Chapter V: Front Matter (5)

The copy made by Lieutenant Reed was traced over a duplicate of the original, which latter was drawn on a buffalo robe by Lone-Dog, an aged Indian, belonging to the Yanktonai tribe of the Dakotas, who in the autumn of 1876 was near Fort Peck, Montana, and was reported to be still in his possession. His Dakota name is given him by correspondents who knew him, as in the ordinary English literation, Shunka-ishnala, the words respectively corresponding very nearly with the vocables in Riggs’s lexicon for dog-lone. Others have, however, identified him as Chi-no-sa, translated as “a lone wanderer,” and asserted that he was at the time mentioned with the hostile Dakotas under Sitting Bull. There appear to have been several Dakotas of the present generation known to the whites as Lone-Dog.

Plate VI is a representation of the chart as it would appear on the buffalo robe, but it is photographed from the copy on linen cloth, not directly from the robe.

The duplicate from which the copy was immediately taken was in the possession of Basil Clément, a half-breed interpreter, living at Little Bend, near Fort Sully, Dakota, who professed to have obtained information concerning the chart from personal inquiries of many Indians, and whose dictated translation of them, reduced to writing in his own words, forms the basis of that given in the present paper. The genuineness of the document was verified by separate examination, through another interpreter, of the most intelligent Indians accessible at Fort Rice, and at a considerable distance from Clément, who could have had no recent communication with those so examined. One of the latter, named Good-Wood, a Blackfoot Dakota and an enlisted scout attached to the garrison at Fort Rice, immediately recognized the copy now in possession of the writer as “the same thing Lone-Dog had,” and also stated that he had seen another copy at Standing Rock Agency in the hands of Blue-Thunder, a Blackfoot Dakota. He said it showed “something put down for every year about their nation.” He knew how to use it as a calendar, beginning from the center and counting from right to left, and was familiar with the meaning of many of the later characters and the events they commemorated, in which he corroborated Clément’s translation, but explained that he had forgotten the interpretation of some of the earlier signs, which were about those things done before his birth.

All the investigations that could be made elicited the following account, which, whether accurate or not, the Indians examined certainly believed: Probably with the counsel of the old men and authorities of his tribe, Lone-Dog ever since his youth has been in the habit of deciding upon some event or circumstance which should distinguish each year as it passed, and when such decision was made he marked what was considered to be its appropriate symbol or device upon a buffalo robe kept for the purpose. The robe was at convenient times exhibited to other Indians of the nation, who were thus taught the meaning and use of the signs as designating the several years, in order that at the death of the recorder the knowledge might not be lost. A similar motive as to the preservation of the record led to its duplication in 1870 or 1871, so that Clément obtained it in a form ending at that time. It was also reported by several Indians that other copies of the chart in its various past stages of formation had been known to exist among the several tribes, being probably kept for reference, Lone-Dog and his robe being so frequently inaccessible.

Although Lone-Dog was described as a very old Indian, it was not supposed that he was of sufficient age in the year 1800 to enter upon the duty as explained. Either there was a predecessor from whom he received the earlier records or obtained copies of them, or, his work being first undertaken when he had reached manhood, he gathered the traditions from his elders and worked back so far as he could do so accurately, the object either then or before being to establish some system of chronology for the use of the tribe, or more probably in the first instance for the use of his particular band.

Present knowledge of the Winter Count systems renders it improbable that Lone-Dog was their inventor or originator. They were evidently started, at the latest, before the present generation, and have been kept up by a number of independent recorders. The idea was one specially appropriate to the Indian genius, yet the peculiar mode of record was an invention, and is not probably a very old invention, as it has not, so far as known, spread beyond a definite district or been extensively adopted. If an invention of that character had been of great antiquity it would probably have spread by inter-tribal channels beyond the bands or tribes of the Dakotas, where alone the copies of such charts have been found and are understood. Yet the known existence of portable pictographs of this ascertained character renders it proper to examine rock etchings and other native records with reference to their possible interpretation as designating events chronologically.

A query is naturally suggested, whether intercourse with missionaries and other whites did not first give the Dakotas some idea of dates and awaken a sense of want in that direction. The fact that Lone-Dog’s winter count, the only one known at the time of its first publication, begins at a date nearly coinciding with the first year of the present century by our computation, awakened a suspicion that it might be due to civilized intercourse, and was not a mere coincidence. If the influence of missionaries or traders started any plan of chronology, it is remarkable that they did not suggest one in some manner resembling the system so long and widely used, and the only one they knew, of counting in numbers from an era, such as the birth of Christ, the Hegira, the Ab Urbe Conditâ, the First Olympiad, and the like. But the chart shows nothing of this nature. The earliest character (the one in the center or beginning of the spiral) merely represents the killing of a small number of Dakotas by their enemies, an event of frequent occurrence, and neither so important nor interesting as many others of the seventy-one shown in the chart, more than one of which, indeed, might well have been selected as a notable fixed point before and after which simple arithmetical notation could have been used to mark the years. Instead of any plan that civilized advisers would naturally have introduced, the one actually adopted--to individualize each year by a specific recorded symbol, or totem, according to the decision of a competent person, or by common consent acted upon by a person charged with or undertaking the duty whereby confusion was prevented--should not suffer denial of its originality merely because it was ingenious, and showed more of scientific method than has often been attributed to the northern tribes of America. The ideographic record, being preserved and understood by many, could be used and referred to with sufficient ease and accuracy for ordinary purposes. Definite signs for the first appearance of the small-pox and for the first capture of wild horses may be dates as satisfactory to the Dakotas as the corresponding expressions A. D. 1802 and 1813 to the Christian world, and far more certain than much of the chronological tables of Regiomontanus and Archbishop Usher in terms of A. M. and B. C. The careful arrangement of distinctly separate characters in an outward spiral starting from a central point is a clever expedient to dispense with the use of numbers for noting the years, yet allowing every date to be determined by counting backward or forward from any other that might be known; and it seems unlikely that any such device, so different from that common among the white visitors, should have been prompted by them. The whole conception seems one strongly characteristic of the Indians, who in other instances have shown such expertness in ideography. The discovery of the other charts presented or referred to in this paper, which differ in their times of commencement and ending from that of Lone-Dog and from each other, removed any inference arising from the above-mentioned coincidence in beginning with the present century.

