prairie fire destroyed their entire village. Many of their children
and a man and his wife, who were on foot some distance away from the
village, were burned to death. Many of their horses were also burned to
death. All the people that could get to a long lake which was near by
saved themselves by jumping into it. Many of these were badly burned
about the thighs and legs, and this circumstance gave rise to the name,
_si-can gu_, translated as Burnt Thigh, and Brulé, by which they have
since been known. Battiste Good’s character for the year is here given
as Figure 123.
[Illustration: FIG. 123.--Origin of Brulé. Dakota.]
This is of later date than the mythical times, even among Indians, and,
being verified as it is, must be accepted as historical.
BIOGRAPHIC.
The pictographs under this head that have come to the writer’s notice
have been grouped as, _First_, a continuous account of the chief events
in the life of the subject of the sketch; _Second_, separate accounts
of some particular exploit or event in the life of the person referred
to. Pictographs of both of these descriptions are very common.
CONTINUOUS RECORD OF EVENTS IN LIFE.
An example of a continuous record is the following “autobiography” of
Running-Antelope:
The accompanying illustrations, Figures 124 to 134 are copied from a
record of eleven drawings prepared by Running-Antelope, chief of the
Uncpapa Dakota, at Grand River, Dakota, in 1873. The sketches were
painted in a large drawing-book by means of water colors, and were made
for Dr. W. J. Hoffman, to whom the following interpretations were given
by the artist:
The record comprises the most important events in the life of
Running-Antelope as a warrior. Although frequently more than one
person is represented as slain, it is not to be inferred that all were
killed in one day, but during the duration of one expedition, of which
the recorder was a member or chief. The bird (_Falco cooperi?_) upon
the shield refers to the clan or band totem, while the antelope drawn
beneath the horses, in the act of running, signifies the personal name.
Figure 124. Killed two Arikara Indians in one day. The lance held in
the hand, thrusting at the foremost of the enemy, signifies that he
killed the person with that weapon; the left-hand figure was shot, as
is shown, by the discharging gun, and afterwards struck with the lance.
This occurred in 1853.
[Illustration: FIG. 124.--Killed an Arikara.]
Figure 125. Shot and scalped an Arikara Indian in 1853. It appears
that the Arikara attempted to inform Running-Antelope of his being
unarmed, as the right hand is thrown outward with distended fingers, in
imitation of making the gesture for _negation_, _having nothing_.
[Illustration: FIG. 125.--Shot and scalped an Arikara.]
Figure 126. Shot and killed an Arikara in 1853.
[Illustration: FIG. 126.--Shot an Arikara.]
Figure 127. Killed two warriors on one day in 1854.
[Illustration: FIG. 127.--Killed two warriors.]
Figure 128. Killed ten men and three squaws in 1856. The grouping of
persons strongly resembles the ancient Egyptian method of drawing.
[Illustration: FIG. 128.--Killed ten men and three women.]
Figure 129. Killed two Arikara chiefs in 1856. Their rank is shown by
the appendages to the sleeves, which consist of white weasel skins. The
arrow in the left thigh of the recorder shows that he was wounded. The
scars are still distinct upon the person of Running-Antelope, showing
that the arrow passed through the thigh.
[Illustration: FIG. 129.--Killed two chiefs.]
Figure 130. Killed one Arikara in 1857. Striking the enemy with a bow
is considered the greatest insult that can be offered to another. The
act of so doing also entitles the warrior to count one _coup_ when
relating his exploits in the council chamber.
[Illustration: FIG. 130.--Killed one Arikara.]
Figure 131. Killed an Arikara in 1859 and captured a horse.
[Illustration: FIG. 131.--Killed one Arikara.]
Figure 132. Killed two Arikara hunters in 1859. Both were shot, as
is indicated by the figure of a gun in contact with each Indian. The
cluster of lines drawn across the body of each victim represents the
discharge of the gun, and shows where the ball took effect. The upper
one of the two figures was in the act of shooting an arrow when he was
killed.
[Illustration: FIG. 132.--Killed two Arikara hunters.]
Figure 133. Killed five Arikara in one day in 1863. The dotted line
indicates the trail which Running-Antelope followed, and when the
Indians discovered that they were pursued, they took shelter in an
isolated copse of shrubbery, where they were killed at leisure. The
five guns within the inclosure represent the five persons armed.
[Illustration: FIG. 133.--Killed five Arikara.]
Figure 134. An Arikara killed in 1865.
[Illustration: FIG. 134.--Killed an Arikara.]
