Part 6 (1/2)
In another coe is still more definite:
”The Plains Indians thee was invented by the Kioho holding an intermediate position between the Comanches, Tonkaways, Lipans, and other inhabitants of the vast plains of Texas, and the pawnees, Sioux, Blackfeet, and other northern tribes, were the general go-betweens, trading with all,peace or ith or for any or all It is certain that the Kiowas are at present e than any other Plains tribe It is also certain that the tribes farthest away from them and hom they have least intercourse use it with least facility”
Dr Williaeon United States Arives information as follows:
”The traditions of the Indians point toward the south as the direction froe came They refer to the time when they did not use it; and each tribe say they learned it from those south of theht it to the Arapahoes and Kiowas, and from these the Cheyennes learned it The Sioux say that they had no knowledge of it before they crossed the Missouri River and came in contact with the Cheyennes, but have quite recently learned it from them It would thus appear that the Plains Indians did not invent it, but finding it adapted to their wants adopted it as a convenient e they did not understand, and it rapidly spread froe caest themselves as the introducers of it on this continent They are adepts in the use of signs Cortez as he ns in co with the nu theest itself and be adopted by Spaniards and Indians, and, as the former advanced, one tribe after another would learn to use the them so useful, preserved them and each tribe ns reuage with them as they moved northwest, and a few of the Piutes may have learned it from them, but the Piutes as a tribe do not use it”
Mr Ben Clarke, the respected and skillful interpreter at Fort Reno writes to the san language used by the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Ogallala and Brule Sioux, Kiowas, and Coinated with the Kiowas It is a tradition that, o, when the Northern Indians were still without horses, the Kiowas often raided a the Mexican Indians and captured droves of horses on these trips The Northern Plains Indians used to journey to them and trade for horses The Kioere already proficient in signs, and the others learned fro to the South that finally divided the Cheyennes,the Northern and Southern Cheyennes The same may be said of the Arapahoes That the Kioere the first sign talkers is only a tradition, but as a tribe they are now considered to be the best orin any controversy on this subject it may be noticed that the theory advanced supposes a coe froion, whereas, so far as can be traced, the conditions favorable to a sign language existed very long ago and were co-extensive with the territory of North America occupied by any of the tribes To avoid repetition reference is made to the discussion below under the heads of universality, antiquity, identity, and permanence At this point it is only desired to call attention to the ancient prevalence of signs a tribes such as the Iroquois, Wyandot, Ojibwa, and at least three generations back a the Crees beyond our northern boundary and the Mandans and other far-northern Dakotas, not likely at that tih intertribal channels, with the Kaiowas It is also difficult to understand how their signs would have in that manner reached the Kutchin of Eastern Alaska and the Kutine and Selish of British Coluns now At the sae 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 noards the Spanish origin suggested, there is ans in their early explorations north of and in the northern parts of Mexico, and availed themselves of them but did not introduce the of Mexico was founded on gesture signs
With reference to the staten talkers of the Plains, a nuive the precedence to the Cheyennes, and an equal nu specially skillful talkers in the several tribes visited influences such opinions
The writer's experience, both of the Utes and Pai-Utes, is different fro thens but fully understand the difference between the signs regarded as their own and those of the Kaiowas On special examination they understood soe interpolated in an oral conversation would be conize as having seen before a the Brule Sioux, as was clearly expressed by Medicine Bull, their chief The Piuage, yet were not fans presented to the to a tins, the Indians examined by the writer and by most of his correspondents speak of a time when they and their fathers used itfrom causes before mentioned It, however,time in contact only with others the dialect of which was so nearly akin as to be co separated froe for a tiration 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 soo, and so on their old hoe to an accurate correspondent, Rev JO
Dorsey, though for many years they have not been in circumstances to require its employment
Perhaps thethe theory would be in the fore has ever been invented by any one body of people at any one time, and whether it is not si when needed
Criticishly interesting to detere on this continent came from a particular stock, and to ascertain that stock Such research would be similar to that into the Aryan and Sees have been traced backwards fro varieties in signs their roots eneris_ The possibility that the discrepancy between signs was forreater 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 attee in North Ama now fastened upon the iinal oral speech of man
It is only next in difficulty to the old persistent deterin of the whole Indian ”race,” in whichthe 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 systens was invented here in the correct sense of that ter tribe, it is probable that it would not be found prevailing in any iree 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 unifor the North American Indians which can therefore be compared with any other system This last inquiry will be considered in its order In co the system as a whole with others, the latter are naturally divided into signs of speaking n to America and those of deaf-eneralization of TYLOR that ”gesture language is substantially the sae tribes all over the world,” interpreted by his re to their cons forns to express the saeneralization the result of the writer's study not only sustains it, but shows a surprising nuns for the sa savage tribes, but ans with any freedo for a eneralconditions and circumstances which have determined differently many conceptions and their semiotic execution, but there have also been many of both which were si the evil-eye like the Italians, nor have they been long familiar with the jackass so as to ns for these concepts are not cisatlantic, but even in this paper many are shohich are substantially in coe collection already obtained, but not now published, shows many others identical, not only with those of the Italians and the classic Greeks and Roe 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, hite deaf-mutes, who surely have no semiotic code more nearly connected with that attributed to the plain-roamers than is derived froreatest pleasure in n country are rejoiced to e, hom they can hold direct communication without the tiresome and often suspected ether they were found to pursue the sa of deaf-mutes ere either not instructed in any methodical dialect or who had received such instruction by different ns at first presented, but soon understood the some in ly appropriate, graceful, and convenient; but there still rens for the sa of these occasions, at the Pennsylvania Institution for the Deaf and Duns of the deaf-mutes were much more readily understood by the Indians, ere Absaroka or Crows, Arapahos, and Cheyennes, than were theirs by the deaf-reatly excelled in panto when it is considered that what is to the Indian a mere adjunct or accomplishment is to the deaf-reater freedo words into action--instead of acting the ideas the unknown, they ren, even after the art of reading is acquired, and do not become entities as with us The ”action, action, action,”
of De of it, however valuable
On March 6, 1880, the writer had an interesting experience in taking to the National Deaf-Mute College at Washi+ngton seven Utes (which tribe, according to report, is unacquainted with sign language), austin, Alejandro, Jakonik, Severio, and Wash By the kind attention of President GALLAUDET a thorough test was given, an equal nu placed in co with the narratives in gesture, which were afterwards interpreted in speech by the Ute interpreter and the officers of the college Notes of a few of thens was that for _squirrel_, given by a deaf- the left, and about four inches above the latter, to show the height of the aniewise and horizontally in front, about eight inches apart (showing _length_); then i 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 anin for _jack-rabbit_: The first two fingers of each hand extended (the reers and thu upward; then arching the hands, pal movements forere ns 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 hian 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 froated nose and ers and thumbs closed, place the upward, to shoer canines, at the saesture 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 the_)