languages, Washington, 1880. (A. H. K.)
Modern History and Present Distribution of North American Indians.
Copyright, 1880, by Henry Gannett
It is only very recently that the number of Indians on the North American continent has come to be known with any degree of accuracy. The best estimates at present accessible, based on the reports of Indian agents and on the United States census for 1880, give the total number in the United States as 303,248. The number in British North America is estimated, more roughly, at 103,969, making a total for the continent, north of Mexico, of 407,217. The following table, which is compiled from the census returns for 1880, and from the reports for 1879 of the superintendents of Indian affairs for the United States and for the British Possessions, may be relied on as approximately correct:—
British Possessions. :
| Ontario | 15,941 |
| Quebec | 12,054 |
| Nova Scotia | 2,126 |
| New Brunswick | 1,433 |
| Prince Edward's Island | 266 |
| Manitoba & N. W. Territory | 30,227 |
| Athabasca | 2,398 |
| British Columbia | 35,154 |
| Rupert's Land | 4,370 |
| Total | 103,969 |
| United States. ||
| Alabama | 170 |
| Arizona | 24,753 |
| Arkansas | 144 |
| California | 16,581 |
| Colorado | 4,316 |
| Connecticut | 230 |
| Dakota | 31,707 |
| Idaho | 6,248 |
| Illinois | 104 |
| Indiana | 186 |
| Indian Territory | 78,142 |
| Iowa | 801 |
| Kansas | 693 |
| Louisiana | 807 |
| Maine | 603 |
| Massachusetts | 341 |
| Michigan | 17,045 |
| Minnesota | 17,893 |
| Mississippi | 1,811 |
| Montana | 20,825 |
| Nebraska | 4,494 |
| Nevada | 7,728 |
| New Mexico | 22,860 |
| New York | 5,820 |
| North Carolina | 1,152 |
| Oregon | 5,854 |
| Pennsylvania | 156 |
| South Carolina | 113 |
| Tennessee | 238 |
| Texas | 869 |
| Utah | 1,166 |
| Washington | 16,786 |
| Wisconsin | 10,340 |
| Wyoming | 2,272 |
| Total | 303,248 |
| Grand total in N. America | 407,217 |
The popular idea has always been that these races are fast disappearing, and that their total extinction is merely a question of time. This conclusion has recently been called in question by Colonel Garrick Mallory, of the United States army, in a paper read before the American Association for the Advancement of Science. From the evidence he presents it appears that, while many tribes have decreased in number, and some have even become extinct, others have increased very decidedly, leading to the probable conclusion that the Indian population of North America as a whole has not decreased greatly since the earliest occupation of the country by Europeans. It is at least certain that the Indians have been brought under various influences which tend to prolong and preserve life. The murderous inter-tribal wars have ceased; the people are now better housed, clothed, and fed; many of them have regular avocations; and they have medical attendance when sick.
The general policy of the United States Government, in its management of the Indian tribes within its borders, has been to treat with them as separate but subject principalities. It thus makes treaties with the different tribes, purchases land from them, &c. Its policy further is to place all the tribes upon reservations, whence they are prohibited from wandering, and which are forbidden ground to whites, thus isolating them from the rest of mankind. In return for land ceded by them to the United States most of the tribes receive yearly grants, which are paid in the form of supplies of food, clothing, arms, and ammunition. Under such conditions, the experiment of civilizing them is being attempted,—in the case of some tribes with success, in others, thus far, with utter failure. As, however, all stimulus to self support is wanting, it seems surprising that any tribe should have made perceptible advance at all, and the progress attained is therefore encouraging for future effort. The policy of the Dominion Government is almost precisely similar to that of the United States, but the results are very different in the two countries. While the United States have had almost continual trouble with their aboriginal inhabitants, Canada has had no Indian difficulties of importance. This is due in part to a difference in the practical working out of the policy, but more to differences in environment. The Indian service of the Dominion Government is composed of a trained body of men, who remain in it through life, who thoroughly understand the Indian character, and who become known and trusted by their charges. The members of the United States Indian service, on the other hand, are appointed by political or church influence, and are in many cases unfit for the work; they are changed also as the balance of political power passes from one party to another. The Dominion has always fulfilled the conditions of its treaties, and has always administered punishment promptly and severely when the necessity arose. The United States have broken treaty after treaty, or have neglected to fulfil their obligations to such an extent that most tribes no longer have confidence in the promises of the Government. In cases of outrages by Indians, it has, as a rule, been very slow and dilatory in punishment.
