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Through Indian Sign Language (The Civilization of the American Indian Series)
Hugh Lenox Scott, who would one day serve as chief of staff of the U.S. Army, spent a portion of his early career at Fort Sill, in Indian and, later, Oklahoma Territory. There, from 1891 to 1897, he commanded Troop L, 7th Cavalry, an all-Indian unit. From members of this unit, in particular a Kiowa soldier named Iseeo, Scott collected three volumes of information on American Indian life and culture—a body of ethnographic material conveyed through Plains Indian Sign Language (in which Scott was highly accomplished) and recorded in handwritten English. This remarkable resource—the largest of its kind before the late twentieth century—appears here in full for the first time, put into context by noted scholar William C. Meadows.
The Scott ledgers contain an array of historical, linguistic, and ethnographic data—a wealth of primary-source material on Southern Plains Indian people. Meadows describes Plains Indian Sign Language, its origins and history, and its significance to anthropologists. He also sketches the lives of Scott and Iseeo, explaining how they met, how Scott learned the language, and how their working relationship developed and served them both. The ledgers, which follow, recount a variety of specific Plains Indian customs, from naming practices to eagle catching. Scott also recorded his informants’ explanations of the signs, as well as a multitude of myths and stories.
On his fellow officers’ indifference to the sign language, Lieutenant Scott “I have often marveled at this apathy concerning such a valuable instrument, by which communication could be held with every tribe on the plains of the buffalo, using only one language.” Here, with extensive background information, Meadows’s incisive analysis, and the complete contents of Scott’s Fort Sill ledgers, this “valuable instrument” is finally and fully accessible to scholars and general readers interested in the history and culture of Plains Indians.
The Scott ledgers contain an array of historical, linguistic, and ethnographic data—a wealth of primary-source material on Southern Plains Indian people. Meadows describes Plains Indian Sign Language, its origins and history, and its significance to anthropologists. He also sketches the lives of Scott and Iseeo, explaining how they met, how Scott learned the language, and how their working relationship developed and served them both. The ledgers, which follow, recount a variety of specific Plains Indian customs, from naming practices to eagle catching. Scott also recorded his informants’ explanations of the signs, as well as a multitude of myths and stories.
On his fellow officers’ indifference to the sign language, Lieutenant Scott “I have often marveled at this apathy concerning such a valuable instrument, by which communication could be held with every tribe on the plains of the buffalo, using only one language.” Here, with extensive background information, Meadows’s incisive analysis, and the complete contents of Scott’s Fort Sill ledgers, this “valuable instrument” is finally and fully accessible to scholars and general readers interested in the history and culture of Plains Indians.
524 pages, Paperback
First published September 30, 2015
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October 31, 2019
I got this book as an e-book after signing up for an e-book service and hoping to find something to read about Plains Indian Sign Language-- and although looking at the title now, I see that it pretty much says what this book contains, I still think it could do to explain what this book is exactly, because I will admit I began reading it not really realizing what it would be.
This book has several sections: The first is an overview of Plains Indian Sign Language (PISL), a bit of its history, who used it, and what has become of it. Next is a biographical section about Hugh Lenox Scott, the army officer at Fort Sill who became fluent in PISL, befriending many Kiowa folks there and having numerous signed conversations, which he recorded in ledger notebooks. Following that is a biography of Iseeo, Scott's best friend and chief consultant (It almost brought tears to my eyes to read how strong and dear the friendship was between these two men of very different backgrounds). There are also biographical notes about the other consultants spoken to or mentioned throughout the ledgers. After all these introductory sections, we finally get to the meat of the book, which are the transcriptions of Scott's ledger notebooks. The ledgers contain varied conversations (all conducted using PISL during the latest parts of the 19th century) regarding Kiowa life, lore, and knowledge.
As I began reading the ledger section, which often feels unorganized, I thought to myself that this is really a lot of raw information. However, I realized it is not completely raw -- completely raw would be like getting handed a dead chicken with feathers still on. No, the ledgers as presented in the book are not quite that; the hard work of plucking and getting the meat ready for us has already been done by the author by his transcribing the messy original ledgers and providing relevant information with the text. In the book, we readers are getting the useful meat of it, ready to cook and process however we'd like to.
And since it's not totally raw but still raw, the stories in the ledgers sometimes feel overly conversational (sometimes charmingly so), a bit frenetic, and sometimes include literal translations of sign language compounds, which are interesting, to be sure (e.g. 'water hungry' or 'hungry tired'). Sometimes, a reader like myself who is completely unfamiliar with Kiowa culture, may feel a bit lost in the beginning (here is where the author's footnotes come in handy), and yet, as one reads more and more of these somewhat disjointed stories, a greater picture does begin to emerge. There are stories about notable Kiowa individuals, battles, strange occurrences, traditions, and a great many fables or myths, especially those of Scinday, the Kiowa culture hero (I had not known of Scinday before reading, but after reading many of Scinday's stories, I came to have a familiar feeling at each episode of his hijinx, saying to myself, "Oh, who else but Scinday?"
