_From Copyright Photograph 1906 by E.S. Curtis_
In treating the various tribes it has been deemed advisable that a
geographic rather than an ethnologic grouping be presented, but without
losing sight of tribal relationships, however remote the cognate tribes
may be one from another. To simplify the study and to afford ready
reference to the salient points respecting the several tribes, a summary
of the information pertaining to each is given in the appendices.
In the spelling of the native terms throughout the text, as well as in the
brief vocabularies appended to each volume, the simplest form possible,
consistent with approximate accuracy, has been adopted. No attempt has
been made to differentiate sounds so much alike that the average student
fails to discern the distinction, for the words, where recorded, are
designed for the general reader rather than the philologist, and it has
been the endeavor to encourage their pronunciation rather than to make
them repellent by inverted and other arbitrary characters.
I take this opportunity to express my deep appreciation to those who have
so generously lent encouragement during these years of my labor, from the
humblest dwellers in frontier cabins to the captains of industry in our
great commercial centres, and from the representatives of the most modest
institutions of learning to those whose fame is worldwide. Without this
encouragement the work could not have been accomplished. When the last
opportunity for study of the living tribes shall have passed with the
Indians themselves, and the day cannot be far off, my generous friends may
then feel that they have aided in a work the results of which, let it be
hoped, will grow more valuable as time goes on.