Siouan stock. Hence again, for the purpose of the present discussion, the Iroquois may be considered with the Siouan family.
Of these four great family stocks it will be the purpose of this paper to deal mainly with the last two mentioned, i. e., the Algonquian and the Siouan.
In the Algonquian family are embraced the following tribes, as stated by J. W. Powell, as well as several other small tribes that dominated the north Atlantic coast; the arrangement here is that of D. G. Brinton in the previsional order of their linguistic affinities, the oldest and perhaps the parent tongue, the Kilistino, heading the list:
| Cree (Kilistino) | ||||
| Old Algonkin | ||||
| Montagnais | ||||
| Ojibwa | ||||
| Ottawa | ||||
| Pottawotomi | ||||
| Miami | ||||
| Illinois | ||||
| Pea | ||||
| Piankishaw | ||||
| Kaskaskia | ||||
| Menominee | ||||
| Sac | ||||
| Fox | ||||
| Kikapoo | ||||
| Micmac | ||||
| Etchemin | ||||
| Abnaki | ||||
| Delaware | ||||
| Shawnee | ||||
| Mohecan | ||||
| Nanticoke | ||||
| Gros Ventres (of the Plains)[1] | ||||
| Sheyenne | ||||
To these may be added the Arapahoe, associates of the Sheyenne in Wyoming, not mentioned by Brinton. These show, according to Krœber, certain characteristics that mark them as differing from the other Algonquians, both in speech and in tribal organization. There is no history or tradition of their origin. They have no clans nor totemic divisions, whereas these are marked features of the most of the Algonquian stock. Certain more elemental characteristics of their dialect, and the certainty of their having long preceded the Sheyenne in their present habitats, seem to warrant the assumption that they are more primitive than even the Kilistino.
- ↑ There were two tribes of Gros Ventres, so named by the French, distinguished as Gros Ventres of the Missouri, a tribe of the Siouan tongue, and Gros Ventres of the Plains, who were Algonquian.
