No. 4.] CAMPBELL — AMERICAN INDIAN TRIBES. 201 



the first of the three in geographical order, aud therefore prob- 

 ably the last in chronological, is the Dacotah. Some of its tribes 

 contain the finest specimens of native humanity on the continent, 

 and some have exhibited a de2;ree of culture much in advance of 

 other northern aborigines. They are essentially landsmen like 

 the Iroquois and Choctaws, and, like them, never dreamed of 

 an insular heaven. The past few years have shewn that even 

 now they retain their old indomitable spirit, for they are to the 

 United States what the Koriaks are to Russia. They have their 

 traditions of a deluge, like the Iroquois, Choctaws, Cherokees 

 and Caddos, traditions that do not appear in the Algonquin and 

 Malay- Polynesian areas, but which flourish in Kamtchatka and 

 other Peninsular regions. They are in fact unadulterated Tura- 

 nians. Nor can they have long been occupants of American soil, 

 for their language bears traces too clearly defined of a Peninsular 

 origin to have stood the wear and tear of many centuries. Lieut. 

 Clifford, R.N., in his short preface to the Loo Choo vocabulary 

 in Basil Hall's voyages, calls attention to the fact that the infini- 

 tive or simple form of the verb in that language ends in ng pre- 

 ceded by a vowel, as in coyoong bite, ooyoong break, nintoong 

 die. simmatong dwell, katclieeming shake, irreecliang bake, &c. 

 This is precssely what we find in the Dacotah proper or Sioux, 

 as in opetong buy, dowang sing, manong steal, nahong hear, 

 echoing make, asniyang heal, &c. But in Kamtchatdale the 

 simple form of the verb ends in tsh, a totally difierent form. 

 Thus kwatshquikotsh is to see, koogatsch to cry, kassoogatsh to 

 langh, ktsheemgut^Ji to sing, kanhilkltsch to lie down, kowisitch 

 to go, koquasitch to come, &c. But here again, in spite of the 

 apparent diversity of the form from that of the Dacotah, evidence 

 of relationship is manifest, for the Assiniboin, a Dacotah dialect, 

 exhibits the Kamtchatdale form. Examples nre wunnaeatch go, 

 eistimmatch sleep, aatch speak, wauktaitch kill, waumnahgatcJi 

 see, aingatch sit, rtiahnnitch walk, &c. This double identity in 

 the form of a part of speech establishes a closer connection than 

 that which is afforded by a common syntax, and links the Daco- 

 tahs unmistakeably with the stock to which the people of Loo 

 Choo and the Kamtchatdales belong. Nor is the vocabulary 

 wanting in confirmation of such a connection, as may be seen 

 from the following brief comparison : 



