224 SYSTEMS OF CONSANGUINITY AND AFFINITY 



Seventh. My mother's sister's son and daughter are my step-brother and step- 

 sister, or my brother and sister, elder or younger. 



Ninth. My grandfather's brother is my grandfather. 



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

 and sisters, and of my step-brothers and sisters are my grandchildren. 



With respect to the children of a brother and sister they are cousins, as the 

 translation of the term is given by Mr. Rand. But some doubt rests upon the fact 

 from the omissions above referred to. 



The Etchemin closes the series of schedules of the Atlantic Algonkin nations. 

 With the exception of the Powhattans, now extinct, they show the forms of the 

 principal, as well as most important, of these nations. It is a reasonable inference 

 that the system of the unrepresented nations must have been in substantial agree- 

 ment with them. The terms of relationship for the most part, are the same words 

 dialectically changed, which are found in the systems of the other Algonkin na- 

 tions, which, together with the identity of their radical characteristics, tends to 

 show that all of these nations received the system, with the terms from the com- 

 mon source of the Algonkin speech. 



IV. Rocky Mountain Nations. 



1. Blackfeet. 2. Ahahnelins. (3. Arapahoes, not in the Table.) 



These nations are not inhabitants, of the Rocky Mountain chain ; but rather of 

 their eastern slopes and of the prairies immediately eastward. These mountains 

 form their western boundary, and define the western limits of the spread of the 

 Algonkins. It is not therefore an inappropriate name. 



1. Blackfeet. Their range is along the base of the mountains, and between 

 the Missouri and the south branch of the Siskatchewun. They are more nume- 

 rous at the present time than any Algonkin nation, except the Crees, numbering, 

 in 1849, about thirteen thousand. When Lewis and Clarke passed through this 

 region, in 1805, they were established upon the Marias River, north of the Mis- 

 souri ; but it does not appear that they met with them. Their previous home 

 country is supposed to have been upon the south branch of the Siskatchewan, 

 beyond which location they have not been traced. The Blackfeet are a well 

 formed, hardy, and courageous people. For many years they waged a continuous 

 warfare against the TJpsarokas or Crows, whom they gradually forced southward 

 and finally expelled from the present Blackfoot area. Whether they have always 

 lived in the vicinity of the Rocky Mountains, or were forced westward in the gene- 

 ral retrogression of the Indian nations, which commenced at the epoch of European 

 colonization, there are at present no means of ascertaining. Like the other prairie 

 Indians, they are indebted to the horse for their present means of support and 

 for their increase in numbers. They depend for subsistence upon animal food 

 exclusively, and upon the horse for the means of pursuing the buffalo. They raise 

 this animal in herds ; and are in fact a nation of horsemen of mounted men. As 

 horsemen, they are equal if not superior to all other American Indians. 1 They 



1 All Indians are immoderate riders. They run their horses, generally when alone, or in small 

 parties. I remember the first time I met a small party of Blackfeet near the foot of the mountains, 



