Dances with Wolves.

[R. Rankin]

> Once in the 80's, I asked and elderly Ioway uncle if
> he could follow along with the young girl as she
> signed the prayer.  He curtly replied "No!".
> Apparently, something is lost in the process, when
> the signing becomes simply an entertaining act,
> rather than an actual form of communication.  I say
> this, as the young ladies would be virtually unable
> to sign nor understand a more typical interactive
> format.

Last year I discovered that at least some of these
presentations by powwow princesses are being learned in
American Sign Language (ASL), not the Plains Sign
Language (PSL).  These are two different languages, and
someone who knows one of them won't be able to
interpret the other.  I expect that there are quite a
lot of people who believe that there is only one "sign
language".  This comes from the idea that signing is
just a form of pantomime.  But that idea is wrong:
signs are different in the various sign languages, and
there are hundreds of different sign languages in use,
mostly in deaf communities, worldwide.

Bob