318 SIGN LANGUAGE AMONG NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 
language from one tribe and one region, whereas, so far as can be traced, 
the conditions favorable to a sign language existed very long ago and 
were co-extensive with the territory of North America occupied by any 
of the tribes. To avoid repetition reference is made to the discussion 
below under the heads of universality, antiquity, identity, and pernia- 
nence. At this point it is only desired to cail attention to the ancient 
prevalence of signs among tribes such as the Iroquois, Wyandot, Ojibwa, 
and at least three generations back among the Crees beyond our north- 
ern boundary and the Mandans and other far-northern Dakotas, not 
likely at that time to have had communication, even through inter- 
tribal channels, with the Kaiowas. It is also difficult to understand how 
their signs would have in that manner reached the Kutchin of Eastern 
Alaska and the Kutine and Selish of British Columbia, who use signs 
now. At the same time due consideration must be given to the great 
change in the intercommunication of tribes, produced by the importation 
of the horse, by which the habits of those Indians now, but not very 
anciently, inhabiting the Plains were entirely changed. It is probable 
that a sign language before existing became, contemporaneously with 
nomadic life, cultivated and enriched. 
As regards the Spanish origin suggested, there is ample evidence that 
the Spaniards met signs in their early explorations north of and in the 
northern parts of Mexico, and availed themselves of them but did not 
introduce them. It is believed also that the elaborate picture writing 
of Mexico was founded on gesture signs. 
With reference to the statement that the Kaiowas are the most ex- 
pert sign talkers of the Plains, a number of authorities and correspond- 
ents give the precedence to the Cheyennes, and an equal number to the 
Arapahos. Probably the accident of meeting specially skillful talkers 
in the several tribes visited influences such opinions. 
The writer’s experience, both of the Utes and Pai-Utes, is different from 
the above statement respecting the absence of signs among them. They 
not only use their own signs but fully understand the difference be- 
tween the signs regarded as their own and those of the Kaiowas. On 
special examination they understood some of the latter only as words 
of a foreign language interpolated in an oral conversation would be 
comprehended from the context, and others they would recognize as 
having seen before among other tribes without adoption. The same is 
true regarding the Brulé Sioux, as was clearly expressed by Medicine 
Bull, their chief. The Pimas, Papagos, and Maricopas examined had a 
copious sign language, yet were not familiar with many Kaiowa signs 
presented to them. 
Instead of referring to a time past when they did not use signs, the 
Indians examined by the writer and by most of his correspondents 
speak of a time when they and their fathers used it more freely and 
copiously than at present, its disuse being from causes before mentioned. 
It, however, may be true in some cases that a tribe, having been for a 
long time in contact only with others the dialect of which was so nearly 
