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.
[Illustration:
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.
The interruption in the cough is curiously designed. An attempt at the
same thing is made in Chart 1, and a less marked attempt appears in No.
II.
1814-’15--No. I. Hunchback, a Brulé, killed by Utes.
No. II. A Dakota killed an Arapaho in his lodge. The device
represents a tomahawk or battle-ax, the red being blood from the
cleft skull.
The Arapahos long dwelt near the head-waters of the Arkansas and Platte
Rivers, and in 1822 numbered by report 10,000.
No. III. A Wetapahata (a stranger Indian, whose nationality was not
identified by the interpreter) Indian killed by a Brulé Dakota, while
on a visit to the Dakota.
Mato Sapa says: a Wetopahata Indian was killed by a Brulé Sioux while
on a visit to the Dakotas.
Major Bush says the same, but spells the word Watahpahata.
Riggs gives Wí-ta-pa-ha, the Kiowas, and Ma-qpí-ya-to, the Arapahos, in
the Dakota Dictionary.
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XIV
1815-’16.
1816-’17.
1817-’18.
THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.]
1815-’16.--No. I. Large dirt lodge made by Sans Arcs. The figure at the
top of the lodge is a bow.
No. II. The Sans Arcs made the first attempt at a dirt lodge. This
was at Peoria Bottom, Dakota Territory. Crow-Feather was their chief,
which fact, in the absence of the other charts, seemed to explain the
fairly-drawn feather of that bird protruding from the lodge top, but
the figure must now be admitted to be a badly drawn bow, in allusion
to the tribe Sans Arc, without, however, any sign of negation. As
the interpreter explained the figure to be a crow feather, and as
Crow-Feather actually was the chief, Lone-Dog’s chart with its
interpretation may be independently correct.
No. III. Sans Arc Dakotas built dirt lodges at Peoria Bottom. A dirt
lodge is considered a permanent habitation. The mark on top of the
lodge is evidently a strung bow, not a feather.
Battiste Good says: “The-Sans-Arcs-made-large-house winter.”
White-Cow-Killer calls it: “Made-a-house winter.”
Major Bush’s copy also shows a clearly drawn figure of a bow, strung.
1816-’17.--No. I. Buffalo very plenty.
No. II. “Buffalo belly was plenty.” The device rudely portrays a side
or perhaps hide of buffalo.
No. III. Dakotas had unusual quantities of buffalo.
1817-’18.--No. I. Trading store built at Fort Pierre.
No. II. La Framboise, a Canadian, built a trading store with dry
timber. The dryness is shown by the dead tree. La Framboise was an old
trader among the Dakotas. He once established himself in the Minnesota
Valley. His name is mentioned by various travelers.
No. III. Trading post built on the Missouri River 10 miles above Fort
Thompson.
Battiste Good says: “Chozé-built-a-house-of-dead-logs winter.”
Mato Sapa says: A trading house was built on the Missouri River 10
miles above Fort Thompson.
Major Bush says the same as last, but that it was built by Louis La
Conte.
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XV
1818-’19.
1819-’20.
1820-’21.
THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS]
1818-’19.--No. I. Many Indians died of cholera [_sic_].
No. II. The measles broke out and many died. The device in the copy is
the same as that for 1801-’02, relating to the small-pox, except a very
slight difference in the red blotches; and though Lone-Dog’s artistic
skill might not have been sufficient to distinctly vary the appearance
of the two patients, both diseases being eruptive, still it is one of
the few serious defects in the chart that the sign for the two years
is so nearly identical that, separated from the continuous record,
there would be confusion between them. Treating the document as a mere
_aide-de-mémoire_, no inconvenience would arise, it probably being well
known that the small-pox epidemic preceded that of the measles; but
such care is generally taken to make some, however minute, distinction
between the characters, that possibly the figures on Lone-Dog’s robe
show a more marked difference between the spots indicating the two
eruptions than is reproduced in the copy. It is also to be noticed
that the Indian diagnosis makes little distinction between small-pox
and measles, so that no important pictographic variation could be
expected. The head of this figure is clearly distinguished from that in
1801-’02.
No. III. All the Dakotas had measles, very fatal.
Battiste Good says: “Small-pox-used-them-up-again winter.” They at this
time lived on the Little White River, about 20 miles above the Rosebud
Agency. The character in Battiste Good’s chart is presented here in
Figure 41, as a variant from those in the plates.
[Illustration: FIG. 41.--Measles or small-pox.]
Cloud-Shield says: Many died of the small-pox.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Little-small-pox winter.”
