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Title: Pictographs of the North American Indians. A preliminary paper

Author: Garrick Mallery

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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION—BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY.

PICTOGRAPHS
OF THE

NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS.
A PRELIMINARY PAPER.

BY
GARRICK MALLERY.

CONTENTS.
Page.
List of illustrations 7
Introductory 13
Distribution of petroglyphs in North America 19
Northeastern rock-carvings 19
Rock-carvings in Pennsylvania 20
in Ohio 21
in West Virginia 22
in the Southern States 22
in Iowa 23
in Minnesota 23
in Wyoming and Idaho 24
in Nevada 24
in Oregon and Washington Territory 25
in Utah 26
in Colorado 27
in New Mexico 28
in Arizona 28
in California 30
in Colored pictographs on rocks 33
Foreign petroglyphs 38
Petroglyphs in South America 38
in British Guiana 40
in Brazil 44
Pictographs in Peru 45
Objects represented in pictographs 46
Instruments used in pictography 48
Instruments for carving 48

for drawing 48
for painting 48
for tattooing 49
Colors and methods of application 50
In the United States 50
In British Guiana 53
Significance of colors 53
Materials upon which pictographs are made 58
Natural objects 58
Bone 59
Living tree 59
Wood 59
Bark 59
Skins 60
Feathers 60
Gourds 60
Horse-hair 60
Shells, including wampum 60
Earth and sand 60
The human person 61
Paint on the human person 61
Tattooing 63
Tattoo marks of the Haida Indians 66
Tattooing in the Pacific Islands 73
Artificial objects 78
Mnemonic 79
The quipu of the Peruvians 79
Notched sticks 81
Order of songs 82
Traditions 84
Treaties 86
War 87
Time 88
The Dakota Winter Counts 89

The Corbusier Winter Counts 127
Notification 147
Notice of departure and direction 147
condition 152
Warning and guidance 155
Charts of geographic features 157
Claim or demand 159
Messages and communications 160
Record of expedition 164
Totemic 165
Tribal designations 165
Gentile or clan designations 167
Personal designations 168
Insignia or tokens of authority 168
Personal name 169
An Ogalala roster 174
Red-Cloud’s census 176
Property marks 182
Status of the individual 183
Signs of particular achievements 183
Religious 188
Mythic personages 188
Shamanism 190
Dances and ceremonies 194
Mortuary practices 197
Grave-posts 198
Charms and fetiches 201
Customs 203
Associations 203
Daily life and habits 205
Tribal history 207
Biographic 208
Continuous record of events in life 208
Particular exploits and events 214

Ideographs 219
Abstract ideas 219
Symbolism 221
Identification of the pictographers 224
General style or type 225
Presence of characteristic objects 230
Modes of interpretation 233
Homomorphs and symmorphs 239
Conventionalizing 244
Errors and frauds 247
Suggestions to collaborators 254

ILLUSTRATIONS.
Plate Page.
I.—Colored pictographs in Santa Barbara County, California 34
II.—Colored pictographs in Santa Barbara County, California 35
III.—New Zealand tattooed heads 76
IV.—Ojibwa Meda song 82
V.—Penn wampum belt 87
VI.—Winter count on buffalo robe 89
VII.—Dakota winter counts: for 1786-’87 to 1792-’93 100
VIII.—Dakota winter counts: for 1793-’94 to 1799-1800 101
IX.—Dakota winter counts: for 1800-’01 to 1802-’03 103
X.—Dakota winter counts: for 1803-’04 to 1805-’06 104
XI.—Dakota winter counts: for 1806-’07 to 1808-’09 105
XII.—Dakota winter counts: for 1809-’10 to 1811-’12 106
XIII.—Dakota winter counts: for 1812-’13 to 1814-’15 108
XIV.—Dakota winter counts: for 1815-’16 to 1817-’18 109
XV.—Dakota winter counts: for 1818-’19 to 1820-’21 110
XVI.—Dakota winter counts: for 1821-’22 to 1823-’24 111
XVII.—Dakota winter counts: for 1824-’25 to 1826-’27 113
XVIII.—Dakota winter counts: for 1827-’28 to 1829-’30 114
XIX.—Dakota winter counts: for 1830-’31 to 1832-’33 115
XX.—Dakota winter counts: for 1833-’34 to 1835-’36 116
XXI.—Dakota winter counts: for 1836-’37 to 1838-’39 117
XXII.—Dakota winter counts: for 1839-’40 to 1841-’42 117
XXIII.—Dakota winter counts: for 1842-’43 to 1844-’45 118
XXIV.—Dakota winter counts: for 1845-’46 to 1847-’48 119
XXV.—Dakota winter counts: for 1848-’49 to 1850-’51 120
XXVI.—Dakota winter counts: for 1851-’52 to 1853-’54 120
XXVII.—Dakota winter counts: for 1854-’55 to 1856-’57 121

XXVIII.—Dakota winter counts: for 1857-’58 to 1859-’60 122
XXIX.—Dakota winter counts: for 1860-’61 to 1862-’63 123
XXX.—Dakota winter counts: for 1863-’64 to 1865-’66 124
XXXI.—Dakota winter counts: for 1866-’67 to 1868-’69 125
XXXII.—Dakota winter counts: for 1869-’70 to 1870-’71 126
XXXIII.—Dakota winter counts: for 1871-’72 to 1876-’77 127
XXXIV.—Corbusier winter counts: for 1775-’76 to 1780-’81 130
XXXV.—Corbusier winter counts: for 1781-’82 to 1786-’87 131
XXXVI.—Corbusier winter counts: for 1787-’88 to 1792-’93 132
XXXVII.—Corbusier winter counts: for 1793-’94 to 1798-’99 133
XXXVIII.—Corbusier winter counts: for 1799-1800 to 1804-’05 134
XXXIX.—Corbusier winter counts: for 1805-’06 to 1810-’11 134
XL.—Corbusier winter counts: for 1811-’12 to 1816-’17 135
XLI.—Corbusier winter counts: for 1817-’18 to 1822-’23 136
XLII.—Corbusier winter counts: for 1823-’24 to 1828-’29 137
XLIII.—Corbusier winter counts: for 1829-’30 to 1834-’35 138
XLIV.—Corbusier winter counts: for 1835-’36 to 1840-’41 139
XLV.—Corbusier winter counts: for 1841-’42 to 1846-’47 140
XLVI.—Corbusier winter counts: for 1847-’48 to 1852-’53 142
XLVII.—Corbusier winter counts: for 1853-’54 to 1858-’59 143
XLVIII.—Corbusier winter counts: for 1859-’60 to 1864-’65 143
XLIX.—Corbusier winter counts: for 1865-’66 to 1870-’71 144
L.—Corbusier winter counts: for 1871-’72 to 1876-’77 145
LI.—Corbusier winter counts: for 1877-’78 to 1878-’79 146
LII.—An Ogalala roster: Big-Road and band 174
LIII.—An Ogalala roster: Low-Dog and band 174
LIV.—An Ogalala roster: The Bear Spares-him and band 174
LV.—An Ogalala roster: Has a War-club and band 174
LVI.—An Ogalala roster: Wall-Dog and band 174
LVII.—An Ogalala roster: Iron-Crow and band 174
LVIII.—An Ogalala roster: Little-Hawk and band 174
LIX.—Red-Cloud’s census: Red-Cloud’s band 176
LX.—Red-Cloud’s census: Red-Cloud’s band 176
LXI.—Red-Cloud’s census: Red-Cloud’s band 176

LXII.—Red-Cloud’s census: Red-Cloud’s band 176
LXIII.—Red-Cloud’s census: Red-Cloud’s band 176
LXIV.—Red-Cloud’s census: Red-Cloud’s band 176
LXV.—Red-Cloud’s census: Red-Cloud’s band 176
LXVI.—Red-Cloud’s census: Red-Cloud’s band 176
LXVII.—Red-Cloud’s census: Red-Shirt’s band 176
LXVIII.—Red-Cloud’s census: Red-Shirt’s band 176
LXIX.—Red-Cloud’s census: Red-Shirt’s band 176
LXX.—Red-Cloud’s census: Black-Deer’s band 176
LXXI.—Red-Cloud’s census: Black-Deer’s band 176
LXXII.—Red-Cloud’s census: Black-Deer’s band 176
LXXIII.—Red-Cloud’s census: Red-Hawk’s band 176
LXXIV.—Red-Cloud’s census: Red-Hawk’s hand 176
LXXV.—Red-Cloud’s census: High-Wolf’s band 176
LXXVI.—Red-Cloud’s census: High-Wolf’s band 176
LXXVII.—Red-Cloud’s census: Gun’s band 176
LXXVIII.—Red-Cloud’s census: Gun’s band 176
LXXIX.—Red-Cloud’s census: Second Black-Deer’s band 176
LXXX.—Rock Painting in Azuza Cañon, California 156
LXXXI.—Moki masks etched on rocks. Arizona 194
LXXXII.—Buffalo-head monument 195
LXXXIII.—Ojibwa grave-posts 199

Figure 1.—Petroglyphs at Oakley Springs, Arizona 30
2.—Deep carvings in Guiana 42
3.—Shallow carvings in Guiana 43
4.—Rock etchings at Oakley Springs, Arizona: Beaver 47
5.—Rock etchings at Oakley Springs, Arizona: Bear 47
6.—Rock etchings at Oakley Springs, Arizona: Mountain sheep 47
7.—Rock etchings at Oakley Springs, Arizona: Three Wolf heads 47
8.—Rock etchings at Oakley Springs, Arizona: Three Jackass rabbits 47
9.—Rock etchings at Oakley Springs, Arizona: Cotton-tail rabbit 47
10.—Rock etchings at Oakley Springs, Arizona: Bear tracks 47
11.—Rock etchings at Oakley Springs, Arizona: Eagle 47

12.—Rock etchings at Oakley Springs, Arizona: Eagle tails 47
13.—Rock etchings at Oakley Springs, Arizona: Turkey tail 47
14.—Rock etchings at Oakley Springs, Arizona: Horned toads 47
15.—Rock etchings at Oakley Springs, Arizona: Lizards 47
16.—Rock etchings at Oakley Springs, Arizona: Butterfly 47
17.—Rock etchings at Oakley Springs, Arizona: Snakes 47
18.—Rock etchings at Oakley Springs, Arizona: Rattlesnake 47
19.—Rock etchings at Oakley Springs, Arizona: Deer track 47
20.—Rock etchings at Oakley Springs, Arizona: Three Bird tracks 47
21.—Rock etchings at Oakley Springs, Arizona: Bitterns 47
22.—Bronze head from the necropolis of Marzabotto, Italy 62
23.—Fragment of bowl from Troja 63
24.—Haida totem post, Queen Charlotte’s Island 68
25.—Haida man, tattooed 69
26.—Haida woman, tattooed 69
27.—Haida woman, tattooed 70
28.—Haida man, tattooed 70
29.—Skulpin (right leg of Fig. 26) 71
30.—Frog (left leg of Fig. 26) 71
31.—Cod (breast of Fig. 25) 71
32.—Squid (Octopus), (thighs of Fig. 25) 71
33.—Wolf, enlarged (back of Fig. 28) 71
34.—Tattoo designs on bone, from New Zealand 74
35.—New Zealand tattooed head and chin mark 75
36.—New Zealand tattooed woman 75
37.—Australian grave and carved trees 76
38.—Osage chart 86
39.—Device denoting succession of time. Dakota 88
40.—Device denoting succession of time. Dakota 89
41.—Measles or Smallpox. Dakota 110
42.—Meteor. Dakota 111
43.—River freshet. Dakota 113
44.—Meteoric shower. Dakota 116
45.—The-Teal-broke-his-leg. Dakota 119

46.—Magic Arrow. Dakota 141
47.—Notice of hunt. Alaska 147
48.—Notice of departure. Alaska 148
49.—Notice of hunt. Alaska 149
50.—Notice of direction. Alaska 149
51.—Notice of direction. Alaska 150
52.—Notice of direction. Alaska 150
53.—Notice of distress. Alaska 152
54.—Notice of departure and refuge. Alaska 152
55.—Notice of departure to relieve distress. Alaska 153
56.—Ammunition wanted. Alaska 154
57.—Assistance wanted in hunt. Alaska 154
58.—Starving hunters. Alaska 154
59.—Starving hunters. Alaska 155
60.—Lean Wolf’s map. Hidatsa 158
61.—Letter to “Little-man” from his father. Cheyenne 160
62.—Drawing of smoke signal. Alaska 161
63.—Tesuque Diplomatic Packet 162
64.—Tesuque Diplomatic Packet 162
65.—Tesuque Diplomatic Packet 162
66.—Tesuque Diplomatic Packet 163
67.—Tesuque Diplomatic Packet 163
68.—Dakota pictograph: for Kaiowa 165
69.—Dakota pictograph: for Arikara 166
70.—Dakota pictograph: for Omaha 166
71.—Dakota pictograph: for Pawnee 166
72.—Dakota pictograph: for Assiniboine 166
73.—Dakota pictograph: for Gros Ventre 166
74.—Lean-Wolf as “Partisan” 168
75.—Two-Strike as “Partisan” 169
76.—Lean-Wolf (personal name) 172
77.—Pointer. Dakota 172
78.—Shadow. Dakota 173
79.—Loud-Talker. Dakota 173

80.—Boat Paddle. Arikara 182
81.—African property mark 182
82.—Hidatsa feather marks: First to strike enemy 184
83.—Hidatsa feather marks: Second to strike enemy 184
84.—Hidatsa feather marks: Third to strike enemy 184
85.—Hidatsa feather marks: Fourth to strike enemy 184
86.—Hidatsa feather marks: Wounded by an enemy 184
87.—Hidatsa feather marks: Killed a woman 184
88.—Dakota feather marks: Killed an enemy 185
89.—Dakota feather marks: Cut throat and scalped 185
90.—Dakota feather marks: Cut enemy’s throat 185
91.—Dakota feather marks: Third to strike 185
92.—Dakota feather marks: Fourth to strike 185
93.—Dakota feather marks: Fifth to strike 185
94.—Dakota feather marks: Many wounds 185
95.—Successful defense. Hidatsa, etc. 186
96.—Two successful defenses. Hidatsa, etc. 186
97.—Captured a horse. Hidatsa, etc. 186
98.—First to strike an enemy. Hidatsa 187
99.—Second to strike an enemy. Hidatsa 187
100.—Third to strike an enemy. Hidatsa 187
101.—Fourth to strike an enemy. Hidatsa 187
102.—Fifth to strike an enemy. Arikara 187
103.—Struck four enemies. Hidatsa 187
104.—Thunder bird. Dakota 188
105.—Thunder bird. Dakota 188
106.—Thunder bird (wingless). Dakota 189
107.—Thunder bird (in beads). Dakota 189
108.—Thunder bird. Haida 190
109.—Thunder bird. Twana 190
110.—Ivory record, Shaman exorcising demon. Alaska 191
111.—Ivory record, Supplication for success. Alaska 192
111a.—Shaman’s Lodge. Alaska 196
112.—Alaska votive offering 197

113.—Alaska grave-post 198
114.—Alaska grave-post 199
115.—Alaska village and burial grounds 199
116.—New Zealand grave effigy 200
117.—New Zealand grave-post 201
118.—New Zealand house posts 201
119.—Mdewakantawan fetich 202
120.—Ottawa pipe-stem 204
121.—Walrus hunter. Alaska 205
122.—Alaska carving with records 205
123.—Origin of Brulé. Dakota 207
124.—Running Antelope: Killed one Arikara 208
125.—Running Antelope: Shot and scalped an Arikara 209
126.—Running Antelope: Shot an Arikara 209
127.—Running Antelope: Killed two warriors 210
128.—Running Antelope: Killed ten men and three women 210
129.—Running Antelope: Killed two chiefs 211
130.—Running Antelope: Killed one Arikara 211
131.—Running Antelope: Killed one Arikara 212
132.—Running Antelope: Killed two Arikara hunters 212
133.—Running Antelope: Killed five Arikara 213
134.—Running Antelope: Killed an Arikara 213
135.—Record of hunt. Alaska 214
136.—Shoshoni horse raid 215
137.—Drawing on buffalo shoulder-blade. Camanche 216
138.—Cross-Bear’s death 217
139.—Bark record from Red Lake, Minnesota 218
140.—Sign for pipe. Dakota 219
141.—Plenty buffalo meat. Dakota 219
142.—Plenty buffalo meat. Dakota 220
143.—Pictograph for Trade. Dakota 220
144.—Starvation. Dakota 220
145.—Starvation. Ottawa and Pottawatomi 221
146.—Pain. Died of “Whistle.” Dakota 221

147.—Example of Algonkian petroglyphs, from Millsborough,
224
Pennsylvania
148.—Example of Algonkian petroglyphs, from Hamilton Farm,
225
West Virginia
149.—Example of Algonkian petroglyphs, from Safe Harbor,
226
Pennsylvania
150.—Example of Western Algonkian petroglyphs, from Wyoming 227
151.—Example of Shoshonian petroglyphs, from Idaho 228
152.—Example of Shoshonian petroglyphs, from Idaho 229
153.—Example of Shoshonian petroglyphs, from Utah 230
154.—Example of Shoshonian rock painting, from Utah 230
155.—Rock painting, from Tule River, California 235
156.—Sacred inclosure from Arizona. Moki 237
157.—Ceremonial head-dress. Moki 237
158.—Houses. Moki 237
159.—Burden-sticks. Moki 238
160.—Arrows. Moki 238
161.—Blossoms. Moki 238
162.—Lightning. Moki 238
163.—Clouds. Moki 238
164.—Clouds with rain. Moki 238
165.—Stars, Moki 238
166.—Sun. Moki 239
167.—Sunrise. Moki, 239
168.—Drawing of Dakota lodges, by Hidatsa 240
169.—Drawing of earth lodges, by Hidatsa 240
170.—Drawing of white man’s house, by Hidatsa 240
171.—Hidatsati, the home of the Hidatsa 240
172.—Horses and man. Arikara 240
173.—Dead man. Arikara 240
174.—Second to strike enemy. Hidatsa 240
175.—Third to strike enemy. Hidatsa 240
176.—Scalp taken. Hidatsa 240
177.—Enemy struck and gun captured. Hidatsa 240

178.—Mendota drawing. Dakota 241
179.—Symbol of war. Dakota 241
180.—Captives. Dakota 242
181.—Circle of men. Dakota 242
182.—Shooting from river banks. Dakota 242
183.—Panther. Haida 242
184.—Wolf head. Haida 243
185.—Drawings on an African knife 243
186.—Conventional characters: Men. Arikara 244
187.—Conventional characters: Man. Innuit 244
188.—Conventional characters: Dead man. Satsika 244
189.—Conventional characters: Man addressed. Innuit 244
190.—Conventional characters: Man. Innuit 244
191.—Conventional characters: Man. From Tule River, California 244
192.—Conventional characters: Man. From Tule River, California 244
193.—Conventional characters: Disabled man. Ojibwa 244
194.—Conventional characters: Shaman. Innuit 245
195.—Conventional characters: Supplication. Innuit 245
196.—Conventional characters: Man. Ojibwa 245
197.—Conventional characters: Spiritually enlightened man. Ojibwa 245
198.—Conventional characters: A wabeno. Ojibwa 245
199.—Conventional characters: An evil Meda. Ojibwa 245
200.—Conventional characters: A Meda. Ojibwa 245
201.—Conventional characters: Man. Hidatsa 245
202.—Conventional characters: Headless body. Ojibwa 245
203.—Conventional characters: Headless body. Ojibwa 245
204.—Conventional characters: Man. Moki 245
205.—Conventional characters: Man. From Siberia 245
206.—Conventional characters: Superior knowledge. Ojibwa 246
207.—Conventional characters: An American. Ojibwa 246
208.—Specimen of imitated pictograph 249
209.—Symbols of cross 252

ON THE PICTOGRAPHS OF THE NORTH
AMERICAN INDIANS.

By Garrick Mallery.

INTRODUCTORY.
A pictograph is a writing by picture. It conveys and records an idea or
occurrence by graphic means without the use of words or letters. The
execution of the pictures of which it is composed often exhibits the first
crude efforts of graphic art, and their study in that relation is of value. When
pictures are employed as writing the conception intended to be presented is
generally analyzed, and only its most essential points are indicated, with the
result that the characters when frequently repeated become conventional,
and in their later forms cease to be recognizable as objective portraitures.
This exhibition of conventionalizing also has its own import in the history
of art.
Pictographs are considered in the present paper chiefly in reference to their
significance as one form of thought-writing directly addressed to the sight,
gesture-language being the other and probably earlier form. So far as they
are true ideographs they are the permanent, direct, visible expression of
ideas of which gesture-language gives the transient expression. When
adopted for syllabaries or alphabets, which is known to be the historical
course of evolution in that regard, they have ceased to be the direct and
have become the indirect expression of the ideas framed in oral speech. The
writing common in civilization records sounds directly, not primarily

thoughts, the latter having first been translated into sounds. The trace of
pictographs in the latter use shows the earlier and predominant conceptions.
The importance of the study of pictographs depends upon their examination
as a phase in the evolution of human culture, or as containing valuable
information to be ascertained by interpretation.
The invention of alphabetic writing being by general admission the great
step marking the change from barbarism into civilization, the history of its
earlier development must be valuable. It is inferred from internal evidence
that picture-writing preceded and originated the graphic systems of Egypt,
Nineveh, and China, but in North America its use is still modern and
current. It can be studied there, without any requirement of inference or
hypothesis, in actual existence as applied to records and communications.
Furthermore, its transition into signs of sound is apparent in the Aztec and
the Maya characters, in which stage it was only arrested by foreign
conquest. The earliest lessons of the birth and growth of culture in this most
important branch of investigation can therefore be best learned from the
Western Hemisphere. In this connection it may be noticed that picture-
writing is found in sustained vigor on the same continent where sign-
language has prevailed or continued in active operation to an extent
unknown in other parts of the world. These modes of expression, i. e.,
transient and permanent idea-writing, are so correlated in their origin and
development that neither can be studied with advantage to the exclusion of
the other.
The limits assigned to this paper allow only of its comprehending the
Indians north of Mexico, except as the pictographs of other peoples are
introduced for comparison. Among these no discovery has yet been made of
any of the several devices, such as the rebus, or the initial, adopted
elsewhere, by which the element of sound apart from significance has been
introduced.
The first stage of picture-writing as recognized among the Egyptians was
the representation of a material object in such style or connection as
determined it not to be a mere portraiture of that object, but figurative of
some other object or person. This stage is abundantly exhibited among the
Indians. Indeed, their personal and tribal names thus objectively represented

constitute the largest part of their picture-writing so far thoroughly
understood.
The second step gained by the Egyptians was when the picture became used
as a symbol of some quality or characteristic. It can be readily seen how a
hawk with bright eye and lofty flight might be selected as a symbol of
divinity and royalty, and that the crocodile should denote darkness, while a
slightly further step in metaphysical symbolism made the ostrich feather,
from the equality of its filaments, typical of truth. It is evident from
examples given in the present paper that the North American tribes at the
time of the Columbian discovery had entered upon this second step of
picture-writing, though with marked inequality between tribes and regions
in advance therein. None of them appear to have reached such proficiency
in the expression of connected ideas by picture as is shown in the sign-
language existing among some of them, in which even conjunctions and
prepositions are indicated. Still many truly ideographic pictures are known.
A consideration relative to the antiquity of mystic symbolism, and its
position in the several culture-periods, arises in this connection. It appears
to have been an outgrowth of human thought, perhaps in the nature of an
excrescence, useful for a time, but abandoned after a certain stage of
advancement.
A criticism has been made on the whole subject of pictography by Dr.
Richard Andree, who, in his work, Ethnographische Parallelen und
Vergleiche, Stuttgart, 1878, has described and figured a large number of
examples of petroglyphs, a name given by him to rock-drawings and
adopted by the present writer. His view appears to be that these figures are
frequently the idle marks which, among civilized people, boys or ignorant
persons cut with their pen-knives on the desks and walls of school-rooms,
or scrawl on the walls of lanes and retired places. From this criticism,
however, Dr. Andree carefully excludes the pictographs of the North
American Indians, his conclusion being that those found in other parts of
the world generally occupy a transition stage lower than that conceded for
the Indians. It is possible that significance may yet be ascertained in many
of the characters found in other regions, and perhaps this may be aided by
the study of those in North America; but no doubt should exist that the latter
have purpose and meaning. Any attempt at the relegation of such
pictographs as are described in the present paper, and have been the subject

of the study of the present writer, to any trivial origin can be met by a
thorough knowledge of the labor and pains which were necessary in the
production of some of the petroglyphs described.
All criticism in question with regard to the actual significance of North
American pictographs is still better met by their practical use by historic
Indians for important purposes, as important to them as the art of writing, of
which the present paper presents a large number of conclusive examples. It
is also known that when they now make pictographs it is generally done
with intention and significance.
Even when this work is undertaken to supply the demand for painted robes
as articles of trade it is a serious manufacture, though sometimes imitative
in character and not intrinsically significant. All other instances known in
which pictures are made without original design, as indicated under the
several classifications of this paper, are when they are purely ornamental;
but in such cases they are often elaborate and artistic, never the idle scrawls
above mentioned. A main object of this paper is to call attention to the
subject in other parts of the world, and to ascertain whether the practice of
pictography does not still exist in some corresponding manner beyond what
is now published.
A general deduction made after several years of study of pictographs of all
kinds found among the North American Indians is that they exhibit very
little trace of mysticism or of esotericism in any form. They are objective
representations, and cannot be treated as ciphers or cryptographs in any
attempt at their interpretation. A knowledge of the customs, costumes,
including arrangement of hair, paint, and all tribal designations, and of their
histories and traditions is essential to the understanding of their drawings,
for which reason some of those particulars known to have influenced
pictography are set forth in this paper, and others are suggested which
possibly had a similar influence.
Comparatively few of their picture signs have become merely conventional.
A still smaller proportion are either symbolical or emblematic, but some of
these are noted. By far the larger part of them are merely mnemonic records
and are treated of in connection with material objects formerly and,
perhaps, still used mnemonically.

It is believed that the interpretation of the ancient forms is to be obtained, if
at all, not by the discovery of any hermeneutic key, but by an understanding
of the modern forms, some of which fortunately can be interpreted by living
men; and when this is not the case the more recent forms can be made
intelligible at least in part by thorough knowledge of the historic tribes,
including their sociology, philosophy, and arts, such as is now becoming
acquired, and of their sign-language.
It is not believed that any considerable information of value in an historical
point of view will be obtained directly from the interpretation of the
pictographs in North America. The only pictures which can be of great
antiquity are rock-carvings and those in shell or similar substances resisting
the action of time, which have been or may be found in mounds. The
greater part of those already known are simply peckings, etchings, or
paintings delineating natural objects, very often animals, and illustrate the
beginning of pictorial art. It is, however, probable that others were intended
to commemorate events or to represent ideas entertained by their authors,
but the events which to them were of moment are of little importance as
history. They referred generally to some insignificant fight or some season
of plenty or of famine, or to other circumstances the evident consequence of
which has long ceased.
While, however, it is not supposed that old inscriptions exist directly
recording substantively important events, it is hoped that some materials for
history can be gathered from the characters in a manner similar to the
triumph of comparative philology in resurrecting the life-history and culture
of the ancient Aryans. The significance of the characters being granted, they
exhibit what chiefly interested their authors, and those particulars may be of
anthropologic consequence. The study has so far advanced that,
independent of the significance of individual characters, several distinct
types of execution are noted which may be expected to disclose data
regarding priscan habitat and migration. In this connection it may be
mentioned that recent discoveries render it probable that some of the
pictographs were intended as guide-marks to point out trails, springs, and
fords, and some others are supposed to indicate at least the locality of
mounds and graves, and possibly to record specific statements concerning
them. A comparison of typical forms may also usefully be made with the
objects of art now exhumed in large numbers from the mounds.

