Breaking the Wilderness : $b The Story of the Conquest of the Far West, From the Wanderings of Cabeza de Vaca, to the First Descent of the Colorado by Powell, and the Completion of the Union Pacific Railway, With Particular Account of the Exploits of Trappers and TradersDellenbaugh, Frederick Samuel
History
Breaking the Wilderness : $b The Story of the Conquest of the Far West, From the Wanderings of Cabeza de Vaca, to the First Descent of the Colorado by Powell, and the Completion of the Union Pacific Railway, With Particular Account of the Exploits of Trappers and Traders
Dellenbaugh, Frederick Samuel
West (U.S.) -- Description and travel; West (U.S.) -- History
Thus far the most exact basis for the classification of these
interesting people has been language. It was some time after the early
intercourse with the natives of the East before the wide divergence in
language was appreciated and all attempts to classify them fell into
confusion. Finally, in 1836, Albert Gallatin began an arrangement by
language which, reorganised by Powell, in 1885-86, has been generally
adopted by ethnologists, and to-day, while not entirely approved, it is
the only method that is satisfactory.
By this system all tribes whose language roots are the same are classed
together no matter how widely separated geographically they might have
been. Notwithstanding the remarkable homogeneity of all the aboriginal
inhabitants of the continent in customs, habits, and organisation,
yet more than sixty separate stock languages were discovered in North
America. Each one of these is taken to represent a "stock" group to
which is given a title derived from Gallatin's first designation or from
the leading tribe in that particular stock, with the addition of "an"
or "ian," and all tribes having similar language roots are classed with
this group or stock. Thus in the Siouan stock, the title is taken from
the leading tribe, the Sioux, and all affiliated languages are brought
under the same heading, as Dakota, Crow, Hidatsa, Iowa, Mandan, etc.,
and in the Athapascan the title is taken from the Athapascas of the far
north, while the Apaches and Navajos of the south are classed under the
same heading, as they speak related languages.[21]
[Illustration: Umatilla Tipi of Rush Mats on Columbia River.
From _Lewis & Clark_ by O. D. Wheeler.]
[Illustration: Amerind Linguistic Map.
After _Bu. of Eth. Seventh An. Rep._]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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