"The fact that languages of rude and more primitive people are built up more regularly and often show a closer observance of logical principles than those of people of ancient civilizations . . . can no longer be doubted."
-Albert Samuel Gatschet, The Klamath Indians of Southwestern Oregon: Letter of transmittal.
The Klamath Indians of Southwestern Oregon (1890) Volume II, part II, by Albert Samuel Gatschet, is a two-part document, third in the nine-part series Contributions to North American Ethnology (all available from Cosimo Classics). While many aspects of the Klamath culture were described by Gatschet, he was especially interested in their language and kept extensive notes on it. Based on these, Part II of this volume includes two dictionaries (Klamath-English and English-Klamath) that the author developed to help scholars and other readers read and speak the Klamath language. This book offers a critical contribution to the history of Native Americans and is a must-read for anthropologists, linguists and students of Native American history.