Copies of the paper publishing and explaining Lone-Dog’s record were widely circulated by the present writer among Army officers, Indian agents, missionaries, and other persons favorably situated, in hopes of obtaining other examples and further information. The result was a gratifying verification of all the important statements and suggestions in the publication, with the correction of some errors of detail and the supply of much additional material. The following copies of the chart, substantially the same as that of Lone-Dog, are now, or have been, in the possession of the present writer:

1. A chart made and kept by Bo-í-de, The-Flame (otherwise translated The-Blaze), who, in 1877, lived at Peoria Bottom, 18 miles south of Fort Sully, Dakota. He was a Dakota and had generally dwelt with the Sans Arcs, though it was reported that he was by birth one of the Two Kettles. The interpretation was obtained (it is understood originally at the instance of Lieutenant Maus, First United States Infantry) directly from The-Flame by Alex. Laravey, official interpreter at Fort Sully, in the month of April, 1877.

The fac-simile copy in the writer’s possession, also made by Lieutenant Reed, is on a cotton cloth about a yard square and in black and red--thus far similar to his copy of Lone-Dog’s chart, but the arrangement is wholly different. The character for the first year mentioned appears in the lower left-hand corner, and the record proceeds toward the right to the extremity of the cloth, then crossing toward the left and again toward the right at the edge of the cloth--and so throughout in the style called boustrophedon; and ending in the upper left-hand corner. The general effect is that of seven straight lines of figures, but those lines are distinctly connected at their extremities with others above and below, so that the continuous figure is serpentine. It thus answers the same purpose of orderly arrangement, allowing constant additions, like the more circular spiral of Lone-Dog. This record is for the years 1786-’7 to 1876-’7, thus commencing earlier and ending later than that of Lone-Dog.

2. The-Swan’s chart was kindly furnished to the writer by Dr. Charles Rau, of the Smithsonian Institution. It was sent to him in 1872 by Dr. John R. Patrick, of Belleville, Saint Clair County, Illinois, who received it from Dr. Washington West, of Belleville, Illinois, who became an acting assistant surgeon, U. S. Army, November 2, 1868, and was assigned to duty at Cheyenne Agency, Dakota, established by General Harney, as one of a number of agencies to become useful as rendezvous for Dakotas to keep them from disturbing the line of the Union Pacific Railroad. He remained there from November, 1868, to May, 1870. The agency was specially for the Two Kettles, Sans Arcs, and Minneconjous. A Minneconjou chief, The-Swan, elsewhere called The-Little-Swan, kept this record on the dressed skin of an antelope or deer, claiming that it had been preserved in his family for seventy years. The title of the written interpretation of this chart was called the History of the Minneconjou Dakotas, its true use not being then understood. In return for favors, Dr. West obtained permission to have some copies made on common domestic cotton cloth and employed an Indian expert of the Two Kettle band to do the work in fac-simile. From one of these he had a photograph taken on a small plate, and then enlarged in printing to about two-thirds of the original size and traced and touched up in India ink and red paint to match the original, which was executed in some black pigment and ruddle.

The characters are arranged in a spiral similar to those in Lone-Dog’s chart, but more oblong in form. The course of the spiral is from left to right, not from right to left. The interpretation of this chart was made at Cheyenne Agency in 1868 for Dr. Washington West by Jean Premeau, interpreter at that agency.

A useful note is given in connection with the interpretation, that in it all the names are names given by the Minneconjous, and not the names the parties bear themselves, _e. g._, in the interpretation for the year 1829-’30, (see Plate XVIII, and page 114,) Bad Arrow Indian is a translation of the Dakota name for a band of Blackfeet. The owner and explainer of this copy of the chart was a Minneconjou, and therefore his rendering of names might differ from that of another person equally familiar with the chart.

3. Another chart examined was kindly loaned to the writer by Brevet Maj. Joseph Bush, captain Twenty-second United States Infantry. It was procured by him in 1870 at the Cheyenne Agency, from James C. Robb, formerly Indian trader, and afterwards post trader. This copy is one yard by three-fourths of a yard, spiral, beginning in the center from right to left. The figures are substantially the same size as those in Lone-Dog’s chart, with which it coincides in time, except that it ends at 1869-’70. The interpretation differs from that accompanying the latter in a few particulars.

4. The chart of Mato Sapa, Black-Bear. He was a Minneconjou warrior, residing in 1868 and 1869 on the Cheyenne Agency Reservation, on the Missouri River, near Fort Sully, Dakota, near the mouth of the Cheyenne River. In order to please Lieut. O. D. Ladley, Twenty-second United States Infantry, who was in charge of the reservation, he drew or copied on a piece of cotton cloth what he called, through the interpreter, the History of the Minneconjous, and also gave through the same interpreter the key or translation to the figures. Lieutenant Ladley loaned them to an ex-army friend in Washington, who brought them to the notice of the present writer.

This copy is on a smaller scale than that of Lone-Dog, being a flat and elongated spiral, 2 feet 6 inches by 1 foot 6 inches. The spiral reads from right to left. This chart, which begins as does that of Lone-Dog, ends with the years 1868-’69.

