A map from 1906 of North America central Canada to northern Mexico showing the distribution and territories of the Native Americans around 1500. The boundaries are based on linguistic stock and not tribal territories. "Anthropologists of to-day determine groups on one of four sets of characteristics - physical, linguistic, geographical, and general culture. The first two criteria are the more exact, and the linguistic classification of North American tribes has been accepted as the most satisfactory for scientific study. [...] The Bureau of Ethnology in Washington has determined fifty-nine independent linguistic families north of Mexico, and with certain slight modifications we may accept this as the best classification at our disposal. The distribution of these stocks when first met by Europeans is shown in the accompanying map reproduced from a report of the bureau." - Farrand, 1906, pp. 88-92.