180 ASIATIC TRIBES OF NORTH AMERICA. 
west of Siberia to the north of the peninsula of Kamtschatka, to 
the centre of which certain tribes extend, Their languages are allied 
with the Kamtchatdale, Corean, Aino, Japanese, and Loochoo, and 
partake more or less of a Mongolian character, being, however, well 
differentiated from any Ural-Altaic division such as the Ugrian, 
Tartar, Mongol or Tungus. It is with these Koriaks that I find good 
evidence for associating the Cherokee-Choctaw confederacy. 
In the first place identity of name, although in itself apt to be 
fallacious, may, as in the case of the Tungus-Tinneh connection, lead 
to truth. The Koriaks exist in two great divisions, a northern, 
known as. the Tchuktchi, and a southern, the Koriaks proper or 
Koraeki. The former call themselves Tshekto, men or people, and 
they are the original Choctaws; the latter, who bear the name 
Koraeki, are the parent stock of the Cherokees. This looks so 
exceedingly plain that the question may be asked why was it not 
‘discovered before. The answer seems to be, that investigators have 
been so long theorizing and refining that they managed to overlook 
plain facts lying upon the surface. Koriaks in Alaska have been 
looked for, but Tchuktchis in Tennesee and Mississippi would have 
been regarded as very much out of place. The Koriaks are of good 
stature, with features more pleasing and prominent than the Mongol. 
Dr. Latham mentions ‘their general resemblance in respect to 
physical conformation to the American Indians.” They are warlike 
and independent, and have encroached upon the Yukagirs and ° 
Kamtchatdales, as the Choctaws and Cherokees did upon the southern 
tribes of the United States. Abernethy states that among the 
Koriaks the mothers give, as they imagine, a decorous form to their 
children when infants by applying three boards, one on the top to 
give them a flat head, and one on each side to give them a sharp 
forehead.” This is the Choctaw process of which Catlin speaks. 
Sauer’ relates that the Tchuktchis had a game resembling “ prisoner’s 
bars,” and at the same time mentions the facility with which they 
threw stones from a kind of sling. The game popularly known as 
Lacrosse, common to the Choctaws and Iroquois, must, I think, be 
referred to, and I regret that I have no work treating fully of Koriak 
manners and customs by which this may be confirmed.* The 
Tchuktchis and the Choctaws are alike fond of such athletic sports as 
* A game identical with our American Lacrosse is played in Japan. See Wood’s 
Uncivilized Races. 