The present writer has had conversation and correspondence concerning other copies and other translated interpretations of what may be called for convenience and with some right, on account of priority in publication, the Lone-Dog system of winter counts. But it also was discovered that there were other systems in which the same pictographic method was adopted by the Dakotas. An account of the most important of these, viz.: the charts of Baptiste or Battiste Good, American-Horse, Cloud-Shield, and White-cow-killer has been communicated by Dr. William H. Corbusier, assistant surgeon, United States Army, and is presented _infra_, page 127, under the title of The Corbusier Winter Counts.

The study of all the charts, with their several interpretations, renders plain some points remaining in doubt while the Lone-Dog chart was the only example known. In the first place, it became clear that there was no fixed or uniform mode of exhibiting the order of continuity of the year-characters. They were arranged spirally or lineally, or in serpentine curves, by boustrophedon or direct, starting backward from the last year shown, or proceeding uniformly forward from the first year selected or remembered. Any mode that would accomplish the object of continuity with the means of regular addition seemed to be equally acceptable. So a theory advanced that there was some symbolism in the right to left circling of Lone-Dog’s chart was aborted, especially when an obvious reproduction of that very chart was made by an Indian with the spiral reversed. It was also obvious that when copies were made, some of them probably from memory, there was no attempt at Chinese accuracy. It was enough to give the graphic or ideographic character, and frequently the character is better defined on one of the charts than on the others for the corresponding year. One interpretation or rather one translation of the interpretation would often throw light on the others. It also appeared that while different events were selected by the recorders of the different systems, there was sometimes a selection of the same event for the same year and sometimes for the next, such as would be natural in the progress of a famine or epidemic, or as an event gradually became known over a vast territory. To exhibit these points more clearly, the characters on the charts of The-Flame, Lone-Dog, and The-Swan have been placed together on Plates VII-XXXIII, and their interpretations, separately obtained and translated, have also been collated, commencing on page 100. Where any information was supplied by the charts of Mato Sapa or of Major Bush and their interpretation, or by other authorities, it is given in connection with the appropriate year. Reference is also made to some coincidences or explanatory manner noticed in the Corbusier system.

With regard to the Lone-Dog system, with which the present writer is more familiar, and upon which he has examined a large number of Indians during the last eight years, an attempt was made to ascertain whether the occurrences selected and represented were those peculiar to the clan or tribe of the recorder or were either of general concern or of notoriety throughout the Dakota tribes. This would tend to determine whether the undertaking was of a merely individual nature, limited by personal knowledge or special interests, or whether the scope was general. All inquiries led to the latter supposition. The persons examined were of different tribes, and far apart from each other, yet all knew what the document was, _i. e._, that “some one thing was put down for each year;” that it was the work of Lone-Dog, and that he was the only one who “could do it,” or perhaps was authority for it. The internal evidence is to the same effect. All the symbols indicate what was done, experienced, or observed by the nation at large or by its tribes without distinction--not by that of which Lone-Dog is a member, no special feat of the Yanktonais, indeed, being mentioned--and the chiefs whose deaths or deeds are noted appear to have belonged indifferently to the several tribes, whose villages were generally at great distance each from the other and from that of the recorder. It is, however, true that the Minneconjous were more familiar than other of the Dakotas with the interpretation of the characters on Lone-Dog’s chart, and that a considerable proportion of the events selected relate to that division of the confederacy.

In considering the extent to which Lone-Dog’s chart is understood and used among his people, it may be mentioned that the writer has never shown it to an intelligent Dakota of full years who has not known what it was for, and many of them knew a large part of the years portrayed. When there was less knowledge, there was the amount that may be likened to that of an uneducated person or child who is examined about a map of the United States, which had been shown to him before, with some explanation only partially apprehended or remembered. He would tell that it was a map of the United States; would probably be able to point out with some accuracy the State or city where he lived; perhaps the capital of the country; probably the names of the States of peculiar position or shape, such as Maine, Delaware, or Florida. So the Indian examined would often point out in Lone-Dog’s chart the year in which he was born or that in which his father died, or in which there was some occurrence that had strongly impressed him, but which had no relation whatever to the character for the year in question. It had been pointed out to him before, and he had remembered it, though not the remainder of the chart.

With the interpretations of the several charts given below some explanations are furnished, but it may be useful to set forth in advance a few facts relating to the nomenclature and divisions of the tribes frequently mentioned. In the literature on the subject the great linguistic stock or family embracing not only the Sioux or Dakotas proper, but the Missouris, Omahas, Ponkas, Osages, Kansas, Otos, Assiniboines, Gros Ventres or Minnitaris, Crows, Iowas, Mandans, and some others, has been frequently styled the Dakota Family. Major Powell, the Director of the Bureau of Ethnology, from considerations of priority, has lately adopted the name Siouan for the family, and for the grand division of it popularly called Sioux has used the term Dakota, which the people claim for themselves. In this general respect it is possible to conform in this paper to Major Powell’s classification, but, specially in the details of the Winter Counts, the form of the titles of the tribes is that which is generally used, but with little consistency, in literature, and is not given with the accurate philologic literation of special scholars, or with reference to the synonomy determined by Major Powell, but not yet published. The reason for this temporary abandonment of scientific accuracy is that another course would require the correction or annotation of the whole material contributed from many sources, and would be cumbrous as well as confusing prior to the publication, by the Bureau of Ethnology, of the synonomy mentioned.

The word “Dakota” is translated in Riggs’s Dictionary of that language as “leagued, or allied.” Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull, the distinguished ethnographer and glossologist, gives the meaning to be more precisely “associated as comrades,” the root being found in other dialects of the same group of languages for instance, in the Minitari, where _dáki_ is the name for the clan or band, and _dakóe_ means friend or comrade. In the Sioux (Dakota) dialect, _cota_, or _coda_ means friend, and Dakota may, literally translated, signify “our friends.”

