40 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



LINGUISTICS. 



During a considerable part "of the year the Director has been occupied in re- 

 searches concerning several characteristics of the American Indians, with the view 

 of developing a system of classification so complete as to indicate not only the affin- 

 ities of tribes and stocks among each other but the general affinities of the native 

 American people and their position among the races of men as well as among other 

 living organisms. In the course of this work much thought has been given to the 

 subject of Indian language, and the rich collections of linguistic material in tbe 

 archives of the Bureau have been scanned anew. It was the immediate purpose of 

 this study to trace the development of various languages in such manuer as to educe 

 the laws of linguistic evolution. Satisfactory progress was made, and a considera- 

 ble body of manuscript was prepared, while a preliminary publication was presented 

 during the year in the form of an address delivered in the United States National 

 Museum May 23, 1896, entitled "The Relation Between Institutions and Environ- 

 ment/' and printed in tbe Smithsonian Report for 1895. The records indicate that 

 the four or five dozen distinct linguistic stocks iu this country have been ren- 

 dered more or less composite by the blending of peoples; the researches seem to 

 show that a still larger number of distinct languages were originally developed 

 independently, in small, discrete groups, which gradually combined iuto larger 

 tribes and confederacies, and sometimes grew so large as again to subdivide and 

 spread over vast areas; aud in various other directions these researches have been 

 found to throw light on the characteristics and relations of the Indians. 



Dr. Albert S. Gatschet has been continuously employed in the collection and study 

 of linguistic material pertaining to the Algonquian stock. During July he utilized 

 the services of Mr. William Jones, a mixed-blood Sauk of exceptional intelligence, a 

 pupil at Philips Academy, Andover. Although he has been absent from his tribe 

 for sometime, he was able to convey to Dr. Gatschet a large amount of new material. 

 About the middle of October Dr. Gatschet visited the survivors of the Miami Indians 

 at Peru, Ind., and afterward proceeded to Miami town on Osage River, Indiau Ter- 

 ritory, now the center of the Peoria confederacy. At both places he was able to obtain 

 extensive collections relating to the language and mythology of the people. During 

 the remainder of the fiscal year he was occupied in arranging the new material and 

 iu comparing it with other Algonquian records, and made considerable progress in 

 the preparation of a comparative Algonquian vocabulary. 



Mr. J. N. B. Hewitt was employed in the early part of the year in applying the 

 laws of linguistic development to the Iroquoian stock, and thereby tracing the affin- 

 ities and prehistoric growth of this extensive and important group of American 

 Indians. Through this study he was able to ascertain the order in which different 

 members of the group differeutiated, and either separated from the main body or 

 developed distinct organization. Representing the Iroquoian body as the trunk of 

 a genealogic tree, it appears that the lowest branch is represented by the Cherokee 

 and the second and third by the Huron and Seneca-Onondaga, the several tribes 

 represented by the uppermost branches being but slightly differentiated. Thus the 

 linguistic history of the Iroquoian stock is one of differentiation and division, 

 probably combined with assimilation from other stocks. It may be observed that 

 this history is parallel to that wrought out for the Siouan stock by Dorsey and that 

 which Gatschet is now tracing in the Algonquian stock ; but this apparently aber- 

 rant course of linguistic evolution iu certain instauces is in no way inconsistent 

 with the general course of the development of language, which tends toward unity 

 through the combination and assimilation of the various tongues. Subsequently 

 Mr. Hewitt was occupied in analyzing and scheduling the vocabulary of the Tubari 

 language, collected in northern Mexico by Dr. Carl Lumholtz, and in preparing the 

 matter for publication. The closing months of the year were spent in cataloguing 

 manuscripts and other material stored in the fireproof vaults of the Bureau. 