No doubt this is a valuable source of information -- and while I wouldn't recommend it as a first read to someone who is unfamiliar to Kiowa culture (or Native American cultures in general) or PISL, the author has made it still manageable to beginners. Here are just three of many sections of the ledgers that I found memorable:
[On how the Northern and Southern Comanches separated]
"We used to be together up there but one day two chiefs got to quarreling, one said to the Yapparika chief, "You are poor, weak, and few" and the Yapparika chief said, "No, you are." And they bandied words backwards and forward until they got real angry and their bands took part in the quarrel and began to fight and they fought each other all that day and the next" (Reveals that 'NO U' has been a useful retort that transcends cultures and times)
[Scinday and the Elk's Head]
"Scinday was looking for something to eat and heard a Sun Dance whistle and went to see what did it. He came to a big bleached elk's head with horns on it and heard the noise of the whistle and dancing in the brain cavity. The mice were having a Sun Dance and he poked his head in there to see them. They told him to go away, that was their medicine dance. But he would not listen, he insisted on staying there and watching the dance. His head was inside, his body was out, and his back bent looking in. After a while he got tired and went to take his head out but he couldn't do it. His head was caught back of his ears. He was fast [stuck] and he had to go about with this old bleached elk's skull with heavy horns. He could not see very well and fell in the river which was very high and the current swept him off. There were some people below on the bank of the river and they saw a bleached elk's skull coming down. It raised up a little in the water and called to them to catch it and they were surprised. They threw a rope over the horns and drew it in. They were astounded as the elk's skull said, "Split open my skull" but they were afraid to split open his skull. But he insisted on it, "Split open my skull [and] you save me" and they split open his skull and it was Scinday. They saved him."
[How Scinday Broke his Legs and Mended Them]
... I have always heard that Scinday came walking on a prairie and saw a canyon of a little stream. He stood on one edge and looked down below into the water and thought, 'I will jump across to the other wall of the canyon.' He jumped and fell to the bottom of the canyon and broke both his legs. He sat there a long time and was very hungry He searched out and chose a stick which he used to take the marrow out of his bones and eat it until he had enough. Then he poked the stick down in the marrow cavity to stiffen the bones when broken. Then he got up and walked home."
This book has several sections: The first is an overview of Plains Indian Sign Language (PISL), a bit of its history, who used it, and what has become of it. Next is a biographical section about Hugh Lenox Scott, the army officer at Fort Sill who became fluent in PISL, befriending many Kiowa folks there and having numerous signed conversations, which he recorded in ledger notebooks. Following that is a biography of Iseeo, Scott's best friend and chief consultant (It almost brought tears to my eyes to read how strong and dear the friendship was between these two men of very different backgrounds). There are also biographical notes about the other consultants spoken to or mentioned throughout the ledgers. After all these introductory sections, we finally get to the meat of the book, which are the transcriptions of Scott's ledger notebooks. The ledgers contain varied conversations (all conducted using PISL during the latest parts of the 19th century) regarding Kiowa life, lore, and knowledge.
As I began reading the ledger section, which often feels unorganized, I thought to myself that this is really a lot of raw information. However, I realized it is not completely raw -- completely raw would be like getting handed a dead chicken with feathers still on. No, the ledgers as presented in the book are not quite that; the hard work of plucking and getting the meat ready for us has already been done by the author by his transcribing the messy original ledgers and providing relevant information with the text. In the book, we readers are getting the useful meat of it, ready to cook and process however we'd like to.
And since it's not totally raw but still raw, the stories in the ledgers sometimes feel overly conversational (sometimes charmingly so), a bit frenetic, and sometimes include literal translations of sign language compounds, which are interesting, to be sure (e.g. 'water hungry' or 'hungry tired'). Sometimes, a reader like myself who is completely unfamiliar with Kiowa culture, may feel a bit lost in the beginning (here is where the author's footnotes come in handy), and yet, as one reads more and more of these somewhat disjointed stories, a greater picture does begin to emerge. There are stories about notable Kiowa individuals, battles, strange occurrences, traditions, and a great many fables or myths, especially those of Scinday, the Kiowa culture hero (I had not known of Scinday before reading, but after reading many of Scinday's stories, I came to have a familiar feeling at each episode of his hijinx, saying to myself, "Oh, who else but Scinday?"
No doubt this is a valuable source of information -- and while I wouldn't recommend it as a first read to someone who is unfamiliar to Kiowa culture (or Native American cultures in general) or PISL, the author has made it still manageable to beginners. Here are just three of many sections of the ledgers that I found memorable:
[On how the Northern and Southern Comanches separated]
"We used to be together up there but one day two chiefs got to quarreling, one said to the Yapparika chief, "You are poor, weak, and few" and the Yapparika chief said, "No, you are." And they bandied words backwards and forward until they got real angry and their bands took part in the quarrel and began to fight and they fought each other all that day and the next" (Reveals that 'NO U' has been a useful retort that transcends cultures and times)
[Scinday and the Elk's Head]
"Scinday was looking for something to eat and heard a Sun Dance whistle and went to see what did it. He came to a big bleached elk's head with horns on it and heard the noise of the whistle and dancing in the brain cavity. The mice were having a Sun Dance and he poked his head in there to see them. They told him to go away, that was their medicine dance. But he would not listen, he insisted on staying there and watching the dance. His head was inside, his body was out, and his back bent looking in. After a while he got tired and went to take his head out but he couldn't do it. His head was caught back of his ears. He was fast [stuck] and he had to go about with this old bleached elk's skull with heavy horns. He could not see very well and fell in the river which was very high and the current swept him off. There were some people below on the bank of the river and they saw a bleached elk's skull coming down. It raised up a little in the water and called to them to catch it and they were surprised. They threw a rope over the horns and drew it in. They were astounded as the elk's skull said, "Split open my skull" but they were afraid to split open his skull. But he insisted on it, "Split open my skull [and] you save me" and they split open his skull and it was Scinday. They saved him."
[How Scinday Broke his Legs and Mended Them]
... I have always heard that Scinday came walking on a prairie and saw a canyon of a little stream. He stood on one edge and looked down below into the water and thought, 'I will jump across to the other wall of the canyon.' He jumped and fell to the bottom of the canyon and broke both his legs. He sat there a long time and was very hungry He searched out and chose a stick which he used to take the marrow out of his bones and eat it until he had enough. Then he poked the stick down in the marrow cavity to stiffen the bones when broken. Then he got up and walked home."
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