> 
THE 
AMERICAN NATURALIST. 
_ Vou. xx— MARCH, 1886.—No. 3. 
MIGRATIONS OF SIOUAN TRIBES." 
BY REV. J. OWEN DORSEY. 
“QIOUAN” is the term adopted by the Bureau of Ethnology 
instead of “ Dakotan,” as the name of the linguistic family 
of which the Sioux or Dakotas have been regarded as the lead- 
ing nation. 
The tribes whose migrations are described in this paper are the 
Ponkas, Omahas, Osages, Kansas, Kwapas, owas, Otos, Missou- 
tis, Winnebagos and Mandans. The other tribes of this family 
are the Sioux, Assiniboins, Hidatsas, Crows and Tutelos. 
Some authors speak of a series of migrations of these tribes 
from the west toward the east, but the writer has not been able 
to learn on what authority such statements have been made, nor 
has he ever found any tradition of such eastward migrations 
among the tribes that he has visited. 
Whatever may be the value of Catlin’s map of the Mandan 
Migrations, there can be no doubt that the Mandans belong to 
the Siouan family. Their language shows unmistakable resem- 
blances to the Winnebago, as well as to the Dakota, Osage, Kan- 
sas, etc. The Mandan tradition, as given to Catlin, placed the 
ancestors of that people east of the Mississippi river at an early 
day (Catlin’s N. A. Indians, 1, 259)2 
The Jesuit Relation of 1640 speaks of the Dakotas and Assini- 
boins, placing them in the neighborhood of the Winnebagos. 
This last nation was probably in the region of Green bay in 1614, 
_ "Read before the Anthropological Society, Washington, D. C., in 1884. 
2 See map 2, é 
15 