But undoubtedly the principal reason for the immunity the British Possessions have hitherto enjoyed from Indian wars lies in the fact that the Indians have not yet been crowded by the whites. While the area is larger than that of the United States, the Indian population is but about two-fifths as great, and the whites are but one-tenth. The Indians still hold their favourite hunting and fishing grounds; the game and fish have not yet sensibly decreased; and the whites do not yet so press upon them as to arouse their jealousy and suspicion. The history of the Indian tribes in the United States, from the time of the first occupation of the country by the whites, has been one of forced migrations, always westward, to make way for the repeated encroachments of civilization. As the result of a succession of disastrous wars and forced treaties, nearly all the aboriginal population formerly living east of the Mississippi has either been destroyed or removed beyond that river. In the British Possessions they have been more fortunate. The first settlements in the provinces were made by the French, who associated freely with the natives, intermarrying to a large extent. This produced a bond of union between them, the effects of which, in both peoples, are to be seen to the present day. The country being still but thinly peopled, the necessity for removing the Indians, in large numbers, has not yet arisen; and their treatment by the Dominion Government has been more humane and just than in the United States. In consequence of all this, most of them remain in or near their original homes. Excepting those tribes which have ​moved across the border from the United States, few, if any, have engaged in war against the whites. As long as the western country was the domain of the Hudson's Bay Company the interests of the traders were, to a large extent, identical with those of the natives. The Company furnished a ready market for furs and pelts, of which the Indians were quick to avail themselves; indeed, although it supported a large number of French trappers, by far its principal business was done with the natives.
Indians in the Dominion of Canada.—The general distribution of the tribes of the British Possessions is as follows. In the province of Ontario are found parts of the Six Nations, Wyandots, Chippewas, Minsees, Mississauguas, and others of Algonquin stock. In the province of Quebec are another part of the famous Six Nations, besides Abenakis, Montagnais, Milicetes, Micmacs, and other smaller tribes. In Nova Scotia and Prince Edward's Island are Micmacs, in New Brunswick a part of the same tribe and a few of the Milicetes. In Manitoba and North-West Territory, the Chippewas, Crees, Blackfeet, and Dakotas make up the aboriginal population. The Athabasca district is peopled by the Crees, Assiniboines, Chippewyans, and Beavers; while British Columbia and Rupert's Land contain a great number of small tribes, too numerous to be mentioned here.
Indians of the United States.—Of the numerous and powerful tribes which inhabited New England at the time of its first settlement, but few fragments remain.
A remnant of the once powerful Penobscot tribe is settled at Oldtown on the Penobscot river, in Maine, and in other parts of that State and in Massachusetts, and fragments of other tribes still exist.
The Pequod and Mohegan tribes were amongst the largest and most powerful. Their range was central Massachusetts and Connecticut. During the settlement of those States, these Indians were removed to western New York, where they rapidly became civilized and prosperous. But in 1857, their land being wanted, they were removed to Wisconsin, and placed on a poor reservation there. They now number barely one hundred men, women, and children.
The Delawares, when first discovered by the whites, were living on the banks of the Delaware river. Early in the 17th century the Dutch commenced trading with them, under friendly relations. Subsequently William Penn bought large tracts of land from them, moving the Indians inland. A war followed this purchase, the Delawares alleging they had been defrauded, but, with the assistance of the Six Nations, the whites forced them back west of the Alleghanies. In 1789 they were placed on a reservation in Ohio, and subsequently, in 1818, were moved to Missouri. Various removals followed, until, in 1866, they accepted lands in several ty, in the Indian Territory, and gave up the tribal relation. They are now living in civilized fashion, and have become useful and prosperous citizens. Their number is now between 1000 and 1100.
