cause of the death of his only son, Lone-Horn became at times partially
insane. One day he mounted his war-horse, vowing to kill the first
living thing he should meet, and rode to the prairies. The horse came
back in two hours afterwards, with two arrows in him covered with
blood. His tracks were followed back, and the chief was found mangled
and gored by a buffalo bull, the carcass of which was stretched beside
him. He had driven away the horse with his arrows and killed the bull
with his knife.
Another account in the catalogue of Catlin’s cartoons gives the
portrait of The One-Horn as number 354, with the statement that having
killed his only son accidentally, he became deranged, wandered into the
prairies, and got himself killed by an infuriated buffalo bull’s horns.
This was at the mouth of Little Missouri River, in 1834.
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XX
1833-’34.
1834-’35.
1835-’36.
THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.]
1833-’34.--No. I. Many stars fell (meteors). The character shows six
black stars above the concavity of the moon.
No. II. “The stars fell,” as the Indians all agreed. This was the great
meteoric shower observed all over the United States on the night of
November 12th of that year. In this chart the moon is black and the
stars are red.
No. III. Dakotas witnessed magnificent meteoric-showers; much terrified.
Battiste Good calls it “Storm-of-stars winter,” and gives as the device
a tipi, with stars falling around it. This is presented in Figure 44.
The tipi is colored yellow in the original, and so represented in the
figure according to the heraldic scheme.
[Illustration: FIG. 44.--Meteoric shower.]
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Plenty-stars winter.”
All the winter counts refer to this meteoric display. See page 138.
1834-’35.--No. I. A Ree killed by a Dakota.
No. II. The chief, Medicine-Hide, was killed. The device shows the body
as bloody, but not the war bonnet, by which it is distinguished from
the character for 1830-’31.
No. III. An Uncpapa Dakota Medicine-man killed by the Ree Indians.
Mato Sapa says: An Uncpapa medicine-man was killed by Rees. There is no
red on the figure.
1835-’36.--No. I. Lame-Deer killed by a Dakota. The Dakota had only one
arrow. He pulled it out and shot Lame-Deer many times.
No. II. Lame-Deer shot a Crow Indian with an arrow; drew it out and
shot him again with the same arrow. The hand is drawing the arrow from
the first wound. This is another instance of the principle on which
events were selected. Many fights occurred of greater moment, but with
no incident precisely like this.
No. III. Minneconjou chief named Lame-Deer shot an Assiniboine three
times with the same arrow. He kept so close to his enemy that he never
let the arrow slip away from the bow, but pulled it out and shot it in
again.
Mato Sapa says a Minneconjou named Lame-Deer shot an Assiniboine three
times running with the same arrow.
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XXI
1836-’37.
1837-’38.
1838-’39.
THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.]
Lame-Deer was a distinguished chief among the hostiles in 1876. His
camp of five hundred and ten lodges was surprised and destroyed
by General Miles, and four hundred and fifty horses, mules, and ponies
were captured.
1836-’37.--No. I. Father-of-the-Mandans died.
No. II. Band’s-Father, chief of the Two Kettles, died. The device is
nearly the same as that for 1816-’17, denoting plenty of buffalo belly;
and the question might be raised, what the buffalo belly had to do with
the demise of the lamented chieftain, unless he suffered from a fatal
indigestion after eating too much of that delicacy.
Interpreter Fielder, however, throws light on the subject by saying
that this character was used to designate the year when The-Breast,
father of The-Band, a Minneconjou, died. The-Band himself died in 1875,
on Powder River. His name was O-ye-a-pee. The character was therefore
the buffalo breast, a name-totem.
No. III. Two Kettle, Dakota, named The-Breast, died.
Mato Sapa says: A Two Kettle, named The-Breast, died.
Major Bush same as Mato Sapa.
1837-’38.--No. I. Many elk and deer killed. The figure does not show
the split hoof.
