368 DIVISION I. VERTEBRAL ANIMALS.— CLASS I. MAMMALIA. 
treated, their equanimity is admirable. They seldom dispute or quarrel, and 
revenge is scarcely known among them. Yet they venture to sea on loose 
cakes of ice, and attack the polar bear without the least hesitation. 
Tie American Inpian (/1. Columbicus, Bory). 
> ~ 
All the Indian tribes of the American continent have the same physical 
characteristics. The bronze or copper color, the straight, coarse, black hair, 
the hazel eyes, the high-cheek bones, and erect form, are common to them 
all. There is, indeed, some diflerence in the stature of different. tribes. 
The Osages are very tall, and the Shoshonees are below the middle stature. 
Each race, and indeed each tribe, has its peculiar physiognomy. To a 
European, or Anglo-American, all Indians look alike; but one accustomed 
to them can distinguish the tribes with almost unerring certainty. Thus a 
Dahcotah is as readily distinguished from a Chippeway, or a Winnebago, by 
his features, as his dress. Yet the difference is not so great as to induce a 
belief that all the tribes are not descended from the same stock. 
The Indians in the northern part of North America are divided into 
several great families. The Algonquin, or Chippeway, is one of the two 
most numerous now in existence. All the tribes of New England were Al- 
gonquins, if we may take identity of language, manners, and customs as a 
proof of the fact. The vocabulary of the Narraganset tongue, recorded by 
Roger Williams, proves them to have been a branch of the Algonquin stock. 
The Mohegans, considered the progenitors of the other tribes in New Eng- 
land, spoke the same tongue. The tribes in Maine claimed the same origin. 
The Delaware, or Lenni Lenape, were of the same family; and their lan- 
guage has been pronounced, by competent judges, the most perfect existing. 
The Iroquois, or Six Nations, once dreaded from the Atlantic to the Missis- 
sipp1, are Algonquins. This tribe did and still does extend from the mouth 
of the St Lawrence to the Mississippi, and thence northward to Great 
Slave Lake; for so far do the Nayheeowawk, or Knisteneaux, extend their 
rambles. 
On the western side of the Mississippi is another great Indian family, 
viz., the Sioux, or Dahcotah. The Dahcotah proper inhabit the country on 
the west side of the Mississippi, north of the Wisconsin, to the sources of 
the Mississippi. Their territory extends westward to the Missouri. This 
tribe speak a language radically distinct from that of the Algonquin race. 
Their origin is unknown, and their own traditions are at variance on this 
point one with another. One account, and the most probable, represents 
them as having been driven from the confines of Mexico by the Spaniards. 
The branches of this tribe are the Winnebagoes, the Otoes, the Toways, 
the Missouris, the Assinniboins, the Omahaws, the IXansas, and the Osages. 