The title Sioux, which is indignantly repudiated by the nation, is either the last syllable or the two last syllables, according to pronunciation, of “Nadowesioux,” which is the French plural of the Algonkin name for the Dakotas, “Nadowessi,” “enemy,” though the English word is not so strong as the Indian, “hated foe” being nearer. The Chippeways called an Iroquois “Nadowi,” which is also their name for rattlesnake (or, as others translate, adder); in the plural, Nadowek. A Sioux they called Nadowessi, which is the same word with a contemptuous or diminutive termination; plural, Nadowessiwak or Nadawessyak. The French gave the name their own form of the plural, and the voyageurs and trappers cut it down to “Sioux.”

The more important of existing tribes and organized bands into which the nation is now divided are given below, being the dislocated remains of the “Seven Great Council Fires,” not only famed in tradition, but known to early white pioneers:

Yankton and Yanktonai or Ihañkto^nwa^n, both derived from a root meaning “at the end,” alluding to the former locality of their villages.

Sihasapa, or Blackfeet.

Oheno^npa, or Two Kettles.

Itaziptco, Without Bow. The French translation, Sans Arc, is, however, more commonly used.

Minneconjou, translated Those who plant by the water, the physical features of their old home.

Sitca^ngu, Burnt Hip or Brulé.

Santee, subdivided into Wahpeton, Men among Leaves, _i. e._, forests, and Sisseton, Men of Prairie Marsh. Two other bands, now practically extinct, formerly belonged to the Santee, or, as it is more correctly spelled, Isanti tribe, from the root _Issan_, knife. Their former territory furnished the material for stone knives, from the manufacture of which they were called the “knife people.”

Ogallalla, Ogalala, or Oglala. The meaning and derivation of this name, as well as the one next mentioned (Uncpapa), have been the subjects of much controversy.

Uncpapa, Unkpapa, or Hunkpapa, the most warlike and probably the most powerful of all the bands, though not the largest.

Hale, Gallatin, and Riggs designate a “Titon tribe” as located west of the Missouri, and as much the largest division of the Dakotas, the latter authority subdividing into the Sichangu, Itazipcho, Sihasapa, Minneconjou, Oheno^npa, Ogallalla, and Huncpapa, seven of the tribes specified above, which he calls bands. The fact probably is that “Titon” (from the word _ti^ntan_, meaning, “at or on land without trees, or prairie”) was the name of a tribe, but it is now only an expression for all those tribes whose ranges are on the prairie, and that it has become a territorial and accidental, not a tribular distinction. One of the Dakotas at Fort Rice spoke to the writer of the “hostiles” as “Titons,” with obviously the same idea of locality, “away on the prairie;” it being well known that they were a conglomeration from several tribes.

It is proper here to remark that throughout the charts the totem of the clan of the person indicated is not generally given, though it is often used in other kinds of records, but instead, a pictorial representation of his name, which their selection of proper names rendered practicable. The clans are divisions relating to consanguinity, and neither coincide with the political tribal organizations nor are limited by them. The number of the clans, or distinctive totemic groups, of the Dakota is less than that of their organized bands, if not of their tribes, and considerably less than that of the totems appearing on the charts. Although it has been contended that the clan-totem alone was used by Indians, there are many other specimens of picture-writings among the Dakota where the name-totem appears, notably the set of fifty-five drawings in the library of the Army Medical Museum narrating the deeds of Sitting-Bull. A pictured message lately sent by a Dakota at Fort Rice to another at a distant agency, and making the same use of name-signs, came to the writer’s notice. Captain Carver, who spent a considerable time with these Indians (called by him Nadowessies) in 1766-’77, explains that “besides the name of the animal by which every nation or tribe [clan] is denominated, there are others that are personal, which the children receive from their mother. * * * The chiefs are distinguished by a name that has either some reference to their abilities or to the hieroglyphic of their families, and these are acquired after they have arrived at the age of manhood. Such as have signalized themselves either in their war or hunting parties, or are possessed of some eminent qualification, receive a name that serves to perpetuate the fame of their actions or to make their abilities conspicuous.” The common use of these name-signs appears in their being affixed to old treaties, and also to some petitions in the office of Indian Affairs. Their similarity in character, use, and actual design, either with or without clan designation, affords an instructive comparison with the origin of heraldry and of modern surnames. Further remarks about the name system of Indians appear on page 169.

With reference to the Winter Counts, it is well known that the Dakotas count their years by winters (which is quite natural, that season in their high levels and latitudes practically lasting more than six months), and say a man is so many snows old, or that so many snow seasons have passed since an occurrence. They have no division of time into weeks, and their months are absolutely lunar, only twelve, however, being designated, which receive their names upon the recurrence of some prominent, physical phenomenon. For example, the period partly embraced by February is intended to be the “raccoon moon”; March, the “sore-eye moon”; and April, that “in which the geese lay eggs.” As the appearance of raccoons after hibernation, the causes inducing inflamed eyes, and oviposition by geese vary with the meteorological character of each year, and as the twelve lunations reckoned do not bring back the point in the season when counting commenced, there is often dispute in the Dakota tipis toward the end of winter as to the correct current date. In careful examination of the several Counts it does not appear to be clear whether the event portrayed occurred in the winter months or was selected in the months immediately before or in those immediately after the winter. No regularity or accuracy is noticed in these particulars.

The next following pages give the translated interpretation of the above-mentioned charts of The-Flame, designated as No. I; of Lone-Dog, designated as No. II; and of The-Swan as No. III; and are explanations of Plates VII to XXXIII. As The-Flame’s count began before the other two and ended later than those, Plates VII, VIII, and XXXIII are confined to that count, the others showing the three in connection. The red color frequently mentioned appears in the corresponding figures in Plate VI of Lone-Dog’s chart as reproduced, but black takes its place in the series of plates now under consideration. Mention of the charts of Mato Sapa and of Major Bush is made where there seems to be any additional information or suggestion in them. When those charts are not mentioned they agree with that of Lone-Dog. Reference is also made to the counts in the Corbusier system when correspondence is to be noted.

