THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 9 



INDIAN NOMENCLATURE. 



The changes from time to time in the names of the several Indian 

 tribes are confusing. In the Eeport on Indian Affairs, to the Secretary 

 of War, by the Kev. Jedidiah Morse, D. D., of New Haven, June, 1822, 

 with maps of location of Indian tribes, and in "The Book of the Indians 

 of North America," by Samuel G-. Drake, 1832, can be found lists and 

 tables of the principal tribes ; also in some official Government reports, 

 colonial and State, after 1620. 



Mr. Schoolcraft and Mr. Catlin followed as closely as was possible 

 the authorities. Mr. Catlin corrected many of the names, phonetically 

 of course, as the Western Indians then had no written language. The 

 Office of Indian Afl'airs at Washington in its annual reports gives a list 

 of tribes with the names corrected and approved, by Maj. J. W. Powell, 

 chief of the Bureau of Ethnology, and also names in the laws of the 

 United States making annual appropriations for the Indian service. 



Under the several tribal heads the name used by Mr. Catlin will be 

 given, as well as the one used by the Office of Indian Affairs and the. 

 laws of the United States. 



The sketch of tribal history, following and at the end of each title, is 

 by William H. Jackson, of Prof. F. Y. Hayden's Survey, and is published 

 in Miscellaneous Publications, No. 9, of the United States Geological 

 Survey of the Territories, 1877. It was carefully prepared by him and 

 is believed to be fairly accurate. 



Maj. J. W. Powell, in discussing Indian nomenclature, says : 



" In the advent of the white man in America a great number of tribes 

 were found. For a variety of reasons the nomenclature of these tribes 

 became excessively complex. Names were greatly multiplied for each 

 tribe and a single name was often inconsistently applied to different 

 tribes. 



" This was due to — 



" (1) A great number of languages were spoken, and ofttimes the first 

 names obtained for tribes were not the names used by themselves, 

 but the names by which they were known to some other tribes. 



" (2) The governmental organization of the Indians was not understood 

 and the names for gentes, tribes, and confedieracies were confounded. 



"(3) The advancing occupancy of the country by white men changed 

 the habitat (habitation ?) of the Indians, and in their migrations from 

 point to point (in some cases'?) their names were changed." — J. W. 

 Powell, 1880. 



individual indian names, 



It is more than probable that some of the Indians in the Catlin col- 

 lection were drawn or painted by Cooke, Lewis, Neagle, Jar vis, Hard- 

 inge. King, Deas, Stanley, or Eastman, under other names. The In- 

 dian in the Catlin catalogue numbered 285, a Cherokee called Col-lee 

 or Jol-lee, is most likely tlie famous Cherokee chief Oolooteka. 