Ample evidence exists that many of the pictographs, both ancient and
modern, are connected with the mythology and religious practices of their
makers. The interpretations obtained during the present year of some of
those among the Moki, Zuñi, and Navajo, throw new and strong light on
this subject. It is regretted that the most valuable and novel part of this
information cannot be included in the present paper, as it is in the
possession of the Bureau of Ethnology in a shape not yet arranged for
publication, or forms part of the forthcoming volume of the Transactions of
the Anthropological Society of Washington, which may not be anticipated.
The following general remarks of Schoolcraft, Vol. I, p. 351, are of some
value, though they apply with any accuracy only to the Ojibwa and are
tinctured with a fondness for the mysterious:
For their pictographic devices the North American Indians have
two terms, namely, Kekeewin, or such things as are generally
understood by the tribe; and Kekeenowin, or teachings of the
medas or priests, jossakeeds or prophets. The knowledge of the
latter is chiefly confined to persons who are versed in their
system of magic medicine, or their religion, and may be deemed
hieratic. The former consists of the common figurative signs,
such as are employed at places of sepulture, or by hunting or
traveling parties. It is also employed in the muzzinábiks, or rock-
writings. Many of the figures are common to both, and are seen
in the drawings generally; but it is to be understood that this
results from the figure-alphabet being precisely the same in
both, while the devices of the nugamoons, or medicine, wabino,
hunting, and war songs, are known solely to the initiates who
have learned them, and who always pay high to the native
professors for this knowledge.
It must, however, be admitted, as above suggested, that many of the
pictographs found are not of the historic or mythologic significance once
supposed. For instance, the examination of the rock carvings in several
parts of the country has shown that some of them were mere records of the
visits of individuals to important springs or to fords on regularly established
trails. In this respect there seems to have been, in the intention of the
Indians, very much the same spirit as induces the civilized man to record
his initials upon objects in the neighborhood of places of general resort. At

Oakley Springs, Arizona Territory, totemic marks have been found,
evidently made by the same individual at successive visits, showing that on
the number of occasions indicated he had passed by those springs, probably
camping there, and such record was the habit of the neighboring Indians at
that time. The same repetition of totemic names has been found in great
numbers in the pipestone quarries of Dakota, and also at some old fords in
West Virginia. But these totemic marks are so designed and executed as to
have intrinsic significance and value, wholly different in this respect from
vulgar names in alphabetic form. It should also be remembered that mere
graffiti are recognized as of value by the historian, the anthropologist, and
the artist.
One very marked peculiarity of the drawings of the Indians is that within
each particular system, such as may be called a tribal system, of
pictography, every Indian draws in precisely the same manner. The figures
of a man, of a horse, and of every other object delineated, are made by
every one who attempts to make any such figure with all the identity of
which their mechanical skill is capable, thus showing their conception and
motive to be the same.
The intention of the present work is not to present at this time a view of the
whole subject of pictography, though the writer has been preparing
materials with a reference to that more ambitious project. The paper is
limited to the presentation of the most important known pictographs of the
North American Indians, with such classification as has been found
convenient to the writer, and, for that reason, may be so to collaborators.
The scheme of the paper has been to give very simply one or more
examples, with illustrations, in connection with each one of the headings or
titles of the classifications designated. This plan has involved a considerable
amount of cross reference, because, in many cases, a character, or a group
of characters, could be considered with reference to a number of noticeable
characteristics, and it was a question of choice under which one of the
headings it should be presented, involving reference to it from the other
divisions of the paper. An amount of space disproportionate to the mere
subdivision of Time under the class of Mnemonics, is occupied by the
Dakota Winter Counts, but it is not believed that any apology is necessary
for their full presentation, as they not only exhibit the device mentioned in

reference to their use as calendars, but furnish a repertory for all points
connected with the graphic portrayal of ideas.
Attention is invited to the employment of the heraldic scheme of
designating colors by lines, dots, etc., in those instances in the illustrations
where color appeared to have significance, while it was not practicable to
produce the coloration of the originals. In many cases, however, the figures
are too minute to permit the successful use of that scheme, and the text must
be referred to for explanation.
Thanks are due and rendered for valuable assistance to correspondents and
especially to officers of the Bureau of Ethnology and the United States
Geological Survey, whose names are generally mentioned in connection
with their several contributions. Acknowledgment is also made now and
throughout the paper to Dr. W. J. Hoffman who has officially assisted the
present writer during several years by researches in the field, and by
drawing nearly all the illustrations presented.

DISTRIBUTION OF PETROGLYPHS IN
NORTH AMERICA.
Etchings or paintings on rocks in North America are distributed generally.
They are found throughout the extent of the continent, on bowlders formed
by the sea waves or polished by ice of the glacial epoch; on the faces of
rock ledges adjoining streams; on the high walls of cañons and cliffs; on the
sides and roofs of caves; in short, wherever smooth surfaces of rock appear.
Drawings have also been discovered on stones deposited in mounds and
caves. Yet while these records are so frequent, there are localities to be
distinguished in which they are especially abundant and noticeable. Also
they differ markedly in character of execution and apparent subject-matter.
An obvious division can be made between characters etched or pecked and
those painted without incision. This division in execution coincides to a
certain extent with geographic areas. So far as ascertained, painted
characters prevail perhaps exclusively throughout Southern California, west
and southwest of the Sierra Nevada. Pictures, either painted or incised, are
found in perhaps equal frequency in the area extending eastward from the
Colorado River to Georgia, northward into West Virginia, and in general
along the course of the Mississippi River. In some cases the glyphs are both
incised and painted. The remaining parts of the United States show rock-
etchings almost exclusive of paintings.
It is proposed with the accumulation of information to portray the localities
of these records upon a chart accompanied by a full descriptive text. In such
chart will be designated their relative frequency, size, height, position,
color, age, and other particulars regarded as important. With such chart and
list the classification and determination now merely indicated may become
thorough.
In the present paper a few only of the more important localities will be
mentioned; generally those which are referred to under several appropriate
heads in various parts of the paper. Notices of some of these have been

published; but many of them are publicly mentioned for the first time in this
paper, knowledge respecting them having been obtained by the personal
researches of the officers of the Bureau of Ethnology, or by their
correspondents.

NORTHEASTERN ROCK CARVINGS.

A large number of known and described pictographs on rocks occur in that
portion of the United States and Canada at one time in the possession of the
several tribes constituting the Algonkian linguistic stock. This is particularly
noticeable throughout the country of the great lakes, and the Northern,
Middle, and New England States.
The voluminous discussion upon the Dighton Rock, Massachusetts,
inscription, renders it impossible wholly to neglect it.
The following description, taken from Schoolcraft’s History, Condition, and
Prospect of the Indian Tribes of the United States, Vol. IV, p. 119, which is
accompanied with a plate, is, however, sufficient. It is merely a type of
Algonkin rock-carving, not so interesting as many others:
The ancient inscription on a bowlder of greenstone rock lying in
the margin of the Assonet, or Taunton River, in the area of
ancient Vinland, was noticed by the New England colonists so
early as 1680, when Dr. Danforth made a drawing of it. This
outline, together with several subsequent copies of it, at different
eras, reaching to 1830, all differing considerably in their details,
but preserving a certain general resemblance, is presented in the
Antiquatés Americanes [sic] (Tab. XI, XII) and referred to the
same era of Scandinavian discovery. The imperfections of the
drawings (including that executed under the auspices of the
Rhode Island Historical Society, in 1830, Tab. XII) and the
recognition of some characters bearing more or less resemblance
to antique Roman letters and figures, may be considered to have
misled Mr. Magnusen in his interpretation of it. From whatever
cause, nothing could, it would seem, have been wider from the
purport and true interpretation of it. It is of purely Indian origin,

and is executed in the peculiar symbolic character of the
Kekeewin.

ROCK CARVINGS IN PENNSYLVANIA.

Many of the rocks along the river courses in Northern and Western
Pennsylvania bear traces of carvings, though, on account of the character of
the geological formations, some of these records are almost, if not entirely,
obliterated.
Mr. P. W. Shafer published in a historical map of Pennsylvania, in 1875,
several groups of pictographs. (They had before appeared in a rude and
crowded form in the Transactions of the Anthropological Institute of New
York, N. Y., 1871-’72, p. 66, Figs. 25, 26, where the localities are
mentioned as “Big” and “Little” Indian Rocks, respectively.) One of these is
situated on the Susquehanna River, below the dam at Safe Harbor, and
clearly shows its Algonkin origin. The characters are nearly all either
animals or various forms of the human body. Birds, bird-tracks, and
serpents also occur. A part of this pictograph is presented below, Figure 149,
page 226.
On the same chart a group of pictures is also given, copied from the
originals on the Allegheny River, in Venango County, 5 miles south of
Franklin. There are but six characters furnished in this instance, three of
which are variations of the human form, while the others are undetermined.
Mr. J. Sutton Wall, of Monongahela City, describes in correspondence a
rock bearing pictographs opposite the town of Millsborough, in Fayette
County, Pennsylvania. This rock is about 390 feet above the level of
Monongahela River, and belongs to the Waynesburg stratum of sandstone.
It is detached, and rests somewhat below its true horizon. It is about 6 feet
in thickness, and has vertical sides; only two figures are carved on the sides,
the inscriptions being on the top, and are now considerably worn. Mr. Wall
mentions the outlines of animals and some other figures, formed by grooves
or channels cut from an inch to a mere trace in depth. No indications of tool
marks were discovered. It is presented below as Figure 147, page 224.

The resemblance between this record and the drawings on Dighton Rock is
to be noted, as well as that between both of them and some in Ohio.
Mr. J. Sutton Wall also contributes a group of etchings on what is known as
the “Geneva Picture Rock,” in the Monongahela Valley, near Geneva. These
are foot-prints and other characters similar to those mentioned from
Hamilton Farm, West Virginia, which are shown in Figure 148, page 225.
Schoolcraft (Vol. IV, pp. 172, 173, Pll. 17, 18), describes also, presenting
plates, a pictograph on the Allegheny River as follows:
One of the most often noticed of these inscriptions exists on the
left bank of this river [the Allegheny], about six miles below
Franklin (the ancient Venango), Pennsylvania. It is a prominent
point of rocks, around which the river deflects, rendering this
point a very conspicuous object. * The rock, which has been
lodged here in some geological convulsion, is a species of hard
sandstone, about twenty-two feet in length by fourteen in
breadth. It has an inclination to the horizon of about fifty
degrees. During freshets it is nearly overflown. The inscription
is made upon the inclined face of the rock. The present
inhabitants in the country call it the ‘Indian God.’ It is only in
low stages of water that it can be examined. Captain Eastman
has succeeded, by wading into the water, in making a perfect
copy of this ancient record, rejecting from its borders the
interpolations of modern names put there by boatmen, to whom
it is known as a point of landing. The inscription itself appears
distinctly to record, in symbols, the triumphs in hunting and war.

ROCK CARVINGS IN OHIO.

In the Final Report of the Ohio State Board of Centennial Managers,
Columbus, 1877, many localities showing rock carvings are noted. The
most important (besides those mentioned below) are as follows: Newark,
Licking County, where human hands, many varieties of bird tracks, and a
cross are noticed. Independence, Cuyahoga County, showing human hands
and feet and serpents. Amherst, Lorain County, presenting similar objects.

Wellsville, Columbiana County, where the characters are more elaborate
and varied.
Mr. James W. Ward describes in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute
of New York, Vol. I, 1871-’72, pp. 57-64, Figs. 14-22, some sculptured
rocks. They are reported as occurring near Barnesville, Belmont County,
and consist chiefly of the tracks of birds and animals. Serpentine forms also
occur, together with concentric rings. The author also quotes Mr. William A.
Adams as describing, in a letter to Professor Silliman in 1842, some figures
on the surface of a sandstone rock, lying on the bank of the Muskingum
River. These figures are mentioned as being engraved in the rock and
consist of tracks of the turkey, and of man.

ROCK CARVINGS IN WEST VIRGINIA.

Mr. P. W. Norris, of the Bureau of Ethnology, reports that he found
numerous localities along the Kanawha River, West Virginia, bearing
pictographs. Rock etchings are numerous upon smooth rocks, covered
during high water, at the prominent fords of the river, as well as in the
niches or long shallow caves high in the rocky cliffs of this region.
Although rude representations of men, animals, and some deemed symbolic
characters were found, none were observed superior to, or essentially
differing from, those of modern Indians.
Mr. John Haywood mentions (The Natural and Aboriginal History of
Tennessee, Nashville, 1823, pp. 332, 333) rock etchings four miles below
the Burning Spring, near the mouth of Campbell’s Creek, Kanawha County,
West Virginia. These consist of forms of various animals, as the deer,
buffalo, fox, hare; of fish of various kinds; “infants scalped and scalps
alone,” and men of natural size. The rock is said to be in the Kanawha
River, near its northern shore, accessible only at low water, and then only
by boat.
On the rocky walls of Little Coal River, near the mouth of Big Horse Creek,
are cliffs upon which are many carvings. One of these measures 8 feet in
length and 5 feet in height, and consists of a dense mass of characters.

About 2 miles above Mount Pleasant, Mason County, West Virginia, on the
north side of the Kanawha River, are numbers of characters, apparently
totemic. These are at the foot of the hills flanking the river.
On the cliffs near the mouth of the Kanawha River, opposite Mount Carbon,
Nicholas County, West Virginia, are numerous pictographs. These appear to
be cut into the sandstone rock.
See also page 225, Figure 148.

ROCK CARVINGS IN THE SOUTHERN STATES.

Charles C. Jones, jr., in his Antiquities of the Southern Indians, etc., New
York, 1873, pp. 62, 63, gives some general remarks upon the pictographs of
the southern Indians, as follows:
In painting and rock writing the efforts of the Southern Indians
were confined to the fanciful and profuse ornamentation of their
own persons with various colors, in which red, yellow, and
black predominated, and to marks, signs, and figures depicted
on skins and scratched on wood, the shoulder blade of a buffalo,
or on stone. The smooth bark of a standing tree or the face of a
rock was used to commemorate some feat of arms, to indicate
the direction and strength of a military expedition, or the
solemnization of a treaty of peace. High up the perpendicular
sides of mountain gorges, and at points apparently inaccessible
save to the fowls of the air, are seen representations of the sun
and moon, accompanied by rude characters, the significance of
which is frequently unknown to the present observer. The
motive which incited to the execution of work so perilous was,
doubtless, religious in its character, and directly connected with
the worship of the sun and his pale consort of the night.
The same author, page 377, particularly describes and illustrates one in
Georgia, as follows:
In Forsyth County, Georgia, is a carved or incised bowlder of
fine-grained granite, about 9 feet long, 4 feet 6 inches high, and
3 feet broad at its widest point. The figures are cut in the

bowlder from one-half to three-fourths of an inch deep. * It is
generally believed that they are the work of the Cherokees.
These figures are chiefly circles, both plain, nucleated, and concentric,
sometimes two or more being joined by straight lines, forming what is now
known as the “spectacle-shaped” figure.
Dr. M. F. Stephenson mentions, in Geology and Mineralogy of Georgia,
Atlanta, 1871, p. 199, sculptures of human feet, various animals, bear
tracks, etc., in Enchanted Mountain, Union County, Georgia. The whole
number of etchings is reported as one hundred and forty-six.

ROCK CARVINGS IN IOWA.

Mr. P. W. Norris found numerous caves on the banks of the Mississippi
River, in Northeastern Iowa, 4 miles south of New Albion, containing
incised pictographs. Fifteen miles south of this locality paintings occur on
the cliffs.

ROCK CARVINGS IN MINNESOTA.

Mr. P. W. Norris has discovered large numbers of pecked totemic characters
on the horizontal face of the ledges of rock at Pipe Stone Quarry,
Minnesota, of which he has presented copies. The custom prevailed, it is
stated, for each Indian who gathered stone (Catlinite) for pipes to inscribe
his totem upon the rock before venturing to quarry upon this ground. Some
of the cliffs in the immediate vicinity were of too hard a nature to admit of
pecking or scratching, and upon these the characters were placed in colors.

ROCK CARVINGS IN WYOMING AND IN IDAHO.

A number of pictographs in Wyoming are described in the report on
Northwestern Wyoming, including Yellowstone National Park, by Capt.
William A. Jones, U. S. A., Washington, 1875, p. 268 et seq., Figures 50 to
53 in that work. The last three in order of these figures are reproduced in

Sign Language among North American Indians, in the First Annual Report,
Bureau of Ethnology, pages 378 and 379, to show their connection with
gesture signs. The most important one was discovered on Little Popo-Agie,
Northwestern Wyoming, by members of Captain Jones’s party in 1873. The
etchings are upon a nearly vertical wall of the yellow sandstone in the rear
of Murphy’s ranch, and appear to be of some antiquity.
Further remarks, with specimens of the figures, are presented in this paper
as Figure 150, on page 227.
Dr. William H. Corbusier, U. S. Army, in a letter to the writer, mentions the
discovery of rock etchings on a sandstone rock near the headwaters of Sage
Creek, in the vicinity of Fort Washakie, Wyoming. Dr. Corbusier remarks
that neither the Shoshoni nor the Arapaho Indians know who made the
etchings. The two chief figures appear to be those of the human form, with
the hands and arms partly uplifted, the whole being surrounded above and
on either side by an irregular line.
The method of grouping, together with various accompanying appendages,
as irregular lines, spirals, etc., observed in Dr. Corbusier’s drawing, show
great similarity to the Algonkin type, and resemble some etchings found
near the Wind River Mountains, which were the work of Blackfeet (Satsika)
Indians, who, in comparatively recent times, occupied portions of the
country in question, and probably also etched the designs near Fort
Washakie.
A number of examples from Idaho appear infra, pages 228 and 229.

ROCK CARVINGS IN NEVADA.

At the lower extremity of Pyramid Lake, Nevada, pictographs have been
found by members of the United States Geological Survey, though no
accurate reproductions are available. These characters are mentioned as
incised upon the surface of basalt rocks.
On the western slope of Lone Butte, in the Carson Desert, Nevada,
pictographs occur in considerable numbers. All of these appear to have been
produced, on the faces of bowlders and rocks, by pecking and scratching

with some hard mineral material like quartz. No copies have been obtained
as yet.
Great numbers of incised characters of various kinds are found on the walls
of rock flanking Walker River, near Walker Lake, Nevada. Waving lines,
rings, and what appear to be vegetable forms are of frequent occurrence.
The human form and footprints are also depicted.
Among the copies of pictographs obtained in various portions of the
Northwestern States and Territories, by Mr. G. K. Gilbert, is one referred as
to as being on a block of basalt at Reveillé, Nevada, and is mentioned as
being Shinumo or Moki. This suggestion is evidently based upon the
general resemblance to drawings found in Arizona, and known to have been
made by the Moki Indians. The locality is within the territory of the
Shoshonian linguistic division, and the etchings are in all probability the
work of one or more of the numerous tribes comprised within that division.

ROCK CARVINGS IN OREGON AND IN WASHINGTON.

Numerous bowlders and rock escarpments at and near the Dalles of the
Columbia River, Oregon, are covered with incised or pecked pictographs.
Human figures occur, though characters of other forms predominate.
Mr. Albert S. Gatschet reports the discovery of rock etchings near Gaston,
Oregon, in 1878, which are said to be near the ancient settlement of the
Tuálati (or Atfálati) Indians, according to the statement of these people.
These etchings are about 100 feet above the valley bottom, and occur on six
rocks of soft sandstone, projecting from the grassy hillside of Patten’s
Valley, opposite Darling Smith’s farm, and are surrounded with timber on
two sides. The distance from Gaston is about 4 miles; from the old Tuálati
settlement probably not more than 2½ miles in an air-line.
This sandstone ledge extends for one-eighth of a mile horizontally along the
hillside, upon the projecting portions of which the inscriptions are found.
These rocks differ greatly in size, and slant forward so that the inscribed
portions are exposed to the frequent rains of that region. The first rock, or
that one nearest the mouth of the cañon, consists of horizontal zigzag lines,
and a detached straight line, also horizontal. On another side of the same

rock is a series of oblique parallel lines. Some of the most striking
characters found upon other exposed portions of the rock appear to be
human figures, i. e., circles to which radiating lines are attached, and
bearing indications of eyes and mouth, long vertical lines running
downward as if to represent the body, and terminating in a bifurcation, as if
intended for legs, toes, etc. To the right of one figure is an arm and three-
fingered hand (similar to some of the Moki characters), bent downward
from the elbow, the humerus extending at a right angle from the body.
Horizontal rows of short vertical lines are placed below and between some
of the figures, probably numerical marks of some kind.
Other characters occur of various forms, the most striking being an arrow
pointing upward, with two horizontal lines drawn across the shaft, vertical
lines having short oblique lines attached thereto.
Mr. Gatschet, furthermore, remarks that the Tuálati attach a trivial story to
the origin of these pictures, the substance of which is as follows: The
Tillamuk warriors living on the Pacific coast were often at variance with the
several Kalapuya tribes. One day, passing through Patten’s Valley to invade
the country of the Tuálati, they inquired of a passing woman how far they
were from their camp. The woman, desirous not to betray her own
countrymen, said that they were yet at a distance of one (or two?) days’
travel. This made them reflect over the intended invasion, and holding a
council they preferred to retire. In commemoration of this the inscription
with its numeration marks, was incised by the Tuálati.
Capt. Charles Bendire, U. S. Army, states in a letter that Col. Henry C.
Merriam, U. S. Army, discovered pictographs on a perpendicular cliff of
granite at the lower end of Lake Chelan, lat. 48° N., near old Fort
O’Kinakane, on the upper Columbia River. The etchings appear to have
been made at widely different periods, and are evidently quite old. Those
which appeared the earliest were from twenty-five to thirty feet above the
present water level. Those appearing more recent are about ten feet above
water level. The figures are in black and red colors, representing Indians
with bows and arrows, elk, deer, bear, beaver, and fish. There are four or
five rows of these figures, and quite a number in each row. The present
native inhabitants know nothing whatever regarding the history of these
paintings.

For another example of pictographs from Washington see Figure 109, p.
190.

ROCK CARVINGS IN UTAH.

A locality in the southern interior of Utah has been called Pictograph Rocks,
on account of the numerous records of that character found there.
Mr. G. K. Gilbert, of the United States Geological Survey, in 1875 collected
a number of copies of inscriptions in Temple Creek Cañon, Southeastern
Utah, accompanied by the following notes: “The drawings were found only
on the northeast wall of the cañon, where it cuts the Vermillion cliff
sandstone. The chief part are etched, apparently by pounding with a sharp
point. The outline of a figure is usually more deeply cut than the body.
Other marks are produced by rubbing or scraping, and still other by laying
on colors. Some, not all, of the colors are accompanied by a rubbed
appearance, as though the material had been a dry chalk.
“I could discover no tools at the foot of the wall, only fragments of pottery,
flints, and a metate.
“Several fallen blocks of sandstone have rubbed depressions that may have
been ground out in the sharpening of tools. There have been many dates of
inscriptions, and each new generation has unscrupulously run its lines over
the pictures already made. Upon the best protected surfaces, as well as the
most exposed, there are drawings dimmed beyond restoration and others
distinct. The period during which the work accumulated was longer by far
than the time which has passed since the last. Some fallen blocks cover
etchings on the wall, and are themselves etched.
“Colors are preserved only where there is almost complete shelter from
rain. In two places the holes worn in the rock by swaying branches impinge
on etchings, but the trees themselves have disappeared. Some etchings are
left high and dry by a diminishing talus (15-20 feet), but I saw none partly
buried by an increasing talus (except in the case of the fallen block already
mentioned).
“The painted circles are exceedingly accurate, and it seems incredible that
they were made without the use of a radius.”

In the collection contributed by Mr. Gilbert there are at least fifteen series
or groups of figures, most of which consist of the human form (from the
simplest to the most complex style of drawing), animals, either singly or in
long files, as if driven, bird tracks, human feet and hands, etc. There are
also circles, parallel lines, and waving or undulating lines, spots, and other
unintelligible characters.
Mr. Gilbert also reports the discovery, in 1883, of a great number of
pictographs, chiefly in color, though some are etched, in a cañon of the
Book Cliff, containing Thompson’s spring, about 4 miles north of
Thompson’s station, on the Denver and Colorado Railroad, Utah.
Collections of drawings of pictographs at Black Rock spring, on Beaver
Creek, north of Milford, Utah, have been furnished by Mr. Gilbert. A
number of fallen blocks of basalt, at a low escarpment, are filled with
etchings upon the vertical faces. The characters are generally of an
“unintelligible” nature, though the human figure is drawn in complex
forms. Foot-prints, circles, etc., also abound.
Mr. I. C. Russell, of the United States Geological Survey, furnished rude
drawings of pictographs at Black Rock spring, Utah (see Figure 153). Mr.
Gilbert Thompson, of the United States Geological Survey, also discovered
pictographs at Fool Creek Cañon, Utah (see Figure 154). Both of those
figures are on page 230.

ROCK CARVINGS IN COLORADO.

Captain E. L. Berthoud furnished to the Kansas City Review of Science and
Industry, VII, 1883, No. 8, pp. 489, 490, the following:
The place is 20 miles southeast of Rio Del Norte, at the entrance
of the cañon of the Piedra Pintada (Painted Rock) Creek. The
carvings are found on the right of the cañon, or valley, and upon
volcanic rocks. They bear the marks of age and are cut in, not
painted, as is still done by the Utes everywhere. They are found
for a quarter of a mile along the north wall of the cañon, on the
ranches of W. M. Maguire and F. T. Hudson, and consist of all
manner of pictures, symbols, and hieroglyphics done by artists

whose memory even tradition does not now preserve. The fact
that these are carvings, done upon such hard rock merits them
with additional interest, as they are quite distinct from the
carvings I saw in New Mexico and Arizona on soft sand-stone.
Though some of them are evidently of much greater antiquity
than others, yet all are ancient, the Utes admitting them to have
been old when their fathers conquered the country.

ROCK CARVINGS IN NEW MEXICO.

On the north wall of Cañon de Chelly, one fourth of a mile east of the
mouth of the cañon, are several groups of pictographs, consisting chiefly of
various grotesque forms of the human figure, and also numbers of animals,
circles, etc. A few of them are painted black, the greater portion consisting
of rather shallow lines which are in some places considerably weathered.
Further up the cañon, in the vicinity of cliff-dwellings, are numerous small
groups of pictographic characters, consisting of men and animals, waving
or zigzag lines, and other odd and “unintelligible” figures.
Lieut. J. H. Simpson gives several illustrations of pictographs copied from
rocks in the northwest part of New Mexico in his Report of an Expedition
into the Navajo Country. (Sen. Ex. Doc. No. 64, 31st Cong., 1st sess., 1856,
Pl. 23, 24, 25.)
Inscriptions have been mentioned as occurring at El Moro, consisting of
etchings of human figures and other unintelligible characters. This locality
is better known as Inscription Rock. Lieutenant Simpson’s remarks upon it,
with illustrations, are given in the work last cited, on page 120. He states
that most of the characters are no higher than a man’s head, and that some
of them are undoubtedly of Indian origin.
At Arch Spring, near Zuñi, figures are cut upon a rock which Lieutenant
Whipple thinks present some faint similarity to those at Rocky Dell Creek.
(Rep. Pac. R. R, Exped., Vol. III, 1856, Pt. III, p. 39, Pl. 32.)

Near Ojo Pescado, in the vicinity of the ruins, are pictographs, reported in
the last mentioned volume and page, Plate 31, which are very much
weather-worn, and have “no trace of a modern hand about them.”

ROCK-CARVINGS IN ARIZONA.

