Part 15

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.

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.

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.

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.

No. II. The Dakotas killed four Crows. Four of the same rounded objects, like several heads, shown in 1825-’26, but these are bloody, thus distinguishing them from the cases of drowning.

No. III. Four Crow Indians killed by the Minneconjou Dakotas. Necks shown.

1865-’66.--No. I. Many horses died.

No. II. Many horses died for want of grass. The horse here drawn is sufficiently distinct from all others in the chart.

No. III. Dakotas lost many horses in the snow.

See Corbusier’s Winter Counts, No. II for same year, page 144.

1866-’67.--No. I. Little Swan, a great warrior.

No. II. Swan, father of Swan, chief of the Minneconjous in 1877, died. With the assistance of the name the object intended for his totem may be recognized as a swan swimming on the water.

No. III. Minneconjou Dakota chief, named Swan, died.

Mato Sapa’s record has a better representation of a swan.

Interpreter Lavary says: Little-Swan died in this year on Cherry Creek, 75 miles northwest of Fort Sully.

Major Bush says this is historically correct.

1867-’68.--No. I. Much medicine made.

No. II. Many flags were given them by the Peace Commission. The flag refers to the visit of the Peace Commissioners, among whom were Generals Sherman, Terry, and other prominent military and civil officers. Their report appears in the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1868. They met at Fort Leavenworth, August 13, 1867, and between August 30 and September 13 held councils with the various bands of the Dakota Indians at Forts Sully and Thompson, and also at the Yankton, Ponka, and Santee Reservations. These resulted in the great Dakota treaty of 1868.

No. III. Made peace with General Sherman and others at Fort Laramie.

Mato Sapa says: Made peace with General Sherman and others at Fort Laramie.

Major Bush agrees with Mato Sapa.

See Corbusier’s Winter Counts, No. II, page 144.

1868-’69.--No. I. First issue of beef by Government to Indians.

No. II. Texas cattle were brought into the country. This was done by Mr. William A. Paxton, a well-known business man, resident in Dakota in 1877.

No. III. Dakotas had plenty of white men’s cattle (the result of the peace).

Mato Sapa agrees with No. III.

1869-’70.--No. I. Eclipse of the moon.

No. II. An eclipse of the sun. This was the solar eclipse of August 7, 1869, which was central and total on a line drawn through the Dakota country. This device has been criticised because the Indians believe an eclipse to be occasioned by a dragon or aerial monster swallowing the sun, and it is contended that they would so represent it. An answer is that the design is objectively good, the sun being painted black, as concealed, while the stars come out red, _i. e._, bright, and graphic illustration prevails throughout the charts where it is possible to employ it. In addition, it is learned that Prof. Cleveland Abbé, who was famed as an astronomer before he became so as a meteorologist, was at Sioux Falls, with a corps of assistants, to observe this very eclipse, and explained the subject to a large number of Indians there at that time, so that their attention was not only directed specially to that eclipse, but also to the white men as interested in it, and to its real appearance as apart from their old superstition.

In addition to this fact, Dr. Washington Matthews, assistant surgeon United States Army, communicates the statement that the Indians had numberless other opportunities all over their country of receiving the same information. He was at Fort Rice during the eclipse and remembers that long before the eclipse occurred the officers, men, and citizens around the post told the Indians of the coming event and discussed it with them so much that they were on the tip-toe of expectancy when the day came. Two-Bears and his band were then encamped at Fort Rice, and he and several of his leading men watched the eclipse along with the whites and through their smoked glass, and then and there the phenomenon was thoroughly explained to them over and over again. There is no doubt that similar explanations were made at all the numerous posts and agencies along the river that day. The path of the eclipse coincided nearly with the course of the Missouri for over a thousand miles. The duration of totality at Fort Rice was nearly two minutes (1^m 48^{s}.)

No. III. Dakotas witnessed eclipse of the sun; frightened terribly.

It is remarkable that the Corbusier Winter Counts do not mention this eclipse.

1870-’71.--No. I. The-Flame’s son killed by Rees. The recorder, The-Flame, evidently considered his family misfortune to be of more importance than the battle referred to by the other recorders.

