to place ; and lastly the Shoshonoes or Snake Indians, west of the 

 Rocky Mountains, who are of the same family as the Comanches 

 of Texas. In further addition to these, there are the Creeks, 

 Chickaswas, and Seminoles, who may be presumed to have the sys- 

 tem, as they are Appalachians. That it prevails among the 

 Creeks I have satisfactory evidence from other sources. 



The system is thus traced into thirty-six different Indian nations, 

 comprising the principal historical races, who have, at times, occu- 

 pied the whole area from the Kocky Mountains to the Atlantic, 

 and from a point far up in the British Possessions, on the North, 

 to the Gulf of Mexico and New Mexico, on the South. 



The schedules, when compared, exhibit variations from uni- 

 formity, and occasional discrepancies, but the radical features of 

 the system are constant in them all. 



The most important of these are the following : 



I. — All the brothers and sisters of a man's grand-father, and of his 

 grand-mother, and all his ancestors above grand-father and grand- 

 mother, together with all their brothers and sisters, are equally his 

 grand-fathers and grand-mothers. Some of the nations discrimi- 

 nate among them as second and third grand-fathers, &c., but practi- 

 cally, they are all grand-fathers and grand-mothers. There are 

 no great uncles, or great aunts, as with us. 



II. — All the brothers of a father are equally fathers to his chil- 

 dren, and he is a father to the children of all his brothers. In 

 like manner, all the sisters of a mother are equally mothers to her 

 children, and she is a mother to the children of all her sisters. These 

 are not uncles and aunts, nephews and nieces, as with us. 



III. — On the contrary, all the brothers of a mother are uncles 

 to her children, and all the sisters of a father are aunts to his 

 children, as with us ; so that of the father's brothers and sisters, 

 and of the mother's brothers and sisters, the mother's brothers and 

 the father's sisters are the true and the only uncles and aunts 

 recognized under this system. 



IV. — There is one term for elder brother, another for younger 

 brother; one term for elder sister, and another for younger sister; 

 and no term either for brother or sister, except in the plural num- 

 ber. These separate terms are not applied to the oldest or the 



