Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-06-14

| But the New Yorker was far from beng
right; though apathetic and indifferent. Is
the average Indian of full blood, that candor
compels the admission that a conversation
| with one of them is about as one-sided as that
carried on in the shop where man goes to be
shaved.
| The Sioux and the Ponca the Pawnee and
| the Apache. the Otto and the Navajo, the
| CHEYENNE Ute Comanche, kaw, Arapaho,
| Usage. except those who have been taught the
| English language, are as helpless IN the eX-
| preston of their thoughts by word OF mouth
| to their brothers of another tribe as Is the
| native New Yorker to communicate with the
polyglot population inhabiting Manhattan )
| East Side.
Their Way of Communicating
THE Indians of the West. however, though of
tribes widely separated, have one means OF
| INSTRUMENTATION that Is a marvel to the
white man. not alone because of its adequacy
to express thought, but even more through Its
simplicity and ease of requirement.
A California or Oregon Indian, belonging
to one of the many Pacific coast tribes, who
may have never been east OF the Rockies. Is
able by means of this common language,
which knows tongue. to converse with
Sioux or Ponca whose horizon of life has been
confined to that vast section between the
Missouri River and the eastern foothills OF the
Rockies.
This means of intertribal communication is
the sign language, of which little seems to be
which an occasional scout or plalnsman OF an
earlier period made himself master.
These old plainsmen. scattered throughout
the West, passing their declining years on
quiet farms, now and then burnish up their
knowledge of the sign language. and, meeting
some blanket Indian on country road or
street of a Western town, stop the red brother
to en- JOY few moments OF quiet conversation
And quiet conversation 1t ls.-accentuated
with about the same degree of noise as that
attending joint debate between deaf mutes
But the language carries understanding. and
spoken words cannot do more than that
The Indian sign language lives up to part
of its appellation. at least. 1t is all signs.
The signs used are the natural ones, and are
as simple as simplicity itself.
A Little of the Vocabulary
DID you ever notice how the paws of small
~ animals are curved in when they are dead!
That is the sign for died or dead, and to
make it you hold one hand out, with fingers
bent in toward the thumb. However. should
you wish to say that some one had been killed,
YOU would hold out your fist with the knuCkles
away from you. and then move the wrist
slowly so as to force the knuckles downward.
indicating in this way that the person was
struck down. The sign to indicate fear to
express that some one was afraid or that you
had been frightened. is to place your. right
hand over your heart and then move that
hand up TO your throat.
Should you meet blanket Indian of any
tribe, somewhere out on the broad prairie,
and YOU should wish to tell him that you had
seen something. point to your eyes; and If
you had heard something point to your ears.
To point to eye, or ear, IS really the most
simple and less likely to be confused with
other sign meaning something else. Nearly
all signs are made with the right hand alone.
Should you wish to ask the Indian you meet
where water may be found. make scoop of
your hand, and put it to your mouth as you
would if drinking at a stream. When ne re-
plies if it is a river that he wishes to tell you
of. he will make the same sign of water. and
then trace the meandering course of a stream
with his index finger; and if lake. he will
spread out his hand to cover a large space.
The sign for walking is splendid one.
Hold your hand down, shut up two fingers
and the thumb. and then make the two fingers
that free go forward and back, like the
legs of a person in walking.
If you make letter A with your two hands
and look the ends of your fingers, that is
tepee or tent Keep your hands in that same
position and bend them down, SO that your
fingers point away from you, and you have
made the sign of house,-and very good
one it is. because it shows how the logs are
interlocked at the corners of the sort of house
the white settler used to construct on the FROM
tier.
Should you by any chance be the guest of
an Indian for hight and wish to give gen.
tie hint that you are sleepy. all you will find