Plains Indian Sign Language: An Introduction

Lesson One

Plains Indian Sign Language Unit

American Sign Language II

Lesson Objective• In this lesson, students will learn about the

history of Plains Indian Sign Language and its effect on American Sign Language today.

• Students will also learn about the revitalization efforts of PISL and discuss if this should happen or not.

Deaf Native Americans (continued)

• When large groups of Deaf people assemble at events like the Deaflympics you can see that deafness is present in every ethnicity, race, and nationality.

• The Deaf World is uniquely diverse!

• However, few Deaf individuals have as unique a sign language background as Deaf Native Americans.

Deaf Culture Note: Deaf Native Americans

“The Great Spirit … gave us power to talk with our hands and arms … and when we meet with Indians who have a different spoken language from ours, we can talk to them in signs.”

~ Chief Iron Hawk, Sioux Nation

Deaf Native Americans (continued)

• For hundreds of years Native Americans, particularly the Plains Indians, have used sign language to communicate.

• It is certain that American Sign Language borrowed signs from this sign language, similar to the way English speakers borrow words from other languages.

Deaf Native Americans (continued)

• The Deaf Native American community is proud of their legacy of sign languages.

• The intertribal Deaf Council works hard on behalf of Deaf Native Americans to preserve their unique heritage and promote awareness of their valuable contributions to the Deaf World.

Plains Indian Sign Language (PISL)

• PISL is a sign language formerly used as an auxiliary language between Native Americans of the Great Plains of the United States.

• PISL is one of several Native American Indian Sign Language varieties whose relation to one another is currently unclear.

PISL: History

• The earliest record of contact between Europeans and Native Americans of the Gulf Coast region in what is now Texas and northern Mexico note a fully formed sign language already in use by the European’s arrival there.

• These records include the accounts of Cabeza de Vaca in 1527 and Coronado in 1541.

PISL: History (continued)

• As a result of several factors, including massive depopulation and the Americanization of Native North Americans, the number of PISL signers declined from European’s arrival onward.

• In 1885, it was estimated that there were over 110,000 “sign-talking Indians,” including Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Sioux, Kiowa and Arapaho.

• By the 1960s, there remained a “very small percentage of this number.” There are few PISL signers today.

Plains Indian Sign Language: Geography

• PISL is one of several varieties of Native American Indian Sign Language (NAISL), and early records were not careful to distinguish between these varieties.

• However, NAISL has been documented in use across at least 37 spoken language groups and 12 spoken language families.

• The groups using the PISL variety were spread across an area of over 1 million square miles.

Plains Indian Sign Language: Usage

• Historically, PISL served various social and discourse functions among numerous American Indian communities of the Great Plains.

• PISL is distinct from American Sign Language (ASL) that is used in the Deaf communities of the United States and Canada.

Plains Indian Sign Language: Usage

• Today PISL is an endangered language.

• It has not vanished, however, and is still being used and learned within some native groups in traditional storytelling, rituals, and conversational narratives by both deaf and hearing American Indians.

HAND SPEAK: American Indian Sign Language

• All varieties of American Indian Sign Language are currently endangered, but prior to the cultural disruption caused by European colonization, it was commonly used across a large swath of North American from the Gulf of Mexico to Calgary, Canada.

• It spread so far because it was the lingua franca between Native American nations speaking at least 40 different languages, but it was also used within native communities as an alternative to their spoken languages and as a primary language for deaf people.

• The current number of signers is unknown, but it is clear that there are still a number of users across North American, both hearing and deaf.

Useful Vocabulary to KnowBorrowContact

ConversationFew

Native American (2)Preserve / Keep

RecordStory-Tell

Tradition / Rituals / CustomsVanish (2)

To Find out more information:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyU_z9p9Dho

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UReVVrbL8xs&NR=1

• http://sunsite.utk.edu/pisl/

Project Information• You will sign for at least 6 minutes if you think that

Plains Indian Sign Language should be preserved or not.

• What are three things that you have learned about Plains Indian Sign Language?

• What is something that surprised you to know about PISL?

• What are at least 3 signs that are similar and 3 signs that are different in PISL compared to ASL?

Project Information (continued)• What are the advantages to preserving this language?

• What are the disadvantages to preserving this language?

• In regards to ASL, should PISL be preserved? What are the benefits? What are the drawbacks?

• Any additional comments you want to add about PISL.

• Due: Monday, November 22, 2010.