On a table land near the Gila Bend is a mound of granite bowlders,
blackened by augite, and covered with unknown characters, the work of
human hands. On the ground near by were also traces of some of the
figures, showing some of the pictographs, at least, to have been the work of
modern Indians. Others were of undoubted antiquity, and the signs and
symbols intended, doubtless, to commemorate some great event. (See Ex.
Doc. No. 41, 30th Cong., 1st sess. (Emory’s Reconnaissance), 1848, p. 89;
Ill. opposite p. 89, and on p. 90.)
Characters upon rocks, of questionable antiquity, are reported in the last-
mentioned volume, Plate, p. 63, to occur on the Gila River, at 32° 38′ 13″
N. lat., and 109° 07′ 30″ long. [According to the plate, the figures are found
upon bowlders and on the face of the cliff to the height of about 30 feet.]
The party under Lieutenant Whipple (see Rep. Pac. R. R. Exped., III, 1856,
Pt. III, p. 42) also discovered pictographs at Yampais Spring, Williams
River. “The spot is a secluded glen among the mountains. A high, shelving
rock forms a cave, within which is a pool of water and a crystal stream
flowing from it. The lower surface of the rock is covered with pictographs.
None of the devices seem to be of recent date.”
Many of the country rocks lying on the Colorado plateau of Northern
Arizona, east of Peach Springs, bear traces of considerable artistic
workmanship. Some observed by Dr. W. J. Hoffman, in 1871, were rather
elaborate and represented figures of the sun, human beings in various styles
approaching the grotesque, and other characters not yet understood. All of
those observed were made by pecking the surface of basalt with a harder
variety of stone.
Mr. G. K. Gilbert discovered etchings at Oakley Spring, eastern Arizona, in
1878, relative to which he remarks that an Oraibi chief explained them to
him and said that the “Mokis make excursions to a locality in the cañon of

the Colorado Chiquito to get salt. On their return they stop at Oakley Spring
and each Indian makes a picture on the rock. Each Indian draws his crest or
totem, the symbol of his gens [(?)]. He draws it once, and once only, at each
visit.” Mr. Gilbert adds, further, that “there are probably some exceptions to
this, but the etchings show its general truth. There are a great many
repetitions of the same sign, and from two to ten will often appear in a row.
In several instances I saw the end drawings of a row quite fresh while the
others were not so. Much of the work seems to have been performed by
pounding with a hard point, but a few pictures are scratched on. Many
drawings are weather-worn beyond recognition, and others are so fresh that
the dust left by the tool has not been washed away by rain. Oakley Spring is
at the base of the Vermillion Cliff, and the etchings are on fallen blocks of
sandstone, a homogeneous, massive, soft sandstone. Tubi, the Oraibi chief
above referred to, says his totem is the rain cloud but it will be made no
more as he is the last survivor of the gens.”
A group of the Oakley Spring etchings of which Figure 1 is a copy,
measures six feet in length and four feet in height. Interpretations of many
of the separated characters of Figure 1 are presented on page 46 et seq., also
in Figures 156 et seq., page 237.

Fig. 1.—Petroglyphs at Oakley Springs, Arizona.

Mr. Gilbert obtained sketches of etchings in November, 1878, on Partridge
Creek, northern Arizona, at the point where the Beale wagon road comes to
it from the east. “The rock is cross-laminated Aubrey sandstone and the
surfaces used are faces of the laminæ. All the work is done by blows with a
sharp point. (Obsidian is abundant in the vicinity.) Some inscriptions are so
fresh as to indicate that the locality is still resorted to. No Indians live in the
immediate vicinity, but the region is a hunting ground of the Wallapais and
Avasupais (Cosninos).”
Notwithstanding the occasional visits of the above named tribes, the
characters submitted more nearly resemble those of other localities known
to have been made by the Moki Pueblos.
Rock etchings are of frequent occurrence along the entire extent of the
valley of the Rio Verde, from a short distance below Camp Verde to the
Gila River.
Mr. Thomas V. Keam reports etchings on the rocks in Cañon Segy, and in
Keam’s Cañon, northeastern Arizona. Some forms occurring at the latter
locality are found also upon Moki pottery.

ROCK CARVINGS IN CALIFORNIA.

From information received from Mr. Alphonse Pinart, pictographic records
exist in the hills east of San Bernardino, somewhat resembling those at Tule
River in the southern spurs of the Sierra Nevada, Kern County.
These pictographic records are found at various localities along the hill
tops, but to what distance is not positively known.
In the range of mountains forming the northeastern boundary of Owen
Valley are extensive groups of petroglyphs, apparently dissimilar to those
found west of the Sierra Nevada. Dr. Oscar Loew also mentions a singular
inscription on basaltic rocks in Black Lake Valley, about 4 miles southwest
of the town of Benton, Mono County. This is scratched in the basalt surface
with some sharp instrument and is evidently of great age. (Ann. Report
upon the Geog. Surveys west of the 100th meridian. Being Appendix J J,
Ann. Report of Chief of Engineers for 1876. Plate facing p. 326.)

Dr. W. J. Hoffman, of the Bureau of Ethnology, reports the occurrence of a
number of series of etchings scattered at intervals for over twenty miles in
Owen’s Valley, California. Some of these records were hastily examined by
him in 1871, but it was not until the autumn of 1884 that a thorough
examination of them was made, when measurements, drawings, etc., were
obtained for study and comparison. The country is generally of a sandy,
desert, character, devoid of vegetation and water. The occasional bowlders
and croppings of rock consist of vesicular basalt, upon the smooth vertical
faces of which occur innumerable characters different from any hitherto
reported from California, but bearing marked similarity to some figures
found in the country now occupied by the Moki and Zuñi, in New Mexico
and Arizona, respectively.
The southernmost group of etchings is eighteen miles south of the town of
Benton; the next group, two miles almost due north, at the Chalk Grade; the
third, about three miles farther north, near the stage road; the fourth, half a
mile north of the preceding; then a fifth, five and a half miles above the last
named and twelve and a half miles south of Benton. The northernmost
group is about ten or twelve miles northwest of the last-mentioned locality
and south west from Benton, at a place known as Watterson’s Ranch. The
principal figures consist of various simple, complex, and ornamental
circles, some of the simple circles varying as nucleated, concentric, and
spectacle-shaped, zigzag, and serpentine lines, etc. Animal forms are not
abundant, those readily identified being those of the deer, antelope, and
jack-rabbits. Representations of snakes and huge sculpturings of grizzly-
bear tracks occur on one horizontal surface, twelve and a half miles south of
Benton. In connection with the latter, several carvings of human foot-prints
appear, leading in the same direction, i. e., toward the south-southwest.
All of these figures are pecked into the vertical faces of the rocks, the
depths varying from one-fourth of an inch to an inch and a quarter. A
freshly broken surface of the rock presents various shades from a cream
white to a Naples yellow color, though the sculptured lines are all blackened
by exposure and oxidation of the iron contained therein. This fact has no
importance toward the determination of the age of the work.
At the Chalk Grade is a large bowlder measuring about six feet in height
and four feet either way in thickness, upon one side of which is one-half of
what appears to have been an immense mortar. The sides of this cavity are

vertical, and near the bottom turn abruptly and horizontally in toward the
center, which is marked by a cone about three inches high and six inches
across at its base. The interior diameter of the mortar is about twenty-four
inches, and from the appearance of the surface, being considerably grooved
laterally, it would appear as if a core had been used for grinding, similar in
action to that of a millstone. No traces of such a core or corresponding form
were visible. This instance is mentioned as it is the only indication that the
authors of the etchings made any prolonged visit to this region, and perhaps
only for grinding grass seed, though neither grass nor water is now found
nearer than the remains at Watterson’s Ranch and at Benton.
The records at Watterson’s are pecked upon the surfaces of detached
bowlders near the top of a mesa, about one hundred feet above the nearest
spring, distant two hundred yards. These are also placed at the southeast
corner of the mesa, or that nearest to the northern most of the main group
across the Benton Range. At the base of the eastern and northeastern portion
of this elevation of land, and but a stone’s throw from the etchings, are the
remains of former camps, such as stone circles, marking the former sites of
brush lodges, and a large number of obsidian flakes, arrowheads, knives,
and some jasper remains of like character. Upon the flat granite bowlders
are several mortar-holes, which perhaps were used for crushing the seed of
the grass still growing abundantly in the immediate vicinity. Piñon nuts are
also abundant in this locality.
Upon following the most convenient course across the Benton Range to
reach Owen’s Valley proper, etchings are also found, though in limited
numbers, and seem to partake of the character of “indicators as to course of
travel.” By this trail the northernmost of the several groups of etchings
above mentioned is the nearest and most easily reached.
The etchings upon the bowlders at Watterson’s are somewhat different from
those found elsewhere. The number of specific designs is limited, many of
them being reproduced from two to six or seven times, thus seeming to
partake of the character of personal names.
One of the most frequent is that resembling a horseshoe within which is a
vertical stroke. Sometimes the upper extremity of such stroke is attached to
the upper inside curve of the broken ring, and frequently there are two or
more parallel vertical strokes within one such curve. Bear-tracks and the

outline of human feet also occur, besides several unique forms. A few of
these forms are figured, though not accurately, in the Ann. Report upon the
Geog. Surveys west of the 100th meridian last mentioned (1876), Plate
facing p. 326.
Lieutenant Whipple reports (Rep. Pac. R. R. Exped. III, 1856, Pt. III, p. 42,
Pl. 36) the discovery of pictographs at Pai-Ute Creek, about 30 miles west
of the Mojave villages. These are carved upon a rock, “are numerous,
appear old, and are too confusedly obscure to be easily traceable.”
These bear great general resemblance to etchings scattered over Northeast
Arizona, Southern Utah, and Western New Mexico.
Remarkable pictographs have also been found at Tule River Agency. See
Figure 155, page 235.

COLORED PICTOGRAPHS ON ROCKS.

Mr. Gilbert Thompson reports the occurrence of painted characters at Paint
Lick Mountain, 3 miles north of Maiden Spring, Tazewell County, Virginia.
These characters are painted in red, blue, and yellow. A brief description of
this record is given in a work by Mr. Charles B. Coale, entitled “The Life
and Adventures of Wilburn Waters,” etc., Richmond, 1878, p. 136.
Mr. John Haywood (The Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee,
Nashville, 1823, p. 149) mentions painted figures of the sun, moon, a man,
birds, etc., on the bluffs on the south bank of the Holston, 5 miles above the
mouth of the French Broad. These are painted in red colors on a limestone
bluff. He states that they were attributed to the Cherokee Indians, who made
this a resting place when journeying through the region. This author
furthermore remarks: “Wherever on the rivers of Tennessee are
perpendicular bluffs on the sides, and especially if caves be near, are often
found mounds near them, enclosed in intrenchments, with the sun and moon
painted on the rocks,” etc.
Among the many colored etchings and paintings on rock discovered by the
Pacific Railroad Expedition in 1853-’54 (Rep. Pac. R. R. Exped., III, 1856,
Pt. III, pp. 36, 37, Pll. 28, 29, 30) may be mentioned those at Rocky Dell
Creek, New Mexico, which were found between the edge of the Llano

Estacado and the Canadian River. The stream flows through a gorge, upon
one side of which a shelving sandstone rock forms a sort of cave. The roof
is covered with paintings, some evidently ancient, and beneath are
innumerable carvings of footprints, animals, and symmetrical lines.
Mr. James H. Blodgett, of the U. S. Geological Survey, calls attention to the
paintings on the rocks of the bluffs of the Mississippi River, a short distance
below the mouth of the Illinois River, in Illinois, which were observed by
early French explorers, and have been the subject of discussion by much
more recent observers.
Mr. P. W. Norris found numerous painted totemic characters upon the cliffs
in the immediate vicinity of the pipestone quarry, Minnesota. These
consisted, probably, of the totems or names of Indians who had visited that
locality for the purpose of obtaining catlinite for making pipes. These had
been mentioned by early writers.
Mr. Norris also discovered painted characters upon the cliffs on the
Mississippi River, 19 miles below New Albin, in northeastern Iowa.
Mr. Gilbert Thompson reports his observation of pictographs at San
Antonio Springs, 30 miles east of Fort Wingate, New Mexico. The human
form, in various styles, occurs, as well as numerous other characters
strikingly similar to those frequent in the country, farther west, occupied by
the Moki Indians. The peculiarity of these figures is that the outlines are
incised or etched, the depressions thus formed being filled with pigments of
either red, blue, or white. The interior portions of the figures are simply
painted with one or more of the same colors.
Charles D. Wright, esq., of Durango, Colorado, writes that he has
discovered “hieroglyphical writings” upon rocks and upon the wall of a cliff
house near the Colorado and New Mexico boundary line. On the wall in
one small building was found a series of characters in red and black paints,
consisting of a “chief on his horse, armed with spear and lance, wearing a
pointed hat and robe; behind this were about twenty characters representing
people on horses, lassoing horses, etc.; in fact, the whole scene represented
breaking camp and leaving in a hurry. The whole painting measured about
12 by 16 feet.” Other rock-paintings are also mentioned as occurring near
the San Juan River, consisting of four characters representing men as if in

the act of taking an obligation, hands extended, etc. At the right are some
characters in black paint, covering a space 3 by 4 feet.
The rock-paintings presented in Plates I and II are reduced copies of a
record found by Dr. W. J. Hoffman, of the Bureau of Ethnology, in
September, 1884, 12 miles west-northwest of the city of Santa Barbara,
California. They are one-sixteenth original size. The locality is almost at the
summit of the Santa Ynez range of mountains; the gray sandstone rock on
which they are painted is about 30 feet high and projects from a ridge so as
to form a very marked promontory extending into a narrow mountain
cañon. At the base of the western side of this bowlder is a rounded cavity,
measuring, on the inside, about 15 feet in width and 8 feet in height. The
floor ascends rapidly toward the back of the cave, and the entrance is rather
smaller in dimensions than the above measurements of the interior. About
40 yards west of this rock is a fine spring of water. One of the four old
Indian trails leading northward across the mountains passes by this locality,
and it is probable that this was one of the camping-places of the tribe which
came south to trade, and that some of its members were the authors of the
paintings. The three trails beside the one just mentioned cross the mountains
at various points east of this, the most distant being about 15 miles. Other
trails were known, but these four were most direct to the immediate vicinity
of the Spanish settlement which sprang up shortly after the establishment of
the Santa Barbara Mission in 1786. Pictographs (not now described) appear
upon rocks found at or near the origin of all of the above-mentioned trails at
the base of the mountains, with the exception of the one under
consideration. The appearance and position of these pictographs appear to
be connected with the several trails.
The circles figured in b and d of Plate I, and c, r, and w of Plate II, together
with other similar circular marks bearing cross-lines upon the interior, were
at first unintelligible, as their forms among various tribes have very
different signification. The character in Plate I, above and projecting from
d, resembles the human form, with curious lateral bands of black and white,
alternately. Two similar characters appear, also, in Plate II, a, b. In a, the
lines from the head would seem to indicate a superior rank or condition of
the person depicted.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. I
PICTOGRAPHS IN SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.

Having occasion subsequently to visit the private ethnologic collection of
Hon. A. F. Coronel, of Los Angeles, California, Dr. Hoffman discovered a
clue to the general import of the above record, as well as the signification of
some of the characters above mentioned. In a collection of colored
illustrations of Mexican costumes some of them probably a century old, he
found blankets bearing borders and colors, nearly identical with those
shown in the circles in Plate I, d, and Plate II, c, r, w. It is more than
probable that the circles represent bales of blankets which early became
articles of trade at the Santa Barbara Mission. If this supposition is correct,
the cross-lines would seem to represent the cords, used in tying the blankets
into bales, which same cross-lines appear as cords in l, Plate II. Mr. Coronel
also possesses small figures of Mexicans, of various conditions of life,
costumes, trades, and professions, one of which, a painted statuette, is a
representation of a Mexican lying down flat upon an outspread serape,
similar in color and form to the black and white bands shown in the upper

figure of d, Plate I, and a, b, of Plate II, and instantly suggesting the
explanation of those figures. Upon the latter the continuity of the black and
white bands is broken, as the human figures are probably intended to be in
front, or on top, of the drawings of the blankets.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. II
PICTOGRAPHS IN SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.

The small statuette above mentioned is that of a Mexican trader, and if the
circles in the pictographs are considered to represent bales of blankets, there
is a figure in Plate I, d, still more interesting, from the union of one of these
circles with that of a character representing the trader, i. e., the man
possessing the bales. Bales, or what appear to be bales, are represented to
the top and right of the circle d, Plate I, and also upon the right hand figure
in l, Plate II. To the right of the latter are three short lines, evidently
showing the knot or ends of the cords used in tying a bale of blankets
without colors, therefore of less importance, or of other goods. This bale is
upon the back of what appears to be a horse, led in an upward direction by
an Indian whose head-dress, and ends of the breech-cloth, are visible. Other
human forms appear in the attitude of making gestures, one also in j, Plate

II, probably carrying a bale of goods. Figure u represents a centipede, an
insect found occasionally south of the mountains, but reported as extremely
rare in the immediate northern regions. (For x, see page 232.)
Mr. Coronel stated that when he first settled in Los Angeles, in 1843, the
Indians living north of the San Fernando mountains manufactured blankets
of the fur and hair of animals, showing transverse bands of black and white
similar to those depicted, which were sold to the inhabitants of the valley of
Los Angeles and to Indians who transported them to other tribes.
It is probable that the pictograph is intended to represent the salient features
of a trading expedition from the north. The ceiling of the cavity found
between the drawings represented in Plate I and Plate II has disappeared,
owing to disintegration, thus leaving a blank about 4 feet long, and 6 feet
from the top to the bottom of the original record between the parts
represented in the two plates.
Dr. W. J. Hoffman also reports the following additional localities in Santa
Barbara and Los Angeles counties. Fifteen miles west of Santa Barbara, on
the northern summit of the Santa Ynez range, and near the San Marcos
Pass, is a group of paintings in red and black. One figure resembles a
portion of a checker-board in the arrangement of squares. Serpentine and
zigzag lines occur, as also curved lines with serrations on the concave sides;
figures of the sun, groups of short vertical lines, and tree forms, resembling
representations of the dragon-fly, and the human form, as drawn by the
Moki Indians, and very similar to Fig. e, Pl. II. These paintings are in a
cavity near the base of an immense bowlder, over twenty feet in height. A
short distance from this is a flat granitic bowlder, containing twenty-one
mortar holes, which had evidently been used by visiting Indians during the
acorn season. Trees of this genus are very abundant, and their fruit formed
one of the sources of subsistence.
Three miles west-northwest of this locality, in the valley near the base of
the mountain, are indistinct figures in faded red, painted upon a large rock.
The characters appear similar, in general, to those above mentioned.
Forty-three miles west of Santa Barbara, in the Najowe Valley, is a
promontory, at the base of which is a large shallow cavern, the opening
being smaller than the interior, upon the roof and back of which are
numerous figures of similar forms as those observed at San Marcos Pass.

Several characters appear to have been drawn at a later date than others,
such as horned cattle, etc. The black color used was a manganese
compound, while the red pigments consist of ferruginous clays, abundant at
numerous localities in the mountain cañons. Some of the human figures are
drawn with the hands and arms in the attitude of making the gestures for
surprise or astonishment, and negation.
One of the most extensive records, and probably also the most elaborately
drawn, is situated in the Carisa Plain, near Señor Oreña’s ranch, sixty or
seventy miles due north of Santa Barbara. The most conspicuous figure is
that of the sun, resembling a face, with ornamental appendages at the
cardinal points, and bearing striking resemblance to some Moki marks and
pictographic work. Serpentine lines and numerous anomalous forms also
abound.
Four miles northeast of Santa Barbara, near the residence of Mr. Stevens, is
an isolated sandstone bowlder measuring about twenty feet high and thirty
feet in diameter, upon the western side of which is a slight cavity bearing
figures corresponding in general form to others in this county. The gesture
for negation again appears in the attitude of the human figures.
Half a mile farther east, on Dr. Coe’s farm, is another smaller bowlder, in a
cavity of which some portions of human figures are shown. Parts of the
drawings have disappeared through disintegration of the rock, which is
called “Pulpit Rock,” on account of the shape of the cavity, its position at
the side of the narrow valley, and the echo observed upon speaking a little
above the ordinary tone of voice.
Painted rocks also occur in the Azuza Cañon, about thirty miles northeast of
Los Angeles, of which illustrations are given in Plate LXXX, described on
p. 156.
Dr. Hoffman also found other paintings in the valley of the South Fork of
the Tule River, in addition to those discovered in 1882, and given in Figure
155, p. 235. The forms are those of large insects, and of the bear, beaver,
centipede, bald eagle, etc.
Upon the eastern slope of an isolated peak between Porterville and Visalia,
several miles east of the stage road, are pictographs in red and black. These

are chiefly drawings of the deer, bear, and other animals and forms not yet
determined.
Just previous to his departure from the Santa Barbara region, Dr. Hoffman
was informed of the existence of eight or nine painted records in that
neighborhood, which up to that time had been observed only by a few
sheep-herders and hunters.
Other important localities showing colored etchings, and other painted
figures, are at San Diego, California; at Oneida, Idaho; in Temple Creek
Cañon, southeastern Utah, and in the Cañon de Chelly, northwestern New
Mexico.

FOREIGN PETROGLYPHS.
The distribution and the description of the petroglyphs of Mexico, as well
as of other forms of pictographs found there, are omitted in the present
paper. The subject is so vast, and such a large amount of information has
already been given to the public concerning it, that it is not considered in
this work, which is mainly devoted to the similar productions of the tribes
popularly known as North American Indians, although the pre-Columbian
inhabitants of Mexico should, in strictness, be included in that category. It
is, however, always to be recognized that one of the most important points
in the study of pictographs, is the comparison of those of Mexico with those
found farther north.
Copies of many petroglyphs found in the eastern hemisphere have been
collected, but the limitations of the present paper do not allow of their
reproduction or discussion.

PETROGLYPHS IN SOUTH AMERICA.

While the scope of this work does not contemplate either showing the
distribution of the rock carvings in South America, or entering upon any
detailed discussion of them, some account is here subjoined for the purpose
of indicating the great extent of the ethnic material of this character that is
yet to be obtained from that continent. Alexander von Humboldt, in Aspects
of Nature in different lands and different climates, etc., Vol. I, pp. 196-201,
London, 1850, gives the following general remarks concerning pictographs
from South America:
In the interior of South America, between the 2d and 4th degrees
of North latitude, a forest-covered plain is enclosed by four
rivers, the Orinoco, the Atabapo, the Rio Negro, and the
Cassiquiare. In this district are found rocks of granite and of
syenite, covered, like those of Caicara and Uruana, with colossal

symbolical figures of crocodiles and tigers, and drawings of
household utensils, and of the sun and moon. At the present time
this remote corner of the earth is entirely without human
inhabitants, throughout an extent of more than 8,000 square
geographical miles. The tribes nearest to its boundaries are
wandering naked savages, in the lowest stages of human
existence, and far removed from any thoughts of carving
hieroglyphics on rocks. One may trace in South America an
entire zone, extending through more than eight degrees of
longitude, of rocks so ornamented; viz. from the Rupuniri,
Essequibo, and the mountains of Pacaraima, to the banks of the
Orinoco and of the Yupura. These carvings may belong to very
different epochs, for Sir Robert Schomburgk even found on the
Rio Negro representations of a Spanish galiot, which must have
been of a later date than the beginning of the 16th century; and
this in a wilderness where the natives were probably as rude
then as at the present time. But it must not be forgotten that * *
nations of very different descent, when in a similar uncivilized
state, having the same disposition to simplify and generalize
outlines, and being impelled by inherent mental dispositions to
form rythmical repetitions and series, may be led to produce
similar signs and symbols. * * * Some miles from Encaramada,
there rises, in the middle of the savannah, the rock Tepu-
Mereme, or painted rock. It shews several figures of animals and
symbolical outlines which resemble much those observed by us
at some distance above Encaramada, near Caycara, in 7° 5′ to 7°
40′ lat., and 66° 28′ to 67° 23′ W. long. from Greenwich. Rocks
thus marked are found between the Cassiquiare and the Atabapo
(in 2° 5′ to 3° 20′ lat.), and what is particularly remarkable, 560
geographical miles farther to the East in the solitudes of the
Parime. This last fact is placed beyond a doubt by the journal of
Nicholas Hortsman, of which I have seen a copy in the
handwriting of the celebrated D’Anville. That simple and
modest traveller wrote down every day, on the spot, what had
appeared to him most worthy of notice, and he deserves perhaps
the more credence because, being full of dissatisfaction at
having failed to discover the objects of his researches, the Lake

of Dorado, with lumps of gold and a diamond mine, he looked
with a certain degree of contempt on whatever fell in his way.
He found, on the 16th of April, 1749, on the banks of the
Rupunuri, at the spot where the river winding between the
Macarana mountains forms several small cascades, and before
arriving in the district immediately round Lake Amucu, “rocks
covered with figures,”—or, as he says in Portugese, “de varias
letras.” We were shown at the rock of Culimacari, on the banks
of the Cassiquiare, signs which were called characters, arranged
in lines—but they were only ill-shaped figures of heavenly
bodies, boa-serpents, and the utensils employed in preparing
manioc meal. I have never found among these painted rocks
(piedras pintadas) any symmetrical arrangement or any regular
even-spaced characters. I am therefore disposed to think that the
word “letras” in Hortsmann’s journal must not be taken in the
strictest sense.
Schomburgk was not so fortunate as to rediscover the rock seen
by Hortsmann, but he has seen and described others on the
banks of the Essequibo, near the cascade of Warraputa. “This
cascade,” he says, “is celebrated not only for its height but also
for the quantity of figures cut on the rock, which have great
resemblance to those which I have seen in the island of St. John,
one of the Virgin Islands, and which I consider to be, without
doubt, the work of the Caribs, by whom that part of the Antilles
was formerly inhabited. I made the utmost efforts to detach
portions of the rock which contained the inscription, and which I
desired to take with me, but the stone was too hard and fever
had taken away my strength. Neither promises nor threats could
prevail on the Indians to give a single blow with a hammer to
these rocks—the venerable monuments of the superior mental
cultivation of their predecessors. They regard them as the work
of the Great Spirit, and the different tribes who we met with,
though living at a great distance, were nevertheless acquainted
with them. Terror was painted on the faces of my Indian
companions, who appeared to expect every moment that the fire
of heaven would fall on my head. I saw clearly that my
endeavors would be fruitless, and I contented myself with

bringing away a complete drawing of these memorials.” * * *
Even the veneration everywhere testified by the Indians of the
present day for these rude sculptures of their predecessors,
shews that they have no idea of the execution of similar works.
There is another circumstance which should be mentioned:
between Encaramada and Caycara, on the banks of the Orinoco,
a number of these hieroglyphical figures are sculptured on the
face of precipices at a height which could now be reached only
by means of extraordinarily high scaffolding. If one asks the
natives how these figures have been cut, they answer, laughing,
as if it were a fact of which, none but a white man could be
ignorant, that “in the days of the great waters their fathers went
in canoes at that height.” Thus a geological fancy is made to
afford an answer to the problem presented by a civilization
which has long passed away.
Mr. A. Pinart has for several years past been engaged in ethnologic
researches, in which, as he explained to the present writer, orally, he has
discovered a very large number of pictographs in the islands of the
Caribbean Sea, in Venezuela, and Nicaragua, with remarkable
correspondences between some of them, and strongly demarkating lines in
regard to different types. His report will be of inestimable value in the
complete discussion of this subject.

PETROGLYPHS IN BRITISH GUIANA.

In particular, a copious extract is given from the recent work Among the
Indians of Guiana, by Everard F. im Thurn: London, 1883. His account is so
suggestive for comparison with the similar discoveries made in North
America that there is a temptation to extract from it even more liberally
than has been done.

Fig. 2.—Deep carvings in Guiana.