* * * * *

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. VII

1786-’87.

1787-’88.

1788-’89.

1789-’90.

1790-’91.

1791-’92.

1792-’93.

THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.]

1786-’87.--No. I represents an Uncpapa chief who wore an “iron” shield over his head. It is stated that he was a great warrior, killed by the Rees. This word is abbreviated from the word Arikaree, a corrupt form of Arikara. This year in the Anno Domini style is ascertained by counting back from several well-known historical events corresponding with those on the charts.

Battiste Good’s count for the same year says: “Iron-hand-band-went-on-war-path winter,” and adds, “They formerly carried burdens on their backs hung from a band passed across their forehead. This man had a band of iron which is shown on his head.”

1787-’88.--No. I. A clown, well known to the Indians; a mischief-maker. A Minneconjou. The interpreter could not learn how he was connected with this year. His accoutrements are fantastic. The character is explained by Battiste Good’s winter count for the same year as follows:

“Left-the-heyoka-man-behind winter.” A certain man was heyoka, that is, in a peculiar frame of mind, and went about the village bedecked with feathers singing to himself, and, while so, joined a war party. On sighting the enemy the party fled, and called to him to turn back also, but as he was heyoka, he construed everything that was said to him as meaning the very opposite, and, therefore, instead of turning back he went forward and was killed. The interpreter remarked if they had only had sense enough to tell him to go on, he would then have run away, but the idiots talked to him just as if he had been an ordinary mortal, and, of course, were responsible for his death.

The figure by Battiste Good strongly resembles that in this chart, giving indications of fantastic dress with the bow. The independent explanations of this figure and of some on the next page referring to dates so remote have been of interest to the present writer.

1788-’89.--No. I. Very severe winter and much suffering among the Indians. Crows were frozen to death, which is a rare occurrence. Hence the figure of the crow.

Battiste Good says: “Many-crows-died winter.”

Cloud Shield says: The winter was so cold that many crows froze to death.

White-Cow-Killer calls the preceding year, 1787-’88, “Many-black-crows-died winter.”

For the year 1789-’90, American-Horse says: “The cold was so intense that crows froze in the air and dropped dead near the lodges.”

This is an instance of where three sets of accounts refer to the same severe cold, apparently to three successive years; it may really not have been three successive years, but that all charts referred to the same season, the fractions of years not being regarded, as above explained.

1789-’90.--No. I. Two Mandans killed by Minneconjous. The peculiar arrangement of the hair distinguishes the tribe.

The Mandans were in the last century one of the most numerous and civilized tribes of the Siouan stock. Lewis and Clarke, in 1804, say that the Mandans settled forty years before, _i. e._, 1764, in nine villages, 80 miles below their then site (north of Knife River), seven villages on the west, and two on the east side of the Missouri. Two villages, being destroyed by the small-pox and the Dakotas, united and moved up opposite to the Arickaras, who probably occupied the same site as exhibited in the counts for the year 1823-’24.

Battiste Good says: “Killed-two-Gros-Ventres-on-the ice winter.”

1790-’91.--No. I. The first United States flag in the country brought by United States troops. So said the interpreter. No special occasion or expedition is noted.

Battiste Good says: “Carried-flag-about-with-them winter,” and explains; they went to all the surrounding tribes with the flag, but for what purpose is unknown.

White-Cow-Killer says: “All-the-Indians-see-the-flag winter.”

1791-’92.--No. I. A Mandan and a Dakota met in the middle of the Missouri; each swimming half way across, they shook hands, and made peace.

Mulligan, post interpreter at Fort Buford, says that this was at Fort Berthold, and is an historic fact; also that the same Mandan, long afterwards, killed the same Dakota.

Cloud-Shield says: The Sioux and Omahas made peace.

1792-’93.--No. I. Dakotas and Rees meet in camp together, and are at peace.

The two styles of dwellings, viz., the tipi of the Dakotas, and the earth lodge of the Arickaras, are apparently depicted.

Battiste Good says: “Camp-near-the-Gros-Ventres winter,” and adds: “They were engaged in a constant warfare during this time.” The Gros Ventres’ dirt-lodge, with the entry in front, is depicted in Battiste Good’s figure, and on its roof is the head of a Gros Ventre.

See Cloud-Shields’s explanations of his figure for this year, page 133.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. VIII

1793-’94.

1794-’95.

1795-’96.

1796-’97.

1797-’98.

1798-’99.

1799-1800.

THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.]

1793-’94.--No. I. Thin-Face, a noted Dakota chief, was killed by Rees.

Battiste Good says: “Killed-a-long-haired-man-at-Raw-Hide-Butte winter,” adding that the Dakotas attacked a village of fifty-eight lodges, of a tribe [called by a correspondent the Cheyennes], and killed every soul in it. After the fight they found the body of a man whose hair was done up with deer-hide in large rolls, and on cutting them open, found it was all real hair, very thick, and as long as a lodge-pole. (Mem.: Catlin tells of a Crow called Long-Hair, whose hair, by actual measurement, was 10 feet 7 inches long.) The fight was at Raw-Hide Butte, now so-called by the whites, which they named Buffalo-Hide Butte because they found so many buffalo hides in the lodges.

According to Cloud-Shield, Long-Hair was killed in 1786-’87; and, according to American-Horse, Long-Hair (a Cheyenne) was killed in 1796-’97.

White-Cow-Killer says: “Little-Face-kill winter.”

Battiste Good says in his count for the succeeding year, 1794-’95, “Killed-little-face-Pawnee winter.” The Pawnee’s face was long, flat, and narrow like a man’s hand, but he had the body of a large man.

