208 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



were the ancestors of some of the Indian tribes of history. What those 

 tribes were is gradually being unraveled. 



7. The greatest number of the aboriginal language stocks were 

 located along the Pacific coast, say in California, and along the Atlantic 

 and Gulf coasts in the southeast; the interior of the continent being 

 occupied thinly by only three or four stock tongues, these being 

 Athapascan, Shoshonean, Algonquian and Siouan. The Kiowa, who 



Powell's Map 



From the Seventh AmML Report 



Bureau or Ethnology 

 1885-86 



also were in this central area, are thought by some to be an independent 

 stock, but by others related to the Comanches, and hence may, for our 

 present purpose, be classed with the Comanches in the Shoshonean 

 family. The Pawnee, or Caddoan, family was feebly represented in 

 the interior of the continent aside from their main habitat at the gulf 

 coast and in Texas ; but the Iroquois shared with the other wide-spread 

 families in the possession of the interior. These, however, appear to 

 have linguistic alliances with the Cherokees and more distantly with the 