The following is taken from pages 391, et seq., of that author:

The pictured rocks, which are certainly the most striking and
mysterious of the antiquities of Guiana, are—and this has
apparently never yet been pointed out—not all of one kind. In
all cases various figures are rudely depicted on larger or smaller
surfaces of rocks. Sometimes these figures are painted, though
such cases are few and, as will be shown, of little moment; more
generally they are graven on the rock, and these alone are of
great importance. Rock sculptures may, again, be distinguished
into two kinds, differing in the depth of incision, the apparent
mode of execution, and, most important of all, the character of
the figures represented.
Painted rocks in British Guiana are mentioned by Mr. C.
Barrington Brown, well known as a traveler in the colony. He
says, for instance, that in coming down past Amailah fall (in the
same district and range as the Kaieteur), on the Cooriebrong
River, he passed ‘a large white sandstone rock ornamented with
figures in red paint.’ When in the Pacaraima mountains, on the
Brazilian frontier, I heard of the existence of similar paintings in
that neighborhood, but was unable to find them. Mr. Wallace, in
his account of his ‘Travels on the Amazons,’ mentions the
occurrence of similar drawings in more than one place near the
Amazons; and from these and other accounts it seems probable
that they occur in various parts of South America. If, as seems
likely, these figures are painted with either of the red pigments
which the Indians use so largely to paint their own bodies as
well as their weapons and other implements, or, as is also
possible, with some sort of red earth, they must be modern, the
work of Indians of the present day; for these red pigments would
not long withstand the effects of the weather, especially where,
as in the case quoted from Mr. Brown, the drawings are on such
an unenduring substance as sandstone. Some further account of
these paintings is, however, much to be desired; for, though they
are probably modern, it would be very interesting to know
whether the designs resemble those depicted on the engraved
rocks, or are of the kind with which the Indian at the present
time ornaments both his own skin and his household utensils
and paddles. It may be mentioned that in the Christy collection

there is a stone celt from British Guiana on which are painted
lines very closely resembling in character those which the
Indian commonly paints on his own body.
The engraved rocks, on the contrary, must be of some antiquity;
that is to say, they must certainly date from a time before the
influence of Europeans was much felt in Guiana. As has already
been said, the engravings are of two kinds and are probably the
work of two different people; nor is there even any reason to
suppose that the two kinds were produced at one and the same
time.
These two kinds of engraving may, for the sake of convenience,
be distinguished as ‘deep,’ [a typical example of which is in
Figure 2] and ‘shallow’ [typical example Figure 3,] respectively,
according as the figures are deeply cut into the rock or are
merely scratched on the surface. The former * * vary from one-
eighth to one-half of an inch, or even more, in depth; the latter
are of quite inconsiderable depth. This difference probably
corresponds with a difference in the means by which they were
produced. The deep engravings seem cut into the rock with an
edged tool, probably of stone; the shallow figures were
apparently formed by long continued friction with stones and
moist sand. The two kinds seem never to occur in the same place
or even near to each other; in fact, a distinct line may almost be
drawn between the districts in which the deep and shallow kinds
occur, respectively; the deep * * form occurs at several spots on
the Mazeruni, Essequibo, Ireng, Cotinga, Potaro, and Berbice
Rivers. The shallow form has as yet only been reported from the
Corentyn River and its tributaries, where, however, examples
occur in considerable abundance. But the two kinds differ not
only in the depth of incision, in the apparent mode of their
production, and in the place of their occurrence, but also—and
this is the chief difference between the two—in the figures
represented.

They (the shallow engravings) seem always to occur on
comparatively large and more or less smooth surfaces of rock,
and rarely, if ever, as the deep figures, on detached blocks of
rock, piled one on the other. The shallow figures, too, are
generally much larger, always combinations of straight or
curved lines in figures much more elaborate than those which
occur in the deep engravings; and these shallow pictures always
represent not animals, but greater or less variations of the figure
which has been described. Lastly, though I am not certain that
much significance can be attributed to this, all the examples that
I have seen, face more or less accurately eastward.
The deep engravings, on the other hand, consist not of a single
figure but of a greater or less number of rude drawings. * *
These depict the human form, monkeys, snakes, and other
animals, and also very simple combinations of two or three
straight or curved lines in a pattern, and occasionally more
elaborate combinations. The individual figures are small,
averaging from twelve to eighteen inches in height, but a
considerable number are generally represented in a group.
Some of the best examples of this latter kind are at Warrapoota
cataracts, about six days’ journey up the Essequibo.
* * * The commonest figures at Warrapoota are figures of men
or perhaps sometimes monkeys. These are very simple, and
generally consist of one straight line, representing the trunk,
crossed by two straight lines at right angles to the body line:
one, about two-thirds of the distance from the top, represents the
two arms as far as the elbows, where upward lines represent the
lower part of the arms; the other, which is at the lower end,
represents the two legs as far as the knees, from which point,
downward lines represent the lower part of the legs. A round
dot, or a small circle, at the top of the trunk-line, forms the head;
and there are a few radiating lines where the fingers, a few more
where the toes, should be. Occasionally the trunk-line is
produced downwards as if to represent a long tail. Perhaps the
tailless figures represent men, the tailed monkeys. In a few cases
the trunk, instead of being indicated by one straight line, is

formed by two curved lines, representing the rounded outlines of
the body; and the body, thus formed, is bisected, by a row of
dots, almost invariably nine in number, which seem to represent
vertebræ.
Most of the other figures at Warrapoota are very simple
combinations of two, three, or four straight lines similar to the
so-called ‘Greek meander pattern,’ which is of such widespread
occurrence. Combinations of curved lines and simple spiral lines
also frequently occur. Many of these combinations closely
resemble the figures which the Indians of the present day paint
on their faces and naked bodies. The resemblance is, however,
not so great but that it may be merely due to the fact that the
figures are just such simple combinations of lines which would
occur independently to the rock-engravers and to the body-
painters as to all other untaught designers.

Fig. 3.—Shallow carvings in Guiana.

The same author (pp. 368, 369) gives the following account of the
superstitious reverence entertained for the petroglyphs by the living Indians
of Guiana:

Every time a sculptured rock or striking mountain or stone is
seen, Indians avert the ill-will of the spirits of such places by
rubbing red peppers (Capsicum) each in his or her own eyes. For
instance, on reaching the Timehri rock on the Corentyn River, I
at once began to sketch the figures sculptured thereon. Looking
up the next moment I saw the Indians—men, women and
children—who accompanied me all grouped round the rock-
picture, busily engaged in this painful operation of pepper-
rubbing. The extreme pain of this operation when performed
thoroughly by the Indians I can faintly realize from my own
feelings when I have occasionally rubbed my eyes with fingers
which had recently handled red-peppers; and from the fact that,
though the older practitioners inflict this self-torture with the
utmost stoicism, I have again and again seen that otherwise rare
sight of Indians, children, and even young men, sobbing under
the infliction. Yet the ceremony was never omitted. Sometimes
when by a rare chance no member of the party had had the
forethought to provide peppers, lime-juice was used as a
substitute; and once, when neither peppers nor limes were at
hand, a piece of blue indigo-dyed cloth was carefully soaked,
and the dye was then rubbed into the eyes. These, I believe, are
the only ceremonies observed by the Indians. One idea underlies
them all, and that is the attempt to avoid attracting the attention
of malignant spirits.
The following extract from a paper on the Indian picture writing in British
Guiana, by Mr. Charles B. Brown, in the Journal of the Anthropological
Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 1873, Vol. II, 254-257, gives views
and details somewhat different from the foregoing:
These writings or markings are visible at a greater or less
distance in proportion to the depth of the furrows. In some
instances they are distinctly visible upon the rocks on the banks
of the river at a distance of one hundred yards; in others they are
so faint that they can only be seen in certain lights by reflected
rays from their polished surfaces. They occur upon greenstone,
granite, quartz-porphyry, gneiss, and jasperous sandstone, both
in a vertical and horizontal position, at various elevations above

the water. Sometimes they can only be seen during the dry
season, when the rivers are low, as in several instances on the
Berbice and Cassikytyn rivers. In one instance, on the
Corentyne river, the markings on the rock are so much above the
level of the river when at its greatest height, that they could only
have been made by erecting a staging against the face of the
rock, unless the river was at the time much above its usual level.
The widths of the furrows vary from half an inch to one inch,
while the depth never exceeds one-fourth of an inch. Sometimes
the markings are almost level with the surrounding surfaces,
owing to the waste or degradation by atmospheric influences,
which have acted with greater force upon the rough rock than on
the polished face of the grooved markings. The furrows present
the same weather-stained aspect as the rocks upon which they
are cut, and both the rocks and the furrows are in some instances
coated with a thin layer of the oxides of iron and manganese.
The Indians of Guiana know nothing about the picture writing
by tradition. They scout the idea of their having been made by
the hand of man, and ascribe them to the handiwork of the
Makunaima, their great spirit. Nevertheless, they do not regard
them with any superstitious feelings, looking upon them merely
as curiosities, which is the more extraordinary as there are
numbers of large rocks without any markings on some rivers,
which they will not even look at in passing, lest some calamity
should overtake them. Their Peaimen or sorcerers always
squeeze tobacco juice in their eyes on approaching these, but
pay no regard to the sculptured rocks. In the Pacaraima
mountains, between the villages of Mora and Itabay, the path
passes through a circle of square stones placed on one end, one
of which has a carving upon it; some of these blocks have been
thrown down and broken by the Indians, clearly proving their
utter disregard for them. If then there were any traditions
regarding these writings handed down from father to son, I
conclude that the Indians of the present day—the most
superstitious of beings—would undoubtedly treat them with awe
and respect. Again, if their forefathers were as indolent as they
now are, they never would have gone to the trouble of making

these pictures merely for the purpose of passing away their time,
which they could have more easily accomplished by lying in
their hammocks from morning to night in a semi-dreamy sort of
state, as their descendants do at present. As these figures were
evidently cut with great care and at much labor by a former race
of men, I conclude that they were made for some great purpose,
probably a religious one, as some of the figures give indications
of Phallic worship.

PETROGLYPHS IN BRAZIL.

The following is an abstract from a paper by J. Whitfield on Rock
Inscriptions in Brazil, in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute of
Great Britain and Ireland, 1874, Vol. III, p. 114:
The rock inscriptions were visited in August, 1865, during an
exploring expedition for gold mines in the province of Ceará.
Several similar inscriptions are said to exist in the interior of the
province of Ceará, as well as in the provinces of Pernambuco
and Piauhy, especially in the Sertaõs, that is, in the thinly-
wooded parts of the interior, but no mention is ever made of
their having been seen near the coast.
In the margin and bed only of the river are the rocks inscribed.
On the margin they extend in some instances to fifteen or twenty
yards. Except in the rainy season the stream is dry. The rock is a
silicious schist of excessively hard and flinty texture. The marks
have the appearance of having been made with a blunt heavy
tool, such as might be made with an almost worn-out mason’s
hammer.
The situation is about midway between Serra Grande or
Ibiapaba and Serra Merioca, about seventy miles from the coast
and forty west of the town Sobral. There are not any indications
of works of art or other antiquarian remains, nor anything
peculiar to the locality. The country is gently undulating, and of
the usual character that obtains for hundreds of miles extending
along the base of the Serra Ibiapaba.

The native population attribute all the ‘Letreiros’ (inscriptions),
as they do everything else of which they have no information, to
the Dutch as records of hidden wealth. The Dutch, however,
only occupied the country for a few years in the early part of the
seventeenth century. Along the coast numerous forts, the works
of the Dutch, still remain; but there are no authentic records of
their ever having established themselves in the interior of the
country, and less probability still of their amusing themselves
with inscribing puzzling hieroglyphics, which must have been a
work of time, on the rocks of the far interior, for the admiration
of wandering Indians.

PICTOGRAPHS IN PERU.

Dr. J. J. Von Tschudi mentions in his Travels in Peru during the years 1838-
1842, [Wiley and Putnam’s Library, Vols. XCIII-XCIV, New York, 1847,]
Pt. II, p. 345-346, that the ancient Peruvians also used a certain kind of
“hieroglyphics” which they engraved in stone, and preserved in their
temples. Notices of these “hieroglyphics” are given by some of the early
writers. There appears to be a great similarity between these Peruvian
pictographs and those found in Mexico and Brazil.
The temptation to quote from Charles Wiener’s magnificent work Pérou et
Bolivie, Paris, 1880, and also from La Antigüedad del Hombre en el Plata,
by Florentine Ameghino, Paris (and Buenos Aires), 1880, must be resisted.

OBJECTS REPRESENTED IN PICTOGRAPHS.
The objects depicted in pictographs of all kinds are too numerous and
varied for any immediate attempt at classification. Those upon the
petroglyphs may, however, be usefully grouped. Instructive particulars
regarding them, may be discovered, for instance the delineation of the fauna
in reference to its present or former habitat in the region where the
representation of it is found, is of special interest.
As an example of the number and kind of animals pictured, as well as of
their mode of representation, the following Figures, 4 to 21, are presented,
taken from the Moki inscriptions at Oakley Springs, Arizona, by Mr. G. K.
Gilbert. These were selected by him from, a large number of etchings, for
the purpose of obtaining the explanation, and they were explained to him by
Tubi, an Oraibi chief living at Oraibi, one of the Moki villages.
Jones, in his Southern Indians, p. 377-379, gives a résumé of objects
depicted as follows:
Upon the Enchanted Mountain in Union County, cut in plutonic
rock, are the tracks of men, women, children, deer, bears,
bisons, turkeys and terrapins, and the outlines of a snake, of two
deer, and of a human hand. These sculptures—so far as they
have been ascertained and counted—number one hundred and
thirty-six. The most extravagant among them is that known as
the footprint of the “Great Warrior.” It measures eighteen inches
in length, and has six toes. The other human tracks and those of
the animals are delineated with commendable fidelity. * * *
Most of them present the appearance of the natural tread of the
animal in plastic clay. * * * These intaglios closely resemble
those described by Mr. Ward [Jour. Anthrop. Inst. of N. Y., No.
1, 57 et seq.], as existing upon the upheaved strata of coarse
carboniferous grit in Belmont County, Ohio, near the town of
Barnesville.

The appearance of objects showing the influence of European civilization
and christianization should always be carefully noted. An instance where an
object of that character is found among a multitude of others not liable to
such suspicion is in the heart surmounted by a cross, in the upper line of
Figure 1, page 30 ante. This suggests missionary teaching.

Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13
Fig. 14
Fig. 15
Fig. 16
Fig. 17
Fig. 18
Fig. 19
Fig. 20
Fig. 21

The following is the explanation of the figures:

Fig. 4. A beaver.
5. A bear.
6. A mountain sheep (Ovis montana).
7. Three wolf heads.
8. Three Jackass rabbits.
9. Cottontail rabbit.
10. Bear tracks.
11. An eagle.
12. Eagle tails.
13. A turkey tail.
14. Horned toads (Phryosoma sp.?).
15. Lizards.
16. A butterfly.
17. Snakes.
18. A rattlesnake.
19. Deer track.
20. Three Bird tracks.
21. Bitterns (wading birds).

INSTRUMENTS USED IN PICTOGRAPHY.
These are often of anthropologic interest. A few examples are given as
follows, though other descriptions appear elsewhere in this paper.

INSTRUMENTS FOR CARVING.

This includes etching, pecking, and scratching.
The Hidatsa, when carving upon stone or rocks, as well as upon pieces of
wood, use a sharply pointed piece of hard stone, usually a fragment of
quartz.
The bow-drill was an instrument largely used by the Innuit of Alaska in
carving bone and ivory. The present method of cutting figures and other
characters, to record events and personal exploits, consists in the use of a
small blade, thick, though sharply pointed, resembling a graver.

INSTRUMENTS FOR DRAWING.

When in haste, or when the necessary materials are not at hand, the Hidatsa
sometimes prepare notices by drawing upon a piece of wood or the shoulder
blade of a buffalo with a piece of charcoal obtained from the fire, or with a
piece of red chalk, with which nearly every warrior is at all times supplied.

INSTRUMENTS FOR PAINTING.

Painting upon robes or skins is accomplished by means of thin strips of
wood, or sometimes of bone. Tufts of antelope hair are also used, by tying
them to sticks to make a brush. This is evidently a modern innovation.

Pieces of wood, one end of each chewed so as to produce a loose fibrous
brush, are also used at times, as has been observed among the Titon Dakota.
The Hidatsa, Arikara, and other Northwest Indians usually employ a piece
of buffalo rib, or a piece of hard wood, having somewhat of an elliptical or
lozenge-shaped form. This is dipped in thin glue and a tracing is made,
which is subsequently treated in a similar manner with a solution, of glue,
water, and color.

INSTRUMENTS FOR TATTOOING.

The Hidatsa say that formerly, when tattooing was practiced, sharp pieces
of bone were used for pricking the skin.
The tribes of Oregon, Washington, and northern California used sharp
pieces of bone, thorns, and the dorsal spines of fish, though at present
needles are employed, as they are more effective and less painful, and are
readily procured by purchase.
Needles are used by the Klamath Indians, according to Mr. Gatschet.
Rev. M. Eells reports (Bull. U. S. Geol. and Geog. Survey II, p. 75) that for
tattooing the Twana Indians use a needle and thread, blackening the thread
with charcoal and drawing it under the skin as deeply as they can bear it.
Stephen Powers says (Contrib. to N. A. Ethnol. III., p. 130) that tattooing
among the Yuki is done with pitch-pine soot, and a sharp-pointed bone.
After the designs have been traced on the skin the soot is rubbed in dry.
Paul Marcoy mentions in his Travels in South America, N. Y., 1875, Vol. II,
353, that the Passés, Yuris, Barrés and Chumanas, of Brazil, use a needle for
tattooing.
The following quotation is from Te Ika a Maui, or New Zealand and its
Inhabitants, by Rev. Richard Taylor, London, 1870, pp. 320, 321:
The substance generally used as coloring matter is the resin of
the kauri or rimu, which, when burnt, is pounded and converted
into a fine powder.

The uhi or instrument used was a small chisel, made of the bone
of an albatross, very narrow and sharp, which was driven by
means of a little mallet, he mahoe, quite through the skin, and
sometimes completely through the cheek as well, in which case
when the person undergoing the operation took his pipe, the
smoke found its way out through the cuttings; the pain was
excruciating, especially in the more tender parts, and caused
dreadful swellings, only a small piece could be done at a time;
the operator held in his hand a piece of muka, flax, dipped in the
pigment, which he drew over the incision immediately it was
made; the blood which flowed freely from the wound was
constantly wiped away with a bit of flax; the pattern was first
drawn either with charcoal or scratched in with a sharp-pointed
instrument. To tattoo a person fully was therefore a work of
time, and to attempt to do too much at once endangered life. I
remember a poor porangi, or insane person, who, during the
war, was tattooed most unmercifully by some young scoundrels;
the poor man’s wounds were so dreadfully inflamed, as to
occasion his death; whilst any one was being operated upon, all
persons in the pa were tapu, until the termination of the work,
lest any evil should befall him; to have fine tattooed faces, was
the great ambition of young men, both to render themselves
attractive to the ladies, and conspicuous in war: for even if killed
by the enemy, whilst the heads of the untattooed were treated
with indignity and kicked on one side, those which were
conspicuous by their beautiful moko, were carefully cut off,
stuck on the turuturu, a pole with a cross on it, and then
preserved; all which was highly gratifying to the survivors, and
the spirits of their late possessors.
The person operated upon was stretched all his length on the
ground, and to encourage him manfully to endure the pain,
songs were continually sung to him.

COLORS AND METHODS OF APPLICATION.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

Since the establishment of traders’ stores most colors of civilized
manufacture are obtained by the Indians for painting and decoration.
Frequently, however, the primitive colors are prepared and used when
Indians are absent from localities where those may be obtained. The
ferruginous clays of various shade of brown, red, and yellow, occur so
widely distributed in nature that these are the most common and leading
tints. Black is generally prepared by grinding fragments of charcoal into a
very fine powder. Among some tribes, as has been found in some of the
“ancient” pottery from the Arizona ruins, clay had evidently been mixed
with charcoal to give better body. The black color of some of the Innuit
tribes is blood and charcoal intimately mixed, which is afterwards applied
to the incisions made in ivory, bone, and wood.
Among the Dakota, colors for dyeing porcupine quills are obtained chiefly
from plants, or have been until very recently. The vegetable colors, being
soluble, penetrate the substance of the quills more evenly and beautifully
than the mineral colors of eastern manufacture.
The black color of some of the Pueblo pottery is obtained by a special
burning with pulverized manure, into which the vessel is placed as it is
cooling after the first baking. The coloring matter—soot produced by
smoke—is absorbed into the pores of the vessel, and will not wear off as
readily as when colors are applied to the surface with sticks or primitive
brushes.
In decorating skins or robes the Arikara Indians boil the tail of the beaver,
thus obtaining a viscous fluid which is in reality thin glue. The figures are
first drawn in outline with a piece of beef-rib, or some other flat bone, the
edge only being used after having been dipped into the liquor. The various
pigments to be employed in the drawing are then mixed with some of the
same liquid, in separate vessels, when the various colors are applied to the
objects by means of a sharpened piece of wood or bone. The colored

mixture adheres firmly to the original tracing in glue, and does not readily
rub off.
When similar colors are to be applied to wood, the surface is frequently
picked or slightly incised to receive the color more securely. For temporary
purposes, as for mnemonic marks upon a shoulder blade of a buffalo or
upon a piece of wood to direct comrades upon the course to be pursued to
attain a certain object, a piece of red chalk, or a lump of red ocher of natural
production is resorted to. This is often carried by the Indian for personal
decoration.
A small pouch, discovered on the Yellowstone River in 1873, which had
been dropped by some fleeing hostile Sioux, contained several fragments of
black micaceous iron. The latter had almost the appearance and consistence
of graphite, so soft and black was the result upon rubbing it. It had
evidently been used for decorating the face as warpaint.
Mr. Dall, in treating of the remains found in the mammalian layers in the
Amakuak cave, Unalashka, remarks (Contributions to N. A. Ethnology, I, p.
79) that “in the remains of a woman’s work-basket, found in the uppermost
layer in the cave, were bits of this resin [from the bark of pine or spruce
driftwood], evidently carefully treasured, with a little birch-bark case (the
bark also derived from drift logs) containing pieces of soft hæmatite,
graphite, and blue carbonate of copper, with which the ancient seamstress
ornamented her handiwork.”
The same author reports, op. cit. p. 86, “The coloration of wooden articles
with native pigments is of ancient origin, but all the more elaborate
instances that have come to my knowledge bore marks of comparatively
recent origin. The pigments used were blue carbonates of iron and copper;
the green fungus, or peziza, found in decayed birch and alder wood;
hæmatite and red chalk; white infusorial or chalky earth; black charcoal,
graphite, and micaceous ore of iron. A species of red was sometimes
derived from pine bark or the cambium of the ground willow.”
Stephen Powers states in Contributions to N. A. Ethnology, III, 244, that the
Shastika women “smear their faces all over daily with chokecherry juice,
which gives them a bloody, corsair aspect.”

Mr. A. S. Gatschet reports that the Klamaths of southwestern Oregon
employ a black color, lgú, made of burnt plum seeds and bulrushes, which
is applied to the cheeks in the form of small round spots. This is used during
dances. Red paint, for the face and body, is prepared from a resin exuding
from the spruce tree, pánam. A yellow mineral paint is also employed,
consisting probably of ocher or ferruginous clay. Mr. Gatschet says the
Klamath spál, yellow mineral paint, is of light yellow color, but turns red
when burned, after which it is applied in making small round dots upon the
face. The white infusorial earth (?), termed chalk by Mr. Gatschet, is
applied in the form of stripes or streaks over the body. The Klamaths use
charcoal, lgúm, in tattooing.

The various colors required by a tribe were formerly obtained from plants
as by the Dakota, while some of the earthy compounds consisted of red and
yellow ocher—oxides of iron—and black micaceous ore of iron and
graphite. Some of the California Indians in the vicinity of Tulare River also
used a white color, obtained at that locality, and consisted of infusorial earth
—diatomaceous. The tribes at and near the geysers, north of San Francisco
Bay, obtained their vermilion from croppings of sulphuret of mercury—
cinnabar. The same is said to have been the case at the present site of the
New Almaden mines, where tribes of the Mutsun formerly lived. Black
colors were also prepared by mixing finely powdered charcoal and clay, this
being practiced by some of the Pueblos for painting upon pottery. Some of
the black color obtained from pictographs in Santa Barbara County,
California, proved to be a hydrous oxide of manganese.
For black color in tattooing the Yuki, of California, use soot. The juice of
certain plants is also used by the Karok, of California, to color the face.
The Yokuts, of Tule River Agency, California, employ the roots of the cedar
(red) and willow (white) split and rendered uniform in caliber. During work
the materials are kept moistened, so as to permit of easy manipulation and
to prevent fracture of the vegetal fibers.
Rev. J. Owen Dorsey, of the Bureau of Ethnology, reports regarding the
Osages that one mode of obtaining black color for the face consists in
burning a quantity of small willows. When these are charred they are
broken in small pieces and placed in pans, with a little water in each. The

hands are then dipped into the pan and rubbed together, and finally rubbed
over the parts to be colored.
Formerly tattooing was more frequently practiced among the Hidatsa than
at present, the marks being caused by pricking the skin with a sharp splinter
of bone and the application of a paste consisting of finely-powdered
charcoal and water.
The Hualpais, living on the western border of the Colorado Plateau, Arizona
Territory, were found by Dr. Hoffman, in 1871, to decorate their persons by
a disgusting process. Various individuals were observed who appeared as if
their persons had been tattooed in vertical bands from the forehead to the
waist, but upon closer examination it was found that dark and light bands of
the natural skin are produced in the following manner: When a deer or an
antelope has been killed, the blood is rubbed over the face and breast, after
which the spread and curved fingers—to resemble claws—are scratched
downward from the forehead over the face and over the breast, thus
removing some of the blood; that remaining soon dries, and gives the
appearance of black stripes. The exposed portion of the skin retains the
natural dark-tanned color, while that under the coating of coagulated blood
naturally becomes paler by being protected against the light and air. These
individuals do not wash off such marks of success in the chase, and after a
while the blood begins to drop off by desquamation, leaving lighter spots
and lines, which for a short period of a week or two appear like tattoo
marks.
The Mojave pigments are ocher, clay, and probably charcoal, mingled with
oil. See Pac. R. R. Exped., Vol. III, Pt. III, p. 33.
The colors, at present used by the Indians and obtained from the traders,
consist generally of the following compounds, viz.: vermilion, red lead,
chromate of lead (yellow), Prussian blue, chrome green, ivory black and
lamp black, Chinese white, and oxide of zinc. All of these are in the form of
powder or in crude masses, and are subsequently prepared for use as
required.

IN BRITISH GUIANA.

Everard F. im Thurn, op. cit., p. 316, gives the following details:
The dyes used by the Indians to paint their own bodies, and
occasionally to draw patterns on their implements, are red
faroah, purple caraweera, blue-black lana, white felspathic clay,
and, though very rarely, a yellow vegetable dye of unknown
origin.
Faroah is the deep red pulp around the seed of a shrub (Bixa
orellana), which grows wild on the banks of some of the rivers,
and is cultivated by the Indians in their clearings. Mixed with a
large quantity of oil, it is then either dried and so kept in lumps
which can be made soft again by the addition of more oil, or is
stored in a liquid condition in tubes made of hollow bamboo-
stems. When it is to be used, either a mass of it is taken in the
palm of the hand and rubbed over the skin or other surface to be
painted, or a pattern of fine lines is drawn with it by means of a
stick used as a pencil. The True Caribs also use faroah largely to
stain their hammocks.
Caraweera is a somewhat similar dye, of a more purplish red,
and by no means so commonly used. It is prepared from the
leaves of a yellow flowered bignonia (B. chicka), together with
some other unimportant ingredients. The dried leaves are boiled
for a few minutes over a fire, and then some fresh-cut pieces of
the bark of a certain tree and a bundle of twigs and fresh leaves
of another tree are added to the mixture. The whole is then
boiled for about twenty minutes, care being taken to keep the
bark and leaves under water. The pot is then taken from the fire,
and the contents, being poured into bowls, are allowed to
subside. The clear water left at the top is poured away, and the
sediment, of a beautiful purple colour, is put into a cloth, on
which it is allowed to dry; after this it is scraped off and packed
in tiny baskets woven of the leaves of the cokerite palm. The
pigment is used for body-painting, with oil, just as is faroah.
Lana is the juice of the fruit of a small tree (Genipa americana),
with which, without further preparation, blue-black lines are

drawn in patterns, or large surfaces are stained on the skin. The
dye thus applied is for about a week indelible.
One or more of the three body paints already mentioned is used
by most Indians and in large quantities. But the white, and still
more the yellow, pigments are used only rarely, in lines or dots,
and very sparingly, by some of the Savannah Indians. The white
substance is simply a very semi-liquid felspathic clay, which
occurs in pockets in one or two places on the savannah; this is
collected and dried in lumps, which are then pierced, threaded,
and so put aside for future use. The nature of the yellow dye I
was never able to trace; all that the Indians could or would say
was that they received it in small quantities from a tribe living
beyond the Wapianas, who extracted it from a tree which only
grows in that neighborhood.
Paul Marcoy, in Travels in South America: N. Y., 1875, Vol. II, p. 353, says
the Passés, Yuris, Barrés, and Chumanas, of Brazil, employ a decoction of
indigo or genipa in tattooing.

SIGNIFICANCE OF COLORS.