Iroquois, or Six Nations.—This powerful and celebrated confederation was composed originally of five tribes known as Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Senecas, and Cayugas. Later, the Tuscaroras were admitted into the league, which was then called the “Six Nations.” At that time their total number was estimated at 11,650, including 2150 warriors. They were unquestionably the most powerful confederation of Indians on the continent. Their home was the central and western parts of New York State. In the war of the American Revolution they fought on the side of the English, and in the repeated battles their power was nearly destroyed. They are now scattered about on various reservations in New York State, Indian Territory, Wisconsin, and Canada. In 1870 they numbered altogether 13,669, having increased decidedly since the close of the Revolution.
The Wyandots or Hurons were an Iroquois tribe which lived originally on the shore of Lake Huron. They served as a shuttlecock between the Six Nations and the Sioux, being driven alternately east and west by them, until the end of the last century. In 1832 they removed to a reservation in Kansas. In 1855 many became citizens, while the small remaining fragment of this once powerful tribe removed to Indian Territory.
Chippewas or Ojibways.—This tribe, of the Algonquin family, formerly ranged over most of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. They were constantly at war with the Dakotas and with their other neighbours. They sided with the English in the Revolution and in the war of 1812. At present the tribe is divided upon thirteen reservations in the above States, and is making gratifying progress in civilization. Their number is now above 20,000.
The Menominees, on the Menorninee river, in Wisconsin, have never been moved from their original habitat. They served with the French in the war against the Foxes in 1712, and against the English up to 1763. During the Revolution and the war of 1812 they sided with the English. They are now living in a civilized manner, and are engaged very largely in lumbering. Their number is now about 1445, and is said to be diminishing rapidly.
The Miamis were first found in eastern Wisconsin, and were estimated at 8000 in number. They were a warlike race, continually engaged in broils with their neighbours, the Iroquois, Sioux, and French, in which they lost heavily. In the Revolution and the war of 1812, like most of the Indian tribes, they sided with the English. After the latter war they fought among themselves, reducing their numbers greatly. The tribe has now almost entirely disappeared, a few families only remaining, scattered over Indian Territory and Kansas.
The Ottawas lived originally on the northern shore of the upper peninsula of Michigan. In 1650 they were driven by the Iroquois beyond the Mississippi, only to be forced back by the Dakotas. Then they settled at Mackinaw, and joined the French in their operations against the English. During the Revolution they sided with the English. Most of them were finally moved to the Indian Territory, where they now are, reduced to a mere handful.
The Pottawattamies occupied a part of the lower peninsula of Michigan, whence they were driven into Wisconsin by the more powerful Iroquois. They were allied with the French in their wars against the Iroquois, and took part in Pontiac's conspiracy. In the wars between the colonists and the mother country they took the part of the latter. In 1838 most of them were removed to a reservation in Kansas. Of these the larger proportion have abandoned the tribal relation, and become citizens. Of the others, some are in Kansas, upwards of 300 are in Indian Territory, while the remainder are wanderers.
The Seminoles are a tribe of the Muskogee family; they originally inhabited the peninsula of Florida. About 1842, after a very disastrous war with the whites, lasting seven years, nearly all of them were removed to the Indian Territory, where they are now settled, are civilized, and are succeeding in the cultivation of the soil. They number about 2500.
The Creeks or Muskogees formed the most powerful tribe of the Muskogee family; they originally occupied a large part of Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. During the Revolution they fought against the colonists. A few years later they broke out again, but received a severe chastisement. Subsequently nearly all of them were re moved to the Indian Territory, where they have made great progress in civilization and material prosperity. During the late civil war they were divided, part adhering to the Union and part joining the Confederacy. At present they number about 14,000.
