166 THE SIOUAN INDIANS Jeth. anx. 15 



tbe extinct and nearly extinct Siouan Indians of the east is much less 

 satisfactory. In several cases languages are utterly lust, and in others 

 a few doubtful terms alone remain. In these cases alhnity is inferred 

 in part from geographic lelation, but chiefly from the recorded feder- 

 ation of tribes and union of remnants as the aboriginal population 

 faded under tbe light of brighter intelligence; and in all such instances 

 it has been assumed that federation and union grew out of that con- 

 formity in mode of thought which is characteristic of peoples speaking 

 identical or closely related tongues. Accordingly, while the grouping 

 of eastern tribes rests in part on meager testimony and is open to 

 question at many points, it is perhaps the best that can be devised, 

 and sufhces for convenience of statement if not as a final classification. 

 So far as practicabhi the names adopted for the tribes, confederacies, 

 and other groups are those in common use, the aboriginal designations, 

 when distinct, being added in those cases in Mliich they are known. 



The present population of the Siouan stock is ])i()bablj' between 

 40,000 and 45,000, inchnling 2,000 or more (mainly Asiniboin) in 

 Canada. 



TRIBAL NOMENCLATUKE 



In the Siouan stock, as among the American Indians generally, the 

 accepted appellations for tribes and other groups are vai-iously derived. 

 Many of the Siouan tribal luuies were, like the name of the stock, 

 given by alien peoples, including white men, though most are founded 

 on the descriptive or other designations used in the groups to which 

 they pertain. At first glance, the names seem to be loosely applied 

 and perhaps vaguely defined, and thislaxitj' in application and defini- 

 tion does not disappear, but rather increases, with closer examination. 



There are special reasons for the indefiniteness of Indian nomen- 

 clature: The aborigines were at the time of discovery, and indeed 

 most of them remain today, in the prescriptorial stage of culture, i. e., 

 the stage in which ideas are crystallized, not by means of arbitrary 

 symbols, but by means of arbitrary associations,' and in this stage 

 names are connotive or descrii)tive, rather than denotive as in the 

 scriptorial stage. Moreover, among the Indians, as among all other 

 prescriptorial peoples, the ego is paramount, and all things are 

 described, much more largely than among cultured peoples, with 

 reference to the describer and the position which he occupies — Self 

 and Here, and, if need be, Now and Thus, are the fundamental ele- 

 ments of ]irimitive conception and description, and these elements 

 are implied and exemplified, rather than expressed, in thought and 

 utterance. Accordingly there is a notable paucity in names, espe- 

 cially for themselves, among the Indian tribes, while the descrip. 

 tive designations applied to a given group by neighboring tribes are 

 often diverse. 



'Tlip Icadinj; dilturo Btapcs aro defined in the Thirteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Etb' 

 nology, for 1891-112 (1896), p. xxiii ct soq. 