Significance has been attached to the several colors among all peoples and
in all periods of culture. That it is still recognized in the highest civilizations
is shown by the associations of death and mourning connected with black,
of innocence and peace with white, danger with red, and epidemic disease,
officially, with yellow. Without dwelling upon the modern popular fancies
on this subject, some illustrations from antiquity may be useful for
comparison.
The Babylonians represented the sun and its sphere of motion by gold, the
moon by silver, Saturn by black, Jupiter by orange, Mars by red, Venus by
pale yellow, and Mercury by deep blue. Red was anciently and generally
connected with divinity and power both priestly and royal. The tabernacle
of the Israelites was covered with skins dyed red and the gods and images
of Egypt and Chaldea were noticeably of that color, which to this day is the
one distinguishing the Roman Pontiff and the cardinals.

In ancient art each color had a mystic sense or symbolism, and its proper
use was an important consideration and carefully studied. With regard to
early Christian art, the following extract is given from Mrs. Clement’s
Handbook of Legendary and Mythologic Art, Boston, 1883. The
associations with the several colors therein mentioned differ widely from
those in modern folk-lore—for instance, those with green and yellow, from
the same colors stigmatized in the song produced by Mr. Black in his Three
Feathers, exhibiting the belief in Cornwall that “green’s forsaken and
yellow’s forsworn.”
White is worn by the Saviour after his resurrection, by the
Virgin in representations of the Assumption; by women as the
emblem of chastity; by rich men to indicate humility, and by the
judge as the symbol of integrity. It is represented sometimes by
silver or the diamond, and its sentiment is purity, virginity,
innocence, faith, joy, and light.
Red, the color of the ruby, speaks of royalty, fire, divine love,
the holy spirit, creative power, and heat. In an opposite sense it
symbolized blood, war, and hatred. Red and black combined
were the colors of Satan, purgatory, and evil spirits. Red and
white roses are emblems of love and innocence, or love and
wisdom, as in the garland of St. Cecilia.
Blue, that of the sapphire, signified heaven, heavenly love and
truth, constancy and fidelity. Christ and the Virgin Mary wear
the blue mantle, St. John a blue tunic.
Green, the emerald, the color of spring, expressed hope and
victory.
Yellow or gold was the emblem of the sun, the goodness of God,
marriage and fruitfulness. St. Joseph and St. Peter wear yellow.
Yellow has also a bad signification when it has a dirty, dingy
hue, such as the usual dress of Judas, and then signifies jealousy,
inconstancy, and deceit.
Violet or amethyst signified passion and suffering, or love and
truth. Penitents, as the Magdalene, wear it. The Madonna wears
it after the crucifixion, and Christ after the resurrection.

Gray is the color of penance, mourning, humility, or accused
innocence.
Black with white signified humility, mourning, and purity of
life. Alone, it spoke of darkness, wickedness, and death, and
belonged to Satan. In pictures of the Temptation Jesus
sometimes wears black.
It is probable that, at one time, the several colors, at least in the same Indian
tribe, had each special significance. This general significance was, however,
modified by specific positions of the colors.
Colors are generally applied at this day according to fancy and without
regard to special signification. The warriors make a distinction when on the
warpath, and when mourning a deceased relative or engaged in dances and
religious ceremonies the members of most of the tribes still exhibit precise
care in the selection and arrangement of color.
The Dakota at Grand River Agency, now abandoned, generally painted the
face red from the eyes down to the chin when going to war. The whole face
was blacked with charcoal or ashes when mourning. The women frequently
resorted to this method of expressing grief.
The Absaroka, or Crow Indians, generally paint the forehead red when on
the war-path. This distinction of the Crows is also noted by the Dakota in
recording pictographic narratives of encounters with the Crows. See page
62, and Figures 124 et seq.
Haywood, Nat. and Aborig. Hist. of Tennessee, 1823, p. 228, says of the
Cherokees:
“When going to war their hair is combed and annointed with bear’s grease
and the red-root [Sanguinaria canadensis?], and they adorn it with feathers
of various beautiful colours, besides copper and iron rings, and sometimes
wampum or peak in the ears. And they paint their faces all over as red as
vermillion, making a circle of black about one eye and another circle of
white about the other.”
When a Modoc warrior paints his face black before going into battle it
means victory or death, and he will not survive a defeat. See Bancroft’s
Native Races, I, p. 333.

The Los Angeles County Indian girls paint the cheeks sparingly with red
ocher when in love. (Bancroft, I, 403.) This prevails, to some extent also,
among the northern bands of the Sioux, and among the Arikara at Fort
Berthold, Dakota.
Rev. J. Owen Dorsey reports that when the Osage men go to steal horses
from the enemy they paint their faces with charcoal.
The same authority gives the following description of the Osage paint for
war parties:
Before charging the foe the Osages warriors paint themselves anew. This is
called the death paint. If any of the men die with this paint on them the
survivors do not put on any other paint.
All the gentes on the Tsi[c]u side use the “fire paint” or i[k]aman, which is
red. It is applied by them with the left hand all over the face. And they use
prayers about the fire: “As the fire has no mercy, so should we have none.”
Then they put mud on the cheek below the left eye, as wide as two or more
fingers. On the Hañ[k]a side this mud is put on the cheek, below the right
eye. It is the young buffalo bull decoration (Tse-[t]ú-[c]iñ´[k]a kínŭn itáa[p]i
aú). With reference to it, a man says, “My little grandfather (the young
buffalo bull) is ever dangerous, as he makes attempts. Very close do I stand,
ready to go to the attack” (Witsí[k]u [c]iñ´[k]a wáckŭn nŭn´pewá¢ĕ
ehnun[p]i aú. Ecŭnqtsita wa[k]an´¢a [p]¢é atqan´hi aú!) The horse is painted
with some of the mud on the left cheek, shoulder, and thigh.
For the corresponding Hanka decorations, substitute the right for the left
wherever the latter word occurs above.
Some who act like a black bear paint with charcoal alone.
Some paint in the wind style, some in the lightning style, and others in the
panther or puma style.
See also pages 85 and 162.
When a Thlinkit arms himself for war he paints his face and powders his
hair a brilliant red. He then ornaments his head with white eagle-feathers, a
token of stern vindictive determination. See Bancroft, Native Races, etc., I,
page 105.

Blue signifies peace among the Indians of the Pueblo of Tesuque. See
Schoolcraft, III, 306.
In several addresses before the Anthropological Society of Washington, D.
C., and papers yet unpublished, in the possession of the Bureau of
Ethnology, by Mr. James Stevenson, Dr. Washington Matthews, U. S. Army,
and Mr. Thomas V. Keam, the tribes below are mentioned as using in their
ceremonial dances the respective colors designated to represent the four
cardinal points of the compass, viz.:
N. S. E. W.
Stevenson—Zuñi Yellow. Red. White. Black.
Matthews—Navajo Black. Blue. White. Yellow.
Keam—Moki White. Red. Yellow. Blue.
Capt. John G. Bourke, U. S. Army, in the Snake Dance of the Moquis of
Arizona, etc., New York, 1884, p. 120, says that the Moki employ the
following colors: yellow in prayers for pumpkins, green for corn, and red
for peaches. Black and white bands are typical of rain, while red and blue
bands are typical of lightning.
The Central Californians (north of San Francisco Bay) formerly wore the
down of Asclepias(?) (white) as an emblem of royalty. See Bancroft, Native
Races, I, 387, 388, quoting Drake’s World Encomp. pp. 124-126.
The natives of Guatemala wore red feathers in their hats, the nobles only
wearing green ones. Ibid, p. 691.
See with reference to the Haidas, Mr. J. G. Swan’s account, page 66, infra.
The following extract relative to the color red among the New Zealanders is
from Taylor’s Te Ika a Maui, etc., pp. 209-210.
Closely connected with religion, was the feeling they
entertained for the Kura, or Red Paint, which was the sacred
color; their idols, Pataka, sacred stages for the dead, and for
offerings or sacrifices, Urupa graves, chief’s houses, and war
canoes, were all thus painted.
The way of rendering anything tapu was by making it red. When
a person died, his house was thus colored; when the tapu was

laid on anything, the chief erected a post and painted it with the
kura; wherever a corpse rested, some memorial was set up,
oftentimes the nearest stone, rock, or tree served as a monument;
but whatever object was selected, it was sure to be made red. If
the corpse were conveyed by water, wherever they landed a
similar token was left; and when it reached its destination, the
canoe was dragged on shore, thus distinguished, and abandoned.
When the hahunga took place, the scraped bones of the chief,
thus ornamented, and wrapped in a red-stained mat, were
deposited in a box or bowl, smeared with the sacred color, and
placed in a tomb. Near his final resting-place a lofty and
elaborately carved monument was erected to his memory; this
was called he tiki, which was also thus colored.
In former times the chief annointed his entire person with red
ochre; when fully dressed on state occasions, both he and his
wives had red paint and oil poured upon the crown of the head
and forehead, which gave them a gory appearance, as though
their skulls had been cleft asunder.
A large number of examples occur in the present paper where the use and
significance of color is mentioned. Among these see pages 64, 165-’6-’7,
and 183.

MATERIALS UPON WHICH PICTOGRAPHS
ARE MADE.
These may be divided into:
1st. Natural objects other than the human person.
2d. The human person.
3d. Artificial objects.

NATURAL OBJECTS.

Under the first head, the most important division is that of rocks and stones,
many examples of which have already been presented. In addition to those
respecting stone, Mr. Gilbert furnishes some data relating to the sacred
stone kept by the Indians of the village of Oraibi, on the Moki mesas. This
stone was seen by Messrs. John W. Young and Andrew S. Gibbon, and the
notes were made by Mr. Gilbert from those furnished to him by Mr. Young.
Few white men have had access to this sacred record, and but few Indians
have enjoyed the privilege.
Mr. Gilbert remarks that “the stone was evidently squared by the eye and
not by any instrument. The engraving seems to have been done with some
rude instrument, but executed with some degree of skill, like an ancient art
faded into dim remembrance of the artist or writer of the characters. The
stone is a red clouded marble, entirely different from anything found in the
region, so I learn by the Indians. The stone is badly worn, and some of the
characters are difficult to determine.”
According to the notes accompanying the rude drawings of this stone, it is
an oblong rectangle, measuring 11¾ inches long, 7¼ inches wide, and 1½
inches thick. On one side there is an interior space, also an oblong rectangle
measuring about three-fourths of the size of the whole tablet, between

which and the outer margin are six nude human figures resembling one
another, one at either end and two on each of the two sides. The interior
space may have contained characters, though no traces are now visible.
On the other side are drawings of the sun, clouds with rain descending
therefrom, lightning, stars, arrows, foot-prints of the bear, and several other
undeterminable characters.
No history of the origin and import of this tablet has been obtained.
Other materials may be mentioned as follows:

BONE.

For instances of the use of bone, refer to several Alaska ivory carvings in
this paper, e. g., Figure 111, page 192; Comanche buffalo shoulder blade,
Figure 137, page 216; Hidatsa shoulder blade, page 151; New Zealand
human bone, Figure 34, page 74.

THE LIVING TREE.

An example is to be found in Schoolcraft, IV, p. 253; Pl. 33, Fig. A, where it
is stated that Mr. Richard H. Kern furnished a copy of an Indian drawing,
which was “found on the trunk of a cottonwood tree in the valley of King’s
River, California, and evidently represents the manner of catching different
wild animals with the lasso.”
The use of the lasso, and the characters being upon the bark of a living tree,
show sufficient reason to believe that this record was of modern
workmanship.

WOOD.

The Indians of the Northwest Coast generally employ wood upon which to
depict objects of various kinds. These appear to partake of a mythical
nature, sometimes becoming absurdly grotesque. Totem posts (Plate
LXXXIII, page 199), boats, boat paddles, the boards constituting the front

wall of a house, and masks are among the objects used upon which to
display artistic skill.
Ottawa drawings are also found upon pipe-stems made of wood, usually
ash. Figure 120, page 204, is an example of this.
Among the Arikara boat paddles are used upon which marks of personal
distinction are reproduced, as shown in Figure 80, page 182.
Wooden dancing ornaments, such as fanciful representations of the human
figure, idols, etc., are generally ornamented with a variety of colors, having
them sometimes arranged to represent designs closely related to, if not
actually signifying, marks of gentile distinction.
In Alaska, mortuary records are drawn upon slabs of wood. See Figures 113
and 114, page 198. Mnemonic devices, notices of departure, distress, etc.,
are also drawn upon thin narrow slips of wood, averaging an inch in width,
and of sufficient length. See Figures 58 and 59, page 154. A circular piece
of wood or board is sometimes drawn upon, showing the human face, and
placed upon a pole, and facing in a certain direction, to show the course
taken by the survivors of a settlement which has been attacked by an
enemy. See Figure 50, page 152.

BARK.

The Ojibwa have, until very recently, been in the habit of tracing characters
of various kinds upon the inner surface of birch bark. These records are
usually mnemonic, though many pertain to personal exploits. An illustration
is given in Figure 139, page 218. The lines appear to have been traced with
a sharply-pointed instrument, probably bone, and in some examples the
drawings are made by simple puncturing. Sometimes color is applied to the
objects delineated, and apparently with reference to specific signification.
The strips of bark, varying from an inch to several feet in length, roll up
upon drying, and are straightened out for examination by heating near the
fire.

SKINS.

This includes scalps. A large number of records upon the hides of animals
are mentioned in the present paper. Plate VI with its description in the
Dakota Winter Counts is one instance.

FEATHERS.

The Sacramento tribes of California are very expert in weaving blankets of
feathers, many of them having really beautiful figures worked upon them.
This is reported by Edward M. Kern in Schoolcraft, V, 649, 650.
The feather work in Mexico, Central America and the Hawaiian Islands is
well known, often having designs properly to be considered among
pictographs, though in general not, at least in modern times, passing beyond
ornamentation.

GOURDS.

After gourds have dried the contents are removed and handles are attached;
they serve as rattles in dances, and in religious and shamanistic rites. The
representations of natural or mythical objects for which the owner may have
special reverence are often depicted upon their surfaces. This custom
prevails among the Pueblos generally, and, also, among many other tribes,
notably those constituting the Siouan linguistic stock.

HORSE HAIR.

The Hidatsa, Arikara, Dakota, and several other tribes of the Northwest
plains, use horse hair dyed red as appendages to feathers worn as personal
marks of distinction. Its arrangement is significant.

SHELLS, INCLUDING WAMPUM.

The illustrated and exhaustive paper of Mr. W. H. Holmes, in the Second
Annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology, removes all necessity for present

extended mention under this head.

EARTH AND SAND.

Papers by Dr. Washington Matthews, U. S. A., Dr. W. H. Corbusier,
U. S. A., and Mr. James Stevenson were read in the Anthropological
Society of Washington during the season of 1884-5, giving account of
important and entirely novel paintings by the Navajo, Yuman, and Zuni
Indians. These paintings were made upon the ground by means of sand,
ashes, and powdered vegetable matter of various colors. These were highly
elaborate, made immediately preceding certain ceremonies, at the close of
which they were obliterated.
Dr. W. J. Hoffman states that when the expedition under command of Capt.
G. M. Wheeler, U. S. A., passed through Southern Nevada in 1871, the
encampment for one night was at Pai-Uta Charlie’s rancheria, where it was
visited by many of the Pai-Uta Indians of that vicinity. On leaving camp the
following morning representations of many mounted men, the odometer
cart and pack animals were found depicted upon the hard, flat surface of the
sand. The Indians had drawn the outlines in life size with sticks of wood,
and the work was very artistically done. A mounted expedition was a new
thing in that part of the country and amused them not a little.
The well-known animal mounds, sometimes called effigy mounds, of
Wisconsin come in this category.

THE HUMAN PERSON.

Pictographs upon the human person may be divided into, 1st, paint on the
face; 2d, paint on the body; and, 3d, tattooing, which is also divided into
tattoo marks upon the head and tattoo marks upon the body.

PAINT.

Dr. Hoffman, who visited the Hualpai Indians of northern Arizona in 1871,
gives an account (see ante, p. 52) of their habit of besmearing their bodies
and faces with the blood of game killed.
A colored plate, facing page 33 of the report of the Pacific Railroad
Expedition, 1856, pt. III, shows the designs adopted by the Mojave Indians
for painting the body. These designs consist of transverse lines extending
around the body, arms, and legs, or horizontal lines, or different parts may
partake of different designs. Clay is now generally used, as was observed by
Dr. Hoffman, who visited Camp Mojave in 1871.
For other notices of paint on head and body and the significance of color
see ante, page 53 et seq.
Everard F. im Thurn, in his work before cited, page 196, describes the
painting of the Indians of Guiana as follows:
The paint is applied either in large masses or in patterns. For
example, a man, when he wants to dress well, perhaps entirely
coats both his feet up to the ankles with a crust of red; his whole
trunk he sometimes stains uniformly with blue-black, more
rarely with red, or covers it with an intricate pattern of lines of
either colour; he puts a streak of red along the bridge of his
nose; where his eyebrows were till he pulled them out he puts
two red lines; at the top of the arch of his forehead he puts a big
lump of red paint, and probably he scatters other spots and lines
somewhere on his face. The women, especially among the
Ackawoi, who use more body-paint than other ornament, are
more fond of blue-black than of red; and one very favorite
ornament with them is a broad band of this, which edges the
mouth, and passes from the corners of that to the ears. Some
women especially affect certain little figures, like Chinese
characters, which look as if some meaning were attached to
them, but which the Indians are either unable or unwilling to
explain.
The Serranos, near Los Angeles, California, formerly cut lines upon the
trees and posts, marking boundaries of land, these lines corresponding to
those adopted by the owner as facial decorations. See page 182.

During his connection with the Yellowstone expedition of 1873, under the
command of General Stanley, Dr. Hoffman found elaborate narratives of
hostile encounters between the Absaroka and Dakota Indians incised upon
the bark of cotton-wood trees, in the valley of the Musselshell River. The
Absaroka were shown by having the bark in the forehead removed, thus
corresponding to their war custom of painting that portion of the face red,
while the Dakota were denoted by having only the part of the face from the
eyes down to the chin removed, referring to their custom of painting that
part of the face. The number of individuals was shown by the outline of one
individual of either tribe, with added short lines. The total number of arms
was shown by drawing one gun and the requisite number of spots. The
number of horses was indicated in a similar manner.
See also with reference to paint on the human person, pages 165 and 167.
The present writer, when reading the magnificent work of Conte Giovanni
Gozzadini, Di Ulteriori Scoperte Nell’ Antica Necropoli a Marzabotto nel
Bolognese, Bologna, 1870, noticed in Plate XII, Figure 1, the representation
of a human head in bronze of great antiquity, and that it shows incised lines
over the superior malar region, below and outward from the outer canthus
of the eye. To any one recently familiar with tattooing and the lines of face
painting this gives a decided suggestion, and is offered as such.
The head is reproduced in Figure 22.

Fig. 22.—Bronze head from the Necropolis of Marzabotto, Italy.

A less distinct suggestion arose from the representation of a “Fragment of a
lustrous black bowl, with an incised decoration filled with white chalk,”
pictured in Troja, etc., by Dr. Henry Schliemann, New York, 1884, p. 31,
No. 1, and here presented, Figure 23. In the absence of knowledge as to the
connection of the two sets of parallel lines on each side of the face, with the
remainder of the bowl, it is not possible to form any decision as to whether
there was any intention to portray face painting or tattooing, or whether the
lines merely partook of the general pattern of the bowl. The lines, however,
instantly caught the present writer’s eye as connected with the subject now
under consideration.

Fig. 23.—Fragment of bowl from Troja.

TATTOOING.

Tattooing, a permanent marking of the skin as distinguished from the
temporary painting, and accomplished by the introduction of coloring

matter under the cutaneous epidermis, was formerly practiced extensively
among the Indians of North America. Some authorities for this statement
are here quoted, as also some descriptions of the custom where still
practiced.
Capt. John Smith, in “The True Travels, Adventures, etc.,” Richmond,
1819, Vol. I, page 130, is made to say of the Virginia Indians:
“They adorne themselues most with copper beads and paintings. Their
women, some haue their legs, hands, breasts and face cunningly imbrodered
with divers workes, as beasts, serpents, artificially wrought into their flesh
with blacke spots.”
The Innuit, according to Cook, practiced tattooing perpendicular lines upon
the chin of women, and sometimes similar lines extending backward from
near the outer portions of the eyes.
Mr. Gatschet reports that very few Klamath men now tattoo their faces, but
such as are still observed have but a single line of black running from the
middle of the lower lip to the chin. The women have three lines, one from
each corner of the mouth and one down over the center of the chin.
The Modoc women tattoo three blue lines, extending perpendicularly from
the center and corners of the lower lip to the chin. See Bancroft, Native
Races, I, p. 332.
Stephen Powers says (Contrib. N. A. Ethnol., III, p. 20) that the Karol,
California, squaws tattoo in blue three narrow fern leaves perpendicularly
on the chin, one falling from each corner of the mouth and one in the
middle. For this purpose, they are said to employ soot gathered from a
stone, mingled with the juice of a certain plant.
The same author reports, page 76: “Nearly every (Hupâ, California) man
has ten lines tattooed across the inside of the left arm, about half way
between the wrist and the elbow; and in measuring shell-money, he takes
the string in his right hand, draws one end over his left thumbnail, and if the
other end reaches to the uppermost of the tattoo lines, the five shells are
worth $25 in gold or $5 a shell. Of course it is only one in ten thousand that
is long enough to reach this high value.”
The same author, on page 96, says: The squaws (Pat´awāt, Cal.) tattoo in
blue three narrow pinnate leaves perpendicularly on their chins, and also

lines of small dots on the backs of their hands.
He reports, page 148, of the Kas´tel Pomo: The women of this and other
tribes of the Coast Range frequently tattoo a rude representation of a tree or
other object, covering nearly the whole abdomen and breast.
Of the Wintūns of California the same author says (page 233) that the
squaws all tattoo three narrow lines, one falling from each corner of the
mouth, and one between.
See also page 167 infra.
Rev. M. Eells says (Bull. U. S. Geol. and Geog. Survey, III, p. 75) of the
Twana Indians: A little of this tattooing is done, but much less than
formerly, and chiefly now among the children.
Blue marks tattooed upon a Mojave woman’s chin denotes that she is
married. See Pacific R. R. Exped., III, 1856, p. 33.
The only remarkable instance of tattooing now among the Hidatsa is that of
Lean-Wolf, the present second chief of the tribe. The ornamentation
consists of horizontal stripes, from one-third to one-half an inch broad,
running from the middle of the breast around the right side of the body to
the spinal column. The right arm and the right leg are encircled by similar
bands, between which there are spaces of equal width. Lean-Wolf professed
not to be able to give the origin and history of this ornamentation, although,
he represents himself with it upon pictographs relating to personal events of
warfare and the chase.
Bancroft (Native Races, Vol. I, p. 48) says of the Eskimo, that the females
tattoo lines on their chins; the plebeian female of certain bands has one
vertical line in the center and one parallel to it on either side. The higher
classes mark two vertical lines from each corner of the mouth. On page 72
he says that young Kadiak wives tattoo the breast and adorn the face with
black lines. The Kuskoquim women sew into their chin two parallel blue
lines. This color is applied by drawing a thread under the skin or pricking it
with a needle. On page 117 he says that the Chippewyans have tattooed
cheeks and foreheads. Both sexes have blue or black bars or from one to
four straight lines to distinguish the tribe to which they belong; they tattoo
by entering an awl or needle under the skin and on drawing it out,
immediately rubbing powdered charcoal into the wounds. On page 127 he

states that on the Yukon River among the Kutchins, the men draw a black
stripe down the forehead and the nose, frequently crossing the forehead and
cheeks with red lines and streaking the chin, alternately with red and black,
and the women tattoo the chin with a black pigment.
It will be observed that these statements by Bancroft, about tattooing among
the Hyperboreans, seem to be confined to the face, except as is mentioned
among the Kadiak, where the women tattoo the breast, and that these tattoo
marks seem to be simple straight lines, either vertical or horizontal.

In this place is properly inserted the following report of original research
among the Haidas on this subject, by Mr. James G. Swan, of Port
Townsend, Washington, for which the thanks of this Bureau are tendered to
him.

TATTOO MARKS OF THE HAIDA INDIANS OF QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS, B. C.,
AND THE PRINCE OF WALES ARCHIPELAGO, ALASKA.

By James G. Swan.
H. H. Bancroft, in his “Native Races, Pacific States,” Vol. I, p. 155, includes
in the Haida family the nations occupying the coast and islands from the
southern extremity of Prince of Wales Archipelago to the Bentinck Arms in
about 52° N.
Their territory is bounded on the north and east by the Thlinkeet and Carrier
nations of the Hyperboreans, and on the south by the Nootka family of the
Columbians.
Its chief nations, or, more correctly speaking, bands, whose boundaries,
however, can rarely be fixed with precision, are the Massets, Skiddegates,
Cumshawas, Laskeets, and the Skringwai, of Queen Charlotte Islands: the
Kaigani, Howkan, Klemakoan, and Kazan, of Prince of Wales Archipelago;
the Chimsyans, about Fort Simpson and on Chatham Sound; the Nass and
the Skenas, on the rivers of the same name; the Sebasses, on Pitt
Archipelago and the shores of Gardiner Channel, and the Millbank Sound
Indians, including the Hailtzas, Bella Bella, Bella Coola, etc.
Among all the tribes or bands belonging to the Haida family, the practice of
tattooing the person in some manner is common; but the most marked are
the Haidas proper, or those living on Queen Charlotte Islands, and the
Kaiganis, of Prince of Wales Archipelago, Alaska. Of the Haida tribe, H. H.
Bancroft says (Works 1882, Vol. I, p. 159), “Besides the regular lip piece,
ornaments various in shape and material, of shell, bone, wood, or metal, are
worn, stuck in the lips, nose, and ears, apparently according to the caprice
or taste of the wearer, the skin being sometimes, though more rarely,
tattooed to correspond.” The authors quoted by Bancroft for this
information are Mayne’s British Columbia, p. 282; Barrett-Lennard’s
Travels, pp. 45, 46; Poole’s Queen Charlotte Islands, pp. 75-311; Dunn’s
Oregon, pp. 279, 285, and Reed, who says, “The men habitually go naked,
but when they go off on a journey they wear a blanket.”

How this latter writer, presuming he speaks from personal experience, could
have seen naked Haida men without noticing tattoo marks, I cannot
understand. On page 182 of the same volume of Bancroft, footnote, is the
following: “‘The habit of tattooing the legs and arms is common to all the
women of Vancouver’s Island; the men do not adopt it.’ Grant, in Lond.
Geog. Soc. Jour., Vol. XXVII, p. 307. ‘No such practice as tattooing exists
among these natives.’ Sproat’s Scenes, p. 27.”
What Grant says applies not to the women of Vancouver’s Island, but to
those of Queen Charlotte Islands. Sproat seems to have given more of his
attention to some fancied terminal in their language, upon which he builds
his theory of the “Aht” nation, than to the observance of their personal
peculiarities. I am of the opinion, judging from my own observation of over
twenty years among the coast tribes, that but few females can be found
among the Indians, not only on Vancouver’s Island, but all along the coast
to the Columbia River, and perhaps even to California, that are not marked
with some device tattooed on their hands, arms, or ankles, either dots or
straight lines; but of all the tribes mentioned, the Haidas stand pre-eminent
for tattooing, and seem to be excelled only by the natives of the Fiji Islands
or the King’s Mills Group in the South Seas. The tattoo marks of the Haidas
are heraldic designs or the family totem, or crests of the wearers, and are
similar to the carvings depicted on the pillars and monuments around the
homes of the chiefs, which casual observers have thought were idols.
In a memoir written by me on the Haida Indians, for the Smithsonian
Institution, and published as No. 267 of Contributions to Knowledge, I have
given illustrations of various tattoo designs and heraldic carvings in wood
and stone, but did not attempt to delineate the position or appearance of
those designs upon their bodies or limbs, although all the tattoo marks
represented in that memoir were copied by me directly from the persons of
the Haidas, as stated in the illustrations.
The publication of this memoir, with its illustrations, which I showed to the
Haidas and Kaiganis in 1875, during my cruise to Alaska in the United
States revenue steamer Wolcott, gave them confidence in me that I had not
made the drawings from idle curiosity, and in February, 1879, I was
fortunate enough to meet a party of Haida men and women in Port
Townsend, Washington, who permitted me to copy their tattoo marks again.

