Sign Language Among North American Indians 15

Sign Language Among North American Indians 15

At the same time due consideration must

be given to the great change in the intercommunication of tribes,

produced by the importation of the horse, by which the habits of

those Indians now, but not very anciently, inhabiting the Plains were

entirely changed. It is probable that a sign language before existing

became, contemporaneously with nomadic life, cultivated and enriched.

 

As regards the Spanish origin suggested, there is ample evidence that

the Spaniards met signs in their early explorations north of and in

the northern parts of Mexico, and availed themselves of them but did

not introduce them. It is believed also that the elaborate picture

writing of Mexico was founded on gesture signs.

 

With reference to the statement that the Kaiowas are the most expert

sign talkers of the Plains, a number of authorities and correspondents

give the precedence to the Cheyennes, and an equal number to the

Arapahos. Probably the accident of meeting specially skillful talkers

in the several tribes visited influences such opinions.

 

The writer's experience, both of the Utes and Pai-Utes, is different

from the above statement respecting the absence of signs among them.

They not only use their own signs but fully understand the difference

between the signs regarded as their own and those of the Kaiowas. On

special examination they understood some of the latter only as words

of a foreign language interpolated in an oral conversation would be

comprehended from the context, and others they would recognize as

having seen before among other tribes without adoption. The same is

true regarding the Brulé Sioux, as was clearly expressed by Medicine

Bull, their chief. The Pimas, Papagos, and Maricopas examined had a

copious sign language, yet were not familiar with many Kaiowa signs

presented to them.

 

Instead of referring to a time past when they did not use signs, the

Indians examined by the writer and by most of his correspondents

speak of a time when they and their fathers used it more freely

and copiously than at present, its disuse being from causes before

mentioned. It, however, may be true in some cases that a tribe, having

been for a long time in contact only with others the dialect of which

was so nearly akin as to be comprehensible, or from any reason being

separated from those of a strange speech, discontinued sign language

for a time, and then upon migration or forced removal came into

circumstances where it was useful, and revived it. It is asserted that

some of the Muskoki and the Ponkas now in the Indian Territory never

saw sign language until they arrived there. Yet there is some evidence

that the Muskoki did use signs a century ago, and some of the Ponkas

still remaining on their old homes on the Missouri remember it and

have given their knowledge to an accurate correspondent, Rev. J.O.

Dorsey, though for many years they have not been in circumstances to

require its employment.

 

Perhaps the most salutary criticism to be offered regarding the theory

would be in the form of a query whether sign language has ever been

invented by any one body of people at any one time, and whether it is

not simply a phase in evolution, surviving and reviving when needed.

Criticism on this subject is made reluctantly, as it would be highly

interesting to determine that sign language on this continent came

from a particular stock, and to ascertain that stock. Such research

would be similar to that into the Aryan and Semitic sources to

which many modern languages have been traced backwards from existing

varieties, and if there appear to be existing varieties in signs their

roots may still be found to be _sui generis_. The possibility that the

discrepancy between signs was formerly greater than at present will

receive attention in discussing the distinction between the identity

of signs and their common use as an art. It is sufficient to add

now that not only does the burden of proof rest unfavorably upon

the attempt to establish one parent stock for sign language in North

America, but it also comes under the stigma now fastened upon the

immemorial effort to name and locate the original oral speech of man.

It is only next in difficulty to the old persistent determination

to decide upon the origin of the whole Indian "race," in which most

peoples of antiquity in the eastern hemisphere, including the

lost tribes of Israel, the Gipsies, and the Welsh, have figured

conspicuously as putative parents.

 

 

 

_IS THE INDIAN SYSTEM SPECIAL AND PECULIAR?_

 

This inquiry is closely connected with the last. If the system of

signs was invented here in the correct sense of that term, and by a

known and existing tribe, it is probable that it would not be

found prevailing in any important degree where the influence of the

inventors could not readily have penetrated. An affirmative answer

to the question also presupposes the same answer to another question,

viz, whether there is any one uniform system among the North American

Indians which can therefore be compared with any other system. This

last inquiry will be considered in its order. In comparing the system

as a whole with others, the latter are naturally divided into signs of

speaking men foreign to America and those of deaf-mutes.

 

 

COMPARISONS WITH FOREIGN SIGNS.

 

The generalization of TYLOR that "gesture language is substantially

the same among savage tribes all over the world," interpreted by his

remarks in another connection, is understood as referring to their

common use of signs, and of signs formed on the same principles, but

not of precisely the same signs to express the same ideas. In this

sense of the generalization the result of the writer's study not only

sustains it, but shows a surprising number of signs for the same idea

which are substantially identical, not only among savage tribes, but

among all peoples that use gesture signs with any freedom. Men, in

groping for a mode of communication with each other, and using the

same general methods, have been under many varying conditions and

circumstances which have determined differently many conceptions and

their semiotic execution, but there have also been many of both which

were similar. Our Indians have no special superstition concerning the

evil-eye like the Italians, nor have they been long familiar with the

jackass so as to make him emblematical of stupidity; therefore signs

for these concepts are not cisatlantic, but even in this paper many

are shown which are substantially in common between our Indians

and Italians. The large collection already obtained, but not now

published, shows many others identical, not only with those of the

Italians and the classic Greeks and Romans, but of other peoples of

the Old World, both savage and civilized. The generic uniformity

is obvious, while the occasion of specific varieties can be readily

understood.

