Note 23 — Bands.
Reading edition
As to the origin of the term band, used so generally by the older writers and traders of this area, we have a suggestion from Keating: “The term band, as applied to a herd of buffalo, has almost become technical, being the only one in use in the west. It is derived from the French term bande.” Keating, 379. We may venture that the use of this term for a head man and his following among the Indians of this same area was suggested by the analogy between the two kinds of groups, these old naïve observers not being blinded by sociological preconceptions.