In conclusion, the more important deductions derivable from the data
upon which the linguistic map is based, or that are suggested by it, may
be summarized as follows:
First, the North American Indian tribes, instead of speaking related
dialects, originating in a single parent language, in reality speak many
languages belonging to distinct families, which have no apparent unity
of origin.
Second, the Indian population of North America was greatly exaggerated
by early writers, and instead of being large was in reality small as
compared with the vast territory occupied and the abundant food supply;
and furthermore, the population had nowhere augmented sufficiently,
except possibly in California, to press upon the food supply.
Third, although representing a small population, the numerous tribes had
overspread North America and had possessed themselves of all the
territory, which, in the case of a great majority of tribes, was owned
in common by the tribe.
Fourth, prior to the advent of the European, the tribes were probably
nearly in a state of equilibrium, and were in the main sedentary, and
those tribes which can be said with propriety to have been nomadic
became so only after the advent of the European, and largely as the
direct result of the acquisition of the horse and the introduction of
firearms.
Fifth, while agriculture was general among the tribes of the eastern
United States, and while it was spreading among western tribes, its
products were nowhere sufficient wholly to emancipate the Indian from
the hunter state.
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