On the
whole, the speech of the Siouan stock may be said to have been fairly
developed, and may, with the Algonquian, Iroquoian, and Shoshonean, be
regarded as typical for the portion of North America lying north of
Mexico. Fortunately it has been extensively studied by Riggs, Hale,
Dorsey, and several others, including distinguished representatives of
some of the tribes, and is thus accessible to students. The high phonetic
development of the Siouan tongues reflects the needs and records the
history of the hunter and warrior tribes, whose phonetic symbols were
necessarily so differentiated as to be intelligible in whisper, oratory,
and war cry, as well as in ordinary converse, while the complex structure
is in harmony with the elaborate social organization and ritual of the
Siouan people.
Many of the Siouan Indians were adepts in the sign language; indeed, this
mode of conveying intelligence attained perhaps its highest development
among some of the tribes of this stock, who, with other plains Indians,
developed pantomime and gesture into a surprisingly perfect art of
expression adapted to the needs of huntsmen and warriors.
Most of the tribes were fairly proficient in pictography; totemic and
other designs were inscribed on bark and wood, painted on skins, wrought
into domestic wares, and sometimes carved on rocks. Jonathan Carver gives
an example of picture-writing on a tree, in charcoal mixed with bear's
grease, designed to convey information from the "Chipe'ways" (Algonquian)
to the "Naudowessies,"(22) and other instances of intertribal
communication by means of pictography are on record.
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