No. II. The Uncpapas had a battle with the Crows, the former losing, it is said, 14 and killing 29 out of 30 of the latter, though nothing appears to show those numbers. The central object in the symbol is not a circle denoting multitude, but an irregularly rounded object, clearly intended for one of the wooden inclosures or forts frequently erected by the Indians, and especially the Crows. The Crow fort is shown as nearly surrounded, and bullets, not arrows or lances, are flying. This is the first instance in which any combat or killing is portrayed where guns explicitly appear to be used by Indians, though nothing in the chart is at variance with the fact that the Dakotas had for a number of years been familiar with fire arms. The most recent indications of any weapon were those of the arrows piercing the Crow squaw in 1857-’58 and Brave-Bear in 1854-’55, while the last one before them was the lance used in 1848-’49, and those arms might well have been employed in all the cases selected for the calendar, although rifles and muskets were common. There is also an obvious practical difficulty in picturing by a single character killing with a bullet, not arising as to arrows, lances, dirks, and hatchets, all of which can be and are in the chart shown projecting from the wounds made by them. Pictographs in the possession of the Bureau of Ethnology show battles in which bullets are denoted by continuous dotted lines, the spots at which they take effect being sometimes indicated. It is, however, to be noted that the bloody wound on the Ree’s shoulder (1806-’07) is without any protruding weapon, as if made by a bullet.

No. III. A Crow war party of 30 were surprised and surrounded in the Black Hills by the Dakotas and killed. Fourteen of the Dakotas were killed in the engagement.

1871-’72.--No. I. The-Flame’s second son killed by Rees.

1872-’73.--No. I. Sans-Arc-John killed by Rees.

1873-’74.--No. I. Brulés kill a number of Pawnees.

Cloud-Shield says they killed many Pawnees on the Republican River.

1874-’75.--No. I. A Dakota kills one Ree.

1875-’76.--No. I. Council at Spotted Tail Agency.

1876-’77.--No. I. Horses taken by United States Government.

White-Cow-Killer calls it “General-Mackenzie-took-the-Red-Cloud-Indians’-horses-away-from-them winter.”

In the account of Lone-Dog’s chart, published in 1877, as above mentioned, the present writer, on the subject of the recorder’s selection of events, remarked as follows:

“The year 1876 has furnished good store of events for his choice, and it will be interesting to learn whether he has selected as the distinguishing event the victory over Custer, or, as of still greater interest, the general seizure of ponies, whereat the tribes, imitating Rachel, weep and will not be comforted, because they are not.”

It now appears that two of the counts have selected the event of the seizure of the ponies, and none of them yet seen make any allusion to the defeat of Custer.

After examination of the three charts it will be conceded that, as above stated, the design is not narrative, the noting of events being subordinated to the marking of the years by them, and the pictographic serial arrangements of sometimes trivial, though generally notorious, incidents, being with special adaptation for use as a calendar. That in a few instances small personal events, such as the birth or death of the recorder or members of his family, are set forth, may be regarded as in the line of interpolations in or unauthorized additions to the charts. If they had exhibited a complete national or tribal history for the years embraced in them, their discovery would have been, in some respects, more valuable, but they are the more interesting to ethnologists because they show an attempt, before unsuspected among the tribes of American Indians, to form a system of chronology.

THE CORBUSIER WINTER COUNTS.

While the present paper was in preparation, a valuable and elaborate communication was received from Dr. William H. Corbusier, assistant surgeon, United State Army, styled by him the Dakota Winter Counts, which title was adopted for the whole subject-matter, including the charts with their interpretations which had before been known to the present writer, and those from Dr. Corbusier, which furnish a different system, are distinguished by his name. It is necessary to explain that all references in the text to colors, other than black, must be understood as applicable to the originals. Other colors could not be reproduced in the plates without an expense disproportionate to the importance of the colors for significance and comprehension.

A more important explanation is due on account of the necessity to omit from Dr. Corbusier’s contribution the figures of Battiste Good’s count and their interpretation. This count is in some respects the most important of all those yet made known. As set down by Battiste Good, it begins in a peculiar cyclic computation with the year A. D. 900, and in thirteen figures includes the time to A.D. 1700, all these figures being connected with legends and myths, some of which indicate European influence. From 1700-’01 to 1879-’80 a separate character for each year is given, with its interpretation, in a manner generally similar to those in the other charts. Unfortunately all of these figures are colored, either in whole or in large part, five colors being used besides black, and the drawing is so rude that without the colors it is in many cases unintelligible. The presentation at this time of so large a number of colored figures--in all one hundred and ninety-three--in addition to the other illustrations of the present paper, involved too great expense. It is hoped that this count can be so far revised, with the elimination of unessential coloration and with more precision in the outlines, as to allow of its publication. Several of its characters, with references also to its interpretation when compared with that of other counts, are given in various parts of the present paper. Where it was important to specify their coloration the heraldic scheme has been used.

