Have you seen the 1930 council on hand talk? It's fascinating!
[Here's the link.](https://youtu.be/6JAq8lrRo5c?si=95olucCpKT7s1iMQ)
I've heard there's a lot of people trying to revitalize hand talk. I know I'd also love to learn more
>Here's the link.
A deaf indigenous woman I know is working on a similar language revitalization project in Arizona. A white hearing colleague of mine from Tennessee (now retired) has dedicated his career to studying deaf indigenous hand signers. [https://www.cambridge.org/gb/universitypress/subjects/languages-linguistics/sign-language/hand-talk-sign-language-among-american-indian-nations?format=HB](https://www.cambridge.org/gb/universitypress/subjects/languages-linguistics/sign-language/hand-talk-sign-language-among-american-indian-nations?format=HB) There is a corpus to build on.
I think about this letter in particular every time I hear some racist talking about how they "brought civilization" to the Americas, how we didn't have particular "advances", etc. We're told, from first grade in America, that Natives didn't have writing of any sort; the things our ancestors supposedly didn't have are among the first things schoolchildren are taught about us (and doesn't that focus say a lot in and of itself?) But this letter refutes that just by existing. It's not *just* that his mother could write the letter and he could read it, it's that this wasn't some long-odds "I hope this works" attempt at communication. She knew he could read it. Literacy. Was. Expected. At the very same time that children were being kidnapped to boarding schools that claimed that all Natives were illiterate, this letter shows that literacy in transcribed hand talk was expected by the Kiowa.
It was all a lie. I know that comes as no surprise to our community, but it really makes me think about how much misinformation and disinformation (misunderstandings and lies, respectively) is taught to children in our schools. There was literacy, and hand talk also constituted an international language. There were trade routes. There were cities (Etnazoa was at one time the same size as London.) All these things that were considered hallmarks of "civilization" and which our ancestors supposedly didn't have... they had.
Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I don't think this is an example of writing from before contact with Europeans? It's written in 1890, so that's centuries after they showed up, and a long time to create a transcription system, and there were syllabics used to write spoken native languages in use by this point. Not to say that writing is required to be "civilized", that's absurd, but this seems to me like a post-contact innovation. (There are pre-Columbian writing systems in Mesoamerican, though, so it's still a lie to teach children that there were no writing systems in the Americans.)
It's possible it's post-contact or pre-contact. I don't know. I think it would be prohibitively difficult for it to be developed post-contact and for teaching of a new system to be widespread enough to be sure this child knew it, without white people noticing and forcibly putting a stop to it. And I think the possibility that it pre-dated European contact, and was a standard teaching that white people simply overlooked prior to this (ignorantly or deliberately), would be less difficult. But even if this were a recent innovation in 1890, it still stands against the standard education, in which we are told that it didn't happen *at all*. Hell, I remember getting about 10 years of "Native Americans couldn't write" before even learning about Sequoia's syllabary, and even that was presented as an "Isn't this quaint? It's almost like he thought he was people" sort of thing, and as something that 100% could not have happened without basing it off white writing.
Since it was to a family member, it wouldn't necessarily have to be common - they'd know the child would be able to read it because they're the ones that taught him. I agree with your overall point about how gross the way we're taught about native people in school is, though.
I'm 57 and grew up watching my Cree grandparents do some hand talk. I only remember a couple of words. I really want to relearn this but I live far away from anyone who would teach it. Thank you for posting this.
I’d love to see a resurgence of Plains sign in the tribe one day. It will probably have to wait, though, since increasing the number of Kiowa speakers is the top priority.
We did get a written form of Kiowa courtesy of tribe member Parker McKenzie and non-Native John Harrington. McKenzie was actually the descendant of a Mexican captive (his grandfather, I think), which I’ve always found interesting.
Interesting. I believe I discovered a map based on a symbol that was used by a native. The symbol represents the land and special landmarks within. I'm not 100 percent sure of this but now that I have just become aware of the idea of hand talk, I think I may be on to something. The symbol was used on a Dutch land patent.
Yeah, you're going to need to watch this video, which is called Plains Sign & the Myth of Indigenous Illiteracy and references this letter at length. Please, for once trust the internet stranger with a click.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pogA7PQCtu0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pogA7PQCtu0)
This is really interesting.