No. II. Commemorates a remarkably successful hunt, in which it is said
one hundred elk were killed. The drawing of the elk is good enough to
distinguish it from the other quadrupeds in this chart.
No. III. The Dakotas killed one hundred elk at the Black Hills.
Mato Sapa says: The Dakotas killed one hundred elk at the Black Hills.
His figure does not show the split hoof.
1838-’39.--No. I. Indians built a lodge on White Wood Creek, in the
Black Hills, and wintered there.
No. II. A dirt lodge was built for Iron-Horn. The other dirt lodge
(1815-’16) has a mark of ownership, which this has not. Perhaps it was
not so easy to draw an iron horn as a crow feather, and the distinction
was accomplished by omission. A chief of the Minneconjous is mentioned
in General Harney’s report in 1856, under the name of The-One-Iron-Horn.
No. III. A Minneconjou chief, named Iron-Horn, built dirt lodge
(medicine lodge) on Moreau River (same as Owl River).
This Minneconjou chief, Iron-Horn, died a few years ago and was buried
near Fort Sully. He was father-in-law of Dupuis, a French Canadian.
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XXII
1839-’40.
1840-’41.
1841-’42.
THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.]
1839-’40.--No. I. Dakotas killed twenty lodges of Arapahos.
No. II. The Dakotas killed an entire village of Snake Indians.
The character is the ordinary tipi pierced by arrows. The Snakes,
or Shoshoni, were a numerous and wide-spread people, inhabiting
Southeastern Oregon, Idaho, Western Montana, and portions of Utah and
Nevada, extending into Arizona and California.
No. III. A Minneconjou Dakota, named The-Hard (with band), killed seven
lodges of the Blue Cloud Indians.
The Blue Clouds are the Arapahos, so styled by the Dakotas, original
_Maqpíyato_.
Mato Sapa says: A Minneconjou Dakota named The-Hard killed seven lodges
of the Blue Cloud Indians.
Major Bush same as Mato Sapa.
1840-’41.--No. I. Red-Arm, a Cheyenne, and Lone-Horn, a Dakota, make
peace.
No. II. The Dakotas made peace with the Cheyennes, a well-known tribe
belonging to the Algonkin family. The symbol of peace is the common one
of the approaching palms of two persons. The different coloration of
the two arms distinguishes them from the approximation of the palms of
one person.
No. III. Dakotas made peace with Cheyenne Indians.
1841-’42.--No. I. Feather-in-the-Ear steals horses from the Crows.
No. II. Feather-in-the-Ear stole thirty spotted ponies. The spots are
shown red, distinguishing them from those of the curly horse in the
character for 1803-’04.
No. III. A Minneconjou Dakota, named Feather-in-his-Ear, stole nineteen
spotted horses from the Crow Indians.
Mato Sapa says: A Minneconjou named Feather-in-the-Ear stole nineteen
spotted horses from the Crows.
Major Bush, says the same, except that he gives the number as nine
instead of nineteen.
A successful theft of horses, demanding skill, patience, and daring,
is generally considered by the plains Indians to be of equal merit
with the taking of scalps. Indeed, the successful horse-thief is more
popular than a mere warrior on account of the riches gained by the
tribe, wealth until lately being generally estimated in ponies as the
unit of value.
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XXIII
1842-’43.
1842-’44.
1844-’45.
THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.]
1842-’43.--No. I. A Minneconjou chief tries to make war. The tip of the
feather is black. No red in it.
No. II. One-Feather raised a large war party against the Crows. This
chief is designated by his long solitary red eagle feather, and holds
a pipe with black stem and red bowl, alluding to the usual ceremonies
before starting on the war path. For further information on this
subject see page 139. The Red-War-Eagle-Feather was at this time a
chief of the Sans Arcs.
No. III. Feather-in-the-Ear made a feast, to which he invited all the
young Dakota braves, wanting them to go with him. A memorandum is added
that he failed to persuade them. See Corbusier Winter Counts for same
year, page 141.
