Page:Archæologia Americana—volume 2, 1836.djvu/170

 134 A SYNOPSIS OF THE INDIAN TRIBES. [iNTROD. that none of those tribes understood the language of any of the others; and that they communicated together partly by what is called the " language of signs," partly through the medium of the Crow, which was not the native language of either of them. Their number has been estimated at only fourteen hundred souls by the Indian Department, and, includ- ing other small bands mentioned by Lewis and Clarke on uncertain information, cannot well exceed three thousand. The Wakash or Nootka Sound Indians are the most southern tribe on the shores of the Pacific, of which we have been able to give a vocabulary. With the exception of a few words collected in the Straits of Fuca, and of some of the Chinook language at the mouth of the river Columbia, w 7 e have not a single one along the coast, till we come to the Ellenes and the Ruslenes of the Spanish missions of New California. Mac- kenzie has given a short one of an inland tribe, the Atnahs, who, in 52° 30' north latitude, are bounded on the north by the Tacullies, and extend thence southwarldy down Frazer's River towards the Straits of Fuca. It is also a language dis- tinct, so far as we are now informed, from any other. But of all the tribes inhabiting the territory west of the Rocky Moun- tains between the forty-second and the forty-ninth degree of north latitude, w r e have, besides a few Shoshonee words col- lected by Dr. Say, no other vocabulary but that of the Salish or Flat Heads, which belongs to Mr. Duponceau's collection. Tins is a small tribe, computed at two hundred warriors, waging an unequal war with the Black Feet, and residing towards the sources of one of the branches of the Columbia River, which must be either the most southern branch of Clarke's River, or the most northern branch of Lewis's River. It will be per- ceived that, with that single exception, our deficiency embraces all the Indian tribes living on the Columbia River and all its numerous tributary streams. Messrs. Lewis and Clarke had brought with them copious vocabularies of all the Indian tribes along the line of their route. These had been placed by Mr. Jefferson in the hands of the late Dr. Benjamin Smith Barton for arrangement and publication, but could not be found after his death. The country has now been for many years occupied by the British traders ; and for the present w r e must look to