OF THE HUMAN FAMILY. 215 



Third. My father's brother is my father, Na-o'-a. 



Fourth. My father's brother's son and daughter are my brother and sister, elder 

 or younger, Nd-ne'-a or Na-sim-a', and No-ma' or Na-sim-a'. 



Fifth. My father's sister is my aunt, Na-un'. 



Sixth. My mother's brother is my uncle, No-she'. 



Seventh. My mother's sister is my mother, No-led . 



Eighth. My mother's sister's son and daughter are my brother and sister, elder 

 or younger. 



Ninth. My grandfather's brother is my grandfather, Nam-a-shim! '. 



Tenth. The grandchildren of my brothers and sisters, and of my collateral 

 brothers and sisters, are my grandchildren. 



With respect to the relationships between the children of a brother and sister it 

 was impossible to ascertain with certainty, and these questions are unanswered in 

 the Table. It seemed most probable that they were uncle and nephew if males, 

 and mother and daughter if females. 1 



The Shiyan dialect has some peculiarities which may have resulted from its 

 long isolation from the purer forms of the Algonkin speech. It is seen in the 

 feebleness of the accent, which renders the language monotonous, and in the short- 

 ening of the words apparently by the loss of syllables. The traders who are familiar 

 with other Algonkin dialects regard this as the most difficult of them all ; and 

 those who are familiar with the Dakota alone, still pronounce it, as the Dakotas 

 did, an " unintelligible tongue." Their Algonkin lineage, and their possession of 

 the common systems of relationship of the family, are bath established. 



5. Shawnees. The Cumberland Eiver in Kentucky was called the Shawnee 

 River until 1 748, when the present name was substituted. 2 In the triangular area 

 between the Ohio and the Mississippi, watered by the lower Tennessee and the 

 Cumberland, were the ancient seats of the Shawnees. 3 Beyond this region they 

 have never been traced to any anterior home. They still call themselves Sa-wan- 

 wa-ke', which signifies " southerners" in Otawa, 0-shaw-wa-noke' ', a name adopted 

 by them, probably in a boastful sense, as the southernmost band geographically of 

 Algonkin descent. 4 They appear to have abandoned the Mississippi prior to 1650 ; 



1 I obtained the system of the Shiyans in 1860 from Joseph Tesson, a French trader at Rulo in 

 Nebraska. He was a quarter-blood Menorainee. At the age of eighteen, as he informed me, he left the 

 Missouri River, and went out as an adventurer upon the plains. Having joined himself to the Shi- 

 yans, he learned their language, married a woman of that nation, and took an active part in all 

 their military enterprises. In due time he was made a chief. For twenty years he had been identi- 

 fied with this nation, and during that time had not visited the Missouri region. Shortly before I 

 met him he had found his way with his children to Rulo to resume civilized life. He was able to 

 give me their system of relationship in every particular, except the part in question, upon which he 

 was in doubt whether the relationships were those of uncle and nephew or cousin and cousin. Since 

 he could not recall a term for cousin in the Shiyan language, with which he was perfectly familiar, 

 it seemed reasonably certain that this relationship did not exist, and that the classification agreed 

 with the Miami. Tesson spoke French, English, and Spanish ; and had acquired five Indian lan- 

 guages besides the Shiyan. 



Col. Hist. N. Y., VIII, 113, note. Harvey's History of the Shawnees, p. 64. 



4 Ib. p. 64. 



