172 ASIATIC TRIBES OF NORTH AMERICA. 



Althougli I must apologize for the scantiness of my materials, I 

 feel that I am in a position to indicate the origin of three important 

 Indian families, with -vyhich the Algonquins have long been in con- 

 tact ; these are the Tinneh or Athabascans, the Iroquois, and the 

 Choctaws. The first named are the neighbours of the Algonquins. 

 on the north, but appear also as an intrusive people as far south as 

 Mexico. The Iroquois are scattered among the Algonquins ; and 

 the Choctaws and Cherokees, who are simply disguised Iroquois^ 

 were originally situated to the south of the Algonquin area. The 

 Tinneh family I associate with the Tungusians of Siberia and 

 Northern China ; and the Iroquois and Choctaws, with the popula- 

 tions of north-eastern Asia, classed by Dr. Latham as Peninsular 

 Mongolidae. It is to these immigrants that we owe the peculiar 

 features of American Indian life. 



The Tinneh are the Chipweyans of Mackenzie, Carver and the 

 older travellers, the Athabascans of many writers, the Montagnais 

 of Father Petitot and othere who have copied his statements. In 

 the number of their tribes they exceed those even of the large Al- 

 gonquin family, and they occupy a similarly extensive area, but one 

 upon which civilization has little encroached. Among the more im- 

 portant ti-ibes may be mentioned the Chipweyans or Athabascans, 

 proper, the Coppermines, Beavers, Dogribs, Tacullies, Tlatskanai, 

 Koltshane, Atnah or Nehanni, Sursees, Nagailer, Tenan-Kutchin,, 

 Kutcha-Kutchin, Yukon or Ko- Yukon, Digothe or Loucheux,, 

 Sicanni, Unakhotana, Kenai or Tehanin-Kutchin, Inkulit, Ugalenzes,. 

 Umpquas, Hoopas, Wilacki, Tolewah, Apaches, Navajos, Mescaleros,, 

 Pinalenos, Xicarillas. In reference to their habitat I cannot do 

 better or more briefly than by quoting the words of Mr. W. H. 

 Dall in his " Report on the distribution and nomenclature of the Na- 

 tive Tribes of Alaska and the Adjacent Territory." This gr^at family 

 includes a large number of American tribes, extending from near the 

 mou.th of the Mackenzie south to the borders of Mexico. The Apaches 

 and Navajos belong to it, and the family seems to intersect the continent 

 of North America in a northerly and southerly direction, principally 

 along the flanks of the Rocky Mountains. The northern tribes of 

 this stock extend nearly to the delta of the Yukon, and reach the 

 sea-coast at Cook's Inlet and the mouth of the Copper River. East- 

 ward they extend to the divide between the watershed of Hudson's. 

 Bay and that of Athabasca and the Mackenzie River. The designa- 