These designs are invariably placed on the men between the shoulders, just
below the back of the neck, on the breast, on the front part of both thighs,
and on the legs below the knee. On the women they are marked on the
breast, on both shoulders, on both fore-arms, from the elbow, down over the
back of the hands, to the knuckles, and on both legs below the knee to the
ankle.
When the Haidas visit Victoria or the towns on Puget Sound they are
dressed in the garb of white people and present a respectable appearance, in
marked contrast with the Indians from the west coast of Vancouver’s Island,
or the vicinity of Cape Flattery, who dress in a more primitive manner, and
attract notice by their more picturesque costumes than do the Haidas, about
whom there is nothing outwardly of unusual appearance, except the tattoo
marks on the hands of the women, which show their nationality at a glance
of the most careless observer.
As I before remarked, almost all of the Indian women of the northwest
coast have tattoo marks on their hands and arms, and some on the face; but
as a general thing these marks are mere dots or straight lines, having no
particular significance. With the Haidas, however, every mark has its
meaning; those on the hands and arms of the women indicate the family
name, whether they belong to the bear, beaver, wolf, or eagle totems, or any
of the family of fishes. As one of them quaintly remarked to me, “If you
were tattooed with the design of a swan, the Indians would know your
family name.”
Although it is very easy to distinguish the Haida women from those of other
tribes by seeing the tattoo marks on the backs of their hands, yet very few
white persons have cared to know the meaning of these designs, or are
aware of the extent of the tattoo marks on the persons of both sexes.
In order to illustrate this tattooing as correctly as possible, I inclose
herewith a view (Figure 24) taken at Massett, Queen Charlotte Island, of the
carved columns in front of the chief’s residence; and also sketches of the
tattoo marks on two women and their husbands taken by me at Port
Townsend.

Fig. 24.—Haida Totem Post.

It should be borne in mind that during their festivals and masquerade
performances the men are entirely naked and the women have only a short
skirt reaching from the waist to the knee; the rest of their persons are
exposed, and it is at such times that the tattoo marks show with the best
effect, and the rank and family connection known by the variety of designs.
Like all the other coast tribes, the Haidas are careful not to permit the
intrusion of white persons or strangers to their Tomanawos ceremonies, and
as a consequence but few white people, and certainly none of those who
have ever written about those Indians, have been present at their opening
ceremonies when the tattoo marks are shown.
My information was derived from the Haidas themselves, who explained to
me while I was making the drawings, and illustrated some of the positions
assumed in their dances by both sexes.
Fig. 25 represents a man. On his breast is the cod (kahatta) split from the
head to the tail and laid open; on each thigh is the octopus (noo), and below
each knee is the frog (flkamkostan).

Fig. 25.—Haida man, tattooed. Fig. 26.—Haida woman, tattooed.

Figure 26 represents a woman. On her breast is the head with forepaws of
the beaver (tsching); on each shoulder is the head of the eagle or thunder-
bird (skamskwin); on each arm, extending to and covering the back of the
hand, is the halibut (hargo); on the right leg is the sculpin (kull); on the left
leg is the frog (flkamkostan).
Figure 27 is a woman with the bear’s head (hoorts) on her breast. On each
shoulder is the eagle’s head, and on her arms and legs are figures of the
bear.

Fig. 27.—Haida woman, tattooed.
Fig. 28.—Haida man, tattooed.

Figure 28 shows the back of a man with the wolf (wasko) split in halves and
tattooed between his shoulders, which is shown enlarged in Figure 33.

Wasko is a mythological being of the wolf species similar to the chu-chu-
hmexl of the Makah Indians, an antediluvian demon supposed to live in the
mountains.

Fig. 33.—Wolf.

The skulpin on the right leg of the woman in Figure 26 is shown enlarged in
Figure 29; the frog on the left leg in Figure 30.

Fig. 29.—Skulpin.

Fig. 30.—Frog.

The codfish on the man in Figure 25 is shown enlarged in Figure 31, the
octopus or squid in Figure 32.

Fig. 31.—Cod.

Fig 32.—Squid or octopus.

As the Haidas, both men and women, are very light colored, some of the
latter, full blooded Indians too, having their skins as fair as Europeans, the
tattoo marks show very distinct. These sketches are not intended as portraits
of persons, but simply to illustrate the positions of the various tattoo marks.
To enter into a detailed description would require more space and study
than is convenient at this time. Enough is given, it is hoped, to convey to

you an idea of this interesting subject, which will require much study to
properly elaborate, or understand.
This tattooing is not all done at one time nor is it every one who can tattoo.
Certain ones, almost always men, have a natural gift which enables them to
excel in this kind of work. One of the young chiefs, named Geneskelos, was
the best designer I knew, and ranked among his tribe as a tattooer. He
belonged to Laskeek village on the east side of Moresby’s Island, one of the
Queen Charlotte group. I employed him to decorate the great canoe which I
sent to the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia in 1876, for the National
Museum. I was with him a great deal of the time both at Victoria and Port
Townsend. He had a little sketch book in which he had traced designs for
tattooing, which he gave to me. He subsequently died in Victoria of small-
pox, soon after he had finished decorating the canoe.
He told me the plan he adopted was first to draw the design carefully on the
person with some dark pigment, then prick it in with needles and then rub
over the wound with some more coloring matter till it acquired the proper
hue. He had a variety of instruments composed of needles tied neatly to
sticks. His favorite one was a flat strip of ivory or bone, to which he had
firmly tied five or six needles, with their points projecting beyond the end
just far enough to raise the skin without inflicting a dangerous wound, but
these needle points stuck out quite sufficiently to make the operation very
painful, and although he applied some substance to deaden the sensation of
the skin, yet the effect was on some to make them quite sick for a few days;
consequently the whole process of tattooing was not done at one time. As
this tattooing is a mark of honor, it is generally done at or just prior to a
Tomanawos performance and at the time of raising the heraldic columns in
front of the chief’s houses. The tattooing is done in open lodge and is
witnessed by the company assembled. Sometimes it takes several years
before all the tattooing is done, but when completed and the person well
ornamented, then they are happy and can take their seats among the elders.
It is an interesting question, and one worthy of careful and patient
investigation, Why is it that the Haida Nation alone of all the coast tribes
tattoo their persons to such an extent, and how they acquire the art of
carving columns which bear such striking similarity to carving in wood and
stone by the ancient inhabitants of Central America, as shown by drawings

in Bancroft’s fourth volume of Native Races and in Habel’s investigation in
Central and South America?
Some of these idols in design, particularly on pages 40 to 58, and notably
on pages 49-50 (Bancroft, op. cit.), are very like some small carvings I have
in Port Townsend which I received from Alaska, showing a similarity of
idea which could not be the result of an accident.
The tattoo marks, the carvings, and heraldic designs of the Haida are an
exceedingly interesting study, and I hope what I have thus hastily and
imperfectly written may be the means of awakening an interest to have
those questions scientifically discussed, for they seem to me to point to a
key which may unlock the mystery which for so many ages has kept us
from the knowledge of the origin of the Pacific tribes.

TATTOOING IN THE PACIFIC ISLANDS.

The following quotations and illustrations of tattooing in the islands of the
Pacific Ocean are presented for comparison, and in hopes that the
discussion of the subject may afford further information upon the
significance of tattoo marks. It is by no means probable that they were
originally altogether or chiefly for ornamentation.
The accompanying illustration, Figure 34, is taken from a bone obtained
from a mound in New Zealand, by Mr. I. C. Russell, of the United States
Geological Survey, several years ago. Mr. Russell says that the Maori
formerly tattooed the bones of enemies, though the custom now seems to
have been abandoned. The work consists of sharp, shallow lines, as if made
with a sharp-pointed steel instrument, into which some blackish pigment
has been rubbed, filling up some of the markings, while in others scarcely a
trace remains.

Fig. 34.—Tattoo designs on bone, New Zealand.

In connection with the use of the tattoo marks as reproduced on artificial
objects see also, Figure 37, page 76, and Figure 116, page 200.
The following is extracted from Te Ika a Maui, or New Zealand and its
inhabitants, by Rev. Richard Taylor, London, 1870, p. 320, etc.
Before they went to fight, the youth were accustomed to mark
their countenance with charcoal in different lines, and their
traditions state that this was the beginning of the tattoo, for their
wars became so continuous, that to save the trouble of thus
constantly painting the face, they made the lines permanent by
the moko; it is however a question whether it did not arise from
a different cause; formerly the grand mass of men who went to
fight were the black slaves, and when they fought side by side
with their lighter colored masters, the latter on those occasions
used charcoal to make it appear they were all one.
Whilst the males had every part of the face tattooed, and the
thighs as well, the females had chiefly the chin and the lips,
although occasionally they also had their thighs and breasts,
with a few smaller marks on different parts of the body as well.
There were regular rules for tattooing, and the artist always went
systematically to work, beginning at one spot and gradually
proceeding to another, each particular part having its
distinguishing name. Thus,

1. Te kawe, which are four lines on each side of the chin.
2. Te pukawae, six lines on the chin.
3. Nga rere hupe, the lines below the nostrils, six in
number.
4. Nga kohiri, a curved line on the cheek-bone.
5. Nga koroaha, lines between the cheek-bone and ear.
6. Nga wakarakau, lines below the former.
7. Nga pongiangia, the lines on each side of the lower
extremity of the nose.
8. Nga pae tarewa, the lines on the cheek-bone.
9. Nga rerepi, and Nga ngatarewa, lines on the bridge of
the nose.
10. Nga tiwana, four lines on the forehead.

11. Nga rewha, three lines below the eyebrows.
12. Nga titi, lines on the center of the forehead.
13. Ipu rangi, lines above the former.
14. Te tonokai, the general names for the lines on the
forehead.
15. He ngutu pu rua, both lips tattooed.
16. Te rape, the higher part of the thighs.
17. Te paki paki, the tattooing on the seat.
18. Te paki turi, the lower thigh.
19. Nga tata, the adjoining part.

The following are female tattoos:—

1. Taki taki, lines from the breast to the navel.
2. Hope hope, the lines on the thighs.
3. Waka te he, the lines on the chin.
Figure 35 is a copy of a tattooed head carved by Hongi, and also of the
tattooing on a woman’s chin, taken from the work last quoted.

Fig. 35.—New Zealand tattooed head and chin mark.

Figure 36 is a copy of a photograph obtained in New Zealand by Mr.
Russell. It shows tattooing upon the chin.

Fig. 36.—New Zealand tattooed woman.

Two beautifully tattooed heads are in the collection of the Army Medical
Museum at Washington, D. C., of which illustrations are presented in the
accompanying Plate, III. No history of these heads can be obtained. The
skin is almost perfect, and has become much brighter in tint than the
original color. The tattooing is a blue black, and in certain lights becomes
almost bright indigo. In many of the markings there appear slight grooves,
which add greatly to the general ornamentation, breaking the monotony of
usually plain surfaces. Whether any mechanical work was performed upon
the heads after death is not positively known, though from the general
appearance of the work it would be suggested that the sharp creases or
grooves was done subsequent to the death of the individual. The tattooing
shows sub-cutaneous coloring, which indicates that at least part of the
ornamentation was done in life.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. III
NEW ZEALAND TATTOOED HEADS.

Figure 37 is an illustration from Te Ika a Maui, etc., op. cit., facing page
378. It shows the “grave of an Australian native, with his name, rank, tribe,
etc., cut in hieroglyphics on the trees,” which “hieroglyphics” are supposed
to be connected with his tattoo marks.

Fig. 37.—Australian grave and carved trees.

Mr. I. C. Russell, in his sketch of New Zealand, published in the American
Naturalist, Volume XIII, p. 72, February, 1879, remarks, that the desire of
the Maori for ornament is so great that they covered their features with
tattooing, transferring indelibly to their faces complicated patterns of
curved and spiral lines, similar to the designs with which they decorated
their canoes and their houses.
In Mangaia, of the Hervey Group, the tattoo is said to be in imitation of the
stripes on the two kinds of fish, avini and paoro, the color of which is blue.
The legend of this is kept in the song of Ina´. See Myths and songs from the
South Pacific, London, 1876, p. 94.
Mr. Everard F. im Thurn, in his work previously cited, pages 195-’96
among the Indians of Guiana, says:
Painting the body is the simplest mode of adornment. Tattooing
or any other permanent interference with the surface of the skin

by way of ornament is practiced only to a very limited extent by
the Indians; is used, in fact, only to produce the small distinctive
tribal mark which many of them bear at the corners of their
mouths or on their arms. It is true that an adult Indian is hardly
to be found on whose thighs and arms, or on other parts of
whose body, are not a greater or less number of indelibly incised
straight lines; but these are scars originally made for surgical,
not ornamental purposes.
The following extracts are taken from Samoa, by George Turner, LL.D.,
London, 1884:
Page 55. Taema and Tilafainga, or Tila the sportive, were the
goddesses of the tattooers. They swam from Fiji to introduce the
craft to Samoa, and on leaving Fiji were commissioned to sing
all the way, “Tattoo the women, but not the men.” They got
muddled over it in the long journey, and arrived at Samoa
singing, “Tattoo the men and not the women.” And hence the
universal exercise of the blackening art on the men rather than
the women.
Page 88. “Herodotus found among the Thracians that the
barbarians could be exceedingly foppish after their fashion. The
man who was not tattooed among them was not respected.” It
was the same in Samoa. Until a young man was tattooed, he was
considered in his minority. He could not think of marriage, and
he was constantly exposed to taunts and ridicule, as being poor
and of low birth, and as having no right to speak in the society
of men. But as soon as he was tattooed he passed into his
majority, and considered himself entitled to the respect and
privileges of mature years. When a youth, therefore, reached the
age of sixteen, he and his friends were all anxiety that he should
be tattooed. He was then on the outlook for the tattooing of
some young chief with whom he might unite. On these
occasions, six or a dozen young men would be tattooed at one
time; and for these there might be four or five tattooers
employed.

Tattooing is still kept up to some extent, and is a regular
profession, just as house-building, and well paid. The custom is
traced to Taēmā and Tilafainga; and they were worshipped by
the tattooers as the presiding deities of their craft.
The instrument used in the operation is an oblong piece of
human bone (os ilium), about an inch and a half broad and two
inches long. A time of war and slaughter was a harvest for the
tattooers to get a supply of instruments. The one end is cut like a
small-toothed comb, and the other is fastened to a piece of cane,
and looks like a little serrated adze. They dip it into a mixture of
candle-nut ashes and water, and, tapping it with a little mallet, it
sinks into the skin, and in this way they puncture the whole
surface over which the tattooing extends. The greater part of the
body, from the waist down to the knee is covered with it,
variegated here and there with neat regular stripes of the
untattooed skin, which when they are well oiled, make them
appear in the distance as if they had on black silk knee-breeches.
Behrens, in describing these natives in his narrative of
Roggewein’s voyage of 1772, says: “They were clothed from
the waist downwards with fringes and a kind of silken stuff
artificially wrought.” A nearer inspection would have shown that
the fringes were a bunch of red ti leaves (Dracæna terminalis)
glistening with cocoa-nut oil, and the “kind of silken stuff,” the
tattooing just described. As it extends over such a large surface
the operation is a tedious and painful affair. After smarting and
bleeding for awhile under the hands of the tattooers, the patience
of the youth is exhausted. They then let him rest and heal for a
time, and, before returning to him again, do a little piece on each
of the party. In two or three months the whole is completed. The
friends of the young men are all the while in attendance with
food. They also bring quantities of fine mats and native cloth, as
the hire of the tattooers; connected with them, too, are many
waiting on for a share in the food and property.
Among the fellahs, as well as among the laboring people of the cities, the
women tattoo their chin, their forehead, the middle of the breast, a portion
of their hands and arms, as well as feet, with indelible marks of blue and

green. In Upper Egypt most females puncture their lips to give them a dark
bluish hue. See Featherman, Social Hist. of the Races of Mankind, V, 1881,
p. 545.

Professor Brauns, of Halle, reports (Science, III, No. 50, p. 69) that among
the Ainos of Yazo the women tattoo their chins to imitate the beards of the
men.

The antiquity of tattooing in the eastern hemisphere is well established.
With reference to the Hebrews, and the tribes surrounding them, the
following Biblical texts may be in point:
“Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any
marks upon you.” Lev., XIX, 28.
* * * “Though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make
thyself fair.” Jer., IV. 30.

ARTIFICIAL OBJECTS.

The objects of this character, on which pictographs are found, may be
mentioned as follows:

1. Lances.
2. Arrows.
3. Shields.
4. Canoes.
5. Paddles.
6. Habitations.
7. Utensils.
8. Pottery.
9. Sinews or thread.
10. Artificial beads.

It is believed that examples showing the use of each of these objects are
presented in various parts of the present paper, but the following do not

appear under other headings:
Many of the California tribes are expert workers in grass and roots in the
manufacture of baskets, upon which designs are frequently worked, other
than mere ornamentation, in geometric forms. The Yokuts, at Tule River
Agency, in the southeastern part of the State, frequently incorporate various
forms of the human body, in which the arms are suspended at the sides of
the body with the hands directed outward to either side. Above the head is a
heavy horizontal line. In the manufacture of these vessels grass is taken,
carefully cleaned, and soaked, so as to become smooth and uniform in size.
Among the Thlinkit, boats as well as paddles are ornamented with painted
figures, and the family coat of arms. See Bancroft’s Native Races, etc., I,
106.
There is no need to give evidence concerning the designs upon pottery, after
the numerous illustrations in the Second Annual Report of this Bureau,
from Zuñi, etc.

MNEMONIC.
This has been the most apparent, and probably the most ancient, purpose for
which pictographs have been made. It commenced by the use of material
objects which afterwards were reproduced graphically in paintings,
etchings, and carvings.
In the present paper many examples appear of objects known to have been
so used, the graphic representations of which, made with the same purpose,
are explained by knowledge of the fact. Other instances are mentioned as
connected with the evolution of pictographs, and possibly to interpret some
of the latter which are not yet understood.
The quipu of the Peruvians is one of the most instructive devices for the
general aid of memory, and as applicable to a variety of subjects, also
having value for comparison with and reference to all other objects of this
character. A good account of the quipu, quoted from Travels in Peru, during
the years 1838-1842, * * by Dr. J. J. von Tschudi [Wiley and Putnam’s
Library, Vols. XCIII-XCIV.], New York, 1847, Pt. II, pp. 344, 345, is as
follows:

THE QUIPU OF THE PERUVIANS.

The ancient Peruvians had no manuscript characters for single
sounds; but they had a method by which they composed words
and incorporated ideas. This method consisted in the dexterous
intertwining of knots on strings, so as to render them auxiliaries
to the memory. The instrument consisting of these strings and
knots was called the Quipu. It was composed of one thick head
or top string, to which, at certain distances, thinner ones were
fastened. The top string was much thicker than these pendent
strings, and consisted of two doubly twisted threads, over which
two single threads were wound. The branches, if I may apply the
term to these pendent strings, were fastened to the top ones by a
single loop; the knots were made in the pendent strings, and
were either single or manifold. The length of the strings used in
making the quipu were various. The transverse or top string
often measures several yards, and sometimes only a foot long;
the branches are seldom more than two feet long, and in general
they are much shorter.
The strings were often of different colors; each having its own
particular signification. The color for soldiers was red; for gold,
yellow; for silver, white; for corn, green, &c. This writing by
knots was especially employed for numerical and statistical
tables; each single knot representing ten; each double knot stood
for one hundred; each triple knot for one thousand, &c.; two
single knots standing together made twenty; and two double
knots, two hundred.
This method of calculation is still practiced by the shepherds of
the Puna. They explained it to me, and I could, with very little
trouble, construe their quipus. On the first branch or string they
usually place the numbers of the bulls; on the second, that of the
cows; the latter being classed into those which were milked, and
those which were not milked; on the next string were numbered
the calves, according to their ages and sizes. Then came the

sheep, in several subdivisions. Next followed the number of
foxes killed, the quantity of salt consumed, and, finally, the
cattle that had been slaughtered. Other quipus showed the
produce of the herds in milk, cheese, wool, &c. Each list was
distinguished by a particular color, or by some peculiarity in the
twisting of the string.
In this manner the ancient Peruvians kept the accounts of their
army. On one string were numbered the soldiers armed with
slings; on another, the spearmen; on a third, those who carried
clubs, &c. In the same manner the military reports were
prepared. In every town some expert men were appointed to tie
the knots of the quipu, and to explain them. These men were
called quipucamayocuna (literally, officers of the knots).
Imperfect as was this method, yet in the flourishing period of the
Inca government the appointed officers had acquired great
dexterity in unriddling the meaning of the knots. It, however,
seldom happened that they had to read a quipu without some
verbal commentary. Something was always required to be added
if the quipu came from a distant province, to explain whether it
related to the numbering of the population, to tributes, or to war,
&c. Through long-continued practice, the officers who had
charge of the quipus became so perfect in their duties that they
could with facility communicate the laws and ordinances, and
all the most important events of the kingdom, by their knots.
All attempts made in modern times to decipher Peruvian quipus
have proved unsatisfactory in their results. The principal
obstacle to deciphering those found in graves consists in the
want of the oral communication requisite for pointing out the
subjects to which they refer. Such communication was
necessary, even in former times, to the most learned
quipucamayocuna. Most of the quipus here alluded to seems to
be accounts of the population of particular towns or provinces,
tax-lists, and information relating to the property of the
deceased. Some Indians in the southern provinces of Peru are
understood to possess a perfect knowledge of some of the
ancient quipus, from information transmitted to them from their

ancestors. But they keep that knowledge profoundly secret,
particularly from the whites.
That the general idea or invention for mnemonic purposes appearing in the
quipus, was used pictorially is indicated in the illustrations given by Dr. S.
Habel in The Sculptures of Santa Lucia Cosumalwhuapa in Guatemala, etc.,
Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, [No. 269], 1878, Vol. XXII, page
85. Upon these he remarks:
It has been frequently affirmed that the aborigines of America
had nowhere arisen high enough in civilization to have
characters for writing and numeral signs; but the sculptures of
Santa Lucia exhibit signs which indicate a kind of cipher
writing, higher in form than mere hieroglyphics. From the
mouth of most of the human beings, living or dead, emanates a
staff variously bent, to the sides of which nodes are attached.
These nodes are of different sizes and shapes, and variously
distributed on the sides of the staff, either singly or in twos and
threes,—the last named either separated or in shape of a trefoil.
This manner of writing not only indicates that the person is
speaking, or praying, but also indicates the very words, the
contents of the speech or prayer. It is quite certain that each
staff, as bent and ornamented, stood for a well-known petition
which the priest could read as easily as those acquainted with a
cipher dispatch can know its purport. Further, one may be
allowed to conjecture that the various curves of the staves
served the purpose of strength and rhythm, just as the poet
chooses his various meters for the same purpose.
In connection with the quipu, Dr. Hoffman reports a corresponding device
among the Indians formerly inhabiting the mountain valleys north of Los
Angeles, California, who frequently came to the settlements to dispose of
native blankets, skins, and robes. The man delegated by the tribe to carry
away and sell these articles was provided with a number of strings, made of
some flexible vegetable fiber, one string for each class of goods, which
were attached to his belt. Every one contributing articles mentioned the
prices to be asked therefor, and when the salesman disposed of a blanket the
proper cord was taken, and a single knot was tied for each real received, or
a double knot for each peso. Thus any particular string indicated the kind of

goods disposed of, as well as the whole sum realized, which was finally
distributed among the original contributors.

NOTCHED STICKS.

The use of these mnemonically was very frequent. A few instances only of
this obvious expedient need be given.
The Dakotas formerly residing at Grand River Agency, the Hidatsa, and the
Shoshoni from Idaho were observed to note the number of days during
which they journeyed from one place to another, by cutting lines or notches
upon a stick of wood.
The coup sticks carried by Dakota warriors are often found bearing a
number of small notches, which refer to the number of individuals the
owners may have hit after they had been shot or wounded.
The young men and boys of the several tribes at Fort Berthold, Dakota,
frequently carry a stick, upon which they cut a notch for every bird killed
during a single expedition.
Dr. Hoffman states that he found in the collection of the Hon. A. F. Coronel,
of Los Angeles, California, a number of notched sticks, which had been
invented and used by the Indians at the Mission of San Gabriel. The history
of them is as follows: Immediately after the establishment of the mission
the Franciscan father appointed major domos, who had under their charge
corporals or overseers of the several classes of laborers, herders, etc. The
chief herder was supplied with a stick of hard wood, measuring about one
inch in thickness each way, and from twenty to twenty-four inches long.
The corners were beveled at the handle. Upon each of these facets were
marks to indicate the kinds of cattle herded, thus: one cut or notch, a bull;
two cuts, a cow; one cross, a heifer; and a >-shaped character, an ox.
Similar characters were also used for horses, respectively, for stallion, mare,
colt, and gelding. Where only cattle were owned no difference was made in
the upper end of the stick; but when both kinds of animals were owned near
the same localities, or by the same settler, the stick referring to cattle was
notched v-shaped at the head end, and reversed or pointed to denote horses.
Sticks were also marked to denote the several kinds of stock, and to record

those which had been branded. In all of these sticks numbers were indicated
by cutting notches into the corners, each tenth cut extending across the face
of the stick. For instance, if the herder had thirteen oxen in charge, he
selected that edge of the stick which bore upon the handle the >-shape, and
cut nine short notches, one long one, and three short ones.
Labor sticks were also used by the Indians. On one side was a circle
intersected with cross lines to denote money, and on the opposite side,
which was reserved for time, either nothing or some character, according to
the fancy of the owner. Short notches on the money side indicated reals,
long cuts pesos. On the opposite side short cuts indicated days, and long
cuts weeks.
For further reference to this subject, see Reliquiæ Aquitanicæ; etc., by
Edouard Lartet and Henry Christy, * * London, 1875, p. 183 et seq.

ORDER OF SONGS.

Many instances have been published in regard to the use of mnemonic
characters to preserve the remembrance of songs. The words of these are
invariable as well as the notes to which they are chanted. Both words and
notes must have been previously memorized by the singers. Ideographic
characters might give the general interpretation, but would not suggest the
exact words.
Schoolcraft, I, 361, remarks: Sounds are no further preserved by these
mnemonic signs, than is incident, more or less, to all pure figurative or
representative pictures. The simple figure of a quadruped, a man, or a bird,
recalls the name of a quadruped, a man or a bird. * * We may thus recall
something of the living language from the oblivion of the past, by the
pictorial method. Mnemonic symbols are thus at the threshold of the
hieroglyphic.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. IV
OJIBWA MEDA SONG.

One of the best examples of this mnemonic device is one of the Ojibwas,
found in Schoolcraft, op. cit., I, page 362 et seq., and called by him Songs
of the Meda. His illustration is reproduced as Plate IV, and his explanation,
much condensed, is as follows:
No. 1. A medicine lodge filled with the presence of the Great Spirit, who, it
is affirmed, came down with wings to instruct the Indians in these
ceremonies. The meda, or priest, sings, “The Great Spirit’s lodge—you
have heard of it. I will enter it.” While this is sung, and repeated, the priest
shakes his shi-shi-gwun, and each member of the society holds up one hand
in a beseeching manner. All stand, without dancing. The drum is not struck
during this introductory chant.
No. 2. A candidate for admission crowned with feathers, and holding,
suspended to his arm, an otter-skin pouch, with the wind represented as
gushing out of one end. He sings, repeating after the priest, all dancing,
with the accompaniment of the drum and rattle: * * “I have always loved
that that I seek. I go into the new green leaf lodge.”
No. 3 marks a pause, during which the victuals prepared for the feast are
introduced.
No. 4. A man holding a dish in his hand, and decorated with magic feathers
on his wrists, indicating his character as master of the feast. All sing, “I
shall give you a share, my friend.”
No. 5. A lodge apart from that in which the meda-men are assembled,
having a vapor-bath within it. The elder men go into this lodge, and during
the time of their taking the bath, or immediately preceding it, tell each other
certain secrets relative to the arts they employ in the Medá-win. The six
heavy marks at the top of the lodge indicate the steam escaping from the
bath. There are three orders of men in this society, called 1. meda; 2.
sangemau; and 3. ogemau. And it is in these secret exchanges of arts, or
rather the communication of unknown secrets from the higher to the lower
orders, that they are exalted from one to another degree. The priest sings, “I
go into the bath—I blow my brother strong.”
No. 6. The arm of the priest, or master of ceremonies, who conducts the
candidate, represented in connection with the next figure.