Mato Sapa says: The same man (referring to last year),
Feather-in-the-Ear, made a feast inviting all Dakota young men to go to
war.
Major Bush says same as Mato Sapa.
1843-’44.--No. I. Buffalo is scarce; an Indian makes medicine and
brings them to the suffering.
No. II. The Sans Arcs made medicine to bring the buffalo. The medicine
tent is denoted by a buffalo’s head drawn on it.
No. III. No buffalo; Indians made medicine to the Great Spirit by
painting a buffalo’s head on lodge; plenty came.
Mato Sapa says: Dakotas were starving; made medicine to Great Spirit by
painting buffalo head on their lodges; plenty came.
Major Bush substantially same as Mato Sapa.
1844-’45.--No. I. Mandans wintered in Black Hills.
No. II. The Minneconjous built a pine fort. Device: A pine tree
connected with a tipi.
No. III. Unusually heavy snow; had to build corrals for ponies.
Major Bush says: Heavy snow, in which many of their ponies perished.
Probably the Indians went into the woods and erected their tipis there
as protection from the snow, thus accounting for the figure of the tree.
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XXIV
1845-’46.
1846-’47.
1847-’48.
THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.]
1845-’46--No. I. Dakotas have much feasting at Ash Point, 20 miles
above Fort Sully.
No. II. Plenty of buffalo meat, which is represented as hung upon
poles and trees to dry.
No. III. Immense quantities of buffalo meat.
1846-’47.--No. I. Broken-Leg dies.
No. II. Broken-Leg died. Rev. Dr. Williamson says he knew him. He was
a Brulé. There is enough difference between this device and those for
1808-’09 and 1832-’33 to distinguish each.
No. III. A Minneconjou Dakota named Broken-Leg died.
Battiste Good calls this: “The-Teal-broke-his-leg winter.” The arm in
his character, given in Figure 45, is lengthened so as nearly to touch
the broken leg, which is shown distorted, instead of indicating the
injury by the mere distortion of the leg itself as in the charts on
Plate XXIV. The bird over the head and connected by a line with it,
probably represents the teal as a name-totem. He was perhaps called
Broken-Leg after the injury, or perhaps the other interpreters did not
remember his name, only the circumstance.
[Illustration: FIG. 45.--The-Teal-broke-his-leg.]
Mato Sapa says: A Minneconjou named Broken-Leg died.
The Corbusier records for 1847-’48 refer to a number of accidents by
which legs were broken. See page 142.
1847-’48--No. I. Mandans kill two Minneconjous.
No. II. Two-Man was killed. His totem is drawn--two small man-figures
side by side.
No. III. Two Minneconjou Dakotas killed by the Assiniboine Indians.
Major Bush says: the wife of an Assiniboine chief named Big-Thunder had
twins.
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XXV
1848-’49.
1849-’50.
1850-’51.
THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.]
1848-’49.--No. I. Humpback, a Minneconjou, killed.
No. II. Humpback was killed. An ornamented lance pierces the distorted
back.
No. III. A Minneconjou Dakota named Broken-Back was killed by the Crow
Indians at Black Hills.
Major Bush says: A Minneconjou, Broken-Back, was killed by Crows.
1849-’50.--No. I. Crows steal all the Dakotas’ horses.
No. II. The Crows stole a large drove of horses (it is said eight
hundred) from the Brulés. The circle may denote multitude, at least
one hundred, but probably is a simple design for a camp or corral from
which a number of horse-tracks are departing.
No. III. Crow Indians stole two hundred horses from the Minneconjou
Dakotas near Black Hills.
Interpreter A. Lavary says: Brulés were at the headwaters of White
River, about 75 miles from Fort Laramie, Wyoming. The Dakotas surprised
the Crows in 1849, killed ten, and took one prisoner, because he was
a man dressed in woman’s clothes, and next winter the Crows stole six
hundred horses from the Brulés. See page 142.
1850-’51.--No. I. Cow with old woman in her belly. Cloven hoof not
shown.
