PREFACE. 
During the past ten years students of Indian languages have rapidly 
multiplied. When the author of this volume began the exploration 
of the Colorado River of the West under the auspices of the Smithsonian 
Institution, Professor Henry, as its secretary, urgently recommended a 
study of thé Indians of that country, although the work was organized 
primarily as a geographic and geological survey. The region was practi- 
cally unknown to white men, and the Indians found therein were less 
modified by the influences of civilization than any others of the United 
States. The only inhabitants of the country being Indians, the members 
of the survey were thrown the more directly into contact with them, as 
their services were needed in finding trails, fords, passes, and watering 
places. Under these circumstances favorable opportunities were utilized, 
and from time to time since then this work has gradually expanded until a 
Bureau of Ethnology, under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution, 
has been organized by law. 
In the mean time, through the efforts of this organization in its various 
forms many persons have been enlisted in the study of North American 
anthropology and the philologic branch has received special attention. 
To intelligently prosecute linguistic research it was found necessary to 
make a summary of what had previously been done in this field, and a 
classification of the linguistic stocks of North America was undertaken. 
In the progress of this work vocabularies and grammars from various 
sources have been studied and compared with the large amount of matter 
pouring in from the assistants and collaborators with the Bureau. Those 
engaged in the work needed constant direction and were frequently calling 
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