PROCEEDINGS OF TflE REGENTS. 107 



UECOMMENDATION OF SHEa's INDIAN LINGUISTICS, REFERRED TO IN THE 

 secretary's REPORT. 



We recomraend Mr. Shea's series of grammars and dictionaries of 

 the Indian languages to the attention of the Smithsonian Institution, 

 and think that a subscription which will insure the continuance of the 

 series will be eminently within the scope of the foundation, by pre- 

 serving a number of rapidly perishing monuments of human knowl- 

 edge, and securing to posterity, in the languages of the native tribes, 

 the surest clue to their origin and affinities. 



E. B. 0' Callaghan. George Livermore. 



Jno. y. L. Pruyn. George H. Moore. 



S. B. Woolworth. George W. Riggs, Jr. 



Jared Sparks. Peter Force. 



George Gibbs. 



MR. shea's ACCOUNT OF HIS LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LINGUISTICS. 



With the increasing interest felt in the science of ethnology, much 

 attention has of late been given to the study of the languages of the 

 aboriginal tribes of America, and it must be confessed that more 

 philosophical research, talent, and investigation have been bestowed 

 upon them in Germany than in our own country. Yet the science is 

 still in its infancy. Relying on crude or hastily taken vocabularies, 

 which often confound different languages, many have set on foot 

 theories, and entered into criticisms, Avhich fall to the ground on the 

 examination of a carefully prepared grammar or dictionary of the 

 language. Fortunately, of very many American languages such 

 w'orks exist, often the labor of early missionaries, whom a long resi- 

 dence Avith a tribe, a knowledge of their habits, manners, and usages, 

 enabled to write with accuracy and judgment. 



Very few of these works were printed. Most have remained in 

 manuscript, and are liable to perish by accident. Every investigator 

 knows that many which survived till a few years since are now irre- 

 coverably lost. 



The language of a tribe is its most important relic. The mechani- 

 cal arts were rude, and the remains so scanty, that mound and bone 

 pit, and deserted village, have given us scarce a clue to the history 

 of the peoples to whom they belonged. But language is the great 

 key to the affinities of the tribes, and often enables us to trace their 

 migrations, and in all cases to determine their kindred. 



We owe it to posterity to allow the ^vork of destruction to go no 

 further, and to put in a permanent form every work now in manu- 

 script, giving the grammatical structure or a full vocabulary of an 

 Indian dialect. Our national honor is interested, and the learned 

 abroad even now begin to wonder at our indifference. 



Impelled by a desire to save these works, I began a series of them, 

 printing a few copies of each, from the original manuscripts, my ob- 

 ject being to preserve them ; and six grammars or dictionaries of dit- 