No. II. The character is a distinct drawing of a buffalo containing
a human figure. Clément translated that “a buffalo cow was killed in
that year, and an old woman found in her belly”; also that all the
Indians believed this. Good-Wood, examined through another interpreter,
could or would give no explanation, except that it was “about their
religion.” At first the writer suspected that the medicine men
had manufactured some pretended portent out of a fœtus taken from
a real cow, but the Dakotas have long believed in the appearance
from time to time of a monstrous animal that swallows human beings.
This superstition was perhaps suggested by the bones of mastodons,
often found in the territory of those Indians; and the buffalo being
the largest living animal known to them, its name was given to the
legendary monster, in which nomenclature they were not wholly wrong,
as the horns of the fossil _Bison latifrons_ are 10 feet in length.
The medicine men, perhaps, announced, in 1850, that a squaw who had
disappeared was swallowed by the mammoth, which was then on its
periodical visit, and must be propitiated.
No. III. A Minneconjou Dakota, having killed a buffalo cow, found an
old woman inside of her.
Memorandum from interpreter: A small party of Dakotas, two or three
young men, returning unsuccessful from a buffalo hunt, told this story,
and it is implicitly believed by the Dakotas.
Major Bush suggests that perhaps some old squaw left to die sought the
carcass of a buffalo for shelter and then died. He has known that to
occur.
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XXVI
1851-’52.
1852-’53.
1853-’54.
THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.]
1851-’52.--No. I. Peace made with the Crows.
No. II. Peace with the Crows. Two Indians, with differing arrangement
of hair, showing two tribes, are exchanging pipes for a peace-smoke.
No. III. Dakotas made peace with the Crow Indians. It was, as usual,
broken immediately.
The treaty of Fort Laramie was in 1851.
1852-’53.--No. I. A Crow chief, Flat-Head, comes into the tipi of a
Dakota chief, where a council was assembled, and forces them to smoke
the pipe of peace. This was a daring act, for he was in danger of
immediate death if he failed.
No. II. The Nez Percés came to Lone-Horn’s lodge at midnight. The
device shows an Indian touching with a pipe a tipi, the top of which is
black or opaque, signifying night. The Nez Percés are so styled by a
blunder of the early travelers, as they never have been known to pierce
their noses, although others of their family, the Sahaptin, do so. The
tribe was large, dwelling chiefly in Idaho.
No. III. An enemy came into Lone-Horn’s lodge during a medicine feast
and was not killed. (The enemy numbered about fourteen and had lost
their way in a snow-storm.) The pipe is not in the man’s hand, and the
head only is drawn with the pipe between it and the tipi.
Mato Sapa says: Several strange Indians came into the Dakota camp, were
saved from being killed by running into Lone-Horn’s lodge.
Major Bush says: An enemy came into Lone-Horn’s lodge during a feast
and was not killed.
Touch-the-Clouds, a Minneconjou, son of Lone-Horn, on being shown
Chart No. II by the present writer, designated this character as being
particularly known to him from the fact of its being his father’s
lodge. He remembers all about it from talk in his family, and said it
was the Nez Percés who came.
1853-’54.--No. I. Spanish blankets introduced by traders. The blanket
is represented without the human figure.
No. II. Spanish blankets were first brought to the country. A fair
drawing of one of those striped blankets, held out by a white trader.
No. III. Dakotas first saw the Spanish blankets.
See Corbusier records for 1851-’52, page 142.
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XXVII
1854-’55.
1855-’56.
1856-’57.
THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.]
1854-’55.--No. I. Brave-Bear killed by Blackfeet.
No. II. Brave-Bear was killed. It does not appear certain whether
he had already invested in the new style of blanket or whether the
extended arms are ornamented with pendent stripes. The latter is more
probable.
No. III. A Minneconjou Dakota named Brave-Bear was killed by the Upper
Blackfeet. [Satsika?]
See Corbusier winter-counts for the same year, page 143.
