252 SYSTEMS OF CONSANGUINITY AND AFFINITY 



into two branches ; one of them, the Comanche, turned to the southeast, and occu- 

 pied the western parts of the present State of Texas ; whilst the other keeping the 

 west side of the Colorado, descended towards the Gulf of California, and appropri- 

 ated the regions near the Village Indians of the Lower Colorado. These are the 

 Pah-Utes. Still other bands moved westward and southward and occupied Lower 

 California. These are the Cahiullos, between the San Gabriel and Sante Anna 

 Rivers ; and the Mission Indians, namely, the Kizhes of San Gabriel, the Netelas 

 of San Juan Capestrano, and the Kechis of San Louis Rey. Upon the basis of 

 linguistic affinities the conclusion is inevitable that both the Comanches and Netelas 

 are the descendants of original migrants from the valley of the Columbia. 1 



The Shoshonee nations are among the wildest of the American aborigines. 

 With the exception of the Comanches, and a portion of the Shoshonees proper, 

 they hold the poorest sections of the United States, their manners partaking of 

 the roughness of the country they inhabit. Until quite recently they .have been 

 inaccessible to government influence. It is still nominal and precarious. The 

 Comanches, who occupy the southern skirt of the great buffalo ranges, and are 

 spread from the Canadian River, a branch of the Arkansas, to the Rio Grande, have 

 become a populous Indian nation within the last century and a half. They are 

 expert horsemen. Next to them are the Shoshonees. 



It was found impossible, after repeated efforts, to procure the system of relation- 

 ship of the Shoshonees or the Comanches, although much more accessible than the 

 other nations. The time is not far distant when all the dialects on the Pacific side, 

 as well as in the interior of the continent, will become as fully opened to us as 

 those upon the eastern side ; and when information now so difficult of attainment 

 can be gained with ease and certainty. 



An incomplete schedule of the system of the Tabegwaches, one of the Utah 

 nations of the Colorado, was obtained unexpectedly, through my friend the late 

 Robert Kennicott, from a delegation who visited the seat of government in 1863. 

 It will be found in the Table. He was unable to fill out the schedule, except in 

 its most simple parts, from the difficulty of working through interpreters imper- 

 fectly skilled in the Utah language ; and, therefore, it cannot be taken as indi- 

 cating to any considerable extent, the contents of the system. From the fact that a 

 portion of the terms of relationship were not obtained, those which are, except the 

 primary, cannot be interpreted. It is valuable as a specimen of the language ; and 

 more especially because it indicates the possession of a full nomenclature, and the 

 presence of the minute discriminations which are characteristic of the common 

 system. There are two special features revealed which should be noticed. First 

 the relationship between aunt and nephew is reciprocal and expressed by a single 

 term. The same use of reciprocal terms has been seen to exist both among the 

 Salish and Sahaptin nations, with the language of the former, of which the Tabe- 



1 In 1847 the Shoshonees and Bonnacks were estimated together at 4000. Schoolcraft's Hist. 

 Cond. and Pros. VI. 697 ; and the Utahs in part, at 3600. Ib. In 1855 the Comanches were 

 estimated at 15,000. Ib. VI. 705. The numbers of the remaining Shosbonee nations on the Pacific 

 re not known. They are not numerous. 



