180 ASIATIC TRIBES OF NORTH AMERICA. 



west of Siberia to tlie uorth of the peninsula of Kamtschatka, to 

 the centre of which certain tribes extend. Their languages are allied 

 with the Kamtchatdale, Corean, Aino, Japanese, and Loochoo, and 

 partake more or less of a Mongolian character, being, however, well 

 differentiated from any Ural-Altaic division such as the TJgrian, 

 Tartar, Mongol or Tungus. It is with these Koriaks that I find good 

 evidence for associating the Oherokee-Choctaw confederacy. 



In the first place identity of name, although in itself apt to be 

 fallacious, may, as iia the case of the Tungus-Tinneh connection, lead 

 to truth. The Koriaks exist in two gi'eat divisions, a northern, 

 known as the Tchuktchi, and a southern, the Koriaks proper or 

 Koi'aeki. The former call themselves Tshekto, men or people, and 

 they are the original Choctaws; the latter, who bear the name 

 Koraeki, are the parent stock of the Cherokees. This looks so 

 exceedingly plain that the question may be asked why was it not 

 discovered before. The answer seems to be, that investigators have 

 been so long theorizing and refining that they managed to overlook 

 plain facts lying upon the surface. Koriaks in Alaska have been 

 looked for, but Tchuktchis in Tennesee and Mississippi would have 

 been I'cgarded as very much out of place. The Koriaks are of good 

 stature, with features moi-e pleasing and prominent than the Mongol. 

 Dr. Latham mentions "their general resemblance in respect to 

 physical conformation to the American Indians." They are warlike 

 and independent, and have encroached upon the Yukagirs and 

 Kamtchatdales, as the Choctaws and Cherokees did upon the southern 

 tribes of the United States. Aberaiethy states that among the 

 Koriaks the mothers give, as they imagine, a decorous form to their 

 children when infants by applying three boards, one on the top to 

 give them a flat head, and one on each side to give them a sharp 

 forehead." This is the Choctaw process of which Catlin speaks. 

 Sauer relates that the Tchuktchis had a game resembling " prisoner's 

 bars," and at the same time mentions the facility with which they 

 threw stones from a kind of sling. The game popularly known as 

 Lacrosse, common to the Choctaws and Ii-oquois, must, I think, be 

 referred to, and I regret that I have no work treating fully of Koriak 

 manners and customs by which this may be confii'med.* The 

 Tchuktchis and the Choctaws are alike fond of such athletic sports as 



* A game identical with our American Lacrosse is played in Japan. See Wood's 

 Uncivilized Races. 



