Introduction -- Language encounters and the "mind of man, while in the savage state" -- Descent and relations -- Much more fertile than commonly supposed -- Four clicks and two gutturals, and a nasal -- The unchangeable character of the "Indian mind" -- Of blood and language -- Epilogue
Summary
"Native Tongues explores the morally entangled territory of language and race as it relates the intellectual history of encounters between whites and Native Americans in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Misunderstandings about the differences between European and indigenous American languages strongly influenced whites' beliefs about the descent and capabilities of Native Americans. These beliefs would play an important role in the subjugation of Native peoples as the United States pursued its 'manifest destiny' of westward expansion"-- Provided by publisher
