Each year its maker selected some important event, by which the year was
to be remembered, and made a picture for it. The first five or six
pictures run in a nearly straight line to the left; the line of pictures
then coils around and around this, the last picture always being added to
the end of the coiled line. The pictures are in black and red, and while
rudely drawn, most of them can be easily recognized. In 1801 the Sioux had
a terrible attack of smallpox, and many of them died; the picture for the
year is a man covered with red spots. Whooping-cough is a disease of which
white people have little fear, but it is sometimes very destructive to
Indians; in 1813 it was among the Sioux, and the picture for that year was
a man coughing, as shown by lines diverging from in front of his mouth. In
1840 the Sioux made a treaty of peace with the Cheyennes; the picture
shows two hands extended for a friendly grasp. In 1869 there was a total
eclipse of the sun, which is represented by a blackened sun and two stars
in red: “The stars were seen in the daytime.” In 1833 was the famous
display of meteors or falling stars, which was witnessed in all parts of
the United States, causing great excitement; many white people believed
that it portended the destruction of the world. This star shower was
noticed by the Sioux keeper of the winter count, and is represented by a
black moon and a lot of red stars represented as falling. You can pick out
these different figures in the picture, which represents Lone Dog’s winter
count, or the Dakota Calendar as it would look on a buffalo hide.
[Illustration.]