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Show 30 INDIAN LINGUISTIC FAMILIES. American Indian tribes were nomadic. The picture presented by these writers is of a medley of ever- shifting tribes, to- day here, to- morrow there, occupying new territory and founding new homes- if nomads can be said to have homes- only to abandon them. Such a picture, however, is believed to convey an erroneous idea of the former condition of our Indian tribes, As the question has significance in the present connection it must be considered somewhat at length. INDIAN TRIBES SEDENTARY. In the first place, the linguistic map, based as it is upon the earliest evidence obtainable, itself offers conclusive proof, not only that the Indian tribes were in the main sedentary at the time history first records their position, but that they had been sedentary for a very long period. In order that this may be made plain, it'should be clearly understood, as stated above, that each of the colors or patterns upon the map indicates a distinct linguistic family. It will be noticed that the colors representing the several families are usually in single bodies, i. e., that they represent continuous areas, and that with some exceptions the same color is not scattered here and there over the map in small spots. Yet precisely this last state of things is what would be expected had the tribes representing the families been nomadic to a marked degree. If nomadic tribes occupied North America, instead of spreading out each from a common center, as the colors show that the tribes composing the several families actually did, they would have been dispersed here and there over the whole face of the country. That they are not so dispersed is considered proof that in the main they were sedentary. It has been stated above that more or less extensive migrations of some tribes over the country had taken place prior to European occupancy. This fact is disclosed by a glance at the present map. Th « great Athapascan family, for instance, occupying the larger part of British America, is known from linguistic evidence to have sent off colonies into Oregon ( Wilopah, Tlatskanai, Coquille), California ( Smith River tribes, Kenesti or Wailakki tribes, Hupa), and Arizona and New Mexico ( Apache, Navajo). How long before European occupancy of this country these migrations took place can not be told, but in the case of most of them it was undoubtedly many years.' By the test of language it is seen that the great Siouan family, which we have come to look upon as almost exclusively western, had one offshoot in Virginia ( Tutelo), another in North and South Carolina ( Catawba), and a third in Mississippi ( Biloxi); and the Algonquian family, so important in the early history of this country, while occupying a nearly continuous area in the north and east, had yet secured a foothold, doubtless in very recent times, in Wyoming and Colorado. These and other |
