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Show REPORT OF THE OOMMI88IONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 51 company. I respectfully recommend that Congress be requested to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to pay from year to year, out of the contingent fund of the Department, the annual cost of the bonds thus required of these or of any other clerks in the Department where no salary or compensation is allowed or paid for the services for which the bond is given. SPELLlNG OF NAMES OF INDIAN TRIBES. It has long been recognized as unfortunate that there existed no authorized standard spelling of the names of Indian tribes and bands. Treaties, laws, reports, old and recent, have spelled the same name from one toa dozen or more differentways, each individual spellerbeing a law unto himself. Out of the variations through a long series of years many spellings, and hence pronunciations, which are known to be corrupted, have nevertheless become generally accepted, like Chip-pewa, for instance, which should be Ojibwa; or Sac, which should be Sauk, etc.; or incorrect names for tribes have come into general use, as Moqni for Hopi and Sioux for Dakota. For some years the Bureau of American Ethnology has been trying to systematize its own spelling, and the Century Dictionary of Names, with the help of the Bureau, carried the matter along a little further, although in a new edition of that work many additions and changes will have to be made. The Government Printing Office, which follows exactly the spelling promulgated by the Board of Geographic Names, asked this office to prepare for its use a similar list of names of Indian tribes to be pub-lished in its forthcoming Manual of StyleGoverning Composition and Proof Reading. After consultation with the Bureau of American Ethnology such a list was prepared, which both that Bureau and the Indian Bureau, as well as the Printing Office, propose to follow in the future as the "authorized version." Attempt was made to spell all names phonetically, but it is not claimed that the spellings adopted are as scientific and consistent as might be desired. Necessarily it was somewhat a matter of compromise since it was found inexpedient to reject spellings which have long obtained in treaties and legislation and such as have been used in geographic terms or are of foreign origin. It is too late now to undertake much of a refom in the spelling of Indian names; but uniformity is still within reach, and it is believed will be secured by the adoption of this list, which has been sent out to all agencies and schools in the Indian service. It will be found on page 519 and is the same as that published by the Printing O5ce with a few additions. This revised spelling is followed throughout this repol*. |
