PREFACE 



Tlic series of bibli()iira])liies of wliicli this forms the sixth nniiil)er 

 was stiirte<l in 1SS7 witli the Eskiinauaii as the tirst issue. They are 

 all based ii]>oii the "Proof Sheets of a Bibliography of the Nortli Amer- 

 ican Languages," by the same author, i)rinted in 1<SS5. in an edition of 

 JIO ('oi»ies. Titles and collations of these works will be found on a 

 previous page. 



The next in order of ]»ublication are to be the Chinookan (including 

 the Chinook Jargon), the Salishan, and the Wakaslian. all of which are 

 well under way. 



The name adopted by the Bureau of P^thnology for tliis tamily of 

 languages (Athapascan) is that used by Gallatin in the American An- 

 tiquarian Society's Transactions, vol. ii, 183(). It has been objected to 

 by a number of missionaries — students of various dialects of this family 

 in the Northwest — but priority demanded that Gallatin's name should 

 be retained. It is derived from the Jake of the same name, which, ac- 

 cording to Father Lacombe, signifies "place of hay and reeds." 



The following account of the distribution of the Athapascan people 

 is taken from Powell's "Indian Linguistic Families," in the Seventh 

 Annual Keport of the Bureau of Ethnology: 



The boundaries of the Athapascan family, as now understood, are best given under 

 three primary groups: Northern, Pacitic, and Southern. 



Xorthern group. — This includes all the Athapascan tribes of British North America 

 and Alaska. In the former region tlie Athapascans occupy most of the western 

 interior, being bounded on thf north by the Arctic Eskimo, who inhabit a narrow 

 strip of coast; on the east by the Eskimo of Hudson's Bay as far south as Churchill 

 Eiver, south of Avhich river the country is occupied by Algtmquian tribes. On the 

 south the Athapascan tribes extended to the main ridge between the Athapasca and 

 .S;iskatchewan rivers, where they met Algonquiau tribes; west of this area they 

 were bounded on the south liy Salishan tribes, the limits of whose territory on Era- 

 ser River and its tributaries appear on Tolmie and Dawson's map of 1884. On the 

 west, in British Columbia, the Athapascan tribes nowhere reach the coast, being cut 

 off by the Wakashan, Salishan, and Chimmesyan families. 



The interior of Alaska is cliielly occni)ied by tribes of this family. Eskimo tribes 

 have entroached somewhat upon the interior along the Yukon, Kuskokwim, Kowak, 

 and Noatak rivers, reaching on the Yukon to somewhat below Shagelnk Island and 

 on the Kuskokwim nearly or (luite to Kohnakoft' Kedoubt. U]ion the two latter 

 they reach (|uite to their heads. A few Kutthiu tribes are (or have been) north of 

 the Porcupine and Yukon rivers, but until I'ecently it has not been known that they 

 extended north beyond the Yukon and Romanzoff mountains. Explorations of 



