XXIV ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR 



by a series of charts the boundaries of the different cessions 

 of land made to the United States from time to time by the 

 various Indian tribes from the organization of the Fedei-al 

 Government to the present date. This work will also include 

 within its scope a historical text, giving the date of each treaty, 

 name of tribe or tribes with which concluded, an abstract of 

 the principal provisions thereof, together with a narrative of 

 the incidents connected with its negotiation and the causes 

 leading thereto. The atlas will also contain a list of the prin- 

 cipal mountain chains, rivers, lakes, and other natural objects, 

 with a schedule of the different names by which each has been 

 known from its earliest discovery to the present day, giving 

 reference to authorities and dates. In the progress of this 

 work much laborious research has been made among the maps 

 and plats in the Library of Congress and the General Land 

 Office. Original diagrams and reports have also been exam- 

 ined and an extended correspondence conducted with individ- 

 uals and historical societies in the several States. 



The necessary data for indicating the cessions of land within 

 the present limits of the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Ten- 

 nessee, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Michigan have been 

 almost wholly obtained. Much progress has also been made 

 in a like manner with the States of Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, 

 Arkansas, Minnesota, Kansas, and Nebraska. 



This paper, when completed, will not only exhibit with 

 authoritative detail many particulars now only vaguely known 

 concerning the habitat and migrations of the several tribes, 

 but will be of special convenience to lawyers and officials con- 

 cerned in the investigation of original titles to land in the 

 larger part of the United States. 



The difficult and tedious undertaking of classifying on a lin- 

 guistic basis all the tribes, remaining and extinct, of North 

 America has been continued by the Director, and progress has 

 been made in their synonomy, or the reference to a correct 

 standard of their multiplied and confusing titles as shown in 

 literature and in common usage. The system of nomenclature 



