Plains Indian Sign Language (PISL), also known as Hand Talk, Plains Sign Talk, Plains Sign Language, or First Nation Sign Language, is an endangered sign language common to the majority of Indigenous nations of North America, notably those of the Great Plains, Northeast Woodlands, and the Great Basin. It was, and continues to be, used across what is now central Canada, the central and western United States and northern Mexico. This language was used historically as a lingua franca, notably for international relations, trade, and diplomacy; it is still used for story-telling, oratory, various ceremonies, and by deaf people for ordinary daily use. In 1885, it was estimated that there were over 110,000 "sign-talking Indians", including Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Sioux, Kiowa, and Arapaho. As a result of the European colonization of the Americas, most notably including American boarding and Canadian residential schools, the number of sign talkers has declined sharply. However, growing interest and preservation work on the language has increased its use and visibility in the 21st century. Historically, some have likened its more formal register, used by men, to Church Latin in function. It is primarily used today by Elders and Deaf citizens of Indigenous nations. Some deaf Indigenous children attend schools for the deaf and learn American Sign Language (ASL) having already acquired Plains Sign Language. A group studied in 1998 were able to understand each other, though this was likely through the use of International Sign. Jeffrey E. Davis, a leading linguist in documentation efforts, hypothesizes that this contact, combined with potential contact with Martha's Vineyard Sign Language (another potential antecedent to ASL) may suggest that ASL descends in part from Plains Sign Language.
Etymology While there are many names for the language, Hand Talk is the preferred term in Indigenous communities. The term is a calque of the language's own name for itself. Other names for the language are used, like Plains Sign Talk and Plains Indian Sign Language (the latter favored exclusively in the United States), but these are erroneous as Hand Talk extends beyond the Great Plains into the Northeast Woodlands, the Great Basin, and beyond. Indeed, as McKay-Cody writes (2019), Hand Talk itself should be considered a family of closely related languages. Whilst the name "Hand Talk" is a direct translation from the language itself, each nation has their own word or name for Hand Talk in their respective oral languages:
History Hand Talk's history is intimately associated with both ancient and recent petroglyphs of the continent, however, little is known to academia about Plains Sign Talk's historical antecedents. The earliest records of contact between Europeans and Indigenous peoples of the Gulf Coast region in what is now Texas and northern Mexico note a fully-formed sign language already in use by the time of the Europeans' arrival there. These records include the accounts of Cabeza de Vaca in 1527 and Coronado in 1541. Signing may have started in the southern parts of North America, perhaps in northern Mexico or Texas, and only spread into the Plains in recent times, though this suspicion may be an artifact of European observation. It is known that there is a complex of Maya sign languages called Meemul Chʼaabʼal or Meemul Tziij in the Kʼicheʼ language, but it is unknown to what extent Meemul Tziij has affected Hand Talk. The Northwest is home to Plateau Sign Language, which is either a single language or a family of sign languages spoken by the local nations. It is also unknown how associated Plateau Sign Language is with Hand Talk, but it is probable that they are related. Although it is still spoken, especially by the Ktunaxa, the Plateau nations historically shifted to using Chinook Jargon instead. In recent years, the Oneida Nation has taken steps to revive their sign language. Historically, the nations of the Northeast Woodlands, like the Haudenosaunee, spoke a variant of Hand Talk. The Oneida Sign Language Project officially began in 2016, and more signs are being added to this day.
Geography
Sign language use has been documented across speakers of at least 37 oral languages in twelve families, spread across an area of over 2.6 million square kilometres (1 million square miles). In recent history, it was highly developed among the Crow, Cheyenne, Arapaho and Kiowa, among others, and remains strong among the Crow, Cheyenne and Arapaho. The various nations with attested use, divided by language family, are:
Algonquian: Anishinaabe, Arapaho, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Cree, Gros Ventre Athabaskan: Apache (Mescalero, Lipan, Jicarilla, and Kiowa Apache), Beaver, Navajo, Sarcee Caddoan: Arikara, Pawnee, Wichita Coahuiltecan: Atakapa, Coahuilteco, Karankawa, Tonkawa Iroquoian: Haudenosaunee, Wendat Numic: Comanche, Paiute, Shoshone, Ute Plateau Penutian: Sahaptian: Nez Perce, Palus, Sahaptin, Umatilla Piman: Akimel O'odham, Tohono O'odham, and continuing into northern Mexico Puebloan: Hopi, Keresan, Zuni Tanoan: Kiowa, Taos Salishan: Coeur d'Alene, Flathead, Kalispel, Sanpoil, Spokane Siouan: Dakota, Crow, Hidatsa, Lakota, Mandan, Nakoda, Nakota, Omaha, Osage, Oto, Ponca Yuman: Maricopa Unclassified: Cayuse Melanie R. McKay-Cody, a Cherokee Deaf woman and Hand Talk speaker/researcher, motions that "Plains" Sign Language is actually a family of inter-related languages extending beyond the Great Plains. She breaks down the regional languages as: Northeast Hand Talk (including Oneida Sign Language), Plains Sign Talk, Great Basin Sign Language (spoken, for example, by the Ute), and Southwest Hand Talk. She also notes a West Coast language spoken by the Chumash, and she advances the idea that Inuit Sign Language has some relation to this complex of manual North American Indigenous languages. Unmentioned is Coast Salish Sign Language. Within each of these languages, she explains that nations will themselves have specific dialects, such as the Blackfoot. Southwest Hand Talk is spoken by the Navajo, Hopi, Apache, and Pueblo peoples. However, amongst the Navajo and Keres people, there are two unrelated sign languages also spoken: Keresan Sign Language and, by a Navajo clan with a large number of deaf members, Navajo Family Sign. Likewise, Plateau Sign Language may or may not be related to Hand Talk.
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