1855-’56.--No. I. General Harney (Putin ska) makes a treaty.
No. II. General Harney made peace with a number of the tribes or bands
of the Dakotas. This was at Fort Pierre, Dakota. The figure shows an
officer in uniform shaking hands with an Indian.
Executive document No. 94, Thirty-fourth Congress, first session,
Senate, contains the “minutes of a council held at Fort Pierre,
Nebraska, on the 1st day of March, 1856, by Brevet Brig.-Gen. William
S. Harney, U. S. Army, commanding the Sioux expedition, with the
delegations from nine of the bands of the Sioux, viz., the Two-Kettle
band, Lower Yankton, Oncpapas, Blackfeet Sioux, Minneconjous, Sans
Arcs, Yanctonnais (two bands), Brulés of the Platte.”
No. III. Dakotas made peace with General Harney (called by them
Putinska, white beard or moustache) at Fort Pierre, Dakota.
1856-’57.--No. I. Four-Horns, a great warrior.
No. II. Four-Horn was made a calumet or medicine-man. This was probably
the result of an important political struggle, as there is much rivalry
and electioneering for the office, which, with its triple character
of doctor, priest, and magician, is one of far greater power than
the chieftainship. A man with four horns holds out the same kind of
ornamented pipe-stem shown in the character for 1804-’05, it being his
badge of office. Four-Horn was one of the subchiefs of the Uncpapas,
and was introduced to General Harney at the council of 1856 by
Bear-Rib, head chief of that tribe.
No. III. A Minneconjou Dakota, named Red-Fish’s-Son, danced calumet
dance.
Mato Sapa says the same as last.
Major Bush says, “A Minneconjou, Red-Fish’s-Son, The-Ass, danced the
Four-Horn calumet.”
Interpreter Clément, in the spring of 1874, said that Four-Horn and
Sitting-Bull were the same person, the name Sitting-Bull being given
him after he was made a calumet man. No other authority tells this.
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XXVIII
1857-’58.
1858-’59.
1859-’60.
THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.]
1857-’58.--No. I. White-Robe kills a Crow woman. There is but one arrow
and one blood spot in the character.
No. II. The Dakotas killed a Crow squaw. The stripes on the blanket are
shown horizontally, Brave-Bear’s, 1854-’55, and Swan’s, 1866-’67, being
vertical. She is pierced by four arrows, and the peace made with the
Crows in 1851-’52 seems to have been short lived.
No. III. A party of Crow Indians, while on a visit to the Dakotas, had
one of their number killed by a young Dakota. The figure has blood from
the four arrows running down each side of the body.
Mato-Sapa says: A Crow was killed by a Dakota while on a visit to the
latter.
Major Bush says substantially the same as Mato Sapa.
1858-’59.--No. I. Lone-Horn makes medicine. “At such times Indians
sacrifice ponies, etc., and fast.” In this character the buffalo-head
is black.
No. II. Lone-Horn, whose solitary horn appears, made buffalo medicine,
probably on account of the scarcity of that animal. Again the
head of an albino bison. One-Horn, doubtless the same individual, is
recorded as the head chief of the Minneconjous at this date.
No. III. A Minneconjou chief, named Lone-Horn, made medicine with white
buffalo-cow skin.
Lone-Horn, chief of Minneconjous, died in 1874, in his camp on the Big
Cheyenne.
1859-’60.--No. I. Big-Crow killed.
No. II. Big-Crow, a Dakota chief, was killed by the Crows. The crow,
transfixed by an arrow, is drawn so as to give quite the appearance of
an heraldic crest.
No. III. A Minneconjou Dakota, named Big-Crow, was killed by the Crow
Indians. He had received his name from killing a Crow Indian of unusual
size.
Mato Sapa says: Big-Crow, a Minneconjou, was killed by Crows.
Major Bush says same as Mato Sapa.
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XXIX
1860-’61.
1861-’62.
1862-’63.
THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.]
