XII DAKOTA GRAMMAR, TEXTS, AND ETHNOGRAPHY. 
sumptuous for one whose life among the Indians began as late as 1871 to 
question his conclusions, unless abundant facts could be shown to confirm 
the assertions of the critic. 
The author's life among the Indians was spent chiefly with a single 
division of the Dakota, known as the Santee or Mdewakantonwan. A few 
of the Teton words in his dictionary were furnished by one of his sons, 
Rey. T. L. Riggs, but most of them were obtained from Rev. W. J. Cleve- 
land. The author, moreover, knew very little about the languages of those 
cognate tribes that are not Dakota, such as the Ponka, Omaha, Kansa, 
Winnebago, ete., while I have lived among many of these tribes and have 
devoted considerable time to the comparison of most of the Siouan languages, 
having engaged in original investigation from time to time, as late as 
February, 1893, when I visited the Biloxi Indians in Louisiana. 
In order, therefore, to furnish the readers of this volume with the latest 
information, and to give more fully than was possible in those footnotes for 
which I am responsible my reasons for hesitating to accept some of the 
author's conclusions, as well as evidence confirmatory of some of the author’s 
statements this preface has been written. 
In my notation of Dakota words, both in this preface and in the foot- 
notes, the author’s alphabet has been used, except where additional charac- 
ters were needed; and such characters are described in the following section 
of this preface. But in recording the corresponding words in the cognate 
languages the alphabet used is that of the Bureau of Ethnology. 
All footnotes followed by “S. R. R.” were contributed by the author. 
Those furnished by his son, Rey. Alfred L. Riggs, are signed “ A. L. R.” 
cmp. L. R.” stands for: Rey. TL. Riges, and: “oJ. P. W.2 torgikevso.er. 
Williamson. ‘J. O. D.” marks those footnotes for which I am responsible. 
LIST OF SOUNDS PECULIAR TO INDIAN WORDS IN THE PREFACE. 
The alphabet given by the author on pages 3 and 4 has no characters 
representing certain sounds heard in the Teton dialect of the Dakota and 
in some of the cognate languages. Besides these, there are other sounds, 
unknown in Teton and the other dialects of the Dakota, but common to 
the other languages of the Siouan family. These peculiar sounds and some 
additional ones which are described are given in the characters adopted by 
the Bureau of Ethnology. The authority for the Hidatsa words is Dr. 
Washington Matthews, U. 8. Army.’ The Tutelo words were recorded 

'U. S. Geol. and Geogr. Sury., Hayden, Miscell. Publ. No. 7, 1877: Ethnog. and Philol. of the 
Hidatsa Indians. 
