PREFATORY NOTE 
About the year 1895 Maj. J. W. Powell, Director of the Bureau 
of American Ethnology, determined on the preparation of a linguistic 
map of that part of North America south of the Mexican boundary, 
having in view the extension southward of the classification and map- 
ping of the linguistic families north of that border. Dr.Cyrus Thomas 
was assigned the task of assembling the preliminary data and the prep- 
aration of a sketch map, but the death of Major Powell before the 
research had assumed final shape, and the assignment to Doctor 
Thomas of more urgent work, necessitated delay in the comple- 
tion until the latter part of 1908. At that time Dr. J. R. Swanton, 
who had entered on a study of the languages of the tribes of the 
lower Mississippi valley and the Gulf coast, became interested in the 
linguistic classification of the tribes of middie America, and on the 
joint suggestion of Doctors Thomas and Swanton copies of the map 
were prepared and submitted to a number of students who had 
devoted attention to the languages and ethnology of Mexico and 
Central America, soliciting criticism and making inquiry respecting 
the advisability of publication at this stage. The following anthro- 
pologists responded, furnishing valuable data: Dr. Carl Sapper, Dr. 
A. L. Kroeber, Dr. Frederick Starr, Dr. Nicolas Leén, Dr. H. Pittier 
de Fabrega, Dr. A. M. Tozzer, Sefior Francisco Belmar, Dr. Ales 
Hrdli¢éka, and Dr. Franz Boas. Corrections and additions. were 
made in accordance with some of the suggestions offered, bringing the 
classification and the map as nearly to date as possible. These results 
are now submitted, not as a final work, but as an attempt to repre- 
sent the present state of knowledge regarding a es which may 
never be cleared entirely of obscurity. 
AW. EH. Tp earae: Chief. 
JUNE 2, 1909. 
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