Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of theSmithsonian Institution, 188 | Page 6

OF MR. A. S. GATSCHET.
During October and December Mr. Albert S. Gatschet was engaged in gathering historic and linguistic data in Louisiana, Texas, and the portion of Mexico adjoining the Rio Grande, which region contains the remnants of a number of tribes whose language and linguistic affinity are practically unknown. After a long search Mr. Gatschet found a small settlement of Biloxi Indians at Indian Creek, five or six miles west of Lecompte, Rapides Parish, Louisiana, where they gain a livelihood as day laborers. Most of them speak English more than their native tongue; in fact, about two-thirds of the thirty-two survivors speak English only. The vocabulary obtained by him discloses the interesting fact that the Biloxi belong to the Siouan linguistic family.
He heard of about twenty-five of the Tunika tribe still living in their old homes on the Marksville Prairie, Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana. An excellent vocabulary was obtained of their language at Lecompte, Louisiana, and a careful comparison of this with other Indian languages shows that the Tunika is related to none, but represents a distinct linguistic family. He was unable to collect any information in regard to the Karankawa tribe, concerning which little is known except that they lived upon the Texan coast near Lavaca Bay.
Leaving Laredo County, Texas, he visited Camargo, in Tamaulipas, Mexico, finding near San Miguel the remnants of the Comecrudo tribe, or, as they are called by the whites, Carrizos. Only the older men and women still remember their language. The full-blood Comecrudos seen were tall and thin, some of them with fairer complexions than the Mexicans. Subsequently the Cotoname language, formerly spoken in the same district, was studied and found to be a distinctly related dialect of Comecrudo. Both of them belong to the Coahuiltecan family. From the Comecrudo Mr. Gatschet obtained the names of a number of extinct tribes which formerly lived in their vicinity, but of which no representatives are left. These are the Casas Chiquitas, Tejones (or "Raccoons"), Pintos or Pakawas, Miakkan, and Cartujanos. He next visited the Tlaskaltec Indians, who live in the city of Saltillo. Of these Indians about two hundred still speak their own language, which is almost identical with the Aztec, although largely mixed with Spanish.
WORK OF MR. JEREMIAH CURTIN.
Mr. Jeremiah Curtin was engaged from the middle of March to June 1 in completing investigations begun the previous year into the history, myths, and language of the Iroquois Indians at Versailles, Cattaraugus County, New York. The material obtained by him is of great interest and value.
WORK OF DR. W. J. HOFFMAN.
Dr. W. J. Hoffman proceeded early in August to Paint Rock, North Carolina, to secure sketches of pictographs upon the canyon walls of the French Broad River near that place. Owing to disintegration of the sandstone rocks, the painted outlines of animals and other figures are becoming slowly obliterated, though sufficient remained to show their similarity to others in various portions of the region which it is believed was occupied by the Cherokee Indians. Similar outlines were reported to have been formerly visible on the same river, as well as on the Tennessee, near Knoxville, Tennessee, though no traces of them were found.
The next place visited was a few miles distant from and northwest of Liberty, Tazewell County, Virginia, where some painted characters still remain in a good state of preservation. They are on the sandstone cliffs near the summit of the mountains and consist of human figures, birds, and other forms, appearing to resemble artistically those of North Carolina. Five miles eastward, on the same range, is a single diamond-shaped cluster of red and black marks, no other forms being visible. This rock is known in the surrounding country as the "Handkerchief Rock," because of its resemblance to an outspread colored handkerchief. He then proceeded to Charleston, West Virginia, obtaining copies of petroglyphs on Big Horse Creek, 12 miles southwest of that place, and at several points along the Kanawha River. It was learned that 20 miles south of Charleston, on the reputed trail leading from the Kanawha Valley into Kentucky, "painted trees" formerly marked the direction of the trails leading into the Cherokee country, and into Kentucky. These trees bore various marks in red, but no accurate information pertaining to the precise form of the characters could be ascertained. At the other points mentioned characters were noticed resembling in general those found in other portions of the Eastern and Middle States known to have been occupied by tribes of the Algonquian linguistic family.
The "Indian God-Rock," 115 miles north of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, on the Alleghany River, was next examined and sketches were made of the figures. This rock is an immense bowlder, the sculptured face of which is about 15 feet high and from 8 to 10 feet broad, and lies at the water's edge.