Drawing on fieldwork and archival research, Drechsel presents a grammatical, sociolinguistic, and ethnohistorical study of Mobilian Jargon, a Muskogean-based American Indian pidgin of the Mississippi valley. Though linguistic and extralinguistic evidence points to Mobilian Jargon's pre-Columbian origin, it was primarily spoken between 1700 and the mid-twentieth century, when it functioned as a lingua franca among linguistically diverse southeastern Native American groups, and in contact between these groups and non-Indians. Drechsel's study questions the universality of some concepts developed in pidgin and creole linguistics, and carries significant implications for the ethnology of Native American peoples, and for the history of North America. "The book offers an abundance of information and a rich discussion of a fascinating subject."-- Journal of Anthropological Research "...the provocative issues that Drechsel has framed so forcefully in this book should not go ignored."-- Language in Society "Emanuel Drechsel's Mobilian jargon ...provides much new data on a language hitherto assumed extinct, and in doing so makes a number of valuable contributions to sociolinguistics and Native American studies in general."-- Word Emanuel J. Drechsel is Associate Professor in the Liberal Studies Program of the University of Hawai'i at Manoa.