Sign Language and American Indians
Sign language is a form of nonverbal communication that uses hand and body movements to convey meaning. Among American Indian communities, particularly in the regions of northeastern Mexico, Texas, and western Louisiana, sign language has a historical significance that predates European contact, with early accounts documenting its use among various Indigenous groups. Notably, explorers and traders from the late seventeenth century noted the presence of sign language among the Bayogoula and other tribes along the lower Mississippi River.
As time progressed, sign language spread further northward into the Plains and northern Plateau areas. The Kiowa people, recognized as early adopters, utilized sign language primarily in the context of bison hunting. The Plains sign language has been more thoroughly documented compared to that of other regions, with many signs and their meanings recorded. While primarily used by men, it was also known among women, facilitating communication in diverse social settings, such as storytelling and family conversations. Overall, sign language served as a vital tool for communication not only within communities but also with outsiders who spoke different languages.
Sign Language and American Indians
Tribes affected: Pantribal
Significance: In North America, sign language facilitated communication and economic transactions among groups which spoke different languages, and it served additional purposes in some cultural settings
Sign language is a nonverbal communication utilizing movements of the hands or body to convey meaning. In many areas of the world, such as Africa or Australia, sign languages were used by hunters to communicate hunting strategies silently to one another.
In northeastern Mexico, Texas, and western Louisiana, sign language almost certainly predated European contact, since there are several early historical accounts of its use. A late seventeenth century journal entry of explorer Pierre le Moyne d’Iberville, Sieur d’Iberville records the use of sign language among the Bayogoula and other unnamed groups along the lower Mississippi River. Additional accounts of communication by signs were written by early traders.
It seems likely that the sign language used in these areas diffused northward into the Plains. In the nineteenth and twentieth century, the use of sign language continued to spread through the Plains and across the northern Plateau, as described in articles in D. Jean Umiker-Sebeok and Thomas A. Sebeok’s Aboriginal Sign Languages of the Americas and Australia (1978). Among the Plains peoples, the Kiowa generally were deemed to be early users of sign language. The Kiowa occupied different locations at different time periods, but in the nineteenth century they were hunting bison in the southwestern Plains. Therefore aboriginal accounts uphold the thesis that sign language diffused from south to north and may have originated in the Gulf Coast region.
The Plains sign language is better documented than that of other areas, and the meanings of many signs were recorded; in the Southeast, on the other hand, the signs were lost at an earlier date. In addition, for the Plains culture area, information concerning the social context of sign language was recorded. For example, many nineteenth century reports indicate that signs were used primarily by Plains Indian men, although some women also knew the signs. Many Plains groups used signs in a variety of social contexts, such as during storytelling or intimate conversation among family members, in addition to recognizing its value for conversing with outsiders who did not speak the same language.