Part 12

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.

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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.

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.

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.”

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.