The Arikara are delineated in the above, in nearly all instances,
wearing the top-knot of hair, a custom similar to that practiced by
the Absaroka, though as the latter were the most inveterate enemies
of the Sioux, and as the word Palláni for Arikara is applied to all
enemies, the Crow custom may have been depicted as a generic mark. The
practice of painting the forehead red, also an Absaroka custom, serves
to distinguish the pictures as individuals of one of the two tribes.
PARTICULAR EXPLOITS AND EVENTS.
A record on ivory shown as Figure 135, was obtained by Dr. W. J.
Hoffman in San Francisco, California, in 1882, and was interpreted to
him by an Alaskan native. The story represents the success of a hunt;
the animals desired are shown, as well as those which were secured.
[Illustration: FIG. 135.--Record of hunt. Alaska.]
The following is the explanation of the characters:
1, 2. Deer.
3. Porcupine.
4. Winter, or permanent, habitation. The cross-piece resting upon two
vertical poles constitutes the rack, used for drying fish.
5. One of the natives occupying the same lodge with the recorder.
6. The hunter whose exploits are narrated.
7, 8, 9. Beavers.
10-14. Martens.
15. A weasel, according to the interpretation, although there are no
specific characters to identify it as different from the preceding.
16. Land otter.
17. A bear.
18. A fox.
19. A walrus.
20. A seal.
21. A wolf.
By reference to the illustration it will be observed that all the
animals secured are turned toward the house of the speaker, while the
heads of those animals desired, but not captured, are turned away from
it.
The following is the text in the Kiatexamut dialect of the Innuit
language as dictated by the Alaskan, with his own literal translation
into English:
Huí-nu-ná-ga huí-pu-qtú-a pi-cú-qu-lú-a mus´-qu-lí-qnut. Pa-mú-qtu-līt´
I, (from) my place. I went hunting (for) skins. martens
(settlement.) (animals)
ta-qí-mĕn, a-mí-da-duk´ a-xla-luk´, á-qui-á-muk pi-qú-a a-xla-luk´;
five, weasel one, land otter caught one;
ku-qú-lu-hú-nu-mŭk´
wolf
a-xla-luk´, tun´-du-muk tú-gu-qlí-u-gú me-lú-ga-nuk´, pé-luk
one, deer (I) killed two, beaver
pi-naí-u-nuk, nú-nuk pit´-qu-ní, ma-klak-muk´ pit´-qu-ní, a-cí-a-na-muk
three, porcupine (I) caught none, seal (I) caught none, walrus
pit´-qu-ni, ua-qí-la-muk pit´-qu-ní, ta-gú-xa-muk pit´-qu-ní.
(I) caught none, fox (I) caught none, bear (I) caught none.
The following narrative of personal exploit was given to Dr. W. J.
Hoffman by “Pete,” a Shoshoni chief, during a visit of the latter to
Washington, in 1880. The sketch, Figure 136, was drawn by the narrator,
and the following explanation of characters will be sufficient
interpretation to render the figures intelligible.
[Illustration: FIG. 136.--Shoshoni horse raid.]
_a._ Pete, a Shoshoni chief.
_b._ A Nez Percés Indian, one of the party from whom the horses were
stampeded, and who wounded Pete in the side with an arrow.
_c._ Hoof marks, showing course of stampede.
_d._ Lance, which was captured from the Nez Percés.
_e_, _e_, _e_. Saddles captured.
_f._ Bridle captured.
_g._ Lariat captured.
_h._ Saddle-blanket captured.
_i._ Body-blanket captured.
_j._ Pair of leggings captured.
_k._ Three single legs of leggings captured.
Figure 137, copied from Schoolcraft, IV, p. 253, Pl. 32, is taken from
the shoulder-blade of a buffalo, found on the plains in the Comanche
country of Texas. No. 5 is a symbol showing the strife for the buffalo
existing between the Indian and white races. The Indian (1), presented
on horseback, protected by his ornamented shield and armed with a
lance, kills a Spaniard (3), the latter being armed with a gun, after
a circuitous chase (6). His companion (4), armed with a lance, shares
the same fate.
[Illustration: FIG. 137.--Comanche drawing on shoulder-blade.]
Figure 138 is taken from the winter count of Battiste Good for the year
1853-’54.
He calls the year Cross-Bear-died-on-the-hunt winter.
[Illustration: FIG. 138.--Cross-Bear’s death.]
