Indian Linguistic Families Of America, North Of Mexico Part 11

> Riccarees, Latham, Nat. Hist. Man, 344, 1850 (kept distinct from p.a.w.nee family).

> Was.h.i.+ta, Latham in Trans. Philolog. Soc., Lond., 103, 1856.

Buschmann, Spuren der aztek. Sprache, 441, 1859 (revokes previous opinion of its distinctness and refers it to p.a.w.nee family).

> Witchitas, Buschmann, ibid., (same as his Was.h.i.+ta).

Derivation: From the Caddo term ka'-ede, signifying "chief" (Gatschet).

The p.a.w.nee and Caddo, now known to be of the same linguistic family, were supposed by Gallatin and by many later writers to be distinct, and accordingly both names appear in the Archaeologia Americana as family designations. Both names are un.o.bjectionable, but as the term Caddo has priority by a few pages preference is given to it.

Gallatin states "that the Caddoes formerly lived 300 miles up Red River but have now moved to a branch of Red River." He refers to the Nandakoes, the Inies or Tachies, and the Nabedaches as speaking dialects of the Caddo language.

Under p.a.w.nee two tribes were included by Gallatin: The p.a.w.nees proper and the Ricaras. The p.a.w.nee tribes occupied the country on the Platte River adjoining the Loup Fork. The Ricara towns were on the upper Missouri in lat.i.tude 46 30'. The boundaries of the Caddoan family, as at present understood, can best be given under three primary groups, Northern, Middle, and Southern.

_Northern group_.--This comprises the Arikara or Ree, now confined to a small village (on Fort Berthold Reservation, North Dakota,) which they share with the Mandan and Hidatsa tribes of the Siouan family. The Arikara are the remains of ten different tribes of "Paneas," who had been driven from their country lower down the Missouri River (near the Ponka habitat in northern Nebraska) by the Dakota. In 1804 they were in three villages, nearer their present location.[21]

[Footnote 21: Lewis, Travels of Lewis and Clarke, 15, 1809.]

According to Omaha tradition, the Arikara were their allies when these two tribes and several others were east of the Mississippi River.[22]

Fort Berthold Reservation, their present abode, is in the northwest corner of North Dakota.

[Footnote 22: Dorsey in Am. Naturalist, March, 1886, p. 215.]

_Middle group_.--This includes the four tribes or villages of p.a.w.nee, the Grand, Republican, Tapage, and Skidi. Dunbar says: "The original hunting ground of the p.a.w.nee extended from the Niobrara," in Nebraska, "south to the Arkansas, but no definite boundaries can be fixed." In modern times their villages have been on the Platte River west of Columbus, Nebraska. The Omaha and Oto were sometimes southeast of them near the mouth of the Platte, and the Comanche were northwest of them on the upper part of one of the branches of the Loup Fork.[23] The p.a.w.nee were removed to Indian Territory in 1876. The Grand p.a.w.nee and Tapage did not wander far from their habitat on the Platte. The Republican p.a.w.nee separated from the Grand about the year 1796, and made a village on a "large northwardly branch of the Kansas River, to which they have given their name; afterwards they subdivided, and lived in different parts of the country on the waters of Kansas River. In 1805 they rejoined the Grand p.a.w.nee." The Skidi (Panimaha, or p.a.w.nee Loup), according to Omaha tradition,[24] formerly dwelt east of the Mississippi River, where they were the allies of the Arikara, Omaha, Ponka, etc.

After their pa.s.sage of the Missouri they were conquered by the Grand p.a.w.nee, Tapage, and Republican tribes, with whom they have remained to this day. De L'Isle[25] gives twelve Panimaha villages on the Missouri River north of the Pani villages on the Kansas River.

[Footnote 23: Dorsey, Omaha map of Nebraska.]

[Footnote 24: Dorsey in Am. Nat., March, 1886, p. 215.]

[Footnote 25: Carte de la Louisiane, 1718.]

_Southern group_.--This includes the Caddo, Wichita, Kichai, and other tribes or villages which were formerly in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Indian Territory.

The Caddo and Kichai have undoubtedly been removed from their priscan habitats, but the Wichita, judging from the survival of local names (Was.h.i.+ta River, Indian Territory, Wichita Falls, Texas) and the statement of La Harpe,[26] are now in or near one of their early abodes.

