North American Eskimoan stock is noteworthy by reason of being the first of all the aboriginal peoples of America to be visited by representatives of European culture — the Norsemen in the 10th century, etc. It is also the only primitive people who, unaided by civilized races, occupy a portion of both hemi spheres, for the Eskimo stretch from Labrador to a considerable distance within the borders of northeastern Asia. They illustrate the victory of man over a difficult environment, for they are a merry and sociable people in spite of the inclement and depressing character of their Arctic surroundings. They have also a marked sense of humor, as the institution of nith song, or settlement of disputes by public judg ment of the comparative merits of the two parties in competitive singing would indicate the themes of the singing being the dispute and sarcasm at the expense of the opponent The Eskimo are also very skilful carvers and engravers of ivory, their spirited drawings of animals, etc., resembling in marked fashion the similar art-products of prehistoric man of the French river-drift, a likeness which has induced some authorities (Dawkins, De Mortillet) to assume a racial connection between these two peoples. Mason has recently suggested that these drawings owe a good deal to the contact with Europeans (introduction of iron tools, etc.), but Boas considers that their close resem blance to the bark and rock pictographs of the Indians forbids the conclusion that these draw ings are of other than native origin. The unity of language and (to a considerable degree) of custom, mythology, etc., among the various Eskimo tribes is remarkable when one remem bers the extent of their distribution. The use of the Eskimo dog with the sledge, the kayak, the harpoon, the snow-house (iglu) and the invention of many mechanical devices, show them to be gifted with native intelligence.
The Athapascan stock is notable for the contrasts in culture and diversities of culture capacity presented by its members. Some of the Athapascan peoples of northwestern Canada and Alaska are among the lowest types of American man, and a few of them have hardly yet come to knowledge of the white man, the advent of the fur-trader being, according to J. M. Bell, a matter of the last few years in part of their domain. To this stock belong also the Apaches, once the terror of the civilization of the South west, whose depredations, in earlier times, dis turbed the peace of the native civilization of Old Mexico. It is fair to say, however, of them that individual Apaches (Dr. Montezuma, for example) show good capacity for adopting the chief elements of white American culture. Several small tribes of Athapascans are scat tered through Washington, Oregon and Cali fornia, the most noteworthy being the Hupa, on Trinity River, the °Romans of California' as they have been called. The Navaho, who have assimilated to a considerable extent the culture of the whites, were good agriculturists before the coming of the Spaniards, from whom they adopted the sheep, a fact which modified their environment and their response to it. The con
trast between the rude tribes of the ((Barren Grounds' of Canada and the Navaho of New Mexico and Arizona is, as Horatio Hale pointed out, one of the most remarkable instances of culture-change by process of environmental variation on record. The recent loan-word Klondike comes from an Athapascan dialect The Algonkian stock, members of which were found from Labrador to South Carolina, and from the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi northwesterly to the foot of the Rocky Mountains and the borders of the do main of the Athapascans, is of interest for many reasons. The great area over which it is spread has brought members of this stock into contact with many other Indian peoples,— the Naskopi. Crees, and northern Ojibwa with the Eskimo; the Micmacs with the Eskimo and Beothuk; the Ojibwa and related tribes of New England, New York and Pennsylvania, the Lenape of New Jersey, the Nanticokes, Powhat ans, etc., of Maryland, Virginia and the Caro linas with the Iroquois (who, both north and south, form an enclave in the Algonkian terri tory) ; the western Ojibwa, etc., with the Siouan tribes in the upper Mississippi region, and in the southern Mississippi country the Illinois and kindred peoples with the Caddoan and other stocks; the Blackfoot in the extreme northwest of the Algonkian area with the Athapascan Sarcees and the Kootenay. The aberrant Cheyennes and Arapaho (recently studied by Kroeber) belong to the Algonkian stock. Another evidence of the importance of this stock is the fact that many other stocks and tribes are known to us by names of Algonkian origin: Eskimo, Athapascan, Siouan, and pos sibly also Iroquoian and Muskhogean; Chip wyan, Assiniboin, Mohawk, etc. Of all the Indian stocks of North America none have made a greater impression upon the whites (French and English) than the Algonkian. This is seen when we remember that Powhatan and Pocahontas, King Philip, Pontiac, Tecumseh, Black Hawk, etc., the Indians who have ap pealed most to our historians, novelists and dramatists, have all been of Algonkian lineage. This stock has also contributed to the vocabulary of spoken and written American-English some 140 words, of which many are hardly felt to be of Indian origin: Carcajou, Caribou, Caucus, Chipmunk, Hickory, Hominy, Manito, Maski nonge, Menhaden, Moccasin, Moose, Mugwump, Opossum, Pappoose, Pemmican, Persimmon, Powwow, Pung, Raccoon, Sachem, Skunk, Squash, Squaw, Tammany, Terrapin, Tobog gan, Tomahawk, Totem, Tump, Tuxedo, etc. A people who have contributed to such a cos mopolitan tongue as English important words like Caucus, Mugwump, Tammany and Totem, deserve more than passing mention. Our civilization owes to them also more material things than these,— tobogganing and lacrosse, canoeing (in large measure) and numerous de vices of agricultural and domestic industry adopted by the early colonists from the aborig ines. From the Algonkian Indians the whites also learned how to make maple sugar and maple syrup.