Wow, the quote from this
page is interesting. I wonder how that sign language developed and what the oralists think of it. If the oralists were around back then, they might've tried to make them use a spoken language. But that might be hard if the spoken languages had some sounds that they didn't share, like the English 'th' sound that many other languages don't have.
Quote:
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A pidgin sign language arose among tribes of American Indians in the Great Plains region of North America (see Plains Indian Sign Language). It was used to communicate among tribes with different spoken languages. There are especially users today among the Crow, Cheyenne, and Arapaho. Unlike other sign languages developed by hearing people, it shares the spatial grammar of deaf sign languages.
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I've seen some books about this sign language. I bet the oralists banned such books from the oral only schools.