As a culture, we often depict the lives of American Indians when they lived free on the land in movies and television. Have you ever noticed in those movies, when the Indian communicates, there seems to be a heavy emphasis on hand signals and sign language? And as the story unfolds, the "Indian guide" or the hero of the story who makes peace between the two peoples often does so using signs and body gestures which he then has to interpret for the audience. Now the westerns were not always good about representing the diverse and sophisticated cultures of the various tribes that are native to this land. So you have to wonder if this signing that we see in those shows is something the writer threw in there just to make the movie interesting. It might be surprising to find out that some of the ways that Indians are portrayed in the movies has some basis in fact and that is true about how they communicated long before they had to talk to European peoples. Each Native American tribe that dwelt where our states now are had a very unique culture and language that were as distinct as the Germans are from the Chinese. Because the distances between where the tribes lived were relatively far off, the languages of the Native American tribes were distinct and often not understood between the tribes. Another fact we know about the majority of Native American tribes is that they didn't very often stay in the same place year after year like we do now. They moved around to follow good hunting or to get away from bad weather, disease or other dangers to the tribe. And this nomadic behavior often brought different tribes in contact with each other. Contrary to what "the westerns" would have us believe, however, many times different tribes tried to work together and were not hostile as they tried to share important information that could be a big help to another tribe trying to get by in a sometimes hostile environment. The sign languages of the Native Americans were something that was developed at the time to help different tribes communicate more easily when that was needed. This "language" of sign was valuable for resolving disputes and cooperation in hunting or for giving each other trips to survive the winters. The leadership of the tribes also used signing to discuss and resolve land disputes and to avoid war when they could because that kind of conflict was not good for either tribe. But historians and linguists have learned that the sign language used between tribes had many daily uses within tribal life as well. Many times Native Americans developed the sign language of the tribe so they could interact when the spoken word was not a good idea like when they were hunting or spying on enemies. It's fun and enlightening to look back at another people in another time and see how they used sign language to live better lives in harmony with other tribes where possible and to live peaceful and prosperous lives just as we do today. And along with learning these details of Native American life out of our own fascination with another time and people, it's a good thing to learn all we can about other cultures because we so often come in contact with people with Native American lineage. And the more you know about the history of the peoples who are our fellow citizens, the more we can appreciate and enjoy the diversity that surrounds us.
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