LANGUAG1 . 129 



The Athapascan-speaking Kiowa-Apache and Sarsi 

 are also worthy of notice because the family to which 

 they belong has representatives in five of the eight 

 great culture areas into which North American cul- 

 tures are localized, affording us the unique example 

 of five distinct cultures with languages of the same 

 family, or stock. 



Returning to our classification of Plains tribes under 

 linguistic families, it may be well to note that while 

 it is absolutely true that these families have nothing 

 in common, the differences between the various tribes 

 under the same stock are by no means equal. Thus 

 while a Dakota and an Assiniboine can make them- 

 selves partially understood, Dakota and Crow are so 

 different that only philologists are able to discover them 

 to be of the same family. On the other hand, a Crow 

 and a Hidatsa could get on fairly well in ordinary 

 conversation. Again, in the Algonkin group, the Ara- 

 paho and Gros Ventre are conscious of having related 

 languages, while the Blackfoot lived on neighborly 

 terms with the latter for many years as did the Chey- 

 enne with the Arapaho, not once, so far as we know, 

 discovering any definite relation between their lan- 

 guages. It is well to remember, therefore, that the term 

 linguistic stock does not denote the language or speech 

 of a particular tribe, but is a designation of the philol- 

 ogists to define observed relationships in structure 

 and form, and that the speech of these Indians differs 

 in varying degree as one passes from one group to the 

 other. Thus, the seven tribes of the Dakota form at 



