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Exhibit at London’s Saatchi Gallery is showcasing the worldwide phenomenon.
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In early September 1930, the Blackfeet Nation of Montana hosted a historic Indian Sign Language Grand Council, gathering leaders of a dozen North American Nations and language groups.

The three-day council held was organized by Hugh L. Scott, a 77-year-old U.S. Army General who had spent a good portion of his career in the American West, where he observed and learned what users called Hand Talk, and what is today more broadly known as Plains Indian Sign Language (PISL). With $5,000 in federal funding, Scott filmed the proceedings and hoped to produce a film dictionary of more than 1,300 signs. He died before he could finish the project. 

Scott’s films disappeared into the National Archives. Recently rediscovered, they are an important resource for those looking to revitalize PISL.

Among them is Ron Garritson, who identifies himself as being of Choctaw and European heritage. He was raised in Billings, Montana, near the Crow Nation.

“I learned how to speak Crow to a degree, and I was really interested in the sign language,” he said. “I saw it being used by the Elders, and I thought it was a beautiful form of communication.  And so I started asking questions.”

Garritson studied Scott’s films, along with works by other ethnographers and now has a vocabulary of about 1,700 signs. He conducts workshops and classes across Montana, in an effort to preserve and spread sign language and native history.

Lingua franca

Prior to contact with Europeans, North American Native peoples were not a unified culture, but hundreds of different cultures and tribes, each with its own political organization, belief system and language. When speakers of one language met those of another, whether in trade, councils or conflict, they communicated in the lingua franca of Hand Talk.  

Scholars dispute exactly when, in their 30,000-year history in North America, tribes developed sign language. It was observed among Florida tribes by 16th Century Spanish colonizers.

“Coronado, as he documented in his journals in 1540, was in Texas and met the Comanche,” said Garritson. “He documented that the Comanches made themselves so well-understood with the use of sign talk that there was almost no need for an interpreter. It was that easy to use and easy to understand.”

While each tribe had its own dialect, tribes were able to communicate easily.  Though universal in North America, Hand Talk was more prominent among the nomadic Plains Nations.

“There were fewer linguistic groups east of the Mississippi River,” said Garritson. “They were mostly woodland tribes, living in permanent villages and were familiar with each other’s languages.  They still used sign language to an extent, but not like it was used out here.”

Hand Talk was also the first language of deaf Natives.

Erasing a culture

By the late 1800s, tens of thousands of Native Americans still used Hand Talk.  That changed when the federal government instituted a policy designed to “civilize” tribal people.

Children were removed from their families and sent to government-run boarding schools, where they were forbidden to speak their own languages or practice their own spiritual beliefs. Native Deaf children were sent to deaf residential schools, where they were taught to use American Sign Language (ASL).  

Research has shown that Hand Talk is still being used by a small number of deaf and hearing descendants of the Plains Indian cultures.

“Hand Talk is endangered and dying quickly,” said Melanie McKay-Cody, who identifies herself as Cherokee Deaf and is an expert in anthropological linguistics. 

McKay-Cody is the first deaf researcher to specialize in North American Hand Talk and today works with tribes to help them preserve their signed languages. She is pushing for PISL to be incorporated into mainstream education of the deaf.

“Easier than hollering”

Lanny Real Bird, who is Crow, Arikara and Hidatsa, grew up in a household where PISL was used.

“My grandmother had hearing loss,” he said. “I’d see my father signing with her in the Plains Indian Sign Language.  I picked up basic sign language, enough to say, ‘Yes’ or ‘No,’ ‘I’m hungry.”  

As a boy, he played with a young relative who was deaf, who helped expand his signing vocabulary.

Real Bird, a former instructor at Montana’s Little Big Horn College, has worked for 20 years helping tribes preserve their languages, both spoken and signed, and has developed a 400 to 600-sign PISL course, which he teaches at community schools and workshops across the Plains states.

“Right now we’re probably at the basic communications phase,” he said. “So in order to expand, we have to go to another level, from listening to understanding to rudimentary communicating to fluency and literacy.”

Real Bird said it took nearly a decade to convince school systems to incorporate PISL into general language instruction.  

“Later this month, students of the of the Crow Reservation’s Wyola Elementary School will be showcased at the annual Montana Indian Education Conference,” he said.

There, they will demonstrate their Crow language skills, both spoken and signed. 
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While Justin Timberlake had a show-stopping moment alongside Chris Stapleton at the 2015 Country Music Association Awards, it was the Backstreet Boys who shined brightly at the 2017 Academy of Country Music Awards.

The boy band had the night’s liveliest moment Sunday in Las Vegas: the fivesome brought the party vibe to life while singing their classic “Everybody (Backstreet Back)” along with duo Florida Georgia Line.

Carrie Underwood and Nicole Kidman were just a few of the audience members at the T-Mobile Arena who felt the nostalgia, sang along and danced excitedly.