The Dakota or Sioux nation is at present the most powerful of the Indian tribes in North America. Its warriors possess fine physique, great personal courage, and great skill in warfare. Though backward in adopting civilization, their intellectual powers contrast very favourably with those of most other tribes. The nation numbers 30,000 to 35,000 souls, divided into twenty-one bands or subtribes more or less independent of one another. At present they range over most of the unsettled portion of Dakota, eastern Montana, and north-eastern Wyoming, their reservations amounting altogether to 108,450 square miles. Until within a very recent period most of the bands of this tribe have resisted all efforts for civilizing them. At present, however, several of the bands are settling down to agricultural labour. Their history has, from the first, been one of war, their name a terror to their Indian neighbours as well as to the whites. Originally their range extended as far east as the State of Wisconsin, and thence west to the Rocky Mountains, its present limit. On the east they encountered the Chippewas, who at that time formed a powerful tribe, fully able to cope with them. By them the Sioux were driven back into Minnesota, after long continued warfare. In 1862 the bands inhabiting Minnesota fell upon the white settlers, and a terrible massacre ensued. The result of this was the removal of these bands from the State to Dakota, where they were placed upon reservations. The bands inhabiting the country farther west have been to a greater or less extent almost continually at war with the whites until 1877; and for many years the protection of the border settle ments required the constant presence of large bodies of troops. In 1875 and 1876 the chief, Sitting Bull, at the head of a large body of warriors, maintained a successful resistance against all the troops which could be brought against him, and finally escaped across the boundary line into the British Possessions, with the bulk of his followers.
The Arapahoes originally ranged over the central portion of the plains between the Platte and Arkansas. This is a brave, warlike, predatory tribe. With the Sioux and Cheyennes, with whom they have ever been on terms of friendship, they have waged unremitting warfare upon the Utes. From time to time, also, the border settle ments have received hostile attentions from them. The southern bands of the tribe have a large reservation in the western part of Indian Territory, while the northern bands have been placed on the reservation of the Shoshones in western Wyoming.
The Cheyennes are a tribe of the Algonquin family, which originally lived on the Cheyenne river, a branch of the Red River of the North, in Dakota. Driven westward by the Dakotas, they were found by early explorers at the eastern base of the Black Hills, in Dakota. Subsequently part of them moved south, and allied ​themselves with the Arapahoes. Within a few years they have all been collected on a reservation in the western part of the Indian Territory. Their whole history has been a series of wars against their red neighbours and the whites. They are a large, powerful, athletic race, mentally superior to most of the other tribes. Their occupations are war and hunting. Thus far they have made little or no progress in civilization. They number about 3600.
The Arikarees, Gros Ventres, and Mandans are three tribes which inhabit a permanent village at Fort Berthold, Dakota, on the Missouri. They have a partial civilization of their own, not acquired from intercourse with whites. They live in houses made of wood, covered and thatched with earth and straw. For sustenance they depend largely upon the produce of agricultural labour. Their total number is probably about 2000, the Arikarees being the largest tribe, and the Mandans the smallest. The Arikarees, Arikaras, or Rees, as the name is variously rendered, originally lived in the Platte valley, in Nebraska, with the Pawnees, to whom they are related. Within the present century they have made their way northward to their present location. The Mandans were first found living on the Missouri, at the mouth of Heart river, while the Gros Ventres, or Minnetarees, occupied three small villages at the mouth of Knife river. These three tribes were decimated by the small-pox in 1837, shortly after which event they joined together in one village at their present location.
The Sacs and Foxes, now one tribe, located in Indian Territory, were originally separate, living near Green Bay, Wisconsin. Driven on before the westward march of civilization, they moved first to Iowa, then to Missouri, and finally to their present location. A few still remain in Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas.
