OP THE HUMAN FAMILY. 199 



variant from that of the remaining nations, furnishes sufficient grounds to justify the 

 classification. These dialects, however, stand upon the outer edge of the Dakotan 

 speech, without any connection in their vocables, and depending for this connection 

 linguistically upon the grammatical structure of the language. The Pawnee and 

 its cognate dialects still hold the position of an independent stock language. 



The marriage relationships have been passed over. They will be found in the 

 Table fully extended, and to be in general agreement with the Seneca marriage 

 relationships. They are sufficient in themselves to demonstrate the unity of the 

 system ; but this conclusion is believed to be sufficiently substantiated without the 

 additional strength which their concurrence affords. The people of all of these 

 nations address each other, when related, by the term of relationship. 



We have now considered the system of relationship of thirty-five Indian nations, 

 contained, with more or less completeness of detail, in the Table. These carry 

 with them, by necessary implication, the system of a number of other immediately 

 affiliated nations, named herein in their proper connections. They represent five 

 stock languages, namely : the Hodenosaunian, the Dakota, the Creek, the Cherokee, 

 and the Pawnee. The nations named also include all the principal branches of the 

 Ganowanian family east of the Rocky Mountain chain, which were found south of 

 the Siskatchewun and Hudson's Bay, and north of the Gulf of Mexico and the 

 Rio Grande, with the exception of the Algonkin, the Shoshonee, and a few incon- 

 siderable nations whose linguistic affiliations are not well established. The con- 

 stancy and uniformity with which the fundamental characteristics of the system 

 have maintained themselves appear to furnish abundant evidence of the unity of 

 origin of these nations, and to afford a sufficient basis for their classification 

 together as a family of nations. The testimony from identity of systems in these 

 several stocks, when judged by any proper standard, must be held to be conclusive 

 upon this question. It is of some importance to have reached the assurance that 

 upon this system of relationship we may commence the construction of an Indian 

 family, and that it contains within itself all the elements necessary to determine 

 the question whether any other nation is entitled to admission into the family. 



The Algonkin and Athapasco-Apache branches, together with the nations upon 

 the Pacific slopes, will next claim our attention. 



