The Director has before reported in general terms that the most serious source of perplexity to the student of the history of the North American Indians is the confusion existing among their tribal names. The causes of this confusion are various. The Indian names for themselves have been understood and recorded in diverse ways by the earlier authors, and have been variously transmitted by the latter. Nicknames arising from trivial causes, and often without apparent cause, have been imposed upon many tribes. Names borne by one tribe at some period of its history have been transferred to another, or to several other distinct tribes. Typographical errors, and improved spelling on assumed phonetic grounds, have swelled the number of synonyms until the investigator of a special tribe often finds himself in a maze of nomenclatural perplexity.
It has long been the intention of the Director to prepare a work on tribal names, which so far as possible should refer their confusing titles to a correct and systematic standard. Delay has been occasioned chiefly by the fundamental necessity of defining linguistic stocks or families into which all tribes must be primarily divided; and to accomplish this, long journeys and laborious field and office investigations have been required during the whole time since the establishment of the Bureau. Though a few points still remained in an unsatisfactory condition, it was considered that a sufficient degree of accuracy had been attained to allow of the publication for the benefit of students of a volume devoted to the subject. The preparation of the plan of such a volume was intrusted to Mr. H. W. Henshaw, late in the spring of 1885, and in June of that year the work was energetically begun in accordance with the plans submitted. The preparation of this work, which to a great extent underlies and is the foundation for every field of ethnologic investigation among Indians, was considered of such prime importance that nearly all the available force of the Bureau was placed upon it, to the suspension of the particular investigations in which the several officers had been engaged.
In addition to the general charge of the whole work, Mr. Henshaw gave special attention to the families of the northwest coast from Oregon northward, including the Eskimo, and also several in California. To Mr. Albert S. Gatschet the tribes of the southeastern United States, together with the Pueblo and Yuman tribes, were assigned. The Algonkian family in all its branches—by far the most important part of the whole, so far as the great bulk of literature relating to it is concerned—was intrusted to Col. Garrick Mallery and Mr. James Mooney. They also took charge of the Iroquoian family. Rev. J. O. Dorsey’s intimate acquaintance with the tribes of the Siouan and Caddoan families peculiarly fitted him to cope with that part of the work, and he also undertook the Athapascan tribes. Dr. W. J. Hoffman worked upon the Shoshonean tribes, aided by the Director’s personal supervision. Mr. Jeremiah Curtin, to whom was assigned the California tribes, also gave assistance in other sections.
Each of the gentlemen named has been able to contribute largely to the results by his personal experience and investigations in the field, there being numerous regions concerning which published accounts are meager and unsatisfactory. The main source of the material to be dealt with has, however, been necessarily derived from books. A vast amount of the current literature pertaining to the North American Indians has been examined, amounting to over one thousand volumes, with a view to the extraction of the tribal names and the historical data necessary to fix their precise application.
The work at the present time is well advanced toward completion. The examination of literature for the collation of synonyms may be regarded as practically done. The tables of synonymy and the accounts of the tribes have been completed for more than one-half the number of linguistic families.
[ ACCOMPANYING PAPERS.]
[ LINGUISTIC FAMILIES OF NORTH AMERICA.]
In harmony with custom, three scientific papers accompany this report, designed to illustrate the nature, methods and spirit of the researches conducted by the Bureau. The first is on the “Classification of the North American Languages.” It is by no means a final paper on the subject, but is intended rather to give an account of the present status of the subject, and to place before the workers in this field of scholarship the data now existing and the conclusions already reached, so as to constitute a point of departure for new work. With this end in view Mr. Pilling is engaged upon the bibliography of the subject and is rapidly publishing the same, and Mr. Henshaw is employed on the tribal synonymy. Altogether it is hoped that this work will inaugurate a new era in the investigation of the subject by making available the vast body of material scattered broadcast through the literature relating to the North American Indians.
In the course of these ethnic researches an interesting field of facts has been brought to view relating to the superstitions of the Indians. Already a very large body of mythology has been collected—stories from a great number of tongues which embody the rude philosophy of tribal thought. Such philosophy or opinion finds its expression not only in the mythic tales, but in the organization of the people into society, in their daily life and in their habits and customs. There is a realm of anthropology in this lower state of mankind which we call savagery, that is hard to understand from the standpoint of modern civilization, where science, theology, religion, medicine and the esthetic arts are developed as more or less discrete subjects. In savagery these great subjects are blended in one, as they are interwoven into a vast plexus of thought and action, for mythology is the basis of philosophy, religion, medicine, and art. In savagery the observed facts of the universe, relating alike to physical nature and to the humanities, are explained mythologically, and these mythic conceptions give rise to a great variety of practices. The acts of life are born of the opinions held as explanations of the environing world. Thus it is that philosophy finds expression in a complex system of superstitions, ceremonies and practices, which together constitute the religion of the people. The purpose of these practices is to avert calamity and to secure prosperity in the present life. It is astonishing to find how little the condition of a life to come is involved. The future beyond the grave is scarcely heeded, or when recognized it seems not to affect the daily life of the people to any appreciable degree. That which occupies the attention of the savage mind relates to the pleasures and pains, the joys and sorrows of present existence.
Perhaps the chief motive is derived from the consideration of health and disease, as the pleasures and pains arising therefrom are forever present to the experience or observation. Good and evil are also involved in those gifts of nature to man by which his biotic life is sustained, his food, drink, clothing and shelter. These bounties come not in a never-changing stream, but are apparently fitful and capricious. Seasons of plenty are accented by seasons of scarcity, and thus prosperity and adversity are strangely commingled in the history of the people. To secure this prosperity and avert this adversity seems to be the second great motive in the development of the superstitious practices of the people. A third occasion for the development of this primitive religion inheres in the social organization of mankind, primarily expressed in the love of man and woman for each other, but finally expressed in all the relations of kin and kith and in the relations of tribe with tribe. This gives rise to a very important development of primitive religion, for the savage man seeks to discover by occult agencies the power of controlling the love and good will of his kind and the power of averting the effect of enmity. To attain these ends he invents a vast system of devices, from love philters to war dances. A fourth region of exploitation in the realm of the esoteric relates to the origin of life itself, as many of their practices are designed to secure perpetuity of life by frequent births and less painful throes.