The Shawnees or Shawanees, supposed to have been primarily a part of the Kickapoo tribe, were first found in Wisconsin. Moving eastward, they came in contact with the Iroquois, by whom they were driven south into Tennessee. Thence they crossed the moun tains into South Carolina, and spread northward as far as New York and southward to Florida. Subsequently they drifted northward, again came in contact with the Iroquois, and were driven over into Ohio. They joined in Pontiac's conspiracy, and during the Revolution fought under the English flag. After the latter war they commenced migrating westward, and finally accepted homes in Indian Territory, where they now are. In 1854 most of them abandoned tribal relations, and divided their lands in severalty. They are now in a civilized and prosperous condition.
The Crows or Upsarokas are a branch of the Dakota family occupying at present a large reservation in southern Montana, south and east of the Yellowstone river. Their original range included this reservation, and extended eastward and southward, while from their forays no part of the country for many hundreds of miles around was safe. A cowardly tribe, they have ever been noted as marauders and horse stealers. Though they have generally been crafty enough to avoid open war with the whites, they have not scrupled to rob them whenever opportunity offered. Physically they are tall and athletic, with very dark complexions. Their number is about 4200. They have made little if any progress in civilization, preferring to be supported by the Government.
The Osages were first found on the lower Missouri, whence they moved south to the Arkansas, and shortly after became allies of the French. After the usual succession of treaties and removals, they finally found themselves in Indian Territory, where they are now fast reaching a condition of self-support. They number about 2100 souls.
The Kaw or Kansas tribe was originally an offshoot from the Osages. Their original home was in Missouri, whence they were driven to Kansas by the Dakotas. They were moved from one reservation to another, until finally they were placed in Indian Territory, where they are rapidly becoming civilized. They numbered 360 souls in 1879.
The Winnebagoes are a branch of the Dakota family. At the time of the advent of the whites they formed the vanguard of the eastward migration of the Dakotas, and were living about Winnebago Lake and Green Bay in Wisconsin. They took up arms on the side of the French in the Franco-English wars, on the side of the English in the Revolution and the war of 1812. In 1820 they numbered about 4500, and inhabited their original home. A series of treaties followed, by which they were moved no less than six times, occupying reservations in various parts of Minnesota and Dakota. At present they are on the Omaha reservation in eastern Nebraska, and are prospering.
The Otoes and Missouries, which now form one tribe, under the former name, are a branch of the great Dakota family. They were early allies of the French. They now inhabit a small reservation in Nebraska, where they are making gratifying progress. They number but 457.
The Omahas were found on St Peter's river, in Minnesota, where they lived an agricultural life, supporting themselves from the soil. After a fatal visitation of the small-pox, which reduced their numbers terribly, they abandoned their village, and wandered westward to the Niobrara river in Nebraska. After a succession of treaties and removals, they are now located on a reservation in eastern Nebraska, where they are rapidly improving in civilization and pecuniary resources. They numbered 1100 in 1878.
The Poncas were originally part of the Omaha tribe, with whom they lived near the Red River of the North. They shared the common fate of the weaker tribes in this part of the country, being driven westward by the Dakotas. They halted on the Ponca river in Dakota, and there held their ground, but suffered severely from their hereditary enemies. After a succession of treaties and removals, they were placed on a reservation at the mouth of the Niobrara, where they took lands in severalty, and were prospering greatly, when they were forced to give up their lands and improvements and remove to Indian Territory. Naturally they were extremely dissatisfied with this change, and in 1878 a number of them left the reservation in Indian Territory and made their way back to the Omahas, their former neighbours. They were arrested for leaving the reservation, and were about to be returned to Indian Territory, when the case was taken up by able lawyers, and after a long trial the Indians were set free, it having been decided that they were United States citizens, and therefore not to be confined on reservations. The whole history of the Poncas is a tale of oppression by red men and white.
The Pawnees were formerly a brave, warlike tribe, living on the Platte river in Nebraska. Their history, until a recent date, is one of almost constant warfare with the Dakotas. In 1823 their village was burned by the Delawares, and shortly after the tribe lost heavily by the small-pox. In 1874 they moved to a reservation in Indian Territory, where they are making gratifying progress. They number 1440.
