THE ESKIMO AND THE ATHABASKAN RACES.

351

The Eskimo.-The Eskimo are eminently a maritime family: maritime whether they occupy islands like the Aleutian Archipelago, peninsulas like that of Aliaska, or broken lines of coast like those that form the shore of the Arctic Sea. Even in Russian America, Greenland, and Labrador, large blocks of land as they are, it is only along the coast that the Eskimo is distributed.

The Eskimo is one of the populations of North America that stretch all across the continent, from west to east, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Common to two continents, the Eskimo area is also common to two oceans. The other population that does so is

The Athabaskan.-The Eskimo, in his stretch across the continent, reaches the open expanse of the Atlantic on the eastern coast of Labrador. The Athabaskan extends only to the great inlet of Hudson's Bay. He subtends the Eskimo, so to say. At Cook's Inlet, in 60° N. Lat., he appears on the Pacific; to the north of Port Nelson on the Atlantic-i. c. on Hudson's Bay. As a general rule, the southern limit of the Eskimo is the northern limit of the Athabaskan: the extension being, in both cases, from east to west (or vice versa); being horizontal.

The Athabaskans, however, extend from north to south, as well as from cast to west, and, what is more remarkable, they have given off offsets. Just as the Majiars of Hungary belong to the essentially northern stock of the Ugrians, from which, however, they are geographically separated by a wide interspace, so do certain tribes of Mexico and California-tribes on the very verge of the Tropics-belong to those very Athabaskans whose true area is the inland parts of Russian America, the northern range of the Rocky Mountains, the valley of the Mackenzie river, the parts about the Great Slave Lake, and the parts about Lake Athabaska-whence the name. of them lie within the Arctic Circle.

Some

The general distribution of the Athabaskans is more important than the details. The chief tribes, however, are the Chipewyans (or Northern Indians, so called); the Beaver Indians; the Daho-dinni; the Strong-bows; the Hare Indians; the Dog-ribs ; the Yellow-knives; the Takulli (or Carriers); the Tsikanni; the Sussí; the Loucheux; and the Kenay of Cook's Inlet, along with other minor tribes

To these we must add the outlying sections of a, Oregon, b, California, c, Mexico. a. In Oregon the Athabaskans consist of three small tribes, of which the first two, the Kwaliokwa and the Tlatskanai, consisting each of about one hundred individuals, lie at the mouth of the Columbia river-one north, the other south of it. The third tribe, that of the Umkwa, lying on the river so called, numbers about four hundred. This is in 43° N. Lat.

b. In California the Navahos and Jecorillas, wild tribes of the desert, are shown by their language to be Athabaskan, as are some other smaller Californian tribes.

c. In Mexico some of the Apatches are Athabaskan; so far south have Athabaskan offsets been found.

The extent to which the tribual organization prevails may be seen from the following list of names :

1. The Tautin, or Talkótin; 2. the Tsilkótin, or Chiltokin; 3. the Naskótin; 4. the Thetliótin; 5. the Tsatsnótin; 6. the Nuladutin; 7. the Ntshadutin; 8. the Natliúutin; 9. the Nikozlidutin; 10. the Tatshidutin; and 11. the Babine Indians.

These are the sub-divisions of a single Athabaskan division, the Takulli of New Caledonia, an example of which forms the Frontispiece of the present volume.

The Algonkins.-The great Algonkin class extends but little to the west of the

352

THE ALGONKIN AND IROQUOIS TRIBES.

Rocky Mountains; so that its east-and-west or horizontal direction is smaller than that of the Eskimo. Nevertheless it is the largest of all the North American groups.

It subtends both the Athabaskan and the Eskimo areas,-the former from the Rocky Mountains to Hudson's Bay, the latter in the southern and central parts of Labrador. Here the country of the Skoffi (or Nascopi) and Sheshatapush reaches 60° N. Lat. On the south, the parts about Cape Fear, and in South Carolina (34° N. Lat.), is Algonkin; the occupancy of the now extinct tribe of the Pamtico.

The vast area of the Algonkins surrounds and incloses that of

The Iroquois suggesting the idea of encroachment, conquest, and displacement. If the Iroquois family cover less ground than the Algonkin, its historical prominence is equal, or even greater. The famous confederacy of the Five Nations was Iroquois. The once formidable Mohawks were Iroquois. Before the arrival of the Europeans the Five Nations were dominant over their Algonkin neighbours; and after the arrival of

THE SIOUX AND THE CHEROKEE TRIBES.

355

the Europeans the Iroquois warriors were more feared than those of the Algonkins. At one time the head of the Algonkin confederacy was an Iroquois chieftain.

The Iroquois and

Algonkins exhibit, in the most typical form, the characteristics of the North American Indians, as found

in the earliest descriptions; and they are the two families upon which the current notions respecting the physiognomy, habits, and moral and intellectual powers of the so-called Red Race are chiefly founded. As a general rule, though not without important exceptions, the Algonkin and Iroquois classes lie to the east of the Mississippi, and their origi

DELAWARE AND BLACKFOOT ALGONKINS-MOHAWK IROQUOIS.

nal arca was the region of the forest rather than the prairie. The region of the prairie rather than the forest, is the occupancy of

The Sioux.--The valley of the Missouri is Sioux; the foot of the Rocky Mountains is Sioux; the Red River is (northern) Sioux; the Arkansas is (southern) Sioux; the greater part of the buffalo country is Sioux.

So much has to be done, in respect to the classification of the American tribes, that the value of the foregoing groups is anything but uniform. The Sioux and Iroquois, for instance, should probably be subordinated to some higher denomination; and this higher denomination should probably contain the following sections

The Woccons and Catawbas of Carolina;

The Cherokees, Choctas, and Creeks of Tenessee, South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, Alabama, and Georgia;

The Caddo of Texas.

Of these the Cherokee is one of the few so-called savage nations which is increasing, and not decreasing, in numbers. It is also the most industrial of all the American families; the Cherokee landholder having, in some cases, as nuch as five hundred acres under tillage, and possessing slaves as well. Lastly,