DESCRIPTION: Two scarce maps pertaining to the Siouan and Caddoan linguistic families by William E. Connelley. Drawn by August Ross, the maps were published circa 1920.
The first map, titled Map Showing The Possessions Of The Caddoan And Siouan Linguistic Families Of North American Indians Before The Western Migration Of The Siouan's, presents a continental synthesis intended to depict original linguistic homelands rather than fixed political boundaries. The Caddoan family is shown occupying a Mississippi Valley core along the Arkansas, Red, and Platte river systems, while the Siouan family is placed mainly east of the Mississippi River. The enclosed regions represent long-term habitation zones derived from historical tradition, early European accounts, and linguistic comparison. The map establishes the argument that the Siouan peoples were later arrivals to the Plains, displacing an older Caddoan presence.
The second map, Map Showing The Original Caddoan Country After The Intrusion Into It Of The Siouan Linguistic Family, emphasizes movement and territorial contraction. Numbered regions and migration paths depict successive Siouan advances and the resulting fragmentation of Caddoan lands, isolating groups such as the Pawnee and Arikara. River corridors remain central, reinforcing the idea that waterways structured settlement and conflict. In contrast to the first map’s generalized homelands, this sheet focuses on process, showing encroachment, displacement, and the later imposition of reservation boundaries.
William Elsey Connelley
( March 15, 1855 - July 15, 1930)
W. E. Connelley was a self taught American historian, writer, and public servant whose work became foundational to the study of Kansas, the Civil War borderlands, and the nineteenth century American West. Born in Johnson County, Kentucky, and shaped early by the disruptions of the Civil War, Connelley began teaching school at the age of seventeen and spent a decade in common school education before relocating to Kansas in 1881. There he entered public life, serving as deputy county clerk and later as elected county clerk of Wyandotte County for two terms. His career ranged widely through education, clerical service, banking, publishing, civil service in Washington, and the Kansas oil business, reflecting the practical experience and regional knowledge that later informed his historical writing.
Connelley’s lasting importance rests on his prolific historical scholarship and leadership within the professional historical community. Beginning in the 1890s he devoted himself increasingly to research and publication, producing major works including The Provisional Government of Nebraska Territory, Quantrill and the Border Wars, multi volume histories of Kansas and Kentucky, and numerous studies of frontier politics, military campaigns, and regional biography. His books were notable for their detail and for incorporating first hand interviews with participants in the events he described, making them enduring reference works despite occasional criticism over documentation. Widely respected by his peers, Connelley served as president and long time secretary of the Kansas State Historical Society, president of the Kansas Authors Club, and president of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, remaining an influential figure in Midwestern historical scholarship until his death in 1930.
PUBLICATION DATE: 1920
GEOGRAPHIC AREA: United States
BODY OF WATER: N/A
CONDITION: Excellent.
Folds as issued. Margin narrow at bottom left corners. On thin paper.
COLORING: None
ENGRAVER:
SIZE: 11
" x
9 "
ITEM PHYSICAL LOCATION:
PRICE: $195
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