Our best knowledge of the southwestern Indians, the Apaches, Navajos, Utes, Comanches, and the rest, comes from such government observers as Emory in his Military Reconnaissance; Marcy’s Exploration of the Red River in 1852; J. H. Simpson in his Expedition into the Navajo Country (1856); and E. H. Ruffner’s Reconnoissance in the Ute Country (1874). The fullest references are given in Bancroft’s Native Races,[1471] with a map.
We may still find in Bancroft’s Native Races (i. ch. 2, 3) the best summarized statement with references on the tribes of the upper Pacific coast, and follow the development of our knowledge in the narratives of the early explorers of that coast by water, in the account of Lewis and Clark and other overland travels, and in such tales of adventures as the Journal kept at Nootka Sound by John R. Jewitt, which has had various forms.[1472]
The earliest of the better studied accounts of these northwestern tribes was that of Horatio Hale in the volume (vi.) on ethnography, of the Wilkes’ United States Exploring Expedition (Philad., 1846), and the same philologist’s paper in the Amer. Ethnological Society’s Transactions (vol. ii.). Recent scientific results are found in The North-West Coast of America, being Results of Recent Ethnological Researches, from the Collections of the Royal Museums at Berlin, published by the Directors of the Ethnological Department, by Herr E. Krause, and partly by Dr. Grunwedel, translated from the German, the Historical and Descriptive Text by Dr. Reiss (New York, 1886), and in the first volume of the Contributions to North Amer. Ethnology (Powell’s Survey), in papers by George Gibbs on the tribes of Washington and Oregon, and by W. H. Dall on those of Alaska.[1473]
For the tribes of California, Bancroft’s first volume is still the useful general account; but the Federal government have published several contributions of scientific importance: that of Stephen Powers in the Contributions to No. Amer. Ethnology (vol. iii., 1877);[1474] the ethnological volume (vii.) of Wheeler’s Survey, edited by Putnam; and papers in the Smithsonian Reports, 1863-64, and in Miss Fletcher’s Report, 1888.[1475]
This survey would not be complete without some indication of the topical variety in the consideration of the native peoples, but we have space only to mention the kinds of special treatment, shown in accounts of their government and society, their intellectual character, and of some of their customs and amusements.[1476] Their industries, their linguistics, and their myths have been considered with wider relations in the appendixes of the present volume.
CHAPTER VI.
THE PREHISTORIC ARCHÆOLOGY OF NORTH AMERICA.