The “travail” means, they moved; the buffalo, to hunt buffalo; the bear
with mouth open and paw advanced, cross-bear. The involute character
frequently repeated in Battiste’s record signifies pain in the stomach
and intestines, resulting in death. In this group of characters there
is not only the brief story, an obituary notice, but an ideographic
mark for a particular kind of death, a noticeable name-totem, and a
presentation of the Indian mode of transportation.
The word “travail” appearing above, as given by the interpreter,
requires explanation. It refers to the peculiar sledge which is used by
many tribes of Indians for the purpose of transportation. It is used on
the surface of the ground when not covered with snow, even more than
when snow prevails. The word is more generally found in print in the
plural, where it is spelled “travaux” and sometimes “travois.”
The etymology of this word, which has not yet been found in any Indian
language, has been the subject of considerable discussion. The present
writer considers it to be one of the class of words which descended in
corrupted form from the language of the Canadian voyageurs, and that it
was originally the French word “traineau,” with its meaning of sledge.
Figure 139 is taken from a roll of birch bark obtained from the
Ojibwa Indians at Red Lake, Minnesota, in 1882, known to be more than
seventy years old. The interpretation was given by an Indian from that
reservation, although he did not know the author nor the history of
the record. With one exception, all of the characters were understood
and interpreted to Dr. Hoffman, in 1883 by Ottawa Indians at Harbor
Springs, Michigan. This tribe at one time habitually used similar
methods of recording historic and mythologic data.
[Illustration: FIG. 139.--Bark record from Red Lake, Minnesota.]
No. 1. Represents the person who visited a country supposed to have
been near one of the great lakes. He has a scalp in his hand which he
obtained from the head of an enemy, after having killed him. The line
from the head to the small circle denotes the name of the person, and
the line from the mouth to the same circle signifies (in the Dakota
method), “That is it,” having reference to proper names.
No. 2. The person killed. He was a man who held a position of some
consequence in his tribe, as is indicated by the horns, marks used
by the Ojibwas among themselves for Shaman, Wabeno, etc. It has been
suggested that the object held in the hand of this figure is a rattle,
though the Indians, to whom the record was submitted for examination,
are in doubt, the character being indistinct.
No. 3. Three disks connected by short lines signify, in the present
instance, three nights, _i. e._, three black suns. Three days from
home was the distance the person in No. 1 traveled to reach the
country for which started.
No. 4. Represents a shell, and denotes the primary object of the
journey. Shells were needed for making ornaments and to trade.
No. 5. Two parallel lines are here inserted to mark the end of the
present record and the beginning of another.
IDEOGRAPHS.
The number of instances in this paper in which the picture has been
expressive of an idea, and not a mere portraiture of an object, and has
amounted sometimes to a graphic representation of an abstract idea,
is so great as to render cross-references superfluous. As examples,
attention may be invited to Figure 72, page 166, for the idea of
“voice,” Figure 179, page 241, for that of “war,” and the Corbusier
winter counts for the year 1876-’77--No. I, page 146, for that of
“support.” In addition to them, however, for convenience of grouping
under this special heading, the following illustrations (some of which
would as properly appear under the head of Conventionalizing) are
presented.
ABSTRACT IDEAS.
Figure 140 is taken from the winter count of Battiste Good, and is
drawn to represent the sign for pipe, which it is intended to signify.
The sign is made by placing the right hand near the upper portion
of the breast, the left farther forward, and both held so that the
index and thumb approximate a circle, as if holding a pipe-stem. The
remaining fingers are closed.
[Illustration: FIG. 140.--Sign for pipe. Dakota.]
The point of interest in this character is that instead of drawing a
pipe the artist drew a human figure making the sign for pipe, showing
the intimate connection between gesture-signs and pictographs. The
pipe, in this instance, was the symbol of peace.
Figure 141, taken from the winter count of Battiste Good for the year
1703-’04, signifies plenty of buffalo meat.
[Illustration: FIG. 141.--Plenty Buffalo meat. Dakota.]
The forked stick being one of the supports of a drying-pole or
scaffold, indicates meat. The circle may represent a pit or “cache”
in which buffalo meat was placed during the winter of 1703-’04, or it
may mean “heap”--_i. e._, large quantity, buffalo having been very
plentiful that year. The buffalo head denotes the kind of meat stored.
This is an abbreviated form of the device immediately following,
and being fully understood affords a suggestive comparison with
some Egyptian hieroglyphs and Chinese letters, both in their full
pictographic origin and in their abbreviation.
