CPAP Wiehe ak: 
MIGRATIONS OF THE DAKOTA. 
Of the aboriginal tribes inhabiting this country, George Bancroft, in 
his History of the United States, has assigned the first place, in point of 
numbers, to the Algonquin family, and the second place to the Dakota. 
Those who haye made a study of the ethnology and the languages of 
the races have almost uniformly come to the conclusion that the Indians 
of this continent are connected with the Mongolian races of Asia. The line 
across from Asia to America by Bering Straits is regarded as perfectly 
practicable for canoes. And in 10 degrees farther south, by the Aleutian 
Islands, the distances are not so great but that small boats might easily pass 
from one to the other, and so safely reach the mainland. 
Lewis H. Morgan, of the State of New York, who has given much time 
and study to solving the question, ‘ Whence came the Indians?” has adopted 
this theory, and makes them gather on the Columbia River, from whence 
they have crossed the Rocky Mountains and spread over these eastern lands. 
But it can be safely affirmed that, up to this time, ethnology and the eom- 
parative study of languages have not quite satisfactorily settled the ques- 
tion of their origin. 
In discussing the question of the migrations of the Dakota or Sioux, 
there are two lines open to us, each entirely independent, and yet both 
telling the same story: First, the history, as written in books; second, 
the history, as found in names. 
ARGUMENT FROM HISTORY. 
The book history runs back nearly two and a half centuries. The 
first knowledge of the Dakota nation obtained by the civilized world came 
through the French traders and missionaries, and was carried along the 
line of the Great Lakes through New France. 
Karly in the seventeenth century, a young man of more than ordinary 
ability, by name Jean Nicolet, came from France to Canada. He had oreat 
aptness in acquiring Indian languages, and soon became Algonquin and 
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