1794-’95--No. I. A Mandan chief killed a noted Dakota chief with remarkably long hair, and took his scalp.

White-Cow-Killer says: “Long-Hair-killed winter.”

1795-’96--No. I. While surrounded by the enemy (Mandans) a Blackfeet Dakota Indian goes at the risk of his life for water for the party.

The interpreter states that this was near the present Cheyenne Agency, Dakota Territory. In the original character there is a bloody wound at the shoulder showing that the heroic Indian was wounded. He is shown bearing a water vessel.

Battiste Good gives a figure for this year recognizably the same as that in The-Flame’s chart, but with a different explanation. He calls it “The Rees-stood-the-frozen-man-up-with-the-buffalo stomach-in-his-hand winter,” and adds: “The body of a Dakota who had been killed in an encounter with the Rees, and had been left behind, froze. The Rees dragged it into their village, propped it up with a stick, and hung a buffalo stomach filled with ice in one hand to make sport of it. The buffalo stomach was in common use at that time as a water-jug.”

White-Cow-Killer calls it “Water-stomach-killed winter.”

1796-’97--No. I. A Mandan chief, “The-Man-with the-Hat,” becomes noted as a warrior. The character is precisely the same as that often given for white man. Some error in the interpretation is suggested in the absence of knowledge whether there actually was a Mandan chief so named, in which case the pictograph would be consistent.

Battiste Good says: “Wears-the-war-bonnet-died winter,” adding: He did not die this winter, but received a wound in the abdomen from which the arrow head could not be extracted, but he died of the belly-ache years after.

White-Cow-Killer says: “War-Bonnet-killed winter.”

The translated expression, “killed,” has been noticed to refer often to a fatal wound, though the death did not take place immediately.

1797-’98.--No. I. A Ree woman is killed by a Dakota while gathering “pomme-blanche,” a root used for food. Pomme-blanche, or Navet de prairie, is a white root somewhat similar in appearance to a white turnip, botanically _Psoralea esculenta_ (Nuttal), sometimes _P. argophylla_. It is a favorite food of the Indians, eaten boiled down to a sort of mush or hominy. A forked stick is used in gathering these roots.

It will be noticed that this simple statement about the death of the Arikara woman is changed by other recorders or interpreters into one of a mythical character.

Battiste Good says: “Took-the-god-woman-captive winter,” adding: a Dakota war party captured a woman of a tribe unknown, who, in order to gain their respect, cried out, “I am a ‘Waukan-Tanka’ woman,” meaning that she feared or belonged to God, the Great Spirit, whereupon they let her go unharmed.

A note is added: This is the origin of their name for God [Waka^n-Tañka], the Great Holy, or Supernatural One, they having never heard of a Supreme Being, but had offered their prayers to the sun, earth, and many other objects, believing they were endowed with spirits.

White-Cow-Killer says: “Caught-a-medicine-god-woman winter.”

1798-’99.--No. I. Blackfeet Dakotas kill three Rees.

1799-1800.--No. I. Uncpapas kill two Rees. The figure over the heads of the two Rees is a bow, showing the mode of death. The hair of the Arickaras in this and the preceding character is represented in the same manner.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. IX

1800-’01.

1801-’02.

1802-’03.

THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.]

1800-’01.--No. I. Thirty-one Dakotas killed by Crows.

No. II. Thirty Dakotas were killed by Crow Indians.

The device consists of thirty parallel black lines in three columns, the outer lines being united. In this chart, such black lines always signify the death of Dakotas killed by their enemies.

The Absaroka or Crow tribe, although classed by ethnographers as belonging to the Siouan family, has nearly always been at war with the Dakotas proper since the whites have had any knowledge of either. The official tables of 1875 give the number of Crows then living as 4,200. They are tall, well-made, bold, and noted for the extraordinary length of their hair.

No. III. Thirty Dakotas killed by the Gros Ventres Indians between Forts Berthold and Union, Dakota.

Mato Sapa’s record has nine inside strokes in three rows, the interpretation being that thirty Dakotas were killed by Gros Ventres between Forts Berthold and Union, Dakota.

Major Bush says the same, adding that it was near the present site of Fort Buford.

1801-’02.--No. I. Many died of small-pox.

No. II. The small-pox broke out in the nation. The device is the head and body of a man covered with red blotches.

No. III. All the Dakotas had the small-pox very bad; fatal.

Battiste Good’s record says: “Small-pox-used-them-up-again winter.”

White-Cow-Killer says: “All-sick winter.”

Major Bush adds “very badly” to “small-pox broke out.”

1802-’03.--No. I. First shod horses seen by Indians.

No. II. A Dakota stole horses with shoes on, _i. e._, stole them either directly from the whites or from some other Indians who had before obtained them from whites, as the Indians never shoe their horses. The device is a horseshoe.

No. III. Blackfeet Dakotas stole some American horses having shoes on. Horseshoes seen for the first time.

Mato Sapa says: Blackfeet Dakota stole American horses with shoes on, then first seen by them.

Major Bush agrees with Mato Sapa.

White-Cow-Killer calls it “Brought-in-horseshoes winter.”

Battiste Good says: “Brought-home-Pawnee-horses-with-iron shoes-on winter.”

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. X

1803-’04.

1804-’05.

1805-’06.

THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.]

1803-’04.--No. I. A Blackfeet steals many curly horses from the Assinaboines.

No. II. They stole some “curly horses” from the Crows. Some of these horses are still seen on the plains, the hair growing in closely-curling tufts, resembling in texture the negro’s woolly pile. The device is a horse with black marks for the tufts. The Crows are known to have been early in the possession of horses.

No. III. Uncpapa Dakotas stole five woolly horses from the Ree Indians.