In Mato Sapa’s drawing the head of the figure is distinguished from
that of 1801-’02.
1819-’20.--No. I. Another trading store built.
No. II. Another trading store was built; this time by Louis La Conte,
at Fort Pierre, Dakota. His timber, as one of the Indians consulted
specially mentioned, was rotten.
No. III. Trading post built on the Missouri River above Farm Island
(near Fort Pierre).
Battiste Good says: “Chozé-built-a-house-of-rotten-wood winter.”
White-Cow-Killer calls it: “Made-a-house-of-old-wood winter.”
1820-’21.--No. I. Large dirt lodge made by Two-Arrow. The projection at
the top extends downward from the left, giving the impression of red
and black cloth streamers.
No. II. The trader, La Conte, gave Two-Arrow a war-dress for his
bravery. So translated an interpreter, and the sign shows the two
arrows as the warrior’s totem; likewise the gable of a house,
which brings in the trader; also a long strip of black tipped with
red streaming from the roof, which possibly may be the piece of
parti-colored material out of which the dress was fashioned. This strip
is not intended for sparks and smoke, as at first sight suggested, as
the red would in that case be nearest the roof, instead of farthest
from it.
No. III. A Minneconjou Dakota, named Two-Arrows, built himself a dirt
medicine-lodge. This the interpreter calls, rather inaccurately, a
headquarters for dispensing medicines, charms, and nostrums to the
different bands of Dakotas. The black and red lines above the roof are
not united and do not touch the roof.
White-Cow-Killer calls it: “Two-Arrows-made-a-war-bonnet winter.”
Battiste Good says: They made bands of strips of blankets in the winter.
Major Bush says: A Minneconjou, named Two-Arrow, made medicine in a
dirt-lodge.
It will be observed that the interpreters vary in the details.
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XVI
1821-’22.
1822-’23.
1823-’24.
THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.]
1821-’22.--No. I. Large ball of fire with hissing noise (aërolite).
No. II. The character represents the falling to earth of a very
brilliant meteor, and though no such appearance is on record, there
were in 1821 few educated observers near the Upper Mississippi and
Missouri who would take the trouble to notify scientific societies of
the phenomenon.
No. III. Dakota Indians saw an immense meteor passing from southeast to
northwest which exploded with great noise (in Dakota Territory).
Red-Cloud said he was born in that year.
Battiste Good says: “Star-passed-by-with-loud-noise winter.” His device
is shown in Figure 42, showing the meteor, its pathway, and the clouds
from which it came.
[Illustration: FIG. 42--Meteor.]
White-Cow-Killer calls it “One-star-made-a-great-noise winter.” See
also Cloud-Shield’s count, page 136.
1822-’23.--No. I. Trading store built at Little Missouri, near Fort
Pierre.
No. II.--Another trading house was built, which was by a white man
called Big-Leggings, and was at the mouth of the Little Missouri or Bad
River. The drawing is distinguishable from that for 1819-’20.
No. III. Trading post built at the mouth of Little Missouri River.
1823-’24--No. I. Whites and Dakotas fight Rees.
No. II. White soldiers made their first appearance in the region. So
said the interpreter, Clément, but from the unanimous interpretation of
others the event portrayed is the attack of the United States forces,
accompanied by Dakotas, upon the Arikara villages, the historic account
of which is as follows, abstracted from the annual report of J. C.
Calhoun, Secretary of War, November 29, 1823:
General William H. Ashley, lieutenant-governor of the State of
Missouri, a licensed trader, was treacherously attacked by the Arickara
Indians at their village on the west bank of the Missouri River, about
midway between the present Fort Sully and Fort Rice, on June 2, 1823.
Twenty-three of the trading party were killed and wounded, and the
remainder retreated in boats a considerable distance down the river,
whence they sent appealing for succor to the commanding officer at Fort
Atkinson, the present site of Council Bluffs. This officer was Col. H.
Leavenworth, Sixth United States Infantry, who marched June 22, with
220 men of that regiment, 80 men of trading companies, and two 6-pound
cannon, a 5-1/2-inch brass howitzer, and some small swivels, nearly
700 miles through a country filled with hostile or unreliable Indians
to the Ree villages, which, after much hardship and some losses, he
reached on the 9th of August. The Dakotas were at war with the Arickara
or Rees, and 700 to 800 of their warriors had joined the United States
forces on the way; of these Dakotas 500 are mentioned as Yanktons, but
the tribes of the remainder are not designated in the official reports.
