Plains Indian Sign Language

 

            Compromising of vast grasslands spanning from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and reaching from the present-day provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan in Canada down to the present-day state of Texas in the United States, the Great Plains was home to one of the last indigenous people to be conquered in North America: the Plains Indians. Often thought of as the archetypical “American Indians”, the Plains Indians represented six distinct spoken American Indian linguistic stocks. Between these linguistically and culturally different peoples, however, there existed a language that nearly every linguistic family shared some knowledge of: Plain Indian Sign Language. Plain Indian Sign Language, or PISL, played an important role in inter-tribal communication for years (some believe centuries), particularly those years following the greater availability of horses for the Plains Indians, which consequently increased human mobility and changed their cultures forever. While little is known about the language’s origins or age, first hand witnesses, historians, and anthropologists, alike, agree that the language, in its own right, played a vital role in everyday affairs between the tribes and bands that inhabited the Great Plains, and even, at times, captured pieces of a history shared between peoples seldom seen or known by the outside world.

 

 

Primary sources:

• Clark, W. P., The Indian Sign Language, (L. R. Hamersly & Co.), Philadelphia, 1885.

 

Author of The Indian Sign Language, W.P. Clark served in the United States Army in the northern plains during the Indian Wars and worked closely with several Plains Indian tribes. Having taken it upon himself to acquire PISL and study the role it played between the different linguistic groups, Clark’s manual on the language contains not only detailed descriptions of and directions on the proper execution of hundreds of signs but also illuminates the history of many signs, differentials of several signs that exist between different tribes and bands, and the heavily related beliefs and customs of the Plains Indian peoples.

 

• Dodge, Col. Richard Irving, Our Wild Indians: Thirty-Three Years' Personal Experience Among The Red Men of The Great West, (A. D. Worthington & Co.), Hartford, 1882.

                    Colonel Richard Irving Dodge wrote extensively on his experiences with the Natives of the Great Plains, discussing in depth a variety of cultural customs, beliefs, and traditions belonging to differing tribes, and narrates his own accounts and    encounters while serving in the United States Army. Dodge provides priceless firsthand insight on PISL, from varying perspectives and situations.

 

• Mallery, Garrick, Introduction To The Study Of Sign Language Among The North America Indians, (Government Printing Office), Washington, 1880.

 

After being called upon to pursue his investigations on PISL by the Bureau of American Ethnology, Colonel Garrick Mallery released what was originally intended to be an instruction manual for students of PISL, which consisted  of 72 pages and 33 figures, only to be followed by a quarto volume of 329 pages during the same year. Mallery investigates the basis of what gestured communication is, and what it means for groups of people from different sociological backgrounds, particularly the Plains Indians. Mallery provides his own insight and speculation on the meaning and importance of PISL, and the role it played between tribes of the Great Plains.

 

 

Secondary Sources:

• Webb, Walter P., The Great Plains, (Ginn & CO.), Dallas, 1931.

 

Webb, a history instructor at the University of Texas, investigates the relationship shared between the geography of the Great Plains and those who inhabited it, particularly between the 16th and 20th centuries. Though it does not solely focus on the Plains Indians, The Great Plains does provide invaluable information on the history and lives of the Plains Indians and their interactions with both those around them and their environment.

 

•   Foreman, Carolyn Thomas, "Lewis Francis Hadley: 'The Long-Haired Sign Talker’”, The Chronicles of Oklahoma, XXVII (No. I, 1949-50).

 

                        Foreman, a historian from Oklahoma, investigates PISL while focusing on Lewis Francis Hadley, a skilled signer of PISL who, aside from interpreting and working with a number of Plains Indian tribes, also translated the Bible in PISL. Foreman’s          account gives an in-depth look at the flexibility and capability of expression that exists within PISL, while bringing light to the role the language played in a number of environments from circumstances concerning Hadley and other Native signers.

 

 

• Walker, Jerell R., “The Sign Language of The Plains Indians of North America”, Chronicles of Oklahoma, XXXII (No. 1, 1953-54).

 

An excellent periodical pertaining to the wide reaching influence of PISL and highlighting a number of accounts shared by notable soldiers and historians alike. This periodical touches on a number of perspectives as to the origin of PISL and even its validity as a language, while maintaining neutrality on any claims of from whence it came or its role in Plains Indians’ lives. The first hand experiences mentioned within are enlightening and thought provoking.

 

 

 

 

 

By Kendrick Corp