The following are the chief printed works on Sign Language:
1823. The Indian Language of Signs by Major Stephen H. Long, published in his Expedition to the Rocky Mts., 1823, Vol. I, pp. 378–394. Gives 104 signs. The earliest extensive vocabulary on record.
1880. Gesture Signs and Signals of the North American Indians by Lieut. Col. Garrick Mallery. An elaborate and valuable 330 page quarto compilation from many contributors; published by the Bureau of American Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution, 1880.
It was preliminary to the much more extended work published the year following, and combines in itself all the important vocabularies published up to that time, including: Wm. Dunbar’s List pub. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc., January 16, 1801; about 60 signs; Prince Maximilian von Wied-Neuwied’s List, Reise, Nord. Am., 1832–34, 1837; Capt. R. F. Burton’s List pub. in “The City of the Saints,” 1862; Dr. D. G. MacGowan’s List pub. in Historical Magazine, Vol. X, 1866, pp. 86–97; also Manuscript Lists supplied by Col. R. I. Dodge, Dr. William H. Corbusier, U. S. A., and about forty other contributors.
1881. Sign Language Among the North American Indians compared with that among other peoples and Deaf Mutes, by Col. Garrick Mallery; 290 page quarto, 286 illustrations, an elaborate examination of the history, origin, and nature of the Sign Language, with extensive vocabularies. Published in 1st Annual Report, Bureau of American Ethnology, 1881.
1885. The Indian Sign Language by Capt. William Philo Clark, U. S. A., 244 pp. octavo, quite the best book on the subject, giving over 1,000 signs with photographic exactness; it is also one of the best early encyclopedic books on Indians in general; unfortunately, it is without illustrations and is out of print. Published by Hamersly & Co., of Philadelphia, 1885.
This is practically the only publication quoted in preparing this work. I have referred to it continually as a standard—as the highest available authority. (W. P. Clark was born July 27, 1845, at Deer River, Lewis Co., New York. Graduated from West Point June 15, 1868. Served on the Plains in 2d Cavalry during the Indian
wars of 1876 to 1880. Died at Washington, D. C., September 23, 1884.)
HADLEY INDIAN SIGN PRINTS
About twenty-five years ago there lived in Anadarko, Indian Territory, an enthusiastic missionary worker named Lewis F. Hadley, known to the Indians as Ingonompashi.