Written language among native Americans?

Question

Just wondered if any of the Native American tribes developed a written language...or was communication by oral tradition only?

Answer 1

In Precolumbian America, only the Maya developed a written language, which has only been deciphered in the last quarter century.

In modern America, many tribes have adapted the Roman alphabet for use in writing their languages and there are many volumes of Native American stories that have been published in those languages. For example, there are two books of Shoshoni stories written in Shoshoni and English and a wonderful book of Shoshoni songs with an accompanying CD of two traditional singers singing the songs in the book.

If there is a specific language you are interested in, contact me and I can send you the references.

EDIT: The word "Apache" is NOT from Navajo, but from Zuni, borrowed into Spanish and thence into English. The Walum Olam is most likely a fake. The Cree and Eskimo syllabaries are post-contact. The only non-Roman Native writing system still in any use is the Cherokee syllabary, which is also post-contact.

Answer 2

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
Written language among native Americans?
Just wondered if any of the Native American tribes developed a written language...or was communication by oral tradition only?

Answer 3

Several Native American tribes have written languages. You might refer to the link given from the Seminole, above. As well, the Cherokee, the Blackfoot, the Cheyenne, the Cree, Ojibwe and several other Algic/Algonquin languages have written syllabaries. I believe that several of these however were produced after contact with Europeans. Many however are certainly however in use today and are taught still.

I don't know very much about languages in the Iriquoian, Siouan Athabaskin or other rarer language families, so I can't help you with that much. I know however that many of those languages however are still very much alive today and most have alphabets of some sort or another, similar to languages of the Algonquin family.

Traditionally as well, several tribes had glyphic writing. The Walum Olum of the Lene Lenape is an example of this. It is a complex grapheme set, most similar in structure to early Egyptian heiroglyphs or pre Han dynasty characters from China.

As well, several central American tribes used complex graphemes, such as the Mayans, to which someone else already made reference above.

Answer 4

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The absence of a written language among most tribes force them to depend on handed down traditions that were difficult to maintain as their civilizations decreased and separated by the dominant European white culture. For this I have only empathy for the treatment of Native Americans. However you seem to put blame on “whites” for every evil act. Scholars now believe that, among the various contributing factors, epidemic disease was the overwhelming cause of the population decline of the American natives. After first contacts with Europeans and Africans, some believe that the death of 90 to 95% of the native population of the New World was caused by Old World diseases such as smallpox and measles. Since the end of World War II, there have been nearly 50 documented incidents of genocide and politically motivated mass murder that have cost the lives of at least 12 million and as many as 22 million noncombatants, more than all victims of internal and international wars since 1945. During the latter half of the 20th century, up to 2.2 million people were murdered in Cambodia for political reasons. Ethnic hatred in Rwanda led to the deaths of more than 800,000 men, women, and children. Religiously and politically motivated murders in Bosnia resulted in over 200,000 deaths. Non-whites committed these evil acts. In Darfur, we see whole populations displaced, and their homes destroyed, while rape is used as a deliberate strategy. In northern Uganda, we see children mutilated and forced to take part in acts of unspeakable cruelty. In Beslan, we have seen children taken hostage and brutally massacred numerous acts of evil by other races and cultures, which are too many to mention. Again, non-whites. We have all learned from the mistakes in history and feel we are all better off for it but you single out and blame a whole society of people for acts committed before they were born and for that…you are a racist.

Answer 5

I am certain that many Native American Nations had written language. Navajo comes to mind. The only reason we have the Navajo word "Apache" in our English vocabulary is because the Navajo Indians did have a written language. The Navajo referred to both the White man and the Native American tribe (we now know as Apache) as "apache," because the Navajo word "apache" means... Enemy. The Apache simply referred to themselves (in their native tongue) as... The People.

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Answer 6

I am from the Seminole Tribe of Florida and we are one of the Five Civilized Tribes. My tribe has its own written language. If you would like to know more please visit our website at www.seminoletribe.com You will find all the info you are looking for there.