White-Cow-Killer calls it “Plenty-woolly-horses winter.”

Mato Sapa says: Uncpapa stole from the Rees five horses having curly hair.

Major Bush same as last, using “woolly” instead of “curly.”

Battiste Good says: “Brought-home-Pawnee-horses-with-their-hair-rough-and-curly winter.”

1804-’05.--No. I. Calumet dance. Tall-Mandan born.

No. II. The Dakotas had a calumet dance and then went to war. The device is a long pipe-stem, ornamented with feathers and streamers. The feathers are white, with black tips, evidently the tail feathers of the adult golden eagle (_Aquila chrysaëtos_), highly prized by all Indians. The streamers anciently were colored strips of skin or flexible bark; now gayly colored strips of cloth are used. The word calumet is a corruption of the French _chalumeau_, and the pipe among all the Mississippi tribes was a symbol of peace. Captain Carver, in his Three Years’ Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America, Philadelphia, 1796, which travels began in 1766, after puzzling over the etymology of the word calumet (that honest “captain of Provincial troops” obviously not understanding French), reports it as “about 4 feet long, bowl of red marble, stem of a light wood curiously painted with hieroglyphics in various colors and adorned with feathers. Every nation has a different method of decorating these pipes and can tell at once to what band it belongs. It is used as an introduction to all treaties, also as a flag of truce is among Europeans.” The event commemorated in the figure was probably a council of some of the various tribes of the nation for settlement of all internal difficulties, so as to act unitedly against the common enemy. J. C. Beltrami, who visited the Dakotas not long after this date, describes them in his Pilgrimage, London, 1828, as divided into independent tribes, managing their separate affairs each by its own council, and sometimes coming into conflict with each other, but uniting in a general council on occasions affecting the whole nation.

No. III. Danced calumet dance before going to war.

Battiste Good says: “Sung-over-each-other-while-on-the-war-path winter.” He adds: “The war party while out made a large pipe and sang each other’s praises.” A memorandum is also added that the pipe here seems to indicate peace made with some other tribe assisting in the war. But see pages 118 and 139.

1805-’06.--No. I. Eight Dakotas killed by Crows.

No. II. The Crows killed eight Dakotas. Again the short parallel black lines, this time eight in number, united by a long stroke. The interpreter, Fielder, says that this character with black strokes is only used for grave marks.

No. III. Eight Minneconjou Dakotas killed by Crow Indians at the mouth of Powder River.

Battiste Good says: “They-came-and-killed-eight winter.” The enemy killed eight Dakotas.

White-Cow-Killer calls it “Eight-Dakotas-killed winter.”

Mato Sapa says: Eight Minneconjous killed by Crows at mouth of Powder River.

Major Bush same as last.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XI

1806-’07.

1807-’08.

1808-’09.

THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.]

1806-’07.--No. I. Many eagles caught. This is done by digging a hole and baiting the eagles to the hole in which the Indian is concealed, who then catches the eagle.

No. II. A Dakota killed an Arikara as he was about to shoot an eagle. The sign gives the head and shoulders of a man with a red spot of blood on his neck, an arm being extended, with a line drawn to a golden eagle. The Arickaras, a branch of the Pawnee (Pani) family, were at the date given a powerful body, divided into ten large bands. They migrated in recent times from southeast to northwest along the Missouri River.

No. III. A Ree Indian hunting eagles from a hole in the ground killed by the Two Kettle Dakotas.

Battiste Good says: “Killed-them-while-hunting-eagles winter.” Some Dakota eagle-hunters were killed by enemies.

White-Cow-Killer calls it “Killed-while-hunting-eagles winter.”

Mato Sapa says: A Ree hunting eagles from a hole in the ground was killed by Two Kettles.

Major Bush says the same without the words “hole in the ground.”

There is no doubt that the drawing represents an Indian in the act of catching an eagle by the legs, as the Arickaras were accustomed to catch eagles in their earth-traps. They rarely or never shot war eagles. The enemies probably shot the Arikara in his trap just as he put his hand up to grasp the bird.

1807-’08.--No. I. Red-Shirt killed by Rees.

No. II. Red-Coat, a chief, was killed. The figure shows the red coat pierced by two arrows, with blood dropping from the wounds.

No. III. Uncpapa Dakota, named Red-Shirt, killed by Ree Indians.

Battiste Good says: “Came-and-killed-man-with-red-shirt-on winter.”

White-Cow-Killer calls it “Red-shirt-killed winter.”

Mato Sapa says: Red-shirt, an Uncpapa Dakota, was killed by Rees.

Major Bush same as last.

1808-’09.--No. I. Broken-Leg (Dakota) killed by Rees.

No. II. The Dakota who had killed the Ree shown in this record for 1806-’07 was himself killed by the Rees. He is represented running, and shot with two arrows; blood dripping. These two figures, taken in connection, afford a good illustration of the method pursued in the chart, which was not intended to be a continuous history, or even to record the most important event of each year, but to exhibit some one of special peculiarity. War then raging between the Dakotas and several tribes, probably many on both sides were killed in each of the years; but there was some incident about the one Ree who was shot as in fancied security he was bringing down an eagle, and whose death was avenged by his brethren the second year afterward. Hence the selection of those occurrences. It would, indeed, have been impossible to have graphically distinguished the many battles, treaties, horse-stealings, big hunts, etc., so most of them were omitted and other events of greater individuality and better adapted for portrayal were taken for the calendar, the criterion being not that they were of national moment, but that they were of general notoriety, or perhaps of special interest to the recorders.

No. III. A Blackfeet Dakota, named Broken-Leg, killed by Ree Indians.

Mato Sapa says: Broken-Leg, a Blackfeet Dakota, was killed by Rees.

Major Bush same as last.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XII

1809-’10.

1810-’11.

1811-’12.

THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.]

1809-’10.--No. I. Little-Beaver, a white trapper, is burnt to death by accident in his house on the White River. He was liked by Indians.

No. II. A chief, Little-Beaver, set fire to a trading store, and was killed. The character is simply his name-totem. The other interpretations say that he was a white man, but he probably had gained a new name among the Indians.

No. III. White French trader, called Little-Beaver, was blown up by powder on the Little Missouri River.

Battiste Good says: “Little-Beaver’s-house-burned winter.” Little-Beaver was an English trader, and his trading house was a log one.

White-Cow-Killer says: Little-Beaver’s house was burned.

1810-’11.--No. I. Black-Rock, a Minneconjou chief, killed. See page 135.

No. II. Black-Stone made medicine. The “medicine men” have no connection with therapeutics, feel no pulses, and administer no drugs, or, if sometimes they direct the internal or external use of some secret preparation, it is as a part of superstitious ceremonies, and with main reliance upon those ceremonies they “put forth the charm, of woven paces and of waving hands,” utter wild cries, and muddle in blood and filth until they sometimes work themselves into an epileptic condition. Their incantations are not only to drive away disease, but for many other purposes, such as to obtain success in war, avert calamity, and very frequently to bring within reach the buffalo, on which the Dakotas depended for food. The rites are those known as Shamanism, noticeable in the ethnic periods of savagery and barbarism. In the ceremonial of “making medicine,” a buffalo head, and especially that of an albino, held a prominent place among the plains tribes. Many references to this are to be found in the Prince of Wied’s Travels in the interior of North America; London, 1843; also see _infra_, pages 118, 122 and 195.

The device in the chart is the man-figure, with the head of an albino buffalo held over his own.

No. III. A Minneconjou Dakota, named Little-Tail, first made “medicine” with white buffalo cow-skin.

Mato Sapa says: A Minneconjou, named Little-Tail, first made medicine with white buffalo cow-skin.

Major Bush same as last.

American-Horse gives for the preceding year, 1809-’10: Black-Rock was killed by the Crows.

1811-’12.--No. I. Twenty-seven Mandans surrounded and killed by Dakotas.

No. II. The Dakotas fought a battle with the Gros Ventres, and killed a great many. Device, a circle inclosing three round objects with flat bases, resembling heads severed from trunks, which latter the copy shows too minute in this device for suggestion of what they probably represent; but they appear more distinct in the record for 1864-’65 as the heads of enemies slain in battle. In the sign-language of the plains, the Dakotas are always denoted by drawing a hand across the throat, signifying that they cut the throats of their enemies. The Dakotas count by the fingers, as is common to most peoples, but with a peculiarity of their own. When they have gone over the fingers and thumbs of both hands, one finger is temporarily turned down for _one ten_. At the end of the next ten another finger is turned, and so on to a hundred. _Opawinge_ [_Opawi^nxe_], one hundred, is derived from _pawinga_ [_pawi^nxa_], to go around in circles, to make gyrations, and contains the idea that the round of all the fingers has again been made for their respective tens. So the circle is never used for less than one hundred, but sometimes signifies an indefinite number greater than a hundred. The circle, in this instance, therefore, was at first believed to express the killing in battle of many enemies. But the other interpretations remove all symbolic character, leaving the circle simply as the rude drawing of a dirt lodge, being an instance in which the present writer, by no means devoted to symbolism, had supposed a legitimate symbol to be indicated, which supposition full information on the subject did not support.

There are two wholly distinct tribes called by the Canadians Gros Ventres. One, known also as Hidatsa and Minnetari, is classed in the Siouan family, and numbered, in 1804, according to Lewis and Clarke, 2,500 souls. The other “Big Bellies,” properly called Atsina, are the northern division of the Arapahos, an Algonkin tribe, from which they separated in the early part of this century, and, wandering eastward, met the Dakotas, by whom they were driven off to the north. It is probable that this is the conflict recorded, though the Dakotas have also often been at feud with their linguistic cousins, the Minnetari.

No. III. Twenty of the Gros Ventres killed by Dakotas in a dirt lodge. They were chased into a deserted Ree dirt lodge and killed there.

Mato Sapa says: Twenty Gros Ventres were killed by the Dakotas in a dirt lodge. In this record there is a circle with only one head.

Major Bush’s interpretation is the same as the last.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XIII

1812-’13.

1813-’14.

1814-’15.

THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.]

1812-’13.--No. I. Many wild horses caught.

No. II. The wild horses were first run and caught by the Dakotas. The device is a lasso. The date is of value, as showing when the herds of prairie horses, descended from those animals introduced by the Spaniards in Mexico, or those deposited by them on the shores of Texas and at other points, had multiplied so as to extend into the far northern regions. The Dakotas undoubtedly learned the use of the horse and perhaps also that of the lasso from southern tribes, with whom they were in contact; and it is noteworthy that notwithstanding the tenacity with which they generally adhere to ancient customs, in only two generations since they became familiar with the horse they have been so revolutionized in their habits as to be utterly helpless, both in war and the chase, when deprived of that animal.

No. III. Dakotas first used lariat (_sic_) for catching wild horses.

Battiste Good says for the preceding year, 1811-’12: “First-hunted-horses winter.” He adds: “The Dakotas caught wild horses in the sand-hills with braided lariats.”

American-Horse also, for 1811-’12, says: They caught many wild horses south of the Platte River.

White-Cow-Killer calls 1811-’12 “Catching-wild-horses winter.”

Major Bush says: Dakotas first made use of lariat in catching wild horses.

1813-’14--No. I. Many Indians died of cold (consumption).

No. II. The whooping-cough was very prevalent and fatal. The sign is ludicrously suggestive of a blast of air coughed out by the man-figure.

No. III. Dakotas had whooping-cough, very fatal.