No. 7. The goods, or presents given, as a fee of admission, by the novitiate.
“I wish to wear this, my father, my friend.”
No. 8. A meda-tree. The recurved projection from the trunk denotes the root
that supplies the medicine. “What! my life, my single tree!—we dance
around you.”
No. 9. A stuffed crane-skin, employed as a medicine-bag. By shaking this in
the dance, plovers and other small birds are made, by a sleight-of-hand
trickery, to jump out of it. These, the novitiates are taught, spring from the
bag by the strong power of the operator. This is one of the prime acts of the
dance. “I wish them to appear—that that has grown—I wish them to
appear.”
No. 10. An arrow in the supposed circle of the sky. Represents a charmed
arrow, which, by the power of the meda of the person owning it, is capable
of penetrating the entire circle of the sky, and accomplishing the object for
which it is shot out of the bow. “What are you saying, you mee dá man?
This—this is the meda bone.”
No. 11. The Ka Kaik, a species of small hawk, swift of wing, and capable of
flying high into the sky. The skin of this bird is worn round the necks of
warriors going into battle. “My kite’s skin is fluttering.”
No. 12. The sky, or celestial hemisphere, with the symbol of the Great Spirit
looking over it. A Manito’s arm is raised up from the earth in a supplicating
posture. Birds of good omen are believed to be in the sky. “All round the
circle of the sky I hear the Spirit’s voice.”
No. 13. The next figure denotes a pause in the ceremonies.
No. 14. A meda-tree. The idea represented is a tree animated by magic or
spiritual power. “The Wabeno tree—it dances.”
No. 15. A stick used to beat the Ta-wa-e-gun or drum. “How rings aloud the
drum-stick’s sound.”
No. 16. Half of the celestial hemisphere—an Indian walking upon it. The
idea symbolized is the sun pursuing his diurnal course till noon. “I walk
upon half the sky.”
No. 17. The Great Spirit filling all space with his beams, and enlightening
the world by the halo of his head. He is here depicted as the god of thunder

and lightning. “I sound all around the sky, that they can hear me.”
No. 18. The Ta-wa-e-gun, or single-headed drum. “You shall hear the sound
of my Ta-wa-e-gun.”
No. 19. The Ta-wa-e-gonse, or tambourine, ornamented with feathers, and a
wing, indicative of its being prepared for a sacred use. “Do you understand
my drum?”
No. 20. A raven. The skin and feathers of this bird are worn as head
ornaments. “I sing the raven that has brave feathers.”
No. 21. A crow, the wings and head of which are worn as a head-dress. “I
am the crow—I am the crow—his skin is my body.”
No. 22. A medicine lodge. A leader or master of the Meda society, standing
with his drum stick raised, and holding in his hands the clouds and the
celestial hemisphere. “I wish to go into your lodge—I go into your lodge.”
In connection with this topic reference may be made to the Lenâpé and their
Legends: with the complete text and symbols of The Walam Olum, by
Daniel G. Brinton, A. M., M. D., Phila., 1885. 8vo. pp. 262, with numerous
illustrations.

TRADITIONS.

Fig. 38—Osage chart.

As an example of a chart used to assist in the exact repetition of traditions,
Figure 38 is presented with the following explanation by Rev. J. Owen
Dorsey:
“The chart accompanies a tradition chanted by members of a secret society
of the Osage tribe. It was drawn by an Osage, Ha[p]a [c]ü[t][s]e, Red Corn,
who was adopted in childhood by a white man named Matthews; hence he
is also known as Wm. P. Matthews, or “Bill Nix.” He is one of the tribal
lawyers. He obtained his version of the tradition from a member of his gens,
Sa[p]eki¢ĕ. Another version of the same tradition was obtained by him from
Pahü-skă, White Hair, the chief of the Bald Eagle sub-gens of the Tsi[c]u
gens. [K]ahi[k]e wa[t]ayiñ[k]e, Saucy Chief, gave me other parts of the
tradition, which Ha[p]a [c]ü[t][s]e had forgotten.
He also chanted a few lines of the tradition of the Wa[c]a[c]e gens.
Wayüts`a[k]a[c]ĭ, of the Black Bear gens, told me a little of his tradition;
and I obtained part of the Wa[c]a[c]e tradition from Hu¢ak¢in, Good Voice,
of the Mink’in gens.
The tree at the top represents the tree of life. By this flows a river. The tree
and the river are described later in the degrees. When a woman is initiated
she is required by the head of her gens to take four sips of water
(symbolizing the river), then he rubs cedar on the palms of his hands, with
which he rubs her from head to foot. If she belongs to a gens on the left side
of the tribal circle, her chief begins on the left side of her head, making
three passes, and pronouncing the sacred name of Deity three times. Then
he repeats the process from her forehead down; then on the right side of her
head; then at the back of her head; four times three times, or twelve passes
in all.
Beneath the river are the following objects: The Watse [t]u[k]a, male
slaying animal(?), or morning star, which is a red star. 2. Six stars called the
“Elm rod” by the white people in the Indian Territory. 3. The evening star.
4. The little star. Beneath these are the moon, seven stars, and sun. Under
the seven stars are the peace pipe and war hatchet, the latter is close to the
sun, and the former and the moon are on the same side of the chart. Four
parallel lines extending across the chart, represent four heavens or upper
worlds through which the ancestors of the Tsi[c]u people passed before they
came to this earth. The lowest heaven rests on an oak tree: the ends of the

others appear to be supported by pillars or ladders. The tradition, according
to Sa[p]eki¢ĕ, begins below the lowest heaven, on the left side of the chart,
under the peace pipe. Each space on the pillar corresponds with a line of the
chant; and each stanza (at the opening of the tradition) contains four lines.
The first stanza precedes the arrival of the first heaven, pointing to a time
when the children of the “former end” of the race were without human
bodies as well as human souls. The bird hovering over the arch denotes an
advance in the condition of the people; then they had human souls in the
bodies of birds. Then followed the progress from the fourth to the first
heaven, followed by the descent to earth. The ascent to four heavens and the
descent to three, makes up the number seven.
The tree on which the Tsi[c]u was called pü-sü-hü, jack oak, or a sort of a
red oak. When they alighted, it was on a beautiful day when the earth was
covered with luxuriant vegetation. From that time the paths of the Osages
separated; some marched on the right, being the war gentes, while those on
the left were peace gentes, including the Tsi[c]u, whose chart this is.
Then the Tsi[c]u met the black bear, called Káxe-wáhü-san´ in the tradition.
Káxe-wáhü-san´, Crow-bone-white in the distance. He offered to become
their messenger, so they sent him to the different stars for aid. According to
the chart he went to them in the following order: Morning star, sun, moon,
seven stars, evening star, little star; but, according to the chant related, they
were as follows: Watse [t]u[k]a (morning star); Watse min[k]a (female
animal that slays another star); Han-pa[t]an-Wakan[t]a (Wakanda or Deity
during the day, the sun); Wakan[t]ahan ¢iñkce (Deity of the night, moon);
Mikak’e pe¢ŭn[p]a, Seven Stars; Ta a[p]¢in, Three Deer; Mikak’e tañ[k]a,
Big Star; Mikak’e [c]iñ[k]a, Little Star. Then the Black bear went to the
Wa[c]iñ[k]a-[c]ü[t][s]e, a female red bird sitting on her nest. This
grandmother granted his request. She gave them human bodies, making
them out of her own body.
The earth lodge at the end of the chart denotes the village of the Hañ[k]a
uta¢an[t][s]i, who were a very warlike people. Buffalo skulls were on the
tops of the lodges, and the bones of the animals on which they subsisted,
whitened on the ground. The very air was rendered offensive by the
decaying bodies and offal. The Hañ[k]a uta¢an[t][s]i made a treaty of peace

with the Wa[c]ace and Tsi[c]u gentes, and from the union of the three
resulted the present nation of the Osages.
The Bald Eagle account of the tradition begins very abruptly. The stars were
approached thus: Han[p]a[t]an-Wakan[t]a (sun), Watse [t]u[k]a (morning
star), Wa[p]aha (Great Dipper), Tapa (Pleiades), Mikak’e-han-[p]a[t]an (Day
Star). This version gives what is wanting in the other, the meeting of other
gentes, Hañkā [c]iñ[k]a, Wa[c]a[c]e, Hañ[k]a-uta¢an[t][s]i, etc., and the
decisions of the chief of the Hañ[k]a-uta¢an[t][s]i.
The people on the war side had similar adventures, but the accurate account
has not yet been obtained.
The whole of the chart was used mnemonically. Parts of it, such as the four
heavens and ladders, were tattooed on the throat and chest of the old men
belonging to the order.”

TREATIES.

The most familiar example of the recording of treaties is the employment of
wampum belts for that purpose. An authority on the subject says: “The
wampum belts given to Sir William Johnson, of immortal Indian memory,
were in several rows, black on each side, and white in the middle; the white
being placed in the center was to express peace, and that the path between
them was fair and open. In the center of the belt was a figure of a diamond
made of white wampum, which the Indians call the council fire.” See
Voyages and Travels of an Indian interpreter and trader, etc., by J. Long,
London, 1791, p. 47.

BUREAU OF
ETHNOLOGY FOURT

H ANNUAL REPORT PL.
V
PENN WAMPUM BELT.

More minute statements regarding wampum is made superfluous after its
full discussion by Mr. W. H. Holmes in his work, “Art in Shell of the
ancient Americans,” in the Second Annual Report of the Bureau of
Ethnology, pages 253 et seq. One of his illustrations specially in point for
the present purpose is here reproduced in Plate V. His remarks upon it are as
follows:
The remarkable belt shown has an extremely interesting,
although a somewhat incomplete, history attached to it. It is
believed to be the original belt delivered by the Leni-Lenape
sachems to William Penn at the celebrated treaty under the elm
tree at Shackamaxon in 1682. Although there is no documentary
evidence to show that this identical belt was delivered on that
occasion, it is conceded on all hands that it came into the
possession of the great founder of Pennsylvania at some one of
his treaties with the tribes that occupied the province ceded to
him. Up to the year 1857 this belt remained in the keeping of the
Penn family. In March, 1857, it was presented to the
Pennsylvania Historical Society by Granville John Penn, a
great-grandson of William Penn. Mr. Penn, in his speech on this
occasion, states that there can be no doubt that this is the
identical belt used at the treaty, and presents his views in the
following language:
“In the first place, its dimensions are greater than of those used
on more ordinary occasions, of which we have one still in our
possession—this belt being composed of eighteen strings of
wampum, which is a proof that it was the record of some very
important negotiation. In the next place, in the center of the belt,
which is of white wampum, are delineated in dark-colored
beads, in a rude but graphic style, two figures—that of an Indian
grasping with the hand of friendship the hand of a man evidently
intended to be represented in the European costume, wearing a
hat; which can only be interpreted as having reference to the
treaty of peace and friendship which was then concluded

between William Penn and the Indians, and recorded by them in
their own simple but descriptive mode of expressing their
meaning, by the employment of hieroglyphics. Then the fact of
its having been preserved in the family of the founder from that
period to the present time, having descended through three
generations, gives an authenticity to the document which leaves
no doubt of its genuineness; and as the chain and medal which
were presented by the parliament to his father the admiral, for
his naval services, have descended among the family archives
unaccompanied by any written document, but is recorded on the
journals of the House of Commons, equal authenticity may be
claimed for the wampum belt confirmatory of the treaty made
by his son with the Indians; which event is recorded on the page
of history, though, like the older relic, it has been
unaccompanied in its descent by any document in writing.”

WAR.

Material objects were often employed in challenge to and declaration of
war, some of which may assist in the interpretation of pictographs. A few
instances are mentioned:
Arrows, to which long hairs are attached, were stuck up along the trail or
road, by the Florida Indians, to signify a declaration of war. See Captain
Laudonnière in Hakluyt, III, 415.
Challenging by heralds obtained. Thus the Shumeias challenged the Ponios
[in central California] by placing three little sticks, notched in the middle
and at both ends, on a mound, which marked the boundary between the two
tribes. If the Ponios accept, they tie a string round the middle notch. Heralds
then meet and arrange time and place, and the battle comes off as
appointed. See Bancroft, Native Races, I, p. 379.

A few notices of the foreign use of material objects in connection with this
branch of the subject may be given.
It appears in the Bible: Ezek., XXXVII, 16-20, and Numbers, XVII, 2.

Lieutenant-Colonel Woodthorp says (Jour. Anth. Inst. Gr. Brit., Vol. XLI,
1882, p. 211): “On the road to Niao we saw on the ground a curious mud
figure of a man in slight relief presenting a gong in the direction of Senna;
this was supposed to show that the Fiao men were willing to come to terms
with Senna, then at war with Niao. Another mode of evincing a desire to
turn away the wrath of an approaching enemy, and induce him to open
negotiations, is to tie up in his path a couple of goats, sometimes also a
gong, with the universal symbol of peace, a palm leaf planted in the ground
hard by.”
The Maori had neither the quipus nor wampum, but only a board shaped
like a saw, which was called he rakau wakapa-paranga, or genealogical
board; it was in fact a tally, having a notch for each name, and a blank space
to denote where the male line failed and was succeeded by that of the
female; youths were taught their genealogies by repeating the names of
each to which the notches referred. See Te Ika a Maui.—Rev. Richard
Taylor, London, 1870, p. 379.

TIME.

Dr. William H. Corbusier, assistant surgeon, U. S. Army, gives the
following information:

Fig. 39.—Device denoting succession of time. Dakota.

The Dakotas make use of the circle as the symbol of a cycle of time; a small
one for a year and a large one for a longer period of time, as a life-time, one
old man. Also a round of lodges, or a cycle of 70 years, as in Battiste
Good’s Winter Count. The continuance of time is sometimes indicated by a
line extending in a direction from right to left across the page, when on
paper, and the annual circles are suspended from the line at regular intervals
by short lines, as in Figure 39, and the ideograph for the year is placed

beneath each one. At other times the line is not continuous, but is
interrupted at regular intervals by the yearly circle, as in Figure 40.

Fig. 40.—Device denoting succession of time. Dakota.

The large amount of space taken up by the Dakota Winter Counts, now
following, renders it impracticable to devote more to the graphic devices
regarding time. While these Winter Counts are properly under the present
head, their value is not limited to it, as they suggest, if they do not explain,
points relating to many other divisions of the present paper.

THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.

The existence among the Dakota Indians of continuous designations of
years, in the form of charts corresponding in part with the orderly
arrangement of divisions of time termed calendars, was first made public by
the present writer in a paper entitled “A Calendar of the Dakota Nation,”
which was issued in April, 1877, in Bulletin III, No. 1, of the United States
Geological and Geographical Survey. Later consideration of the actual use
of such charts by the Indians has induced the change of their title to that
adopted by themselves, viz., Winter Counts, in the original, waníyetu
wówapi.
The lithographed chart published with that paper, substantially the same as
Plate VI, now presented, was ascertained to be the Winter Count used by or
at least known to a large portion of the Dakota people, extending over the
seventy-one years commencing with the winter of A. D. 1800-’01.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. VI
WINTER COUNT ON BUFFALO ROBE.

The copy from which the lithograph was taken, is traced on a strip of cotton
cloth, in size one yard square, which the characters almost entirely fill, and
was made by Lieut. H. T. Reed, First United States Infantry, an
accomplished officer of the present writer’s former company and regiment,
in two colors, black and red, used in the original, of which it is a fac simile.
The general design of the chart and the meaning of most of its characters
were ascertained by Lieutenant Reed, at Fort Sully, Dakota, and afterwards
at Fort Rice, Dakota, in November, 1876, by the present writer; while
further investigation of records and authorities at Washington elicited
additional details used in the publication mentioned and many more since
its issue.
After exhibition of the copy to a number of military and civil officers
connected with the Departments of War and of the Interior, it appeared that
those who, from service on expeditions and surveys or from special study of
American ethnology, were most familiar with the Indian tribes west of the

Mississippi, had never heard of this or any other similar attempt among
them to establish a chronological system. Bragging biographies of chiefs
and partisan histories of particular wars delineated in picture writing on
hides or bark are very common. Nearly every traveler on the plains has
obtained a painted robe, on which some aboriginal artist has stained rude
signs purporting to represent tribal or personal occurrences, or often the
family connections of the first owner. Some of these in the possession of the
present writer have special significance and are mentioned under
appropriate heads in the present work.
It is believed that, in the pictographs of all of these peoples discovered
before the chart mentioned, the obvious intention was either historical or
biographical, or more generally was to chronicle occurrences as such, and
that there was not an apparent design to portray events selected without
exclusive reference to their intrinsic interest or importance, but because
they severally occurred within regular successive intervals of time, and to
arrange them in an orderly form, specially convenient for use as a calendar
and valuable for no other purpose.
The copy made by Lieutenant Reed was traced over a duplicate of the
original, which latter was drawn on a buffalo robe by Lone-Dog, an aged
Indian, belonging to the Yanktonai tribe of the Dakotas, who in the autumn
of 1876 was near Fort Peck, Montana, and was reported to be still in his
possession. His Dakota name is given him by correspondents who knew
him, as in the ordinary English literation, Shunka-ishnala, the words
respectively corresponding very nearly with the vocables in Riggs’s lexicon
for dog-lone. Others have, however, identified him as Chi-no-sa, translated
as “a lone wanderer,” and asserted that he was at the time mentioned with
the hostile Dakotas under Sitting Bull. There appear to have been several
Dakotas of the present generation known to the whites as Lone-Dog.
Plate VI is a representation of the chart as it would appear on the buffalo
robe, but it is photographed from the copy on linen cloth, not directly from
the robe.
The duplicate from which the copy was immediately taken was in the
possession of Basil Clément, a half-breed interpreter, living at Little Bend,
near Fort Sully, Dakota, who professed to have obtained information
concerning the chart from personal inquiries of many Indians, and whose

dictated translation of them, reduced to writing in his own words, forms the
basis of that given in the present paper. The genuineness of the document
was verified by separate examination, through another interpreter, of the
most intelligent Indians accessible at Fort Rice, and at a considerable
distance from Clément, who could have had no recent communication with
those so examined. One of the latter, named Good-Wood, a Blackfoot
Dakota and an enlisted scout attached to the garrison at Fort Rice,
immediately recognized the copy now in possession of the writer as “the
same thing Lone-Dog had,” and also stated that he had seen another copy at
Standing Rock Agency in the hands of Blue-Thunder, a Blackfoot Dakota.
He said it showed “something put down for every year about their nation.”
He knew how to use it as a calendar, beginning from the center and
counting from right to left, and was familiar with the meaning of many of
the later characters and the events they commemorated, in which he
corroborated Clément’s translation, but explained that he had forgotten the
interpretation of some of the earlier signs, which were about those things
done before his birth.
All the investigations that could be made elicited the following account,
which, whether accurate or not, the Indians examined certainly believed:
Probably with the counsel of the old men and authorities of his tribe, Lone-
Dog ever since his youth has been in the habit of deciding upon some event
or circumstance which should distinguish each year as it passed, and when
such decision was made he marked what was considered to be its
appropriate symbol or device upon a buffalo robe kept for the purpose. The
robe was at convenient times exhibited to other Indians of the nation, who
were thus taught the meaning and use of the signs as designating the several
years, in order that at the death of the recorder the knowledge might not be
lost. A similar motive as to the preservation of the record led to its
duplication in 1870 or 1871, so that Clément obtained it in a form ending at
that time. It was also reported by several Indians that other copies of the
chart in its various past stages of formation had been known to exist among
the several tribes, being probably kept for reference, Lone-Dog and his robe
being so frequently inaccessible.
Although Lone-Dog was described as a very old Indian, it was not supposed
that he was of sufficient age in the year 1800 to enter upon the duty as
explained. Either there was a predecessor from whom he received the

earlier records or obtained copies of them, or, his work being first
undertaken when he had reached manhood, he gathered the traditions from
his elders and worked back so far as he could do so accurately, the object
either then or before being to establish some system of chronology for the
use of the tribe, or more probably in the first instance for the use of his
particular band.
Present knowledge of the Winter Count systems renders it improbable that
Lone-Dog was their inventor or originator. They were evidently started, at
the latest, before the present generation, and have been kept up by a number
of independent recorders. The idea was one specially appropriate to the
Indian genius, yet the peculiar mode of record was an invention, and is not
probably a very old invention, as it has not, so far as known, spread beyond
a definite district or been extensively adopted. If an invention of that
character had been of great antiquity it would probably have spread by
inter-tribal channels beyond the bands or tribes of the Dakotas, where alone
the copies of such charts have been found and are understood. Yet the
known existence of portable pictographs of this ascertained character
renders it proper to examine rock etchings and other native records with
reference to their possible interpretation as designating events
chronologically.
A query is naturally suggested, whether intercourse with missionaries and
other whites did not first give the Dakotas some idea of dates and awaken a
sense of want in that direction. The fact that Lone-Dog’s winter count, the
only one known at the time of its first publication, begins at a date nearly
coinciding with the first year of the present century by our computation,
awakened a suspicion that it might be due to civilized intercourse, and was
not a mere coincidence. If the influence of missionaries or traders started
any plan of chronology, it is remarkable that they did not suggest one in
some manner resembling the system so long and widely used, and the only
one they knew, of counting in numbers from an era, such as the birth of
Christ, the Hegira, the Ab Urbe Conditâ, the First Olympiad, and the like.
But the chart shows nothing of this nature. The earliest character (the one in
the center or beginning of the spiral) merely represents the killing of a small
number of Dakotas by their enemies, an event of frequent occurrence, and
neither so important nor interesting as many others of the seventy-one
shown in the chart, more than one of which, indeed, might well have been

selected as a notable fixed point before and after which simple arithmetical
notation could have been used to mark the years. Instead of any plan that
civilized advisers would naturally have introduced, the one actually adopted
—to individualize each year by a specific recorded symbol, or totem,
according to the decision of a competent person, or by common consent
acted upon by a person charged with or undertaking the duty whereby
confusion was prevented—should not suffer denial of its originality merely
because it was ingenious, and showed more of scientific method than has
often been attributed to the northern tribes of America. The ideographic
record, being preserved and understood by many, could be used and
referred to with sufficient ease and accuracy for ordinary purposes. Definite
signs for the first appearance of the small-pox and for the first capture of
wild horses may be dates as satisfactory to the Dakotas as the
corresponding expressions A. D. 1802 and 1813 to the Christian world, and
far more certain than much of the chronological tables of Regiomontanus
and Archbishop Usher in terms of A. M. and B. C. The careful arrangement
of distinctly separate characters in an outward spiral starting from a central
point is a clever expedient to dispense with the use of numbers for noting
the years, yet allowing every date to be determined by counting backward
or forward from any other that might be known; and it seems unlikely that
any such device, so different from that common among the white visitors,
should have been prompted by them. The whole conception seems one
strongly characteristic of the Indians, who in other instances have shown
such expertness in ideography. The discovery of the other charts presented
or referred to in this paper, which differ in their times of commencement
and ending from that of Lone-Dog and from each other, removed any
inference arising from the above-mentioned coincidence in beginning with
the present century.
Copies of the paper publishing and explaining Lone-Dog’s record were
widely circulated by the present writer among Army officers, Indian agents,
missionaries, and other persons favorably situated, in hopes of obtaining
other examples and further information. The result was a gratifying
verification of all the important statements and suggestions in the
publication, with the correction of some errors of detail and the supply of
much additional material. The following copies of the chart, substantially
the same as that of Lone-Dog, are now, or have been, in the possession of
the present writer:

1. A chart made and kept by Bo-í-de, The-Flame (otherwise translated The-
Blaze), who, in 1877, lived at Peoria Bottom, 18 miles south of Fort Sully,
Dakota. He was a Dakota and had generally dwelt with the Sans Arcs,
though it was reported that he was by birth one of the Two Kettles. The
interpretation was obtained (it is understood originally at the instance of
Lieutenant Maus, First United States Infantry) directly from The-Flame by
Alex. Laravey, official interpreter at Fort Sully, in the month of April, 1877.
The fac-simile copy in the writer’s possession, also made by Lieutenant
Reed, is on a cotton cloth about a yard square and in black and red—thus
far similar to his copy of Lone-Dog’s chart, but the arrangement is wholly
different. The character for the first year mentioned appears in the lower
left-hand corner, and the record proceeds toward the right to the extremity
of the cloth, then crossing toward the left and again toward the right at the
edge of the cloth—and so throughout in the style called boustrophedon; and
ending in the upper left-hand corner. The general effect is that of seven
straight lines of figures, but those lines are distinctly connected at their
extremities with others above and below, so that the continuous figure is
serpentine. It thus answers the same purpose of orderly arrangement,
allowing constant additions, like the more circular spiral of Lone-Dog. This
record is for the years 1786-’7 to 1876-’7, thus commencing earlier and
ending later than that of Lone-Dog.
2. The-Swan’s chart was kindly furnished to the writer by Dr. Charles Rau,
of the Smithsonian Institution. It was sent to him in 1872 by Dr. John R.
Patrick, of Belleville, Saint Clair County, Illinois, who received it from Dr.
Washington West, of Belleville, Illinois, who became an acting assistant
surgeon, U. S. Army, November 2, 1868, and was assigned to duty at
Cheyenne Agency, Dakota, established by General Harney, as one of a
number of agencies to become useful as rendezvous for Dakotas to keep
them from disturbing the line of the Union Pacific Railroad. He remained
there from November, 1868, to May, 1870. The agency was specially for the
Two Kettles, Sans Arcs, and Minneconjous. A Minneconjou chief, The-
Swan, elsewhere called The-Little-Swan, kept this record on the dressed
skin of an antelope or deer, claiming that it had been preserved in his family
for seventy years. The title of the written interpretation of this chart was
called the History of the Minneconjou Dakotas, its true use not being then
understood. In return for favors, Dr. West obtained permission to have some

copies made on common domestic cotton cloth and employed an Indian
expert of the Two Kettle band to do the work in fac-simile. From one of
these he had a photograph taken on a small plate, and then enlarged in
printing to about two-thirds of the original size and traced and touched up in
India ink and red paint to match the original, which was executed in some
black pigment and ruddle.
The characters are arranged in a spiral similar to those in Lone-Dog’s chart,
but more oblong in form. The course of the spiral is from left to right, not
from right to left. The interpretation of this chart was made at Cheyenne
Agency in 1868 for Dr. Washington West by Jean Premeau, interpreter at
that agency.
A useful note is given in connection with the interpretation, that in it all the
names are names given by the Minneconjous, and not the names the parties
bear themselves, e. g., in the interpretation for the year 1829-’30, (see Plate
XVIII, and page 114,) Bad Arrow Indian is a translation of the Dakota name
for a band of Blackfeet. The owner and explainer of this copy of the chart
was a Minneconjou, and therefore his rendering of names might differ from
that of another person equally familiar with the chart.
3. Another chart examined was kindly loaned to the writer by Brevet Maj.
Joseph Bush, captain Twenty-second United States Infantry. It was procured
by him in 1870 at the Cheyenne Agency, from James C. Robb, formerly
Indian trader, and afterwards post trader. This copy is one yard by three-
fourths of a yard, spiral, beginning in the center from right to left. The
figures are substantially the same size as those in Lone-Dog’s chart, with
which it coincides in time, except that it ends at 1869-’70. The
interpretation differs from that accompanying the latter in a few particulars.
4. The chart of Mato Sapa, Black-Bear. He was a Minneconjou warrior,
residing in 1868 and 1869 on the Cheyenne Agency Reservation, on the
Missouri River, near Fort Sully, Dakota, near the mouth of the Cheyenne
River. In order to please Lieut. O. D. Ladley, Twenty-second United States
Infantry, who was in charge of the reservation, he drew or copied on a piece
of cotton cloth what he called, through the interpreter, the History of the
Minneconjous, and also gave through the same interpreter the key or
translation to the figures. Lieutenant Ladley loaned them to an ex-army
friend in Washington, who brought them to the notice of the present writer.

