The conclusion reached from the researches made is to the effect
that before the changes wrought by the Columbian discovery the use of
gesture illustrated the remark of Quintilian upon the same subject
(l. xi, c. 3) that "_In tanta per omnes gentes nationesque linguae
diversitate hic mihi omnium hominum communis sermo videatur._"
Quotations may be taken from some old authorities referring to widely
separated regions. The Indians of Tampa Bay, identified with the
Timucua, met by Cabeca de Vaca in 1528, were active in the use of
signs, and in his journeying for eight subsequent years, probably
through Texas and Mexico, he remarks that he passed through many
dissimilar tongues, but that he questioned and received the answers
of the Indians by signs "just as if they spoke our language and we
theirs." Michaelius, writing in 1628, says of the Algonkins on or near
the Hudson River: "For purposes of trading as much was done by signs
with the thumb and fingers as by speaking." In Bossu's _Travels
through that part of North America formerly called Louisiana_,
_London_, 1771 (Forster's translation), an account is given of
Monsieur de Belle-Isle some years previously captured by the Atak-apa,
who remained with them two years and "conversed in their pantomimes
with them." He was rescued by Governor Bienville and was sufficiently
expert in the sign language to interpret between Bienville and the
tribe. In Bushmann's _Spuren_, p. 424, there is a reference to the
"Accocessaws on the west side of the Colorado, two hundred miles
southwest of Nacogdoches," who use thumb signs which they understand:
"_Theilen sich aber auch durch Daum-Zeichen mit, die sie alle
verstehen._"
Omitting many authorities, and for brevity allowing a break in the
continuity of time, reference may be made to the statement in Major
Long's expedition of 1819, concerning the Arapahos, Kaiowas, Ietans,
and Cheyennes, to the effect that, being ignorant of each other's
languages, many of them when they met would communicate by means
of signs, and would thus maintain a conversation without the least
difficulty or interruption. A list of the tribes reported upon by
Prince Maximilian von Wied-Neuweid, in 1832-'34, appears elsewhere
in this paper. In Fremont's expedition of 1844 special and repeated
allusion is made to the expertness of the Pai-Utes in signs, which is
contradictory to the statement above made by correspondents. The same
is mentioned regarding a band of Shoshonis met near the summit of the
Sierra Nevada, and one of "Diggers," probably Chemehuevas, encountered
on a tributary of the Rio Virgen.
Ruxton, in his _Adventures in Mexico and the Rocky Mountains_, _New
York_, 1848, p. 278, sums up his experience with regard to the Western
tribes so well as to require quotation: "The language of signs is
so perfectly understood in the Western country, and the Indians
themselves are such admirable pantomimists, that, after a little use,
no difficulty whatever exists in carrying on a conversation by such
a channel; and there are few mountain men who are at a loss in
thoroughly understanding and making themselves intelligible by signs
alone, although they neither speak nor understand a word of the Indian
tongue."
Passing to the correspondents of the writer from remote parts of
North America, it is important to notice that Mr. J.W. Powell, Indian
superintendent, reports the use of sign language among the Kutine,
and Mr. James Lenihan, Indian agent, among the Selish, both tribes
of British Columbia. The Very Rev. Edward Jacker, while contributing
information upon the present use of gesture language among the Ojibwas
of Lake Superior, mentions that it has fallen into comparative neglect
because for three generations they had not been in contact with
tribes of a different speech. Dr. Francis H. Atkins, acting assistant
surgeon, United States Army, in forwarding a contribution of signs
of the Mescalero Apaches remarks: "I think it probable that they have
used sign language rather less than many other Indians. They do not
seem to use it to any extent at home, and abroad the only tribes they
were likely to come into contact with were the Navajos, the Lipans
of old Mexico, and the Comanches. Probably the last have been almost
alone their visiting neighbors. They have also seen the Pueblos
a little, these appearing to be, like the Phoenicians of old, the
traders of this region." He also alludes to the effect of the Spanish,
or rather _lingua Mexicana_, upon all the Southern tribes and, indeed,
upon those as far north as the Utes, by which recourse to signs is now
rendered less necessary.
Before leaving this particular topic it is proper to admit that, while
there is not only recorded testimony to the past use of gesture
signs by several tribes of the Iroquoian and Algonkian families, but
evidence that it still remains, it is, however, noticeable that these
families when met by their first visitors do not appear to have often
impressed the latter with their reliance upon gesture language to the
same extent as has always been reported of the tribes now and formerly
found farther inland. An explanation may be suggested from the
fact that among those families there were more people dwelling near
together in communities speaking the same language, though with
dialectic peculiarities, than became known later in the farther West,
and not being nomadic their intercourse with strange tribes was less
individual and conversational. Some of the tribes, in especial the
Iroquois proper, were in a comparatively advanced social condition. A
Mohawk or Seneca would probably have repeated the arrogance of the old
Romans, whom in other respects they resembled, and compelled persons
of inferior tribes to learn his language if they desired to converse
with him, instead of resorting to the compromise of gesture
speech, which he had practiced before the prowess and policy of the
confederated Five Nations had gained supremacy and which was still
used for special purposes between the members of his own tribe. The
studies thus far pursued lead to the conclusion that at the time of
the discovery of North America all its inhabitants practiced sign
language, though with different degrees of expertness, and that
while under changed circumstances it was disused by some, others, in
especial those who after the acquisition of horses became nomads of
the Great Plains, retained and cultivated it to the high development
now attained, from which it will surely and speedily decay.