1914] Northwestern D6n6s and Northeastern Asiatics 131 



NORTHWESTERN DENES AND NORTHEASTERN ASIATICS. 



A STUDY ON THE ORIGIN OF THE FORMER. 



By Rev. A. G. Morice, O.M.I., M.A. 



{Read 26th October, 1914.) 



It is safe to remark that few questions have so exercised the minds 

 of investigators, given rise to such fantastic systems and resulted in 

 such a bewildering crop of conclusions as that of the origin of the Ameri- 

 can Indians. The harvest of theories it has occasioned is nothing short 

 of marvellous, and, in many cases, the tenacity of their promoters has 

 been well nigh unparalleled. In fact, so acrimonious have been the 

 discussions it has led to that it has been almost tabooed, as it were, in 

 scientific circles such as, for instance, the International Congress of 

 Americanists. 



Hence, though not writing for that learned body, I may as well 

 defend myself at the outset from the intention of adding my own stone 

 to the Babel it has already built up. I shall almost confine myself, in 

 the following pages, to the examination of well-established facts and 

 diligently compare data the genuineness of which is above suspicion. 

 If some conclusions naturally flow from my investigations, they will, 

 I believe, prove all the more irresistible as they will not have been 

 sought. 



The fact that, in the face of reiterated invitations, I have waited 

 till the present day to broach this subject and have not dared treat it 

 before I had spent fully thirty-two years in close study will, I hope, go 

 some way towards shielding me against the accusation of temerity, 

 and perhaps convince the reader that, in the present essay, I have no 

 pet theory to uphold and am impelled by the promptings of no hobby. 



Moreover, my disquisitions will not bear on the whole American 

 race — if there is such a thing in the world — but shall have for almost 

 exclusive object those Indians in the midst of whom I have lived so 

 long and whose languages, archaeology and technology, manners and 

 customs I have studied with a delight which must be felt to be under- 

 stood, I mean the Den^s of northwestern America. 

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