The pages immediately following contain the contribution of Dr. Corbusier, diminished by the extraction of the parts comprising Battiste Good’s count. Its necessary omission, as above explained, is much regretted, not only on account of its intrinsic value, but because without it the work of Dr. Corbusier does not appear to all the advantage merited by his zeal and industry.

* * * * *

The Dakotas reckon time by winters, and apply names to them instead of numbering them from an era. Each name refers to some notable occurrence of the winter or year to which it belongs, and has been agreed upon in council on the expiration of the winter. Separate bands have often fixed upon different events, and it thus happens that the names are not uniform throughout the nation. Ideographic records of these occurrences have been kept in several bands for many years, and they constitute the Dakota Winter-Counts (waníyetu wówapi) or Counts Back (hékta yawapi). They are used in computing time, and to aid the memory in recalling the names and events of the different years, their places in the count, and their order of succession. The enumeration of the winters is begun at the one last recorded and carried backward. Notches on sticks, war-shirts, pipes, arrows, and other devices also serve a mnemonic purpose. The Counts were formerly executed in colors on the hides of animals, but the present recorders make use of paper, books, pens, pencils, and paints obtained from the whites. The alignment of the ideographs depends to some extent upon the material on which they are depicted. On robes it is spiral from right to left and from the center outward, each year being added to the coil as the snail adds to its whorl. The spiral line, frequently seen in etchings on rocks, has been explained to me as indicating a snail shell. On paper they are sometimes carried from right to left, sometimes from left to right, and again the two methods are combined as in Battiste Good’s winter-count, which begins at the back of the book and is carried forward, _i. e._, from right to left, but in which the alignment on each page is from left to right. The direction from right to left is that followed in many of their ceremonies, as when tobacco is smoked as incense to the sun and the pipe is passed around, and when the devotees in the dance to the sun enter and leave the consecrated lodge in which they fulfill their vows.

Among the Oglálas and the Brulés there are at least five of these counts kept by as many different men, each man seeming to be the recorder for his branch of the tribe. I obtained copies of three of them in 1879 and 1880, while stationed at Camp Sheridan, Nebraska, near the Pine Ridge Agency, Dakota. One winter count was made for me by Battiste Good, a Brulé Dakota, at the Rosebud Agency, Dakota, being a copy of the one of which he is the recorder. He explained the meaning of the pictographs to the Rev. William J. Cleveland, of the Rosebud Agency, to whom I am indebted for rendering his explanations into English. Several Indians and half-breeds had informed me that his count formerly embraced about the same number of years as the other two, but that Battiste Good gathered the names of many years from the old people and placed them in chronological order as far back as he was able to learn them.

Another winter count is a copy of the one in the possession of American-Horse, an Oglála Dakota, at the Pine Ridge Agency, who asserts that his grandfather began it, and that it is the production of his grandfather, his father, and himself. I received the explanations from American-Horse through an interpreter.

A third winter count is a copy of one kept by Cloud-Shield. He is also an Oglála Dakota at the Pine Ridge Agency, but of a different band from American-Horse. I also received his explanations through an interpreter. The last two counts embrace nearly the same number of years. I have added the dates to both of them, beginning at the last year, the date of which was known, and carrying them back. Two dates belong to each figure, as a Dakota year covers a portion of two of our calendar years.

I have seen copies of a fourth winter count which is kept by White-Cow-Killer at the Pine Ridge Agency. I did not obtain a copy of it, but learned most of the names given to the winters.

On comparing the winter counts, it is found that they often correspond, but more frequently differ. In a few instances the differences are in the succession of the events, but in most instances they are due to an omission or to the selection of another event. When a year has the same name in all of them, the bands were probably encamped together or else the event fixed upon was of general interest; and, when the name is different, the bands were scattered or nothing of general interest occurred. Differences in the succession may be due to the loss of a record and the depiction of another from memory, or to errors in copying an old one.