The performance hit a new height when Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard of FGL joined the Backstreet Boys during their memorable dance routine, earning louder cheers from the crowd.

Before that moment, FGL sang their duet with the boy band, “God, Your Mama and Me.” It was the duo’s third performance at three-hour show, which aired live on CBS.

Though they won two awards, FGL lost the top prize – entertainer of the year – to Jason Aldean, who also won the honor last year.

“Man, one of the Eagles just gave me an award,” he said, looking to Joe Walsh. “I am so thankful. You guys don’t know how much I love getting up and doing what I do every day.”

FGL, Aldean and Walsh were part of the six separate performances that kicked off the high-energy ACM Awards.

Walsh and co-hosts Luke Bryan and Dierks Bentley performed “Johnny B. Goode” in tribute to Chuck Berry, who died last month.

“For the man that influenced every form of music, including country,” Bryan said.

Keith Urban, who had success with his genre-bending, Grammy-nominated album “Ripcord,” was the top nominee with seven, though he walked away empty-handed.

But he shined onstage when he sang the soulful “Blue Ain’t Your Color” with a throwback, black-and-white vibe, while the back of the stage was smoky and bright blue. As he switched to the upbeat, disco-flavored “The Fighter” – where he was joined by Underwood – the camera focused on his actress-wife, who sang and danced along.

Miranda Lambert also had a top-notch performance: She earned a standing ovation after she sang the slow, acoustic-sounding “Tin Man” as the crowd watched along seriously while she hit all the right notes and strummed her guitar.

She won album of the year for her double disc, “The Weight of These Wings,” and female vocalist of the year, besting Reba McEntire’s record for most wins in the category.

“I am really so thrilled that I can still lead the charge for women in this business, on any level of this business, singer-songwriters, anybody behind-the-scenes, managers, whatever it is,” Lambert said backstage, winning her eighth consecutive female vocalist trophy. “I am just so thrilled that I can keep pushing forward and making way for other women to do the same thing.”

Thomas Rhett was a multiple winner too. Before he took home song of the year for “Die a Happy Man,” the presenters earned laughs from the audience for mocking the infamous mishap at the recent Academy Awards.

“This is odd. David?” asked “Entertainment Tonight” host Nancy O’Dell, who had the winner’s card in her hand.

“Emma Stone, `La La Land,’” magician David Copperfield announced.

Rhett also won male vocalist of the year, beating out Urban, Aldean, Bentley and Chris Stapleton. In his seat, he shook his head after his name was announced.

“I don’t have a whole lot of words except for: Everyone in this category are my idols,” said Rhett, who was teary-eyed and paused throughout his speech. “This is the most amazing award that I’ve ever received in my whole existence.”

Rhett also sang his new collaboration with Maren Morris, who won new female vocalist of the year.

Sam Hunt performed his No. 1 hit, “Body Like a Back Road,” and he went into the audience to sit next to his fiancé to sing the song. Other performers included Rascal Flatts, Little Big Town, Kelsea Ballerini as well as Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, who sang a new duet.

The music video for “Forever Country,” the medley celebrating the Country Music Association Awards’ 50th anniversary featuring Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton and others, won video of the year. Brothers Osborne were double winners, while Jon Pardi and songwriter Lori McKenna also picked up trophies.

Little Big Town won vocal group of the year, beating out Lady Antebellum.

“I just wanna be in Lady Antebellum’s band,” Little Big Town’s Kimberly Schlapman yelled.
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Chicago blues musician Lonnie Brooks, whose relationship with his adopted hometown was cemented by his hit recording of Robert Johnson’s Sweet Home Chicago, has died at age 83.

A prolific musician known for his intense guitar solos and raspy but strong voice, Brooks died Saturday night, his son Ronnie Baker Brooks said Sunday.

Brooks came to the blues by a circuitous route.

Born Lee Baker Jr. in Louisiana, he was focused on playing the guitar when he was noticed and invited to Chicago by soul singer Sam Cooke more than 50 years ago. He stayed and changed his name to Lonnie Brooks.

He recorded a number of albums for Chicago-based Alligator Records’ Living Chicago Blues series, including classics such as Bayou Lightning, Hot Shot, and Lone Star Shootout. He appeared in Dan Aykroyd’s film Blues Brothers 2000.

In an interview with the Chicago Tribune in 1992, Brooks said the blues did not come naturally to him at first.

“Then one night, I saw Magic Sam [Maghett] in a little blues club on the South Side. He went on stage right after he’d gotten into a big fight with his girlfriend, and it was like he was taking it out on his guitar. I seen how it came from the heart, so I went home to the basement, and got into that mood that Magic Sam had been in, and the blues came to me,” Brooks said.

He toured for many years with his sons Wayne and Ronnie, who are both guitar players.

“He was a great family man and a great musician and did a hell of a job with both,” Ronnie Baker Brooks said.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel called him a blues legend “with a towering talent and soulful style that won him legions of fans across the country and around the world.”
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