PREFACE, 



This bibliography is the second of a series of authors' catalogues, 

 each relating to one of the more prominent linguistic stocks of North 

 America, which it is jiroposed to issue under the direction of the Bureau 

 of Ethnology. Like its predecessor, upon the Eskimo language, pub- 

 lished early in the present year, and its successor, upon the Iroquois, 

 now in an advanced state of preparation, it has been comi)iled mainly 

 from the writer's Proof-Sheets of a Bibliography of the Languages of 

 the North American Indians, a quarto volume of nearly 1,200 pages, of 

 which a small number of copies were printed in 1885 and distributed to 

 collaborators. It was the intention to publish that volume in due 

 time, with such emendations, corrections, and insertions as might pre- 

 sent themselves after examination by those interested in the subject; 

 but of late it has for many reasons been deemed more desirable to pub- 

 lish the material in separate parts, each relating, as stated above, to 

 one of the more prominent linguistic stocks of North America. 



As stated in the Proof-Sheets and in the Eskimo Bibliography, the 

 material for these catalogues has been gathered during personal visits 

 to the more prominent public and private libraries of this country, 

 Canada, England, and France and by correspondence with mission- 

 aries, Indian agents, publishers and printers of Indian books, and 

 owners of Americana. No opportunity has been lost to title and 

 describe books at first hand, and in the present instance it has been 

 found necessary to mark with an asterisk but a "sery small percentage of 

 titles, whether of manuscripts, of articles in serial journals, or of books. 

 Indeed, the author can scarcely hope to be so fortunate in dealing with 

 any other of the linguistic groups as he has been with the Siouan. 

 Many of those who have fashioned the literature of the language are 

 still living; with a number of them he has been in duUy contact for a 

 number of years, and with nearly all of those still living he has been in 

 correspondence during the i)ast eight years. Through their aid it has 

 been i)ossible to make a fairly complete list of the linguistic material 

 I'elating to this family of languages. 



In recording this matter the dictionary plan has been followed to its 

 extreme limit, the subject and tribal indexes, references to libraries, &c. 

 being included in one alphabetic series. This system has been found 

 to work so well in the Bibliography of the Eskimo Language that the 

 writer is more than ever confiraied in Ids views of its excellence. 



