Euro-Americans and Indians brought not only different languages but also different cultural perceptions, expectations, meanings, and values to their encounters on the shores of North America. Once the focus of contact began to shift away from initial greetings and barter toward more intensive exchanges of goods and detailed information, both natives and newcomers found ad hoc gestures and even jargons and pidgins to be inadequate means of communication. The subtleties and complexities of the emerging relationship between the European explorers and America's indigenous inhabitants required more subtle and complex communication. The best solution, though not necessarily the easiest to achieve, was to train Indians or Europeans as interpreters—individuals who could speak both languages with some proficiency and who were at least familiar with the customs of each group. At the most basic level an interpreter had to command two languages, and even a rudimentary...