Indian Signals and Sign Language
By: George Fronval & Danial
Sign language could be called the Esperanto of the Plains Indians because it enabled Indians of different tribes to travel, trade, hunt, and exchange information with one another. Indian Signals and Sign Language brings that sign language alive again and makes this special for of Indian communication accessible to everyone.
Authors George Fronval, a leading authority on the West, and Daniel Dubois provide a vocabulary of 800 signs that will enable you to converse on a wide range of subjects. You will discover that Indian sign language is not dead, and, in fact, now includes concepts unknown to Indians of the past---the telephone, newspapers, to name a few.
The hundreds of color photographs depicting the signs were taken especially for this book under the supervision of George Fronval and the Kiowa chief and Indian scholar, Marland Aitosn (the Kiowas were the chief developers of the Plains sign language). In addition, the book covers such subjects as smoke signals, picture writing, trail marks, the language of feathers, the language of blankets, and body paint. Numerous reproductions of George Catlin paintings, accompanied by detailed captions, give fascinating information about the life of the Plains Indians.
Indian Signals and Sign Language will be of great interest to Western and Americana buffs, students in the fields of communications and languages, and to general readers who will become engrossed in the ancient, yet timeless form of communication.
