I.

A

SYNOPSIS

OF THE INDIAN TRIBES

WITHIN THE

UNITED STATES EAST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS,

AND

IN THE BRITISH AND RUSSIAN POSSESSIONS

IN

NORTH AMERICA.

BY THE HON. ALBERT GALLATIN.

PREFATORY LETTER.

SIR,

New York, 29th January, 1836.

I have the honor to enclose the residue of the Synopsis of the Indian Tribes of North America, classed in families according to their respective languages.

My first attempt was made in the year 1823, at the request of a distinguished friend, Baron Alexander Humboldt. It was that essay, communicated it seems to Mr. Balbi, and quoted by him with more praise than it deserved, in the Introduction to his "Atlas Ethnographique," which drew the attention of the Antiquarian Society, and induced it to ask me for a copy. I had not kept any, but had in the mean while collected and obtained access to many important materials. In the winter of 1825-6, the attendance at Washington of a numerous delegation of southern Indians enabled me to obtain good vocabularies of the Muskhogee, Uchee, Natchez, Chicasa, and Cherokee; and I then published a table of all the existing tribes in the United States, which, in its arrangement, does not differ materially from that now adopted. The War Department circulated at the same time, at my request, printed forms of a vocabulary containing six hundred words, of verbal forms, and of selected sentences; and also a series of grammatical queries. The only communication, received in answer to those queries, is that of the Rev. Mr. Worcester respecting the Cherokee, which is inserted in the Appendix. The verbal forms and select sentences in that language, the verbal forms of the Muskhogee, Chocta, and Caddo, and the copious supplementary vocabularies in the same tongues, and in the Mohawk and Seneca, were also received in answer; and that of the Chippeway, by Dr. James, (Appendix to Tanner's account,) is partly on the same model.

I believe that I have, in every instance, stated to whom I was indebted for every communication of which any use was made, and pointed out the authority where recourse was had to works already published. I received most liberal assistance from every quarter where I made application. The libraries of the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, and

of the Historical Societies of New York and of Massachusetts, were opened to me at all times, and their books and manuscripts communicated without reserve. The War Department, both formerly and lately, communicated the materials in its possession; and I am indebted to many individuals, but especially to Mr. Du Ponceau, who, in the most liberal and friendly manner, put his valuable collection of manuscript vocabularies at my disposal, and gave me every information which he thought might be of any use to me.

The form of a comparative vocabulary was adopted as far as practicable; and, in preparing it, every source of information, whether in manuscript or in works already published, was resorted to. The selection of the words was necessarily controlled by the materials. Those and no others could be admitted, but such as were found in a number of the existing vocabularies, sufficient for the purpose intended. Some words of inferior importance were introduced, only because they were common to almost all the vocabularies; and many have been omitted, because they were to be found only for a few dialects. This will account for the absence of abstract nouns, prepositions, &c., in the Comparative Vocabulary. The deficiency is partly supplied for the Southern and for the Iroquois tribes, by the Supplementary Vocabulary. Although the number of words in the comparative vocabulary (No. I.), which embraces fifty-three tribes, was reduced to one hundred and eighty, less than onehalf of that number could be obtained for some of the languages. A lesser vocabulary (No. II.) of fifty-three words includes sixteen tribes. About the same number of words has been supplied by Umfreville, for four tribes, (No. III.) The miscellaneous vocabularies (No. IV.) include seventeen, whose scanty vocabularies could not be arranged in the same form. Of the ninety languages or dialects of which specimens are thus given, I think that nine (marked ♬ and y) are duplicates, or only varieties.

The Synopsis was originally intended to embrace all the tribes north of the semi-civilized Mexican nations. The want of materials soon confined the inquiry, towards the south, to the territory of the United States. The loss of the vocabularies collected by Lewis and Clarke has not been supplied. With the exception of the Salish, and of a few words of the Shoshonee and of the Chinook, we have as yet no knowledge of the Indian languages west of the Stony Mountains, within the United States.

The only existing tribe in the United States, east of the Mississippi, of which the language has not been ascertained, is that of the Alibamons and Coosadas, consisting of five or six hundred souls, seated on the waters of the river Alabama, and who make part of the Creek con

federacy. West of the Mississippi, and on or south of the Red river, fragments remain, in Louisiana, of ten or twelve tribes, amounting together to about fifteen hundred souls. The vocabularies of four of these have been obtained. Each speaks a distinct language; and it is probable, that this is the case with some of the others. We are unacquainted with the languages of three tribes, (the Kaskaias, Kiawas, and Bald Heads,) estimated at three thousand souls, who wander between the upper waters of the Red river of the Mississippi, and those of the river Platte of the Missouri; and we have as yet but specimens of the languages of the Black Feet, of the Fall or Rapid Indians, and of the Crows. In other respects, the Synopsis of the Indians within the United States, east of the Stony Mountains, is nearly as complete as could have been expected, and embraces some tribes altogether or nearly extinct.

North of the United States, all or nearly all the families of languages are known; but the subdivision into languages or dialects of the same family is incomplete. The inland districts of Russian America have not been explored; and I must acknowledge some deficiency on my part, in not having investigated all the existing materials, respecting the various languages of the tribes which inhabit the seacoast and adjacent islands, from Nootka to Prince William's Sound.

The eighty-one tribes (excluding the nine duplicates), embraced by the Synopsis, have been divided into twenty-eight families.* A single glance at the annexed Map will show, that, excluding the country west of the Stony Mountains and south of the fifty-second degree of north latitude, almost the whole of the territory contained in the United States and in British and Russian America is or was occupied by only eight great families, each speaking a distinct language, subdivided, in most instances, into a number of languages or dialects belonging to the same stock. These are the Eskimaux, the Athapascas (or Cheppeyans), the Black Feet, the Sioux, the Algonkin-Lenape, the Iroquois, the Cherokee, and the Mobilian or Chahta-Muskhog. I believe the Muskhogee, which is the prevailing language of the Creek confederacy, and the Chocta or Chicasa, to belong to the same family, although, in conformity with general usage, they have been arranged under two distinct heads. This would reduce the number of families to twenty-seven. Of

*The Woccons, an extinct tribe, distinguished in the vocabulary as the XIXth family, have, since that was prepared for the press, been ascertained to have belonged to the Catawba family, No. VII. The eight great families embrace sixty-one of the distinct languages. Excluding the extinct Woccons, the nineteen other families have each but one ascertained language or dialect.