Page:Archæologia Americana—volume 2, 1836.djvu/99

 SECT. II.] ALGONKIN-LENAPE AND IROQUOIS NATIONS. 63 great affinity between their languages. The same affinity was observed by Father Allouez, who says that their language, though of the Algonkin stock, differed much from that of all the other tribes of that family, and that it was the most difficult for the Missionaries to understand. The appended vocabulary of the Miamis is extracted from those of Volney and Dr. Thornton, both taken from the Interpreter, the late Mr. Wells, and with the assistance of the celebrated chief "Little Turtle." That of the Illinois, from a manuscript in Mr. Duponceau's col- lection, is less authentic; the name of the author, who appears to have been a French priest, being omitted. He calls it a " Pi-lllinois-Mi" (Piankishaw, Illinois, Miami,) vocabulary, and considers the three languages as being but one. The territory claimed by the Miamis and Piankishaws may be generally stated as having been bounded eastwardlv by the Maumee River of Lake Erie, and to have included all the country drained by the Wabash. The Piankishaws occupied the portion bordering on the Ohio. They granted, in 1768, their lands east of the Wabash to the Dela wares. On the west they bordered on the Illinois, the boundary line being the dividing ridge, which separates the waters emptying into the Saline Creek and the Kaskaskias River, from those which fall into the Wabash. The Piankishaws are the only tribe in that quarter not men- tioned by the French Missionaries, who probably considered them as part of the Miamis. That they were closely con- nected is certain. For at a conference, held at Carlisle, Penn- sylvania, in 1753, with the Ohio Indians and the Six Nations, the Miamis or Twightees recommended to the other Indian nations, and to the English, the infant son of the late chief of the Piankishaws, whom they call "one of their tribes." The name of Twightees is that given by the Six Nations to the Miamis, who, independent of the Piankishaws, are subdivided into three kindred and allied tribes, viz. Miamis Proper, Eel River, and Ouitanons or Weas. Though already diminished by wars, they were still a numerous nation, when first visited by the French missionaries in 1669; and they continued a long while in alliance with the French and at war with the Six Na- tions. But they appear to have, at least for a while, formed a connexion with the last-mentioned nation. They sent depu- ties to the treaty of Lancaster of 1748, who were presented by the Six Nations, in order that they might be admitted into