The American Race

Description

As far as I know, that is the first attempt at a systematic classification of the whole American race at the basis of language. I do not put out of your mind Dr. Latham’s meritorious effort nearly forty years ago; but the deficiency of material at the moment obliged him to depart from the linguistic scheme and accept other guides.

While not depreciating the value of physical data, of culture and traditional history, I’ve repeatedly placed these subordinate to relationship as indicated by grammar and lexicography. There are well-known examples in the ethnography of other races, where reliance on language by myself would lead the investigator astray; but all serious students of the native American tribes are united in the opinion that with them no other clue can compare to it in general results. Because of this the Bureau of Ethnology of the US and the similar departments in the governments of Canada and Mexico have agreed in adopting officially the linguistic classification for the aboriginal population within their several territories.

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