 

 

COMPARISON WITH DEAF-MUTE SIGNS.

 

The Indians who have been shown over the civilized East have often

succeeded in holding intercourse, by means of their invention and

application of principles in what may be called the voiceless mother

utterance, with white deaf-mutes, who surely have no semiotic code

more nearly connected with that attributed to the plain-roamers

than is derived from their common humanity. They showed the greatest

pleasure in meeting deaf-mutes, precisely as travelers in a foreign

country are rejoiced to meet persons speaking their language, with

whom they can hold direct communication without the tiresome and often

suspected medium of an interpreter. When they met together they were

found to pursue the same course as that noticed at the meeting of

deaf-mutes who were either not instructed in any methodical dialect

or who had received such instruction by different methods. They often

disagreed in the signs at first presented, but soon understood them,

and finished by adopting some in mutual compromise, which proved to be

those most strikingly appropriate, graceful, and convenient; but there

still remained in some cases a plurality of fitting signs for the same

idea or object. On one of the most interesting of these occasions, at

the Pennsylvania Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, in 1873, it was

remarked that the signs of the deaf-mutes were much more readily

understood by the Indians, who were Absaroka or Crows, Arapahos, and

Cheyennes, than were theirs by the deaf-mutes, and that the latter

greatly excelled in pantomimic effect. This need not be surprising

when it is considered that what is to the Indian a mere adjunct or

accomplishment is to the deaf-mute the natural mode of utterance, and

that there is still greater freedom from the trammel of translating

words into action--instead of acting the ideas themselves--when, the

sound of words being unknown, they remain still as they originated,

but another kind of sign, even after the art of reading is acquired,

and do not become entities as with us. The "action, action, action,"

of Demosthenes is their only oratory, not the mere heightening of it,

however valuable.

 

On March 6, 1880, the writer had an interesting experience in taking

to the National Deaf-Mute College at Washington seven Utes (which

tribe, according to report, is unacquainted with sign language), among

whom were Augustin, Alejandro, Jakonik, Severio, and Wash. By the kind

attention of President GALLAUDET a thorough test was given, an equal

number of deaf-mute pupils being placed in communication with the

Indians, alternating with them both in making individual signs and in

telling narratives in gesture, which were afterwards interpreted in

speech by the Ute interpreter and the officers of the college. Notes

of a few of them were taken, as follows:

 

Among the signs was that for _squirrel_, given by a deaf-mute. The

right hand was placed over and facing the left, and about four inches

above the latter, to show the height of the animal; then the two hands

were held edgewise and horizontally in front, about eight inches apart

(showing _length_); then imitating the grasping of a small object and

biting it rapidly with the incisors, the extended index was pointed

upward and forward (_in a tree_).

 

This was not understood, as the Utes have no sign for the tree

squirrel, the arboreal animal not being now found in their region.

 

Deaf-mute sign for _jack-rabbit_: The first two fingers of each hand

extended (the remaining fingers and thumbs closed) were placed on

either side of the head, pointing upward; then arching the hands, palm

down, quick, interrupted, jumping movements forward were made.

 

This was readily understood.

 

The signs for the following narrative were given by a deaf-mute: When

he was a boy he mounted a horse without either bridle or saddle, and

as the horse began to go he grasped him by the neck for support; a dog

flew at the horse, began to bark, when the rider was thrown off and

considerably hurt.

 

In this the sign for _dog_ was as follows: Pass the arched hand

forward from the lower part of the face, to illustrate elongated nose

and mouth, then with both forefingers extended, remaining fingers and

thumbs closed, place them upon either side of the lower jaw, pointing

upward, to show lower canines, at the same time accompanying the

gesture with an __EXPRESSION__ of withdrawing the lips so as to show the

teeth snarling; then, with the fingers of the right hand extended and

separated throw them quickly forward and slightly upward (_voice_ or

_talking_).

 

This sign was understood to mean _bear_, as that for _dog_ is

different among the Utes, i.e., by merely showing the height of the

dog and pushing the flat hand forward, finger-tips first.

 

Another deaf-mute gestured to tell that when he was a boy he went to

a melon-field, tapped several melons, finding them to be green or

unripe; finally reaching a good one he took his knife, cut a slice,

and ate it. A man made his appearance on horseback, entered the patch

on foot, found the cut melon, and detecting the thief, threw the melon

towards him, hitting him in the back, whereupon he ran away crying.

The man mounted and rode off in an opposite direction.

 

All of these signs were readily comprehended, although some of the Indians varied very slightly in their translation.