The Rees were in two villages, the lower one containing seventy-one
dirt lodges and the upper seventy, both being inclosed with palisades
and a ditch, and the greater part of the lodges having a ditch
around the bottom on the inside. The enemy, having knowledge of the
expedition, had fortified and made every preparation for resistance.
Their force consisted of over 700 warriors, most of whom were armed
with rifles procured from British traders. On the 9th of August the
Dakotas commenced the attack, and were driven back until the regular
troops advanced, but nothing decisive resulted until the artillery was
employed on the 10th, when a large number of the Rees, including their
chief, Grey-Eyes, were killed, and early in the afternoon they begged
for peace. They were much terrified and humbled by the effect of the
cannon, which, though small, answered the purpose. During the main
engagement the Dakotas occupied themselves in gathering and carrying
off all the corn to be found, and before the treaty was concluded,
which, at the supplication of the Rees, Colonel Leavenworth agreed to,
the Dakotas all left in great disgust at not being allowed to kill and
scalp the surrendered warriors with their squaws and pappooses, take
possession of the villages, horses, etc., and in fact to exterminate
their hereditary foes. However, the Rees, having become panic-stricken
after the treaty and two days of peaceful intercourse with the
soldiers, deserted their homes, and the troops, embarking on the 15th
to descend the river, shortly saw the villages in flames, which was the
work either of the Dakotas or of inimical traders.
The device is believed to represent an Arickara palisaded village and
attacking soldiers. Not only the remarkable character and triumphant
result of this expedition, but the connection that the Dakotas
themselves had with it, made it a natural subject for the year’s totem.
All the winter counts refer to this expedition.
No. III. United States troops fought Ree Indians.
Battiste Good says: “General-----
-first-appeared-and-the-Dakotas-aided-him-in-an-attack-on-the-Rees
winter,” also “Much-corn winter.” For his character see Figure 69, page
166. The gun and the arrow in contact with the ear of corn show that
both whites and Indians fought the Rees.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Old-corn-plenty winter.”
Mato Sapa’s chart gives the human figure with a military cap, beard,
and goatee.
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XVII
1824-’25.
1825-’26.
1826-’27.
THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.]
1824-’25.--No. I. All the horses of Little-Swan’s father are killed by
Indians through spite.
No. II. Swan, chief of the Two Kettle tribe, had all of his horses
killed. Device, a horse pierced by a lance, blood flowing from the
wound.
No. III. Swan, a Minneconjou Indian, had twenty horses killed by a
jealous Indian.
Mato Sapa says: Swan, a Minneconjou chief, lost twenty horses killed by
a jealous Indian.
Major Bush says the same.
1825-’26.--No. I. River overflows the Indian camp; several drowned.
The-Flame, the recorder of this count, born. In the original drawing
the five objects above the line are obviously human heads.
No. II. There was a remarkable flood in the Missouri River, and a
number of Indians were drowned. With some exercise of fancy, the symbol
may suggest heads appearing above a line of water, or it may simply be
the severed heads, several times used, to denote Indians other than
Dakotas, with the uniting black line of death.
No. III. Thirty lodges of Dakota Indians drowned by a sudden rise of
the Missouri River about Swan Lake Creek, which is in Horsehead Bottom,
15 miles below Fort Rice. The five heads are more clearly drawn than in
No. II.
Battiste Good says: “Many-Yanktonais-drowned winter;” adding: The river
bottom on a bend of the Missouri River where they were encamped was
suddenly submerged, when the ice broke and many women and children,
were drowned. This device is presented in Figure 43.
[Illustration: FIG. 43.--River freshet.]
All the winter counts refer to this flood.
1826-’27.--No. I. All of the Indians who ate of a buffalo killed on a
hunt died of it, a peculiar substance issuing from the mouth.
No. II. “An Indian died of the dropsy.” So Basil Clément was
understood, but it is not clear why this circumstance should have been
noted, unless the appearance of the disease was so unusual in 1826
as to excite remark. Baron de La Hontan, a good authority concerning
the Northwestern Indians before they had been greatly affected by
intercourse with whites, although showing a tendency to imitate another
baron--Munchausen--as to his personal adventures, in his Nouveaux
Voyages dans l’Amérique Septentrionale specially mentions dropsy as one
of the diseases unknown to them. Carver also states that this malady
was extremely rare. Whether or not the dropsy was very uncommon, the
swelling in this special case might have been so enormous as to render
the patient an object of general curiosity and gossip, whose affliction
thereby came within the plan of the count. The device merely shows a
man-figure, not much fatter than several others, but distinguished
by a line extending sidewise from the top of the head and inclining
downward. The other records cast doubt upon the interpretation of
dropsy.