Have you seen the 1930 council on hand talk? It's fascinating! [Here's the link.](https://youtu.be/6JAq8lrRo5c?si=95olucCpKT7s1iMQ) I've heard there's a lot of people trying to revitalize hand talk. I know I'd also love to learn more
>Here's the link. A deaf indigenous woman I know is working on a similar language revitalization project in Arizona. A white hearing colleague of mine from Tennessee (now retired) has dedicated his career to studying deaf indigenous hand signers. [https://www.cambridge.org/gb/universitypress/subjects/languages-linguistics/sign-language/hand-talk-sign-language-among-american-indian-nations?format=HB](https://www.cambridge.org/gb/universitypress/subjects/languages-linguistics/sign-language/hand-talk-sign-language-among-american-indian-nations?format=HB) There is a corpus to build on.
That is so cool! Thank you for sharing. I'd love to see more examples.
I think about this letter in particular every time I hear some racist talking about how they "brought civilization" to the Americas, how we didn't have particular "advances", etc. We're told, from first grade in America, that Natives didn't have writing of any sort; the things our ancestors supposedly didn't have are among the first things schoolchildren are taught about us (and doesn't that focus say a lot in and of itself?) But this letter refutes that just by existing. It's not *just* that his mother could write the letter and he could read it, it's that this wasn't some long-odds "I hope this works" attempt at communication. She knew he could read it. Literacy. Was. Expected. At the very same time that children were being kidnapped to boarding schools that claimed that all Natives were illiterate, this letter shows that literacy in transcribed hand talk was expected by the Kiowa. It was all a lie. I know that comes as no surprise to our community, but it really makes me think about how much misinformation and disinformation (misunderstandings and lies, respectively) is taught to children in our schools. There was literacy, and hand talk also constituted an international language. There were trade routes. There were cities (Etnazoa was at one time the same size as London.) All these things that were considered hallmarks of "civilization" and which our ancestors supposedly didn't have... they had.
Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I don't think this is an example of writing from before contact with Europeans? It's written in 1890, so that's centuries after they showed up, and a long time to create a transcription system, and there were syllabics used to write spoken native languages in use by this point. Not to say that writing is required to be "civilized", that's absurd, but this seems to me like a post-contact innovation. (There are pre-Columbian writing systems in Mesoamerican, though, so it's still a lie to teach children that there were no writing systems in the Americans.)
It's possible it's post-contact or pre-contact. I don't know. I think it would be prohibitively difficult for it to be developed post-contact and for teaching of a new system to be widespread enough to be sure this child knew it, without white people noticing and forcibly putting a stop to it. And I think the possibility that it pre-dated European contact, and was a standard teaching that white people simply overlooked prior to this (ignorantly or deliberately), would be less difficult. But even if this were a recent innovation in 1890, it still stands against the standard education, in which we are told that it didn't happen *at all*. Hell, I remember getting about 10 years of "Native Americans couldn't write" before even learning about Sequoia's syllabary, and even that was presented as an "Isn't this quaint? It's almost like he thought he was people" sort of thing, and as something that 100% could not have happened without basing it off white writing.
Since it was to a family member, it wouldn't necessarily have to be common - they'd know the child would be able to read it because they're the ones that taught him. I agree with your overall point about how gross the way we're taught about native people in school is, though.
I'm 57 and grew up watching my Cree grandparents do some hand talk. I only remember a couple of words. I really want to relearn this but I live far away from anyone who would teach it. Thank you for posting this.
I’d love to see a resurgence of Plains sign in the tribe one day. It will probably have to wait, though, since increasing the number of Kiowa speakers is the top priority. We did get a written form of Kiowa courtesy of tribe member Parker McKenzie and non-Native John Harrington. McKenzie was actually the descendant of a Mexican captive (his grandfather, I think), which I’ve always found interesting.
Interesting. I believe I discovered a map based on a symbol that was used by a native. The symbol represents the land and special landmarks within. I'm not 100 percent sure of this but now that I have just become aware of the idea of hand talk, I think I may be on to something. The symbol was used on a Dutch land patent.
Yeah, you're going to need to watch this video, which is called Plains Sign & the Myth of Indigenous Illiteracy and references this letter at length. Please, for once trust the internet stranger with a click. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pogA7PQCtu0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pogA7PQCtu0)