Customer Reviews

North American Indian Sign Language (First Book)

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If you do not know and want to learn the basics of American Indian Sign Language then this is a good book to start with. If you are looking for an in depth book to build on what you already know then this is not the book to purchase. For anyone looking for an overview or American Indian Sign Language or wanting to teach American Indian Sign Language to young people then this is the book to start with.

This book is an excellent resource for late elementary and early middle school social studies teachers when the topic is diversity or the history of Native Americans. The role of sign language in the lives of Native Americans is explained, which is followed by a series of diagrams showing you how to make the signs. They are split into categories according to topic, and some of the topics are:

*) Family
*) Counting
*) Seasons
*) Weather
*) Mind signs
*) Clothing
*) Personal names

Until I read this book, I was unaware that many of the treaties that were negotiated between the whites and Indian tribes were carried out using the universal sign language understood by all Native American tribes.
Since the diagrams make it easy to learn the sign language, it would be an interesting and effective class activity for the children to learn this sign language. The children could be required to learn and carry out conversations using only sign language, or the teacher could occasionally communicate simple requests using the sign language. Teaching diversity is an excellent tactic, but it is very difficult to teach the diversity in forms of communication, as languages are difficult to learn. The ease of learning the Native American sign language gives teachers an opportunity to teach young children the diversity of languages and forms of communication.