The Director has before reported in general terms that the most serious
source of perplexity to the student of the history of the North American
Indians is the confusion existing among their tribal names. The causes
of this confusion are various. The Indian names for themselves have been
understood and recorded in diverse ways by the earlier authors, and have
been variously transmitted by the latter. Nicknames arising from trivial
causes, and often without apparent cause, have been imposed upon many
tribes. Names borne by one tribe at some period of its history have been
transferred to another, or to several other distinct tribes.
Typographical errors, and improved spelling on assumed phonetic grounds,
have swelled the number of synonyms until the investigator of a special
tribe often finds himself in a maze of nomenclatural perplexity.
It has long been the intention of the Director to prepare a work on
tribal names, which so far as possible should refer their confusing
titles to a correct and systematic standard. Delay has been occasioned
chiefly by the fundamental necessity of defining linguistic stocks or
families into which all tribes must be primarily divided; and to
accomplish this, long journeys and laborious field and office
investigations have been required during the whole time since the
establishment of the Bureau. Though a few points still remained in an
unsatisfactory condition, it was considered that a sufficient degree of
accuracy had been attained to allow of the publication for the benefit
of students of a volume devoted to the subject. The preparation of the
plan of such a volume was intrusted to Mr. H. W. Henshaw, late in the
spring of 1885, and in June of that year the work was energetically
begun in accordance with the plans submitted. The preparation of this
work, which to a great extent underlies and is the foundation for every
field of ethnologic investigation among Indians, was considered of such
prime importance that nearly all the available force of the Bureau was
placed upon it, to the suspension of the particular investigations in
which the several officers had been engaged.
In addition to the general charge of the whole work, Mr. Henshaw gave
special attention to the families of the northwest coast from Oregon
northward, including the Eskimo, and also several in California. To Mr.
Albert S. Gatschet the tribes of the southeastern United States,
together with the Pueblo and Yuman tribes, were assigned. The Algonkian
family in all its branches--by far the most important part of the whole,
so far as the great bulk of literature relating to it is concerned--was
intrusted to Col. Garrick Mallery and Mr. James Mooney. They also took
charge of the Iroquoian family. Rev. J. O. Dorsey’s intimate
acquaintance with the tribes of the Siouan and Caddoan families
peculiarly fitted him to cope with that part of the work, and he also
undertook the Athapascan tribes. Dr. W. J. Hoffman worked upon the
Shoshonean tribes, aided by the Director’s personal supervision. Mr.
Jeremiah Curtin, to whom was assigned the California tribes, also gave
assistance in other sections.
Each of the gentlemen named has been able to contribute largely to the
results by his personal experience and investigations in the field,
there being numerous regions concerning which published accounts are
meager and unsatisfactory. The main source of the material to be dealt
with has, however, been necessarily derived from books. A vast amount of
the current literature pertaining to the North American Indians has been
examined, amounting to over one thousand volumes, with a view to the
extraction of the tribal names and the historical data necessary to fix
their precise application.
The work at the present time is well advanced toward completion. The
examination of literature for the collation of synonyms may be regarded
as practically done. The tables of synonymy and the accounts of the
tribes have been completed for more than one-half the number of
linguistic families.