Sign Language Among North American Indians 35

Sign Language Among North American Indians 35

For the remainder, and for general

superintendence of the artistic department of the work, thanks are due

to Mr. W.H. HOLMES, whose high reputation needs no indorsement here.

 

 

 

 

LIST OF AUTHORITIES AND COLLABORATORS.

 

 

1. A list prepared by WILLIAM DUNBAR, dated Natchez, June 30, 1800,

collected from tribes then "west of the Mississippi," but probably not

from those very far west of that river, published in the _Transactions

of the American Philosophical Society_, vol. vi, pp. 1-8, as read

January 16, 1801, and communicated by Thomas Jefferson, president of

the society.

 

2. The one published in _An Account of an Expedition from

Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, performed in the years 1819-1820,

Philadelphia_, 1823, vol. i, pp. 378-394. This expedition was made by

order of the Hon. J.O. Calhoun, Secretary of War, under the command of

Maj. S.H. LONG, of the United States Topographical Engineers, and is

commonly called James' Long's Expedition. This list appears to have

been collected chiefly by Mr. T. Say, from the Pani, and the Kansas,

Otos, Missouris, Iowas, Omahas, and other southern branches of the

great Dakota family.

 

3. The one collected by Prince MAXIMILIAN VON WIED-NEUWIED in _Reise

in das Innere Nord-America in den Jahren 1832 bis 1834_. _Coblenz_,

1839 [--1841], vol. ii, pp. 645-653. His statement is, "the Arikaras,

Mandans, Minnitarris [Hidatsa], Crows [Absaroka], Cheyennes, Snakes

[Shoshoni], and Blackfeet [Satsika] all understand certain signs,

which, on the contrary, as we are told, are unintelligible to the

Dakotas, Assiniboins, Ojibwas, Krihs [Crees], and other nations. The

list gives examples of the sign language of the former." From the

much greater proportion of time spent and information obtained by the

author among the Mandans and Hidatsa then and now dwelling near Port

Berthold, on the Upper Missouri, it might be safe to consider that all

the signs in his list were in fact procured from those tribes. But as

the author does not say so, he is not made to say so in this work. If

it shall prove that the signs now used by the Mandans and Hidatsa more

closely resemble those on his list than do those of other tribes, the

internal evidence will be verified. This list is not published in

the English edition, _London_, 1843, but appears in the German, above

cited, and in the French, _Paris_, 1840. Bibliographic reference is

often made to this distinguished explorer as "Prince Maximilian," as

if there were but one possessor of that Christian name among princely

families. For brevity the reference in this paper will be _Wied_.

 

No translation of this list into English appears to have been printed

in any shape before that recently published by the present writer

in the _American Antiquarian_, vol. ii, No. 3, while the German and

French editions are costly and difficult of access, so the collection

cannot readily be compared by readers with the signs now made by the

same tribes. The translation, now presented is based upon the German

original, but in a few cases where the language was so curt as not

to give a clear idea, was collated with the French edition of the

succeeding year, which, from some internal evidence, appears to have

been published with the assistance or supervision of the author. Many

of the descriptions are, however, so brief and indefinite in both

their German and French forms that they necessarily remain so in

the present translation. The princely explorer, with the keen

discrimination shown in all his work, doubtless observed what has

escaped many recent reporters of Indian signs, that the latter depend

much more upon motion than mere position, and are generally large and

free, seldom minute. His object was to express the general effect of

the motion rather than to describe it with such precision as to allow

of its accurate reproduction by a reader who had never seen it. To

have presented the signs as now desired for comparison, toilsome

elaboration would have been necessary, and even that would not in all

cases have sufficed without pictorial illustration.

 

On account of the manifest importance of determining the prevalence

and persistence of the signs as observed half a century ago, an

exception is made to the general arrangement hereafter mentioned by

introducing after the _Wied_ signs remarks of collaborators who have

made special comparisons, and adding to the latter the respective

names of those collaborators--as, (_Matthews_), (_Boteler_). It is

hoped that the work of those gentlemen will be imitated, not only

regarding the _Wied_, signs, but many others.

 

4. The signs given to publication by Capt. R.F. BURTON, which, it

would be inferred, were collected in 1860-'61, from the tribes met or

learned of on the overland stage route, including Southern Dakotas,

Utes, Shoshoni, Arapahos, Crows, Pani, and Apaches. They are contained

in _The City of the Saints_, _New York_, 1862, pp. 123-130.

 

Information has been recently received to the effect that this

collection was not made by the distinguished English explorer from

his personal observation, but was obtained by him from one man in Salt

Lake City, a Mormon bishop, who, it is feared, gave his own ideas of

the formation and use of signs rather than their faithful description.

