ox THE LIXGFAGE OF THE DVKOTA OR SIOUX IXDIANS. 



By F. L. O. Kceiihig. 



In the year 1866 tlie writer of this article spent tlie interval from tlio 

 4tli of Jnly to the 2Gth of November in constant intercourse with the 

 Dakota or Sioux Indians, near Fort Wadsworth, Northern Dakota 

 Territory. 



Previously to his going to that out-of-the-way region he had hapi)ened 

 to make himself in some measure acquainted with the languages of 

 several of the Indian tribes, particularly with the Chippewa tongue ; and 

 he then at once directed his attention to the language of those Indians iu 

 whose immediate neighborhood he Avas going to reside for a while, 

 namelv, the Sioux Nation, or Daliotas, 



It would take a whole volume to record his varied experience with 

 those interesting tribes and the result of his ethnological and linguistic 

 researches during the time he lived among them. On this occasion, 

 however, he will content himself with presenting to the reader only 

 a very few faint and cursory glimpses of merely such matters as may 

 arise in his recollection, and as pertain to the language of these i)eople. 

 It is hoped that his elucidation of desultory topics of this nature will 

 not prove altogether uninteresting to the ethnologist or j^hilological 

 inquirer. 



Whenever any new truth is presented for our comprehension, or any 

 new subject for our study and investigation, almost invariably the first 

 thing for the human mind to do, and that, too, from an inherent craving 

 for logical classification, is to inquire as to what other known truth 

 the less known can possibly be linked; to what chain or scries of 

 analogous phenomena it necessarily belongs ; in what accredited system 

 it has to take its place ; with what whole or totality it is connected as a 

 part; and we seem never to be fairly at ease before we have arrived at 

 the point of grouping or classifying the matter in some way or other. 

 This applies also and particularly to languages. As soon as a new lan- 

 guage begins to attract our attention, we feel at once an eager desire to 

 classifj' it, so nmch so tliat we often cajmot patiently wait even during 

 the time necessary to collect the indispensable material from which 

 alone we could possibly draw anj- legitimate conclusions in this respect. 

 We at once ask what other tongue such language is like; with what 

 other it maybe compared; where among the languages of the world 

 it has to take its place, &c., and hence the often over-hasty classifica- 

 tions based upon mere casual and apparent resemblances. It is first of 

 all necessary, in such cases, to be able tairly to survey a language in aU 



