The best teachers use voice inflection, visuals, and pacing to keep their students attentive. Associate Professor Jeffrey Davis does more; he also uses his hands talk.

Experienced in signing as an interpreter and deaf educator, then as a professor studying the linguistics of American Sign Language, his signing hands accompanied his lecture Friday at the Science Forum.

Davis is an associate professor in the Department of Theory and Practice in Teacher Education in the College of Education, Health, and Human Services. One of Davis' research projects is the sign language traditionally used among American Indian groups and the best documented is the American Plains Indian Sign Language. 

We can lose a language. Languages can die, but if it is recorded, it can be reconstructed and revitalized.
Jeffrey Davis, Associate Professor in Education, Health, and Human Services

Alternate sign systems used in some indigenous communities have been studied by anthropologists, linguists, and ethnographers worldwide, such as in Australia and the Amazon.  Davis explained that people already used a spoken language. 

"This was an alternative way to communicate," said Davis. "You can imagine how it was developed:  for hunting when silence was necessary, when speech was taboo for ritual purposes, in mourning. It was distinct from the spoken language and it is distinct from gesture."

Davis said that the Plains Indian Sign Language is distinct from American Sign Language, but shares linguistics characteristics with deaf people's sign language. 

"It evolved over thousands of years," he explained. "It is very elaborate, not just gesturing. The Plains Indian sign language has a syntax more similar to the sign language used by deaf people, than to the spoken languages of Plains Indians." 

"Most linguistic scholars agree there were 200 to 300 distinct spoken languages in North America and Mexico prior to European contact," he said.  "Sign language was used as a 'lingua franca' - an international language between different tribes. And it was used among a tribe's members." 

In his research, Davis has found that some of the best and earliest documentation comes from Stephen Long's expedition in 1823.  Long and the scientists in his party produced extensive descriptions of native sign language, the flora, fauna, and people along with geographical information.

Davis shared his excitement in studying sign language linguistics and described his research as unearthing buried riches.  

"Every time I go (to the Smithsonian archives) it's like a treasure trove ... to find these materials." 

Two treasures turned up in Smithsonian storage vaults.  He found a cache of pen and ink drawings of native signs. 

Most linguistic scholars agree there were 200 to 300 distinct spoken languages in North America and Mexico prior to European contact. Jeffrey Davis

"These are never-before published illustrations. These illustrations from circa 1880 had never appeared outside the Smithsonian vault as far as I know," Davis said.  

Another major discovery was a project from 1930, involving black and white short films with narration by the filmmaker, Hugh Scott, a former army general and Bureau of Indian Affairs commissioner. Scott's movies of tribal chiefs in full regalia, chanting and signing lengthy elaborate stories, are a priceless record. 

"A copy [of the films] was made and given to the Boy Scouts.  This sign language was taught to Boy Scouts around the world for years," said Davis. 

With support from UT and external grants, he has collaborated with the Smithsonian to digitize the films, preserving them and making them widely available on this Web site.  

"We can lose a language.  Languages can die, but if it is recorded, it can be reconstructed and revitalized," Davis said.  "Though the language being reconstructed may have changed syntactically or pronunciation-wise, nonetheless, languages can be revitalized."