The Caddos, now located on a small reservation in Indian Territory, are but the remnant of a large tribe that formerly ranged over the Red River country, in Arkansas, northern Texas, and Indian Territory. They have well-managed farms, and are noted for industry and intelligence. Their number is 543.
The Shoshones or Snakes are a tribe inhabiting the country about the head of the Snake, Green, and Bighorn rivers, in Wyoming, Idaho, and northern Nevada, and distributed mainly on four reservations. They number about 6000. They are a mild, peaceful tribe, but until within a recent period have been involved in almost constant defensive warfare with their neighbours, the Crows and Blackfeet on the north, and the Cheyennes and Arapahoes on the south. The history of their relations with the whites has been one of almost unbroken peace.
The Bannacks are a small tribe of the Shoshone family, in the southern portion of Idaho. Their number is about 1000, divided between the Fort Hall and the Lemhi reservations. They have generally been friendly with the whites, although in 1866, and again in 1878, they broke out into hostilities. Very little progress has been made by the tribe.
The Kiowas are another tribe of the Shoshone family, a wild, roving people, ranging over the country about the Arkansas and Canadian rivers, in Indian Territory, Colorado, and New Mexico. Formerly their range was very much less restricted, extending from the Platte to the Rio Grande. They have the reputation of being brave warriors, but cruel and treacherous. In recent years they have made repeated raids upon the settlers in western Texas, which have been stopped by the imprisonment of their chief, Satanta. In 1869 they were placed on a reservation in the Indian Territory, which they appear to use only as headquarters for raids into the adjoining country. Their number is given as 1138, but this is undoubtedly too small.
The Ute or Utah tribe, which is composed of several bands, all acknowledging the authority of one head chief, inhabits reservations in the western part of Colorado and eastern Utah. They number about 4200. Averse to civilization, they have made little or no progress. They originally inhabited the whole mountain region of Colorado and northern New Mexico, whence they made inroads on the plains in pursuit of buffalo, and of their hereditary enemies the Sioux, the Cheyennes, and the Arapahoes. Their intercourse with the whites has been, almost without exception, characterized by friendship. The recent outbreak of the White River band, in 1879, is almost the only case on record. The rapid settlement of the State has driven them westward, and has deprived them of the fairest portion of their domain.
The Apaches are a branch of the Athabasca family which has wandered far from the parent region, and now range over large parts of New Mexico and Arizona. It is a powerful, warlike tribe, at war with the whites almost continually since the latter entered the country. A large part of the tribe is on the Fort Stanton reservation in eastern New Mexico, while another portion, under the chief Victoria, has for a long time been devastating the border settlements of New Mexico. The Tonto-Apaches, collected in large numbers on the San Carlos reservation in Arizona, where they are doing something at farming, are of Yuma stock. Besides these, there are several bands of Apaches scattered about on other reservations, or roaming without a fixed habitat, swelling the total to about 10,600 souls.
​The Navajoes are another tribe of the Athabascan group which is far removed from the body of the family. They inhabit the northern part of Arizona and New Mexico, where they have a fine reservation. They have considerable native civilization, not a few of them engaging in agriculture, and in raising horses, sheep, and goats. They weave blankets, which are prized highly throughout the south-west. They are a fine athletic race, and excellent horsemen. While not an aggressive tribe, they have frequently been at war with the whites. They number now 11,850.
The Nez Percés, with the exception of a small portion in Indian Territory, inhabit a reservation in northern Idaho, which includes a part of their ancestral home. They are a fine race, physically and mentally. Until 1877 they had been at peace with the whites. In 1875, a portion of their reservation having been taken from them, owing to the alleged fact that they had not carried out the treaty stipulations, difficulties arose which, two years later, brought on a rupture, and the famous "Nez Percés" war. The disaffected portion of the tribe, numbering some 400 or 500, held out for several months against all the force the Government could bring against them, but were finally captured on the Sweet Grass Hills, in northern Montana. The malcontents were then placed on a reservation in the Indian Territory.
