LANGUAGE STUDIES AMONG THE FOX AND 

 NORTHERN ARAPAHO INDIANS 



By TRUMAN MICHELSON, 

 Ethnologist. Bureau of American Ethnology 



In continuance of many seasons of field researches on the language 

 and ethnology of the Fox Indians, I left Washington towards the close 

 of May, 1927, for Tama, Iowa, where a Fox settlement is located. 

 The Foxes at Tama have preserved their language in pure form, af- 

 fording unusual opportunity not only for a study of the language 

 itself, but for a clearer understanding of their myths and ceremonies. 



A few days were spent at Chicago en route in measuring the Siksika 

 skulls in the Field Museum, and in studying the distribution of designs 

 on Indian medicine bags. From the measurements, it developed that 

 the Siksika crania have fully as low a vault as the Sioux proper — in 

 sharp contrast with other Algonquian tribes. In the study of the fiber 

 bags it appeared that the combination of the Thunder bird and Panther 

 on woven bags has a wider distribution than heretofore thought, but 

 the belief that the Thunder bird always is associated with the Pan- 

 ther — although not necessarily the reverse — apparently holds true. 



At Tama, it was evident that the Foxes had changed but little in 

 the past year. When I first began my studies in 191 1, only a small 

 fraction of the tribe lived in shacks or frame houses, the rest dwelling 

 in bark-houses in the summer and wigwams of rush in the winter ; 

 but now, although bark-houses with planks substituted for bark on 

 the sides and roofing may still be seen, wigwams are rapidly disap- 

 pearing. Most of the season's work was devoted to restoring phoneti- 

 cally accounts of various Fox ceremonies written by Foxes in the cur- 

 rent syllabic script, and in acquiring new ethnological data in this 

 script. It may be explained that this script is in syllal)les and evidently 

 is based upon our ordinary script. When and how this system of 

 writing arose is not known, but all Foxes use it with great fluency, 

 and frequently write to the Sauks of Oklahoma in it, for although 

 the languages of the Foxes and Sauks are not the same, they are so 

 similar as to be mutually intelligible. 



The texts restored phonetically related to the gens festivals con- 

 nected with the sacred packs, a number of which are owned by each 



179 



