Download or read book Biography and History of the Indians of North America written by Samuel Gardner Drake and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2016-06-25 with total page 696 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Biography and History of the Indians of North America: From Its First Discovery Art attempt ts made, in the following Table, to locate the various bands of Aborigines, ancient and modern, and to convey the best information respecting their numbers our multitiirious sources will warrant. Mod ern writers have been, for several years, endeavoring to divide North America into certain districts, each of which should include all the In dians speaking the same, or dialects of the same, language; but whoever has paid any attention to the subject, must undoubtedly have been con vinced that it can never be done with any degree of accuracy. This has been undertaken in reference to an approximation of the great question of the origin of this people, from a comparison of the various languages used among them. An unwritten language is easily varied, and there can be no barrier to innovation. A continual intermixing of tribes has gone on from the period of their origin to the present time, judging from what we have daily seen; and when any two tribes unite, speaking dif fenent languages, or dialects of the same, a new dialect is produced by such amalgamation. Hence the accumulation of vocabularies would be like the pursuit of an infinite series in mathematics; with this difference, however - ia the one we recede from the object in pursuit, while in the other we approach it. But I.would not be understood to speak dispar agingly of this attempt at classification; for, if it be unimportant in the main design, it will be of considerable service to the student in Indian history on other accounts. Thus, the UM are said to speak a primitive language, and they were districted in a small territory south of the Chero kees; but, some 200 years ago, - if they then existed as a tribe, and their tradition be true, - thcy were bounded on the north by one of the great lakes. And they are said to be descended from the Sliawanecs by some of themselves. We know an important community of them is still in existence in Florida. Have they created a new language in the course of their wanderings? Or have those from whom they separated done so? Such are the difficulties we meet with at every step of a classification. But a dissertation upon these matters cannot now be attempted. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.