The Canadian Indians, however, hemmed in by French and English settlements, were semi-civilized.

The Miamis and Shawnees, who ranged the valley of the Ohio, were the tribes nearest to Gallatin's home on the Monongahela.

These, though for a long time under the influence of the French, retained their original wildness, and were, during the first years of his residence, the dread of the frontier.
The interest aroused in the mind of Mr.Gallatin by personal observation was quickened by his intimacy with Jefferson, whose "Notes on Virginia," published in 1801, contained the first attempt at a classification and enumeration of American tribes.

The earlier work of Colden was confined to the Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy.

The arrangement of the Louisiana territory, ceded by France, brought Mr.Gallatin into contact with Pierre Louis Chouteau, and an intimacy formed with John Jacob Astor, who was largely concerned in the fur trade of the Northwest, widened the field of interest, which included the geography of the interior and the customs of its inhabitants.