The Modocs are a small tribe, which lived in southern Oregon. They are known mainly from their stubborn resistance to the United States Government in 1872 and 1873, known as the Modoc war. This was caused by an attempt to place them upon a reservation, After some preliminary fighting, the Modocs retreated to the "Lava Beds," a basaltic region, seamed and crevassed, and abounding in caves. Here they made a stand for several months before they were finally subdued. During the war General Canby, commanding the troops, and Dr Thomas, a peace commissioner, were treacherously massacred by them while under a flag of truce. The leaders of this revolt were hanged, and the remainder removed to Indian Territory.
The Pimas, Papagoes, and Maricopas form a semi-civilized community, living on a reservation on the Gila and Santa Cruz rivers in Arizona. Originally they were distributed over the whole south-western portion of that territory. Missions were established among them at an early date by the Spanish Jesuits, and with very good success. At present they are mainly self-supporting, while a large proportion of them wear citizens dress and live in houses. The three tribes now number 10,500.
Pacific Coast Indians.—The Indians upon and near the Pacific coast are divided into a great number of small tribes. Speaking generally, they are lower in the scale of humanity, both physically and mentally, than those of the interior. In northern California, Oregon, and Washington, their principal subsistence was, before the Government undertook their support, the salmon, which in spring crowded the rivers. They are mostly of a mild, peaceful disposition. The Indians of southern California were early taken in charge by the Jesuit missionaries, who Christianized and partly civilized them. Since the settlement of the State by Americans, they have, through neglect, to a large extent relapsed and become worthless members of society.
The name Pueblo (city) is used to designate a number of tribes of town-building Indians in New Mexico. They resemble one another very closely in their surroundings, and in their manners and customs; and their history has been the same. Subdued by Coronado in 1540, they made a successful revolt two years later, but were subdued again in 1586. In 1680 they made another unsuccessful revolt. When the country was ceded to the United States in 1848, these Indians were recognized as citizens, and have since remained so. Their houses are communal, generally but one structure for the whole village. They are sometimes built of stone, but oftener of adobe, several stories high, each story receding from the one below. The common plan is a hollow square, or curved figure, though in some cases the form of a pyramid is followed. Some of the towns are built upon high mesas, almost inaccessible, obviously for purposes of defence. These Indians retain their primitive form of government, each village electing a governor and council. They cultivate the soil, raising grain and vegetables for their own consumption, and keep large Hocks of sheep and goats. Their number is about 9000.
The Moquis are a semi-civilized people living in seven towns on the plateau in northern Arizona. Our first accounts of them date from the expedition of Coronado in 1540. Their history is similar to that of the town-building Indians of New Mexico, except that after a successful revolt against the Spaniards, in 1680, they have remained independent. They are kind-hearted and hospitable, cultivate the soil, raising grain and vegetables, and possessing large flocks of sheep and goats. They weave very fine blankets, an art which they have taught several neighbouring tribes. The houses are built of stone, set in mortar, and for security are perched upon the summits of almost inaccessible mesas. The Moquis numbered 1780 in 1878.
Indian Antiquities.—The ancient remains of the Indians are coextensive with their occupancy of the country, but in general they teach but little concerning their life in prehistoric times. The Atlantic and Gulf coasts are lined with shell-heaps, indicating the sites of ancient villages. Spear or arrow heads are often ploughed up all over the country, relics, it may be, from some well-fought field.
At the copper mines on the northern peninsula of Michigan, there are many evidences that the Indians had been working. Excavations, some of considerable depth, have been found, and in them stone hammers, evidently used in extracting the native copper. Indeed, it is well known that this metal was a common article of commerce among them.