1860-’61.--No. I. The-Elk-who-shows himself-when-he-walks makes
medicine.
No. II. Device, the head and neck of an elk, like that part of the
animal in 1837-’38, with a line extending from its mouth, at the
extremity of which is the albino buffalo-head. “The elk made you
understand his voice while he was walking.” The interpreter persisted
in this oracular rendering, probably not being able to fully catch the
Indian explanation from want of thorough knowledge of the language.
The ignorance of professed interpreters, who easily get beyond their
philological depth, but are ashamed to acknowledge it, has occasioned
many official blunders. This device and its interpretation were
unintelligible to the writer until examination of General Harney’s
report above referred to showed the name of a prominent chief of the
Minneconjous, set forth as “The-Elk-that-Hollows-Walking.” It then
became probable that the device simply meant that the aforesaid chief
made buffalo medicine, which conjecture, published in 1877, the other
records subsequently discovered verified.
No. III. A Minneconjou Dakota, named Red-Fish’s-Son, made medicine with
white buffalo-cow skin.
Mato Sapa’s record agrees with No. III.
Major Bush says the same, adding, after the words “Red-Fish’s-Son,”
“The-Ass.”
Interpreter A. Lavary said, in 1867, that The-Elk-that-Hollows-Walking,
then chief of the Minneconjous, was then at Spotted-Tail’s camp. His
father was Red-Fish. He was the elder brother of Lone-Horn. His name
is given as A-hag-a-hoo-man-ie, translated The Elk’s-Voice-Walking,
compounded of He-ha-ka, elk, and Omani, walk--this according to
Lavary’s literation. The correct literation of the Dakota word meaning
elk is _heqaka_; voice _ho_; and to walk, walking, _mani_. Their
compound would be _Heqaka ho mani_, the translation being the same as
above given.
1861-’62.--No. I. Buffalo very plenty.
No. II. Buffalo were so plenty that their tracks came close to the
tipis. The cloven hoof-mark is cleverly distinguished from the tracks
of horses in the character for 1849-’50.
No. III. Dakotas had unusual abundance of buffalo.
1862-’63.--No. I. Red-Plume kills an enemy.
No. II. Red-Feather, a Minneconjou, was killed. His feather is shown
entirely red, while the “one-feather” in 1842-’43 has a black tip.
No. III. A Minneconjou Dakota killed an Assiniboine named Red-Feather.
Mato Sapa says: Minneconjous kill an Assiniboine named Red-Feather.
Major Bush agrees with Mato Sapa.
It is to be noted that there is no allusion to the great Minnesota
massacre, which commenced in August, 1862, and in which many of
the Dakotas belonging to the tribes familiar with these charts,
were engaged. Little-Crow was the leader. He escaped to the British
possessions, but was killed in July, 1863. Perhaps the reason of the
omission of any character to designate the massacre, was the terrible
retribution that followed it, beginning with the rout by Colonel
Sibley, on September 23, 1862. The Indian captives amounted in all
to about eighteen hundred. A military commission sentenced three
hundred and three to be hanged and eighteen to imprisonment for life.
Thirty-eight were actually hanged, December 26, 1862, at Camp Lincoln.
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XXX
1863-’64.
1864-’65.
1865-’66.
THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.]
1863-’64.--No. I. Crows kill eight Dakotas on the Yellowstone.
No. II. Eight Dakotas were killed. Again the short parallel black lines
united by a long stroke. In this year Sitting Bull fought General Sully
in the Black Hills.
Interpreter Lavary says General Sully killed seven or eight Crows at
The-Place-They-Shot-The-Deer, Ta-cha-con-té, about 90 miles southwest
of Fort Rice, Dakota. Mulligan says that General Sully fought the
Yanktonnais and the Santees at that place.
No. III. Eight Minneconjou Dakotas killed by Crow Indians.
See Corbusier Winter Counts for same year, page 144.
1864-’65.--No. I. Four Crows caught stealing horses from the Dakotas
were tortured to death. Shoulders shown.