Dr. Sibley[27] locates the Caddo habitat 35 miles west of the main branch of Red River, being 120 miles by land from Natchitoches, and they formerly lived 375 miles higher up. Cornell's Atlas (1870) places Caddo Lake in the northwest corner of Louisiana, in Caddo County. It also gives both Was.h.i.+ta and Witchita as the name of a tributary of Red River of Louisiana. This duplication of names seems to show that the Wichita migrated from northwestern Louisiana and southwestern Arkansas to the Indian Territory. After comparing the statements of Dr. Sibley (as above) respecting the habitats of the Anadarko, Ioni, Nabadache, and Eyish with those of Schermerhorn respecting the Kado hadatco,[28] of Le Page Du Pratz (1758) concerning the Natchitoches, of Tonti[29] and La Harpe[30] about the Yatasi, of La Harpe (as above) about the Wichita, and of Sibley concerning the Kichai, we are led to fix upon the following as the approximate boundaries of the habitat of the southern group of the Caddoan family: Beginning on the northwest with that part of Indian Territory now occupied by the Wichita, Chickasaw, and Kiowa and Comanche Reservations, and running along the southern border of the Choctaw Reservation to the Arkansas line; thence due east to the headwaters of Was.h.i.+ta or Witchita River, Polk County, Arkansas; thence through Arkansas and Louisiana along the western bank of that river to its mouth; thence southwest through Louisiana striking the Sabine River near Salem and Belgrade; thence southwest through Texas to Tawakonay Creek, and along that stream to the Brazos River; thence following that stream to Palo Pinto, Texas; thence northwest to the mouth of the North Fork of Red River; and thence to the beginning.

[Footnote 26: In 1719, _fide_ Margry, VI, 289, "the Ousita village is on the southwest branch of the Arkansas River."]

[Footnote 27: 1805, in Lewis and Clarke, Discov., 1806, p. 66.]

[Footnote 28: Second Ma.s.s, Hist. Coll., vol. 2, 1814, p. 23.]

[Footnote 29: 1690, in French, Hist. Coll. La., vol. 1, p. 72.]

[Footnote 30: 1719, in Margry, vol. 6, p. 264.]

PRINc.i.p.aL TRIBES.

A. p.a.w.nee.

Grand p.a.w.nee.

Tappas.

Republican p.a.w.nee.

Skidi.

B. Arikara.

C. Wichita.

(Ki-i'-tcac, Omaha p.r.o.nunciation of the name of a p.a.w.nee tribe, Ki-dhi'-chash or Ki-ri'-chash).

D. Kichai.

E. Caddo (Ka'-do).

_Population._--The present number of the Caddoan stock is 2,259, of whom 447 are on the Fort Berthold Reservation, North Dakota, and the rest in the Indian Territory, some on the Ponca, p.a.w.nee, and Otoe Reservation, the others on the Kiowa, Comanche, and Wichita Reservation. Below is given the population of the tribes officially recognized, compiled chiefly from the Indian Report for 1889:

Arikara 448 p.a.w.nee 824 Wichita 176 Towakarehu 145 Waco 64 --- 385 Kichai 63 Caddo 539 ----- Total 2,259

CHIMAKUAN FAMILY.

= Chimak.u.m, Gibbs in Pac. R. R. Rep., I, 431, 1855 (family doubtful).

= Chemak.u.m, Eells in Am. Antiquarian, 52, Oct., 1880 (considers language different from any of its neighbors).

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< nootka,="" bancroft,="" native="" races,="" iii,="" 564,="" 1882="" (contains="">

Derivation unknown.

Concerning this language Gibbs, as above cited, states as follows:

The language of the Chimak.u.m "differs materially from either that of the Clallams or the Nisqually, and is not understood by any of their neighbors. In fact, they seem to have maintained it a State secret. To what family it will ultimately be referred, cannot now be decided."

Eells also a.s.serts the distinctness of this language from any of its neighbors. Neither of the above authors a.s.signed the language family rank, and accordingly Mr. Gatschet, who has made a comparison of vocabularies and finds the language to be quite distinct from any other, gives it the above name.

The Chimak.u.m are said to have been formerly one of the largest and most powerful tribes of Puget Sound. Their warlike habits early tended to diminish their numbers, and when visited by Gibbs in 1854 they counted only about seventy individuals. This small remnant occupied some fifteen small lodges on Port Townsend Bay. According to Gibbs "their territory seems to have embraced the sh.o.r.e from Port Townsend to Port Ludlow."[31]

In 1884 there were, according to Mr. Myron Eells, about twenty individuals left, most of whom are living near Port Townsend, Was.h.i.+ngton. Three or four live upon the Skokomish Reservation at the southern end of Hood's Ca.n.a.l.

[Footnote 31: Dr. Boas was informed in 1889, by a surviving Chimak.u.m woman and several Clallam, that the tribe was confined to the peninsula between Hood's Ca.n.a.l and Port Townsend.]