The Indian Sign Language

by William Philo Clark

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Genres: Nonfiction

448 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1982

Reviews

[R.E. Admore · Rating 5 out of 5]

William P. Clark was known by the name "White Hat" to Native Americans. He was able to learn their sign language and earned their trust for being fair and honest. Crazy Horse chose Clark to meet him when he led his tribe members to the reservation, ending his fight against the Army and incursions by settlers. Clark, an officer in the army who fought the war, was more trusted than many of the civilian reservation agents sent by the government. While Clark respected the Indians and recognized the injustice done to them, he was no anthropologist and did not fully recognize their culture as being different but equal to European based cultures. This is reflected by his use of the terms barbarian and savage in many of his descriptions of their daily life. Thankfully, he did recognize the importance of their culture and took time to listen, observe, and record, so this history was not lost.

In this book, Clark describes Indian signs and also compares them to the deaf mute signs of the time. The descriptions for the signs take some deciphering and are difficult to follow at times. It would take someone fully invested and highly motivated to learn sign language in this manner. Perhaps the greatest benefit in the book are the many stories told by Native Americans and the descriptions of how many different tribes and bands lived.

[Ms. B]

Mostly text and only a few signs.