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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Announcing:
</span></b><i><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">American Indian Sign Language Conference</span></i><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">, (<b>August 31 – September 2, 2012</b>)
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Blackfeet [Amskapi Pikuni] Reservation, Blackfeet Community College, and Museum of the Plains Indian, Browning, MT. In collaboration with Friends of the Museum of the Plains Indian and The
University of Tennessee with support from The<b> </b>National Science Foundation’s Documenting Endangered Languages Program, Division of Linguistics (id #1160604).
<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The 2012 Labor Day Weekend Conference will
</span><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">focus on contemporary use of Indian signed language and commemoration of the 1930 Plains Indian Sign Language Conference held in Browning, MT (see
</span><a href="http://pislresearch.com/"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">http://pislresearch.com/</span></a><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">).<b>
</b>The Conference will feature sign language presentations and workshops; formal sign language documentation activities; as well as ceremonial and educational activities for all ages.
<i>We are inviting signers and others interested in participating in the signing activities from beginners to advanced signers and participants interested in signing/talking with members of tribes in the US and Canada.
</i>The 2012 Conference will be one of the first occasions since the 1930s that American Indians from different nations will convene to share their American Indian Sign Language (AISL) skills and stories.<a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn1" href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">[1]</span></span></span></a>
<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">We are hoping to identify and involve individuals who know sign language from Indian nations of the US and Canada to share their knowledge of history, geography, and culture through signed
and spoken languages from among N. Cheyenne, Blackfeet, Crow, Assiniboine, Nakoda, Lakȟóta, and other Indian Nations.
<i>The chief objective is to involve signers of all ages and generations who are learning and using sign language today, to involve Native community members in language documentation and revitalization, and to give back to these communities the conference proceedings
and documentary materials produced during the Conference</i>. Thank you for sharing this announcement and the flyer attached. Please email Jeffrey Davis and see the Conference website for more details.
</span><a href="http://pislresearch.webfactional.com/new/aisl-conference-2012/"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">http://pislresearch.webfactional.com/new/aisl-conference-2012/</span></a><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Jeffrey Davis, PhD, CSC, CI/CT, SC:L (email:
</span><a href="mailto:jdavis49@utk.edu"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">jdavis49@utk.edu</span></a><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Professor of Sign Language Linguistics and Interpretation<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Department of Theory and Practice in Teacher Education
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn1" href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">[1]</span></span></span></a>
<b><i><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Plains Indian Sign Language</span></i></b><b><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> (PISL) has been the most well documented and described variety of American Indian signed language because of its
long history and widespread use (documented since at least the 1700s). Several other dialects or distinct varieties among the Plains and neighboring tribes have been reported and more studies are needed to illuminate these differences. The indigenous signed
languages of America Indians are sometimes collectively referred to as American Indian Sign Language. Varieties of indigenous sign language have been identified among the Inuit-Iñupiaq, Keresan Pueblo, Meemul Tziij, Navajo/Diné, among others.</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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