 

5. A list read by Dr. D.G. MACGOWAN, at a meeting of the American

Ethnological Society, January 23, 1866, and published in the

_Historical Magazine_, vol. x, 1866, pp. 86, 87, purporting to be the

signs of the Caddos, Wichitas, and Comanches.

 

6. Annotations by Lieut. HEBER M. CREEL, Seventh United States

Cavalry, received in January, 1881. This officer is supposed to

be specially familiar with the Cheyennes, among whom he lived for

eighteen months; but his recollection is that most of the signs

described by him were also observed among the Arapaho, Sioux, and

several other tribes.

 

7. A special contribution from Mr. F.F. GERARD, of Fort A. Lincoln,

D.T., of signs obtained chiefly from a deaf-mute Dakota, who has

traveled among most of the Indian tribes living between the Missouri

River and the Rocky Mountains. Mr. Gerard's own observations are based

upon the experience of thirty-two years' residence in that country,

during which long period he has had almost daily intercourse with

Indians. He states that the signs contributed by him are used by the

Blackfeet, (Satsika), Absaroka, Dakota, Hidatsa, Mandan, and Arikara

Indians, who may in general be considered to be the group of tribes

referred to by the Prince of Wied.

 

In the above noted collections the generality of the statements as

to locality of the observation and use of the signs rendered it

impossible to arrange them in the manner considered to be the best to

study the diversities and agreements of signs. For that purpose it is

more convenient that the names of the tribe or tribes among which the

described signs have been observed should catch the eye in immediate

connection with them than that those of the observers only should

follow. Some of the latter indeed have given both similar and

different signs for more than one tribe, so that the use of the

contributor's name alone would create confusion. To print in every

case the name of the contributor, together with the name of the tribe,

would seriously burden the paper and be unnecessary to the student,

the reference being readily made to each authority through this LIST

which also serves as an index. The seven collections above mentioned

will therefore be referred to by the names of the authorities

responsible for them. Those which now follow are arranged

alphabetically by tribes, under headings of Linguistic Families

according to Major J.W. POWELL's classification, which are also given

below in alphabetic order. Example: The first authority is under the

heading ALGONKIAN, and, concerning only the Abnaki tribe, is referred

to as (_Abnaki_ I), Chief MASTA being the personal authority.

 

 

_ALGONKIAN._

 

_Abnaki_ I. A letter dated December 15, 1879, from H.L. MASTA, chief

of the Abnaki, residing near Pierreville, Quebec.

 

_Arapaho_ I. A contribution from Lieut. H.B. LEMLY, Third United

States Artillery, compiled from notes and observations taken by him in

1877, among the Northern Arapahos.

 

_Arapaho_ II. A list of signs obtained from O-QO-HIS'-SA (the Mare,

better known as Little Raven) and NA'-WATC (Left Hand), members of a

delegation of Arapaho and Cheyenne Indians, from Darlington, Ind. T.,

who visited Washington during the summer of 1880.

 

_Cheyenne_ I. Extracts from the _Report of Lieut. J.W. ABERT, of his

Examination of New Mexico in the years 1846-'47_, in Ex. Doc. No. 41,

Thirtieth Congress, first session, Washington, 1848, p. 417, _et seq._

 

_Cheyenne_ II. A list prepared in July, 1879, by Mr. FRANK H. CUSHING,

of the Smithsonian Institution, from continued interviews with

TITC-KE-MA'-TSKI (Cross-Eyes), an intelligent Cheyenne, then employed

at that Institution.

 

_Cheyenne_ III. A special contribution with diagrams from Mr. BEN

CLARK, scout and interpreter, of signs collected from the Cheyennes

during his long residence among that tribe.

 

_Cheyenne_ IV. Several communications from Col. RICHARD I. DODGE,

A.D.C., United States Army, author of _The Plains of the Great West

and their Inhabitants_, _New York_, 1877, relating to his large

experience with the Indians of the prairies.

 

_Cheyenne_ V. A list of signs obtained from WA-Uⁿ' (Bob-tail) and

MO-HI'NUK-MA-HA'-IT (Big Horse), members of a delegation of Arapaho

and Cheyenne Indians from Darlington, Ind. T., who visited Washington

during the summer of 1880.

 

_Ojibwa_ I. The small collection of J.G. KOHL, made about the middle

of the present century, among the Ojibwas around Lake Superior.

Published in his _Kitchigami. Wanderings Around Lake Superior,

London_, 1860.

 

_Ojibwa_ II. Several letters from the Very Rev. EDWARD JACKER, Pointe St. Ignace, Mich., respecting the Ojibwas.