No. III. Dakota war party killed a buffalo; having eaten of it they all
died.
Battiste Good says: “Ate-a-whistle-and-died winter,” and adds: “Six
Dakotas, on the war-path, had nearly perished with hunger, when they
found and ate the rotting carcass of an old buffalo, on which the
wolves had been feeding. They were seized soon after with pains in the
stomach, their abdomens swelled and gas poured from the mouth, and they
died of a whistle, or from eating a whistle.” The sound of gas escaping
from, the mouth is illustrated in his figure which see in Figure 146,
page 221.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Long-whistle-sick winter.”
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XVIII
1827-’28.
1828-’29.
1829-’30.
THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.]
1827-’28.--No. I. A Minneconjou is stabbed by a Gros Ventre, and his
arm shrivels up.
No. II. Dead-Arm was stabbed with a knife or dirk by a Mandan. The
illustration is quite graphic, showing the long-handled dirk in the
bloody wound and the withered arm. Though the Mandans are also of the
great Siouan family, the Dakotas have pursued them with special hatred.
In 1823, their number, much diminished by wars, still exceeded 2,500.
No. III. A Minneconjou Dakota wounded with a large knife by a Gros
Ventre. The large knife was a sword, and the Indian who was wounded was
named, afterwards, Lame-Shoulder. This is an instance of a change of
name after a remarkable event in life.
1828-’29.--No. I. Chardran, a white man, builds a house at forks of
Cheyenne River. This name should probably be spelled Chadron, with whom
Catlin hunted in 1832, in the region mentioned.
No. II. A white man named Shardran, who lately (as reported in 1877)
was still living in the same neighborhood, built a dirt lodge. The
hatted head appears under the roof.
III. Trading post opened in a dirt lodge on the Missouri a little below
the mouth of the Little Missouri River.
1829-’30.--No. I. A Dakota found dead in a canoe.
No. II. Bad-Spike killed another Indian with an arrow.
No. III. A Yanktonai Dakota killed by Bad-Arrow Indians.
The Bad-Arrow Indians is a translation of the Dakota name for a certain
band of Blackfeet Indians.
Mato Sapa says: a Yanktonai was killed by the Bad-Arrow Indians.
Major Bush says the same as Mato Sapa.
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XIX
1830-’31.
1831-’32.
1832-’33.
THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.]
1830-’31.--No. I. Mandans kill twenty Crows at Bear Butte.
No. II. Bloody battle with the Crows, of whom it is said
twenty-three were killed. Nothing in the sign denotes number, it
being only a man-figure with red or bloody body and red war bonnet.
No. III. Twenty Crow and one Cheyenne Indians killed by Dakotas at Bear
Butte.
Mato Sapa says: One Cheyenne and twenty Crows were killed by Dakotas at
Bear Butte.
Major Bush says the same as Mato Sapa.
1831-’32.--No. I. Two white men killed by a white man at Medicine
Creek, below Fort Sully.
No. II. Le Beau, a white man, killed another named Kermel. Another copy
reads Kennel. Le Beau was still alive at Little Bend, 30 miles above
Fort Sully, in 1877.
No. III. Trader named Le Beau killed one of his employés on Big
Cheyenne River, below Cherry Creek.
1832-’33.--No. I. Lone-Horn’s father broke his leg.
No. II. Lone-Horn had his leg “killed,” as the interpretation gave it.
The single horn is on the figure, and a leg is drawn up as if fractured
or distorted, though not unlike the leg in the character for 1808-’09,
where running is depicted.
No. III. A Minneconjou Dakota, Lone-Horn’s father, had his leg broken
while running buffalo.
Mato Sapa and Major Bush also say Lone-Horn’s father.
Battiste Good says: “Stiff-leg-With-war-bonnet-on-died winter.” He was
killed in an engagement with the Pawnees on the Platte River.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “One-Horn’s-leg-broken winter.”
In Catlin’s “North American Indians,” New York, 1844, Vol. I, page 211,
the author, writing from the mouth of Teton River, Upper Missouri, site
of Fort Pierre, described Ha-won-je-tah, The One-Horn, head chief of
all the bands of the Dakotas, which were about twenty. He was a bold,
middle-aged man of medium stature, noble countenance, and figure almost
equalling an Apollo. His portrait was painted by Catlin in 1832. He
took the name of One-Horn, or One-Shell, from a simple small shell that
was hanging on his neck, which descended to him from his father, and
which he valued more than anything else which he possessed, and he kept
that name in preference to many others more honorable which he had a
right to have taken, from his many exploits.