So far as the survivors
of the Biloxi are concerned the classification is satisfactory; but there
is doubt concerning the former limits of the division, and also concerning
the relations of the extinct tribes referred to on slender, yet the best
available, evidence. The classification of the extinct and nearly extinct
Siouan Indians of the east is much less satisfactory. In several cases
languages are utterly lost, and in others a few doubtful terms alone
remain. In these cases affinity is inferred in part from geographic
relation, but chiefly from the recorded federation of tribes and union of
remnants as the aboriginal population faded under the light of brighter
intelligence; and in all such instances it has been assumed that
federation and union grew out of that conformity in mode of thought which
is characteristic of peoples speaking identical or closely related
tongues. Accordingly, while the grouping of eastern tribes rests in part
on meager testimony and is open to question at many points, it is perhaps
the best that can be devised, and suffices for convenience of statement if
not as a final classification. So far as practicable the names adopted for
the tribes, confederacies, and other groups are those in common use, the
aboriginal designations, when distinct, being added in those cases in
which they are known.
The present population of the Siouan stock is probably between 40,000 and
45,000, including 2,000 or more (mainly Asiniboin) in Canada.
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