SECT. IV.] BETWEEN THE MISSISSIPPI AND THE PACIFIC. 133 defensive against the Knistinaux and the Assiniboins, who have in fact driven them away from the easterly portion of the Saskachawin country, and call them the Slave Nation.* We have as yet no other vocabulary of those two nations and of the Assiniboins, but the scanty one of Umfreville. It is how- ever sufficient to show, that the Assiniboins are, as they have been uniformly stated, a branch of the Sioux family ; and that the languages of the Rapid Indians and of the Black Feet are distinct from each other, and different from any other known to us. It will be perceived by an inspection of the map, that, with the exception of some detached bands of the Shoshonees or Snake Indians, who occasionally cross over to the head waters of the Yellowstone and of the river Platte, the only Indians within the United States, east of the Rocky Mountains, not included in the preceding enumeration, are those who may wander between the upper waters of the river Platte and the Red River, west of the Pawnees, Kansas, and Osages. They were designated by Bourgmont, in 1724, by the name of Padoucas ; an appellation which seems to have disappeared. The Panis, or Towiaches of Red River, have fixed villages, and have already been mentioned. The Hietans, or Caman- ches, are within the Mexican dominions; and some stragglers only are occasionally seen within the territory of the United States. Three tribes appear to wander and hunt within their limits in that quarter, or along the Mexican boundary, between the thirty-fourth and forty-first degrees of north latitude. These are the Kaskaias or Bad Hearts, the Kinawas (or Kioways), and the Bald Heads, wdio, united with detached bands of the Arrapa- hoes, of the Shyennes, and even of the Shoshonees, were met on the Arkansa by Major Long's detachment during his first expedition. The vocabularies, which Dr. Say had taken of the languages of the Kaskaias and the Kiawas, have been un- fortunately lost. We only know, that both were harsh, guttur- al, and extremely difficult. It is a remarkable circumstance,
- The information respecting the Crows, the Rapid Indians, and
the Black Feet, has been principally derived from Mr. Kenneth Mac- kenzie, who is at the head of the establishment of the American Mis- souri Fur Company at the mouth of the Yellowstone ; and from whom I hope to receive in the course of next year correct vocabularies of those and other adjacent tribes. The Paegan and Blood Indians are subdivisions of the Black Feet.
