McoEE] CONTRAST BETWEEN CERTAIN STOCKS 189 



Perhaps tlie best example is tbiiiid in the (I'eg'iha, whii-h divided into two 

 great branches, tlie stronger of which threw off minor branches in the 

 Osage and Kaiisa, and afterward separated into the Omaha and Pouka, 

 while the feel)]er branch also ramitied widely; and only less notable is 

 the example of the Winnebago trunk, with its three great branches iu 

 the Iowa, Oto, and Missouri, This strong divergent tendency in itself 

 suggests rapid, jierhaps abnormally rapid, growth iu the stock; for it 

 outran and ])artially concealed the tendency toward convergence and 

 ultimate coalescence which characterizes demotic phenomena. 



The half-dozen eastern stocks occupying by far tlie greater part of 

 North America contrast strongly with the half-hundred local stocks 

 covering the Pacific coast; and none of the strong Atlantic stocks is 

 more characteristic, more sharply contrasted with the limited groups of 

 the western coast, or better understood as regards organization and 

 development, than the great Siouan stock of the northern interior. 

 There is promise that, as the deniology of aboriginal ^Vmerica is jiushed 

 forward, the records relating to the iSiouan Indians and especially to 

 their structure aud institutions will aid iu explaining why some stocks 

 are limited and others extensive, why large stocks in general charac- 

 terize the interior and small stocks the coasts, and why the dominant 

 peoples of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were successful in dis- 

 placing the preexistent and probably more primitive peoples of the 

 Mississippi valley. While the time is not yet ripe for making final 

 answer to these inquiries, it is not premature to suggest a relation 

 between a peculiar development of the aboriginal stocks and a peculiar 

 geographic conformation : In general the coastward stocks are small, 

 indicating a provincial shoreland habit, yet their population and area 

 commonly increase toward those shores indented by deep bays, along 

 which maritime and inland industries naturally blend; so (confining 

 attention to eastern United States) the extensive Muskhogean stock 

 stretches inland from the deep-bayed eastern Gulf coast; and so, too, 

 three of the largest stocks on the continent (Algonquian, Iroquoiau, 

 Siouan) stretch far into the interior from the still more deeply indented 

 Atlantic coast. In two of these cases (Iroquoian and Siouan) history 

 and tradition indicate expansion and migration from the land of bays 

 between Cape Lookout and Cape May, while in the third tliere are 

 similar (though perhaps less definite) indications of an inland drift 

 from the northern Atlantic bays aud along the Laurentiau river and 

 lakes. 



HISTORY' 

 DAKOTA- ASINIBOIN 



The Dakota are mentioned in the Jesuit itelations as early as 1630-40; 

 the tradition is noted that the Ojibwa, on arriving at the Great Lakes in 

 an early migration from the Atlantic coast, encountered representatives 



'Taken rliieriy from notes and niannseripts prepared by Mr Dorsey. 