In the south-western territories, however, are found the most interesting remains of this people, in the form of towns, some of great magnitude and extent, built of stone set in mortar. These towns, which were evidently inhabited by a people closely resembling the Moquis and Pueblos, are found in south-western Colorado on the San Juan river and its branches, in north-western New Mexico, in south-eastern Utah, and over the greater part of Arizona. Certain regions appear to have been very densely populated. The largest towns are built in exposed situations, without special precautions for defence, and were plainly inhabited by a mild agricultural race, who were enjoying a period of peace. Others are perched upon high inaccessible mesas, with strong towers for defence and observation, while others, "cave dwellings," are merely walled-in niches in the cliffs of the canons, evidently the last refuge of a hunted, desperate people. Everywhere in the neighbourhood of these ruins are vast quantities of fragments of pottery, some of which is painted in the most elaborate designs. Wicker work and arrow and spear heads are also found in abundance. These extensive ruins, scattered over a large area of country, show that at some time in the past this region, now arid and desert, supported a large population of a degree of civilization fully equal to that of the Pueblos and Moquis of the present clay, and in all probability their ancestors. (H. G.*)
* ↑ It may be sufficient to refer to the series of papers by Mr John Campbell of Montreal on the "Hittites in America," which have recently appeared in the Canadian Quarterly Journal of Science, and which on the most fanciful grounds connect the native idioms not only with each other but with most of the known lauguages of the universe. Thus Iroquois and Peruvian are declared to be radically one, while the former is connected with Basque, Dakotan with Circassian, Accad with Japanese, and a general Khita linguistic family is made to include, besides all these, Choctaw, Cherokee, Aleutian, Fuegian, Aino, Kamtchadale, Tchuktchi, Haussa, Barabra, and many others in every part of the world.
* ↑ Abel Hovelacque (Linguistique, Paris, 1877) has endeavoured to confound polysynthesis with agglutination; but A. H. Keane (Appendix to Stanford's Central and South America, 1878) has shown that the difference between the two is fundamental, and Prof. Sayce (Science of Language, 1880) has finally adopted this view.
* ↑ During the many years that he lived in South America, D'Orbigny assures us that he "never met a bald native of full blood" (L'Homme Américain, i. p. 128).
* ↑ The only known exception are the Guarayos, a Guarani tribe, originally from Paraguay, now in the Moxos missions, altogether a remarkable people, whose quasi-European complexion and appearance are heightened by a very full but always perfectly straight beard.
* ↑ Except amongst the Guaranis, the outer angle of whose eyes is generally pointed upwards, giving them a Mongolian cast.
* ↑ But this feature is not constant, for the nose of many Pampas and Guarani tribes is often very short, broad, and flat.
* ↑ In the eyes of certain ethnologists California has always been a favourite harbour of refuge for distressed Chinese or Japanese junks, whose crews are to be regarded as the founders of the arts, cultures, and empires of the New World. A recent attempt to revive this theory has been made by Lieutenant Wheeler (Expedition through South California, 1875), who found some apparently archaic Chinese hieroglyphics cut into the basalt rocks near Benton, South California. These have been published in Petermann's Mittheilungen (vol. xxiii. part 4, 1877) by Oscar Loew, who fancies he can decipher the Chinese symbol for to, i.e., earth, and thence draws an argument in favour of the wild theory seriously advocated in Charles Leland's Fusang; or the Discovery of America by Chinese Buddhist Priests in the Fifth Century. He also compares words from various Californian idioms with Japanese and Chinese, forgetting that these two languages themselves belong to two entirely different orders of speech, and have nothing in common beyond coincidences and borrowings.
* ↑ Apache, i.e., “the men” (root apa, man), is a Yuma word, applied to the southern Tinneys, whose true name is Shis Inday, or "men of the woods." From the ending che, an attempt has been made by certain etymologists to connect those people with the Puelche, Huilliche. nnd other Patagono-Chilian tribes whose names end in the same syllable. But here che is the Araucanian “man,” whereas in Yuma che is the definite article suffixed. Of the Apaches the chief trib's arc the Coyoteros, Tontos, Lipans, Mescaleros, Pinaleños, Llaneros, and Gileños, so named by the Spaniards; the real tribal names are undetermined.