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Show \ 1900] CLASSIFICATION OF INDIANS be recognized as common. Similar, but less striking, dispersions are to be seen in the Siouan, Algonquian, Iroquoian, Shoshonean, and other families. In speculating as to times and periods of separation, it must be remembered that these linguistic differences between families are not dialectic but^. fundamental; and the length of time necessary to effect such developments is staggering to contemplate. From the nature of the evidence our knowledge of the prehistoric migrations can never be exact. Physiographic features, doubtless, determined the direction of the movements in a majority of cases, and linguistic and archaeological information tends to support that view. What particular inducement or pressure may have caused the Athapascan and other dispersions it is impossible to say; but the course of the movements can sometimes be inferred. The Athapascan movement was probably from the north southward along the plateaus or the great plains to the Mexican border; and subsequent pressure from the east pushed a number of the family representatives westward to the Pacific coast, where, cut off and isolated, they form the scattered intrusions which have long puzzled the students of American ethnology. The original habitat of the Siouan stock was certainly in the east, and there is fair evidence that it was found in the southeastern states between the Alleghanies and the sea. The Siouan occupancy of the Ohio Valley was not long antecedent to the coming of the • OL. U.- 7 |