Figure 142 is taken from the same count for the year 1745-’46, in which
the drying-pole is supported by two forked sticks or poles, only one of
which, without the drying-pole, was indicated in the preceding figure,
which is an abbreviated or conventionalized form of the objective
representation in the pre-present figure, viz., a scaffold or pole upon
which buffalo meat was placed for drying. Buffalo were very plentiful
during the winter of 1745-’46, and the kind of meat is denoted by the
buffalo head placed above the pole, from which meat appears suspended.
[Illustration: FIG. 142.--Plenty Buffalo meat. Dakota.]
Figure 143 is taken from Prince Maximilian’s Travels, _op. cit._ p.
352. The cross signifies, I will barter or trade. Three animals are
drawn on the right hand of the cross; one is a buffalo (probably
albino); the two others, a weasel (_Mustela Canadensis_) and an otter.
The pictographer offers in exchange for the skins of these animals
the articles which he has drawn on the left side of the cross. He has
there, in the first place, depicted a beaver very plainly, behind which
there is a gun; to the left of the beaver are thirty strokes, each ten
separated by a longer line; this means: I will give thirty beaver skins
and a gun for the skins of the three animals on the right hand of the
cross.
[Illustration: FIG. 143.--Pictograph for trade. Dakota.]
The ideographic character of the design consists in the use of the
cross--being a drawing of the gesture-sign for “trade”--the arms being
in position interchanged. Of the two things each one is put in the
place before occupied by the other thing--the idea of exchange.
Figure 144, from the record of Battiste Good for the year 1720-’21,
signifies starvation, denoted by the bare ribs.
[Illustration: FIG. 144.--Starvation. Dakota.]
This design survives among the Ottawa and Pottawatomi Indians of
Northern Michigan, but among the latter a single line only is drawn
across the breast, shown in Figure 145. This corresponds, also, with
one of the gesture-signs for the same idea.
[Illustration: FIG. 145.--Starvation. Ottawa and Pottawatomi.]
Figure 146, from the record of Battiste Good for the year 1826-’27,
signifies “pain.” He calls the year “Ate-a-whistle-and-died winter,”
and explains that 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 bellies swelled, and gas poured
from the mouth and the anus, and they died of a whistle, or from eating
a whistle. The sound of gas escaping from the mouth is illustrated
in the figure. The character on the abdomen and on its right may be
considered to be the ideograph for pain in that part of the body.
[Illustration: FIG. 146.--Pain. Died of “whistle.” Dakota.]
SYMBOLISM.
The writer has, in a former publication, suggested the distinction to
be made between a pictorial sign, an emblem, and a symbol; but it is
not easy to preserve the discrimination in reference to ideographic
characters which have often become conventionalized. To partly express
the distinction, nearly all of the characters in the Dakota Winter
Counts are regarded as pictorial signs, and the class represented by
tribal signs, personal insignia, etc., is considered to belong to the
category of emblems. There is no doubt, however, that true symbols
exist among the Indians, as they must exist to some extent among all
peoples not devoid of poetic imagination. Some of them are shown in
this paper. The pipe is generally a symbol of peace, although in
certain positions and connections it sometimes signifies preparation
for war, and again subsequent victory. The hatchet is a common symbol
for war, and closed hands or approaching palms denote friendship.
The tortoise has been clearly used as a symbol for land, and many
other examples can be admitted. If Schoolcraft is to be taken as
uncontroverted authority, the symbolism of the Ojibwa rivalled that
of the Egyptians, and the recent unpublished accounts of the Zuñi,
Moki, and Navajo before mentioned indicate the frequent employment of
symbolic devices by those tribes which are notably devoted to mystic
ceremonies. Nevertheless, the writer’s personal experience is, that
often when he has at first supposed a character to be a genuine symbol
it has resulted, with better means of understanding, in being not even
an ideograph but a mere objective representation. In this connection,
the remarks on the circle on page 107, and those on Figure 206, on page
246, may be in point.
Another case for consideration occurs. The impression, real or
represented, of a human hand is used in several regions in the world
with symbolic significance. For instance, in Jerusalem a rough
representation of a hand is reported by Lieutenant Conder (Palestine
Exploration Fund, January, 1873, p. 16) to be marked on the wall of
every house whilst in building by the native races. Some authorities
connect it with the five names of God, and it is generally considered
to avert the evil eye. The Moors generally, and especially the Arabs
in Kairwan, employ the marks on their houses as prophylactics. Similar
hand prints are found in the ruins of El Baird, near Petra. Some of the
quaint symbolism connected with horns is supposed to originate from
such hand marks. Among the North American Indians the mark so readily
applied is of frequent occurrence, an instance, with its ascertained
significance, being given on page 187, _supra_.
