In 1872 Hale noted a resemblance
between the Tutelo and Dakota languages, and this resemblance was
discussed orally and in correspondence with several students of Indian
languages, but the probability of direct connection seemed so remote that
the affinity was not generally accepted. Even in 1880, after extended
comparison with Dakota material (including that collected by the newly
instituted Bureau of Ethnology), this distinguished investigator was able
to detect only certain general similarities between the Tutelo tongue and
the dialects of the Dakota tribes.(4) In 1881 Gatschet made a collection
of linguistic material among the Catawba Indians of South Carolina, and
was struck with the resemblance of many of the vocables to Siouan terms of
like meaning, and began the preparation of a comparative Catawba-Dakota
vocabulary. To this the Tutelo, cegiha, {~LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED T~}{~LATIN SMALL LETTER OPEN O~}iwe?re, and Hotcangara
(Winnebago) were added by Dorsey, who made a critical examination of all
Catawba material extant and compared it with several Dakota dialects, with
which he was specially conversant. These examinations and comparisons
demonstrated the affinity between the Dakota and Catawba tongues and
showed them to be of common descent; and the establishment of this
relation made easy the acceptance of the affinity suggested by Hale
between the Dakota and Tutelo.
Up to this time it was supposed that the eastern tribes "were merely
offshoots of the Dakota;" but in 1883 Hale observed that "while the
language of these eastern tribes is closely allied to that of the western
Dakota, it bears evidence of being older in form,"(5) and consequently
that the Siouan tribes of the interior seem to have migrated westward from
a common fatherland with their eastern brethren bordering the Atlantic.
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