The Seri Indians. (1898 N 17 / 1895-1896 (pages 1-344*))McGee, W J
History
The Seri Indians. (1898 N 17 / 1895-1896 (pages 1-344*))
McGee, W J
Seri Indians; Seri language; Yuman languages
Herzog’s suggested classification, with Gatschet’s indorsement, was
accepted even more promptly and widely than the earlier classifications
of Pimentel and Orozco. It was tacitly adopted by Director J. W. Powell
in his classic arrangement of Indian linguistic families of America
north of Mexico;[212] it was explicitly approved by Adolph F. Bandelier
in his “Final Report of Investigations”;[213] and it was implicitly
accepted and fortified by Dr Daniel G. Brinton in his work on “The
American Race”.[214] Brinton’s Seri words were “chiefly from the
satisfactory vocabulary obtained by the late John Russell Bartlett”; of
the 21 terms, about 8 (including that for the alien concept “house”)
suggest affinity with the Yuman, chiefly in the Mohave dialect; the
others are either wholly distinct or only superficially similar,
e. g., in the concurrence of a consonant or two, or merely in the
correspondence in number of syllables.[215]
[212] Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1885-’86;
Washington, 1891, p. 137.
[213] Op. cit., p. 74.
[214] The American Race: A Linguistic Classification and Ethnographic
Description of the Native Tribes of North and South America; New York,
1891, p. 335.
[215] Mr. Hewitt’s discussion (postea, pp. 299-344) gives fuller
details of this short vocabulary.
* * * * *
Stated briefly, the scientific researches relating to Seriland and the
Seri during the fifty years from the fourth decade of the century to
the middle of the last decade resulted in (1) a satisfactory survey
of the coast, (2) the collection of two excellent Seri vocabularies,
with a few others of less extent, and (3) two discrepant linguistic
classifications of the tribe, both widely quoted and accepted.
During the half century of historical silence from 1844 forward, and
pending the progress of the desultory researches, the Seri suffered a
succession of external shocks more serious in their internal effects
than any of those of the three centuries preceding; indeed it is just
to say that during this half century the Seri range was curtailed, the
Seri customs were modified, and the Seri population was diminished
more effectively than during the preceding sesquicentury of fairly
definite record. The chief factor in this transformation was an
intrepid pioneer, who pushed actual settlement toward the Seri frontier
more vigorously than any predecessor—Señor Pascual Encinas, a son of
Sonora.[216]
[216] The following paragraphs are condensed from oral recitals by
Señor Encinas (a notably straightforward and judicious authority),
supplemented and corroborated in all essential details by Señores
Andres Noriega, Ygnacio Lozania, and several other habitués of the
Seri borderland, as well as by Kolusio and Mashém, several Papago
informants, and various collateral documents.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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