It has been recently ascertained that the figure of a hand, with
extended fingers, is very common in the vicinity of ruins in Arizona as
a rock-etching, and is also frequently seen daubed on the rocks with
colored pigments or white clay. This coincidence would seem at first
to assure symbolic significance and possibly to connect the symbolism
of the two hemispheres. But Mr. Thomas V. Keam explains the Arizona
etchings of hands, on the authority of the living Moki, as follows:
“These are vestiges of the test formerly practiced among young men
who aspired for admission to the fraternity of Salyko. The Salyko is
a trinity of two women and a woman from whom the Hopitus [Moki] first
obtained corn. Only those were chosen as novices, the imprints of whose
hands had dried on the instant.”
While the subject-matter is, therefore, ceremonial, there is absolutely
no symbolism connected with it. The etchings either simply perpetuate
the marks made in the several tests or imitate them.
In the present stage of the study no more can be suggested than that
symbolic interpretations should be accepted with caution.
With regard to the symbolic use of material objects, which would
probably be extended into graphic portrayal, the following remarks
maybe given:
The Prince of Wied mentions (_op. cit._, Vol. I, p. 244) that in the
Sac and Fox tribes the rattle of a rattlesnake attached to the end
of the feather worn on the head signifies a good horse stealer. The
stealthy approach of the serpent, accompanied with latent power, is
here clearly indicated.
Mr. Schoolcraft says of the Dakotas that “some of the chiefs had the
skins of skunks tied to their heels to symbolize that they never ran,
as that animal is noted for its slow and self-possessed movements.”
See Personal Memoirs of a Residence of Thirty Years with the Indian
Tribes on the American Frontier, etc., Philadelphia, 1851, p. 214.
This is one of the many customs to be remembered in the attempted
interpretations of pictographs. The present writer does not know that
a skunk skin, or a strip of skin which might be supposed to be a skunk
skin, attached to a human heel, has ever been used pictorially as
the ideograph of courage or steadfastness, but with the knowledge of
this objective use of the skins, if they were found so represented
pictorially, as might well be expected, the interpretation would be
suggested, without any direct explanation from Indians.
IDENTIFICATION OF THE PICTOGRAPHERS.
The first point in the examination of a pictograph is to determine by
what body of people it was made. This is not only because the marks or
devices made by the artists of one tribe, or perhaps of one linguistic
stock if not disintegrated into separated divisions distant from each
other, may have a different significance from figures virtually the
same produced by another tribe or stock, but because the value of the
record is greatly enhanced when the recorders are known. In arriving
at the identification mentioned it is advisable to study: 1st. The
general style or type. 2d. The presence of characteristic objects. 3d.
The apparent subject-matter. 4th. The localities with reference to the
known habitat of tribes.
GENERAL STYLE OR TYPE.
Although the collection of pictographs, particularly of petroglyphs,
is not complete, and their study, therefore, is only commenced, it is
possible to present some of the varieties in general style and type.
Figure 147 is presented as a type of the Eastern Algonkian pictographs.
It was copied by Messrs. J. Sutton Wall and William Arison, in 1882,
from a rock opposite Millsborough, in Fayette County, Pennsylvania,
and is mentioned on page 20, _supra_, in connection with the local
distribution of petroglyphs. The locality is within the area once
occupied by the tribes of the Algonkian linguistic family, and there
is apparent a general similarity to the well-known Dighton Rock
inscription.
[Illustration: FIG. 147.--Algonkian petroglyph. Millsborough,
Pennsylvania.]
Mr. J. Sutton Wall, of Monongahela City, Pennsylvania, who has kindly
furnished the drawing of the etchings, states that the outlines of
figures are formed by grooves carved or cut in the rock from an inch
to a mere trace in depth. The footprints are carved depressions. The
character marked Z (near the lower left-hand corner) is a circular
cavity 7 inches deep. The rock is sandstone, of the Waynesburg series.
Mr. Wall has also contributed a copy of the “Hamilton Picture Rock,” of
which Figure 148 is an illustration. The etchings are on a sandstone
rock, on the Hamilton farm, 6 miles southeast from Morgantown, West
Virginia. The turnpike passes over the south edge of the rock.
[Illustration: FIG. 148.--Algonkian petroglyph. Hamilton Farm, West
Virginia.]