Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri / Edited with Notes and Biographical Sketch

by Edwin Thompson Denig

Regarding the comparative population of these tribes with the years 1833 to 1854, the decrease is very great. Smallpox, cholera, measles, and influenza, together with other diseases and wars, incidental to the climate and their pursuits, have reduced the Sioux about one-third, the Mandan three-fourths, the Arikara one-fifth, the Assiniboin one-half, the Cree one-eighth, the Crows one-half, and the Blackfeet one-third less than they were at the former period. They—that is, from the Sioux up—are now slowly on the increase.

Language

To answer the queries on this head would require a volume of itself, but the Assiniboin being the same or nearly the same as the Sioux, and as the Sioux has already been translated into the English letters, books published in it, and the same taught in schools on the Mississippi, it is presumed that any and all answers to these queries can be obtained by procuring the books printed in the Sioux language and by examining their manner of instruction. We have seen the New Testament in that language, also several letters, and believe it to be well adapted to the purpose of Christianity or general usefulness. Should, however, it be the desire of the department that extensive vocabularies be made out and explanations of their language given, or should any other information regarding these tribes be sought, we will at any time satisfy it on these topics, provided the efforts now made for their instruction regarding the prairie tribes meet with the success it is presumed to deserve.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The following bibliographical list of works is submitted to enable the student to verify and extend the work of Mr. Denig.

Bacqueville de la Potherie, C. C. le Roy de la. Histoire de l’Amérique Septentrionale. Tomes I-IV. Paris, 1722. (Same, Paris, 1753.)

Catlin, George. Illustrations of the manners, customs, and condition of the North American Indians. Vols. I-II. London, 1848.

[To be used only with caution.]

Chittenden, N. M., and Richardson, A. T. Life, letters, and travels of Father Pierre-Jean De Smet, S. J., 1801-1873. Vols. I-IV. New York, 1905.

Coues, Elliott, ed. New light on the early history of the greater Northwest. The manuscript journals of Alexander Henry and of David Thompson, 1799-1814. Vols. I-III. New York, 1897.