09/30/2026
In 1930, an old man sat in a circle of men. Men he did not know. Speaking languages different from his. He lifted his hands and began a conversation that everyone in that circle instantly understood.
This 82 year old man was Alberta born Mountain Chief. He spent years on a mission to preserve a language he had known since childhood — Hand Talk. A language quickly becoming endangered
For centuries, Hand Talk connected individuals, tribes and nations across the continent, from Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico. It was a continent-wide lingua franca.
The principle of it was beautiful and simple – an intuitive SIGN language that everyone could use to communicate across all language and hearing barriers without translators.
It was sophisticated enough for philosophical conversations, diplomacy, trading, mapping, storytelling, poetry, humour — or just having a conversation.
Today, archaeologists and Indigenous linguists are studying connections between Hand Talk and signs found on rock art thousands of years old. No one knows how far back it goes. It’s possible that Hand Talk could be the oldest continual language on the planet
In the decades leading up to the 1930 meeting, Mountain Chief crossed the continent. He translated English songs and poetry and tried his best to increase awareness. New laws in both the US and Canada forbade or greatly restricted Hand Talk and children in residential schools were punished for using it. Still, it survived.
The 1930’s circle was not just a meeting. In collaboration with a US general, Mountain Chief’s was filming Hand Talk, so there would always be a record of it. Most of the film, unfortunately, did not survive. Still, people used it, secretly taught it and carried on the tradition. The surviving part of that 1930’s film helped. Today, right here, on Treaty 7 land, Indigenous communities are working to bring this beautiful language back to life.
