| Transcriber's Note: | This work was originally published as a part of: Powell, J. W. 1881 First Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to theSecretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1879-'80. pp. 553-577.Washington: Government Printing Office. The Table of Contents and Index included in this version were extractedfrom the full publication and inserted in the appropriate place. A number of typographical errors found in theoriginal text have been maintained in this version. They are markedand the corrected text is shown in the popup. A list of theseerrors is found at the end of this book, along with a list of repeated author names which werereplaced by —— in the bibliographic list. |
OF
IN THE
BY
By James C. Pilling.
Mr. Henry R. Schoolcraft, while engaged in the preparation of hiswork—"Information respecting the History, Condition, and Prospects ofthe Indian Tribes of the United States"—sent to various personsresiding among the Indians a "Comparative Vocabulary of the Languages ofthe Indian Tribes of the United States," a quarto paper of 25 pages,comprising 350 words, and the numerals one to one billion. The returnsfrom this were for the most part incorporated in his work; a few,however, found their way into the collection of the SmithsonianInstitution.
In 1853-'54, Mr. George Gibbs, while engaged under Gov. Isaac I. Stevensin "Explorations for a route for the Pacific Railroad near the 47th and49th parallels of north latitude," became interested in the study of thelanguages of the Indians inhabiting the Northwest, and collected manyvocabularies. To further extend this work, he prepared and had printed afolio paper of three leaves entitled "A vocabulary of 180 words which itis desired to collect in the different languages and dialects throughoutthe Pacific Coast for publication by the Smithsonian Institute atWashington."
These were sent to such persons as, in his judgment, were competent tofurnish the material d