26 
SURVEY OF THE COLORADO OF THE WEST. 
The pronoun has also been carefully studied, and many interesting 
facts have been discovered ; for example, it is found that the general 
concept of possession as denoted in the simple form of the English is, 
among the Indians, divided into three forms : one class of possessive 
pronouns denoting entire possession, another is used to designate the 
person or thing possessed from others of the same kind, and a third to 
designate the possessor. 
But the grammatical structure has been chiefly studied in the verb. 
Nouns become verbs to predicate" existence and other ideas, by suffixing 
grammatical inflections to denote number, tense, and mode. In like 
manner adjectives become verbs, and so also do prepositions ; but this 
subject is so intricate as to preclude its discussion here. 
POLITICAL ORGANIZATION. 
All that great region of country between the Rocky Mountains and the 
Sierra Nevadas, stretching from Northern Oregon to the Gulf of Califor- 
nia, is, by the Indians, divided into territories, sometimes well defined 
by natural boundaries, such as mountain-chains, streams, canons, &c., and *• 
to each district there belongs a tribe of Indians. These Indians have no 
term which signifies tribe or nation — that is, a collection of people under 
one government, but each tribe takes the name of the land to which it 
is attached, and if you desire to ask an Indian to which tribe he belongs, 
you must say, “how are you land-named? 77 or “what is the name of 
your land? 77 
For illustration : with a certain tribe in Northern Arizona, Imiviv is 
the word signifying mountain ; a-vwi' means reclining or lying down ; 
Kai'-vav-wi , a mountain lying down, is the name for a plateau. A great 
plateau north of the Grand Canon of the Colorado is called by them 
Kai'-vav-wi , and the small tribe of Indians inhabiting it are Kai'-vav - 
wits . 
The Indian is thus attached to his land and his name is his title-deed 
to his home. These land-names are those by which the Indians know 
themselves, and by which the tribes who are on friendly and intimate 
relations know each other. 
But another class of names is found by which tribes farther separ- 
ated, either in geographic distribution, language, or hereditary enmities, 
know each other. These names denote some peculiarity in the people’ 
their habits or customs. 
Certain tribes of Central Nevada are known by the surrounding tribes 
as To'-so-wets or White Knives 5 the Utes call the Sioux Sa-rF-ti-kai, or 
Dog Eaters; they call the Navajos, Pa'-gu-wets or Reed Knives ; and so 
any one tribe may be known to the surrounding tribes by several names. 
I have found in no instance do the white men know the Indians by 
their true names, but usually some name by which a little tribe has been 
known to another has been adopted, and corrupted, more or less, and 
applied indefinitely to a number of other tribes. Thus, all the tribes of 