This copy is on a smaller scale than that of Lone-Dog, being a flat and
elongated spiral, 2 feet 6 inches by 1 foot 6 inches. The spiral reads from
right to left. This chart, which begins as does that of Lone-Dog, ends with
the years 1868-’69.
The present writer has had conversation and correspondence concerning
other copies and other translated interpretations of what may be called for
convenience and with some right, on account of priority in publication, the
Lone-Dog system of winter counts. But it also was discovered that there
were other systems in which the same pictographic method was adopted by
the Dakotas. An account of the most important of these, viz.: the charts of
Baptiste or Battiste Good, American-Horse, Cloud-Shield, and White-cow-
killer has been communicated by Dr. William H. Corbusier, assistant
surgeon, United States Army, and is presented infra, page 127, under the
title of The Corbusier Winter Counts.
The study of all the charts, with their several interpretations, renders plain
some points remaining in doubt while the Lone-Dog chart was the only
example known. In the first place, it became clear that there was no fixed or
uniform mode of exhibiting the order of continuity of the year-characters.
They were arranged spirally or lineally, or in serpentine curves, by
boustrophedon or direct, starting backward from the last year shown, or
proceeding uniformly forward from the first year selected or remembered.
Any mode that would accomplish the object of continuity with the means of
regular addition seemed to be equally acceptable. So a theory advanced that
there was some symbolism in the right to left circling of Lone-Dog’s chart
was aborted, especially when an obvious reproduction of that very chart
was made by an Indian with the spiral reversed. It was also obvious that
when copies were made, some of them probably from memory, there was
no attempt at Chinese accuracy. It was enough to give the graphic or
ideographic character, and frequently the character is better defined on one
of the charts than on the others for the corresponding year. One
interpretation or rather one translation of the interpretation would often
throw light on the others. It also appeared that while different events were
selected by the recorders of the different systems, there was sometimes a
selection of the same event for the same year and sometimes for the next,
such as would be natural in the progress of a famine or epidemic, or as an
event gradually became known over a vast territory. To exhibit these points

more clearly, the characters on the charts of The-Flame, Lone-Dog, and
The-Swan have been placed together on Plates VII-XXXIII, and their
interpretations, separately obtained and translated, have also been collated,
commencing on page 100. Where any information was supplied by the
charts of Mato Sapa or of Major Bush and their interpretation, or by other
authorities, it is given in connection with the appropriate year. Reference is
also made to some coincidences or explanatory manner noticed in the
Corbusier system.
With regard to the Lone-Dog system, with which the present writer is more
familiar, and upon which he has examined a large number of Indians during
the last eight years, an attempt was made to ascertain whether the
occurrences selected and represented were those peculiar to the clan or tribe
of the recorder or were either of general concern or of notoriety throughout
the Dakota tribes. This would tend to determine whether the undertaking
was of a merely individual nature, limited by personal knowledge or special
interests, or whether the scope was general. All inquiries led to the latter
supposition. The persons examined were of different tribes, and far apart
from each other, yet all knew what the document was, i. e., that “some one
thing was put down for each year;” that it was the work of Lone-Dog, and
that he was the only one who “could do it,” or perhaps was authority for it.
The internal evidence is to the same effect. All the symbols indicate what
was done, experienced, or observed by the nation at large or by its tribes
without distinction—not by that of which Lone-Dog is a member, no
special feat of the Yanktonais, indeed, being mentioned—and the chiefs
whose deaths or deeds are noted appear to have belonged indifferently to
the several tribes, whose villages were generally at great distance each from
the other and from that of the recorder. It is, however, true that the
Minneconjous were more familiar than other of the Dakotas with the
interpretation of the characters on Lone-Dog’s chart, and that a considerable
proportion of the events selected relate to that division of the confederacy.
In considering the extent to which Lone-Dog’s chart is understood and used
among his people, it may be mentioned that the writer has never shown it to
an intelligent Dakota of full years who has not known what it was for, and
many of them knew a large part of the years portrayed. When there was less
knowledge, there was the amount that may be likened to that of an
uneducated person or child who is examined about a map of the United

States, which had been shown to him before, with some explanation only
partially apprehended or remembered. He would tell that it was a map of
the United States; would probably be able to point out with some accuracy
the State or city where he lived; perhaps the capital of the country; probably
the names of the States of peculiar position or shape, such as Maine,
Delaware, or Florida. So the Indian examined would often point out in
Lone-Dog’s chart the year in which he was born or that in which his father
died, or in which there was some occurrence that had strongly impressed
him, but which had no relation whatever to the character for the year in
question. It had been pointed out to him before, and he had remembered it,
though not the remainder of the chart.
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 Ihañktonwan, both derived from a root meaning
“at the end,” alluding to the former locality of their villages.
Sihasapa, or Blackfeet.
Ohenonpa, 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.
Sitcangu, 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,
Ohenonpa, Ogallalla, and Huncpapa, seven of the tribes specified above,
which he calls bands. The fact probably is that “Titon” (from the word
tintan, 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.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. VII
1786-’87.

1787-’88.
1788-’89.
1789-’90.
1790-’91.
1791-’92.
1792-’93.
THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.

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.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. VIII
1793-’94.

1794-’95.
1795-’96.
1796-’97.
1797-’98.
1798-’99.
1799-1800.
THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.

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 [Wakan-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.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. IX
1800-’01.

1801-’02.
1802-’03.
THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.

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.”

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. X
1803-’04.

1804-’05.
1805-’06.
THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.

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.
Battiste Good says: “Sung-over-each-other-while-on-the-war-path winter.”
He adds: “The war party while out made a large pipe and sang each other’s
praises.” A memorandum is also added that the pipe here seems to indicate
peace made with some other tribe assisting in the war. But see pages 118
and 139.
1805-’06.—No. I. Eight Dakotas killed by Crows.
No. II. The Crows killed eight Dakotas. Again the short parallel black lines,
this time eight in number, united by a long stroke. The interpreter, Fielder,
says that this character with black strokes is only used for grave marks.
No. III. Eight Minneconjou Dakotas killed by Crow Indians at the mouth of
Powder River.
Battiste Good says: “They-came-and-killed-eight winter.” The enemy killed
eight Dakotas.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Eight-Dakotas-killed winter.”
Mato Sapa says: Eight Minneconjous killed by Crows at mouth of Powder
River.
Major Bush same as last.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XI
1806-’07.

1807-’08.
1808-’09.
THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.

1806-’07.—No. I. Many eagles caught. This is done by digging a hole and
baiting the eagles to the hole in which the Indian is concealed, who then
catches the eagle.
No. II. A Dakota killed an Arikara as he was about to shoot an eagle. The
sign gives the head and shoulders of a man with a red spot of blood on his
neck, an arm being extended, with a line drawn to a golden eagle. The
Arickaras, a branch of the Pawnee (Pani) family, were at the date given a
powerful body, divided into ten large bands. They migrated in recent times
from southeast to northwest along the Missouri River.
No. III. A Ree Indian hunting eagles from a hole in the ground killed by the
Two Kettle Dakotas.
Battiste Good says: “Killed-them-while-hunting-eagles winter.” Some
Dakota eagle-hunters were killed by enemies.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Killed-while-hunting-eagles winter.”
Mato Sapa says: A Ree hunting eagles from a hole in the ground was killed
by Two Kettles.
Major Bush says the same without the words “hole in the ground.”
There is no doubt that the drawing represents an Indian in the act of
catching an eagle by the legs, as the Arickaras were accustomed to catch
eagles in their earth-traps. They rarely or never shot war eagles. The
enemies probably shot the Arikara in his trap just as he put his hand up to
grasp the bird.
1807-’08.—No. I. Red-Shirt killed by Rees.
No. II. Red-Coat, a chief, was killed. The figure shows the red coat pierced
by two arrows, with blood dropping from the wounds.
No. III. Uncpapa Dakota, named Red-Shirt, killed by Ree Indians.
Battiste Good says: “Came-and-killed-man-with-red-shirt-on winter.”
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Red-shirt-killed winter.”

Mato Sapa says: Red-shirt, an Uncpapa Dakota, was killed by Rees.
Major Bush same as last.
1808-’09.—No. I. Broken-Leg (Dakota) killed by Rees.
No. II. The Dakota who had killed the Ree shown in this record for
1806-’07 was himself killed by the Rees. He is represented running, and
shot with two arrows; blood dripping. These two figures, taken in
connection, afford a good illustration of the method pursued in the chart,
which was not intended to be a continuous history, or even to record the
most important event of each year, but to exhibit some one of special
peculiarity. War then raging between the Dakotas and several tribes,
probably many on both sides were killed in each of the years; but there was
some incident about the one Ree who was shot as in fancied security he was
bringing down an eagle, and whose death was avenged by his brethren the
second year afterward. Hence the selection of those occurrences. It would,
indeed, have been impossible to have graphically distinguished the many
battles, treaties, horse-stealings, big hunts, etc., so most of them were
omitted and other events of greater individuality and better adapted for
portrayal were taken for the calendar, the criterion being not that they were
of national moment, but that they were of general notoriety, or perhaps of
special interest to the recorders.
No. III. A Blackfeet Dakota, named Broken-Leg, killed by Ree Indians.
Mato Sapa says: Broken-Leg, a Blackfeet Dakota, was killed by Rees.
Major Bush same as last.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XII
1809-’10.

1810-’11.
1811-’12.
THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.

1809-’10.—No. I. Little-Beaver, a white trapper, is burnt to death by
accident in his house on the White River. He was liked by Indians.
No. II. A chief, Little-Beaver, set fire to a trading store, and was killed. The
character is simply his name-totem. The other interpretations say that he
was a white man, but he probably had gained a new name among the
Indians.
No. III. White French trader, called Little-Beaver, was blown up by powder
on the Little Missouri River.
Battiste Good says: “Little-Beaver’s-house-burned winter.” Little-Beaver
was an English trader, and his trading house was a log one.
White-Cow-Killer says: Little-Beaver’s house was burned.
1810-’11.—No. I. Black-Rock, a Minneconjou chief, killed. See page 135.
No. II. Black-Stone made medicine. The “medicine men” have no
connection with therapeutics, feel no pulses, and administer no drugs, or, if
sometimes they direct the internal or external use of some secret
preparation, it is as a part of superstitious ceremonies, and with main
reliance upon those ceremonies they “put forth the charm, of woven paces
and of waving hands,” utter wild cries, and muddle in blood and filth until
they sometimes work themselves into an epileptic condition. Their
incantations are not only to drive away disease, but for many other
purposes, such as to obtain success in war, avert calamity, and very
frequently to bring within reach the buffalo, on which the Dakotas
depended for food. The rites are those known as Shamanism, noticeable in
the ethnic periods of savagery and barbarism. In the ceremonial of “making
medicine,” a buffalo head, and especially that of an albino, held a
prominent place among the plains tribes. Many references to this are to be
found in the Prince of Wied’s Travels in the interior of North America;
London, 1843; also see infra, pages 118, 122 and 195.
The device in the chart is the man-figure, with the head of an albino buffalo
held over his own.

No. III. A Minneconjou Dakota, named Little-Tail, first made “medicine”
with white buffalo cow-skin.
Mato Sapa says: A Minneconjou, named Little-Tail, first made medicine
with white buffalo cow-skin.
Major Bush same as last.
American-Horse gives for the preceding year, 1809-’10: Black-Rock was
killed by the Crows.
1811-’12.—No. I. Twenty-seven Mandans surrounded and killed by
Dakotas.
No. II. The Dakotas fought a battle with the Gros Ventres, and killed a great
many. Device, a circle inclosing three round objects with flat bases,
resembling heads severed from trunks, which latter the copy shows too
minute in this device for suggestion of what they probably represent; but
they appear more distinct in the record for 1864-’65 as the heads of enemies
slain in battle. In the sign-language of the plains, the Dakotas are always
denoted by drawing a hand across the throat, signifying that they cut the
throats of their enemies. The Dakotas count by the fingers, as is common to
most peoples, but with a peculiarity of their own. When they have gone
over the fingers and thumbs of both hands, one finger is temporarily turned
down for one ten. At the end of the next ten another finger is turned, and so
on to a hundred. Opawinge [Opawinxe], one hundred, is derived from
pawinga [pawinxa], to go around in circles, to make gyrations, and contains
the idea that the round of all the fingers has again been made for their
respective tens. So the circle is never used for less than one hundred, but
sometimes signifies an indefinite number greater than a hundred. The circle,
in this instance, therefore, was at first believed to express the killing in
battle of many enemies. But the other interpretations remove all symbolic
character, leaving the circle simply as the rude drawing of a dirt lodge,
being an instance in which the present writer, by no means devoted to
symbolism, had supposed a legitimate symbol to be indicated, which
supposition full information on the subject did not support.
There are two wholly distinct tribes called by the Canadians Gros Ventres.
One, known also as Hidatsa and Minnetari, is classed in the Siouan family,
and numbered, in 1804, according to Lewis and Clarke, 2,500 souls. The

other “Big Bellies,” properly called Atsina, are the northern division of the
Arapahos, an Algonkin tribe, from which they separated in the early part of
this century, and, wandering eastward, met the Dakotas, by whom they were
driven off to the north. It is probable that this is the conflict recorded,
though the Dakotas have also often been at feud with their linguistic
cousins, the Minnetari.
No. III. Twenty of the Gros Ventres killed by Dakotas in a dirt lodge. They
were chased into a deserted Ree dirt lodge and killed there.
Mato Sapa says: Twenty Gros Ventres were killed by the Dakotas in a dirt
lodge. In this record there is a circle with only one head.
Major Bush’s interpretation is the same as the last.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XIII
1812-’13.

1813-’14.
1814-’15.
THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.

1812-’13.—No. I. Many wild horses caught.
No. II. The wild horses were first run and caught by the Dakotas. The
device is a lasso. The date is of value, as showing when the herds of prairie
horses, descended from those animals introduced by the Spaniards in
Mexico, or those deposited by them on the shores of Texas and at other
points, had multiplied so as to extend into the far northern regions. The
Dakotas undoubtedly learned the use of the horse and perhaps also that of
the lasso from southern tribes, with whom they were in contact; and it is
noteworthy that notwithstanding the tenacity with which they generally
adhere to ancient customs, in only two generations since they became
familiar with the horse they have been so revolutionized in their habits as to
be utterly helpless, both in war and the chase, when deprived of that animal.
No. III. Dakotas first used lariat (sic) for catching wild horses.
Battiste Good says for the preceding year, 1811-’12: “First-hunted-horses
winter.” He adds: “The Dakotas caught wild horses in the sand-hills with
braided lariats.”
American-Horse also, for 1811-’12, says: They caught many wild horses
south of the Platte River.
White-Cow-Killer calls 1811-’12 “Catching-wild-horses winter.”
Major Bush says: Dakotas first made use of lariat in catching wild horses.
1813-’14—No. I. Many Indians died of cold (consumption).
No. II. The whooping-cough was very prevalent and fatal. The sign is
ludicrously suggestive of a blast of air coughed out by the man-figure.
No. III. Dakotas had whooping-cough, very fatal.
The interruption in the cough is curiously designed. An attempt at the same
thing is made in Chart 1, and a less marked attempt appears in No. II.
1814-’15—No. I. Hunchback, a Brulé, killed by Utes.

No. II. A Dakota killed an Arapaho in his lodge. The device represents a
tomahawk or battle-ax, the red being blood from the cleft skull.
The Arapahos long dwelt near the head-waters of the Arkansas and Platte
Rivers, and in 1822 numbered by report 10,000.
No. III. A Wetapahata (a stranger Indian, whose nationality was not
identified by the interpreter) Indian killed by a Brulé Dakota, while on a
visit to the Dakota.
Mato Sapa says: a Wetopahata Indian was killed by a Brulé Sioux while on
a visit to the Dakotas.
Major Bush says the same, but spells the word Watahpahata.
Riggs gives Wí-ta-pa-ha, the Kiowas, and Ma-qpí-ya-to, the Arapahos, in
the Dakota Dictionary.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XIV
1815-’16.

1816-’17.
1817-’18.
THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.

1815-’16.—No. I. Large dirt lodge made by Sans Arcs. The figure at the top
of the lodge is a bow.
No. II. The Sans Arcs made the first attempt at a dirt lodge. This was at
Peoria Bottom, Dakota Territory. Crow-Feather was their chief, which fact,
in the absence of the other charts, seemed to explain the fairly-drawn
feather of that bird protruding from the lodge top, but the figure must now
be admitted to be a badly drawn bow, in allusion to the tribe Sans Arc,
without, however, any sign of negation. As the interpreter explained the
figure to be a crow feather, and as Crow-Feather actually was the chief,
Lone-Dog’s chart with its interpretation may be independently correct.
No. III. Sans Arc Dakotas built dirt lodges at Peoria Bottom. A dirt lodge is
considered a permanent habitation. The mark on top of the lodge is
evidently a strung bow, not a feather.
Battiste Good says: “The-Sans-Arcs-made-large-house winter.”
White-Cow-Killer calls it: “Made-a-house winter.”
Major Bush’s copy also shows a clearly drawn figure of a bow, strung.
1816-’17.—No. I. Buffalo very plenty.
No. II. “Buffalo belly was plenty.” The device rudely portrays a side or
perhaps hide of buffalo.
No. III. Dakotas had unusual quantities of buffalo.
1817-’18.—No. I. Trading store built at Fort Pierre.
No. II. La Framboise, a Canadian, built a trading store with dry timber. The
dryness is shown by the dead tree. La Framboise was an old trader among
the Dakotas. He once established himself in the Minnesota Valley. His name
is mentioned by various travelers.
No. III. Trading post built on the Missouri River 10 miles above Fort
Thompson.
Battiste Good says: “Chozé-built-a-house-of-dead-logs winter.”

Mato Sapa says: A trading house was built on the Missouri River 10 miles
above Fort Thompson.
Major Bush says the same as last, but that it was built by Louis La Conte.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XV
1818-’19.

1819-’20.
1820-’21.
THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS

1818-’19.—No. I. Many Indians died of cholera [sic].
No. II. The measles broke out and many died. The device in the copy is the
same as that for 1801-’02, relating to the small-pox, except a very slight
difference in the red blotches; and though Lone-Dog’s artistic skill might
not have been sufficient to distinctly vary the appearance of the two
patients, both diseases being eruptive, still it is one of the few serious
defects in the chart that the sign for the two years is so nearly identical that,
separated from the continuous record, there would be confusion between
them. Treating the document as a mere aide-de-mémoire, no inconvenience
would arise, it probably being well known that the small-pox epidemic
preceded that of the measles; but such care is generally taken to make some,
however minute, distinction between the characters, that possibly the
figures on Lone-Dog’s robe show a more marked difference between the
spots indicating the two eruptions than is reproduced in the copy. It is also
to be noticed that the Indian diagnosis makes little distinction between
small-pox and measles, so that no important pictographic variation could be
expected. The head of this figure is clearly distinguished from that in
1801-’02.
No. III. All the Dakotas had measles, very fatal.
Battiste Good says: “Small-pox-used-them-up-again winter.” They at this
time lived on the Little White River, about 20 miles above the Rosebud
Agency. The character in Battiste Good’s chart is presented here in Figure
41, as a variant from those in the plates.
Cloud-Shield says: Many died of the small-pox.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Little-small-pox winter.”
In Mato Sapa’s drawing the head of the figure is distinguished from that of
1801-’02.
1819-’20.—No. I. Another trading store built.
No. II. Another trading store was built; this time by Louis La Conte, at Fort
Pierre, Dakota. His timber, as one of the Indians consulted specially

mentioned, was rotten.
No. III. Trading post built on the Missouri River
above Farm Island (near Fort Pierre).
Battiste Good says: “Chozé-built-a-house-of-
rotten-wood winter.”
White-Cow-Killer calls it: “Made-a-house-of-old-
wood winter.”
1820-’21.—No. I. Large dirt lodge made by Two-
Arrow. The projection at the top extends
downward from the left, giving the impression of
red and black cloth streamers. Fig. 41.—Measles or small-
pox.
No. II. The trader, La Conte, gave Two-Arrow a
war-dress for his bravery. So translated an
interpreter, and the sign shows the two arrows as the warrior’s totem;
likewise the gable of a house, which brings in the trader; also a long strip of
black tipped with red streaming from the roof, which possibly may be the
piece of parti-colored material out of which the dress was fashioned. This
strip is not intended for sparks and smoke, as at first sight suggested, as the
red would in that case be nearest the roof, instead of farthest from it.
No. III. A Minneconjou Dakota, named Two-Arrows, built himself a dirt
medicine-lodge. This the interpreter calls, rather inaccurately, a
headquarters for dispensing medicines, charms, and nostrums to the
different bands of Dakotas. The black and red lines above the roof are not
united and do not touch the roof.
White-Cow-Killer calls it: “Two-Arrows-made-a-war-bonnet winter.”
Battiste Good says: They made bands of strips of blankets in the winter.
Major Bush says: A Minneconjou, named Two-Arrow, made medicine in a
dirt-lodge.
It will be observed that the interpreters vary in the details.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XVI
1821-’22.

1822-’23.
1823-’24.
THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.

1821-’22.—No. I. Large ball of fire with hissing noise (aërolite).
No. II. The character represents the falling to earth of a very brilliant
meteor, and though no such appearance is on record, there were in 1821 few
educated observers near the Upper Mississippi and Missouri who would
take the trouble to notify scientific societies of the phenomenon.
No. III. Dakota Indians saw an immense meteor passing from southeast to
northwest which exploded with great noise (in Dakota Territory).
Red-Cloud said he was born in that year.
Battiste Good says: “Star-passed-by-with-loud-noise winter.” His device is
shown in Figure 42, showing the meteor, its pathway, and the clouds from
which it came.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “One-star-made-a-great-
noise winter.” See also Cloud-Shield’s count, page
136.
1822-’23.—No. I. Trading store built at Little
Missouri, near Fort Pierre.
No. II.—Another trading house was built, which
was by a white man called Big-Leggings, and was
at the mouth of the Little Missouri or Bad River.
The drawing is distinguishable from that for
1819-’20.
No. III. Trading post built at the mouth of Little
Missouri River.
1823-’24—No. I. Whites and Dakotas fight Rees.
Fig. 42—Meteor.
No. II. White soldiers made their first appearance in
the region. So said the interpreter, Clément, but
from the unanimous interpretation of others the event portrayed is the attack
of the United States forces, accompanied by Dakotas, upon the Arikara

villages, the historic account of which is as follows, abstracted from the
annual report of J. C. Calhoun, Secretary of War, November 29, 1823:
General William H. Ashley, lieutenant-governor of the State of Missouri, a
licensed trader, was treacherously attacked by the Arickara Indians at their
village on the west bank of the Missouri River, about midway between the
present Fort Sully and Fort Rice, on June 2, 1823. Twenty-three of the
trading party were killed and wounded, and the remainder retreated in boats
a considerable distance down the river, whence they sent appealing for
succor to the commanding officer at Fort Atkinson, the present site of
Council Bluffs. This officer was Col. H. Leavenworth, Sixth United States
Infantry, who marched June 22, with 220 men of that regiment, 80 men of
trading companies, and two 6-pound cannon, a 5½-inch brass howitzer, and
some small swivels, nearly 700 miles through a country filled with hostile
or unreliable Indians to the Ree villages, which, after much hardship and
some losses, he reached on the 9th of August. The Dakotas were at war with
the Arickara or Rees, and 700 to 800 of their warriors had joined the United
States forces on the way; of these Dakotas 500 are mentioned as Yanktons,
but the tribes of the remainder are not designated in the official reports. The
Rees were in two villages, the lower one containing seventy-one dirt lodges
and the upper seventy, both being inclosed with palisades and a ditch, and
the greater part of the lodges having a ditch around the bottom on the
inside. The enemy, having knowledge of the expedition, had fortified and
made every preparation for resistance. Their force consisted of over 700
warriors, most of whom were armed with rifles procured from British
traders. On the 9th of August the Dakotas commenced the attack, and were
driven back until the regular troops advanced, but nothing decisive resulted
until the artillery was employed on the 10th, when a large number of the
Rees, including their chief, Grey-Eyes, were killed, and early in the
afternoon they begged for peace. They were much terrified and humbled by
the effect of the cannon, which, though small, answered the purpose.
During the main engagement the Dakotas occupied themselves in gathering
and carrying off all the corn to be found, and before the treaty was
concluded, which, at the supplication of the Rees, Colonel Leavenworth
agreed to, the Dakotas all left in great disgust at not being allowed to kill
and scalp the surrendered warriors with their squaws and pappooses, take
possession of the villages, horses, etc., and in fact to exterminate their
hereditary foes. However, the Rees, having become panic-stricken after the

treaty and two days of peaceful intercourse with the soldiers, deserted their
homes, and the troops, embarking on the 15th to descend the river, shortly
saw the villages in flames, which was the work either of the Dakotas or of
inimical traders.
The device is believed to represent an Arickara palisaded village and
attacking soldiers. Not only the remarkable character and triumphant result
of this expedition, but the connection that the Dakotas themselves had with
it, made it a natural subject for the year’s totem.
All the winter counts refer to this expedition.
No. III. United States troops fought Ree Indians.
Battiste Good says: “General-——-first-appeared-and-the-Dakotas-aided-
him-in-an-attack-on-the-Rees winter,” also “Much-corn winter.” For his
character see Figure 69, page 166. The gun and the arrow in contact with
the ear of corn show that both whites and Indians fought the Rees.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Old-corn-plenty winter.”
Mato Sapa’s chart gives the human figure with a military cap, beard, and
goatee.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XVII
1824-’25.

1825-’26.
1826-’27.
THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.

1824-’25.—No. I. All the horses of Little-Swan’s father are killed by
Indians through spite.
No. II. Swan, chief of the Two Kettle tribe, had all of his horses killed.
Device, a horse pierced by a lance, blood flowing from the wound.
No. III. Swan, a Minneconjou Indian, had twenty horses killed by a jealous
Indian.
Mato Sapa says: Swan, a Minneconjou chief, lost twenty horses killed by a
jealous Indian.
Major Bush says the same.
1825-’26.—No. I. River overflows the Indian camp; several drowned. The-
Flame, the recorder of this count, born. In the original drawing the five
objects above the line are obviously human heads.
No. II. There was a remarkable flood in the Missouri River, and a number
of Indians were drowned. With some exercise of fancy, the symbol may
suggest heads appearing above a line of water, or it may simply be the
severed heads, several times used, to denote Indians other than Dakotas,
with the uniting black line of death.
No. III. Thirty lodges of Dakota Indians drowned by a sudden rise of the
Missouri River about Swan Lake Creek, which is in Horsehead Bottom, 15
miles below Fort Rice. The five heads are more clearly drawn than in No.
II.
Battiste Good says: “Many-Yanktonais-drowned winter;” adding: The river
bottom on a bend of the Missouri River where they were encamped was
suddenly submerged, when the ice broke and many women and children,
were drowned. This device is presented in Figure 43.
All the winter counts refer to this flood.
1826-’27.—No. I. All of the Indians who ate of a buffalo killed on a hunt
died of it, a peculiar substance issuing from the mouth.

No. II. “An Indian died of the dropsy.” So Basil
Clément was understood, but it is not clear why this
circumstance should have been noted, unless the
appearance of the disease was so unusual in 1826 as to
excite remark. Baron de La Hontan, a good authority
concerning the Northwestern Indians before they had
been greatly affected by intercourse with whites, Fig. 43.—River freshet.
although showing a tendency to imitate another baron
—Munchausen—as to his personal adventures, in his
Nouveaux Voyages dans l’Amérique Septentrionale specially mentions
dropsy as one of the diseases unknown to them. Carver also states that this
malady was extremely rare. Whether or not the dropsy was very
uncommon, the swelling in this special case might have been so enormous
as to render the patient an object of general curiosity and gossip, whose
affliction thereby came within the plan of the count. The device merely
shows a man-figure, not much fatter than several others, but distinguished
by a line extending sidewise from the top of the head and inclining
downward. The other records cast doubt upon the interpretation of dropsy.
No. III. Dakota war party killed a buffalo; having eaten of it they all died.
Battiste Good says: “Ate-a-whistle-and-died winter,” and adds: “Six
Dakotas, on the war-path, had nearly perished with hunger, when they
found and ate the rotting carcass of an old buffalo, on which the wolves had
been feeding. They were seized soon after with pains in the stomach, their
abdomens swelled and gas poured from the mouth, and they died of a
whistle, or from eating a whistle.” The sound of gas escaping from, the
mouth is illustrated in his figure which see in Figure 146, page 221.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Long-whistle-sick winter.”

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XVIII
1827-’28.

1828-’29.
1829-’30.
THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.

1827-’28.—No. I. A Minneconjou is stabbed by a Gros Ventre, and his arm
shrivels up.
No. II. Dead-Arm was stabbed with a knife or dirk by a Mandan. The
illustration is quite graphic, showing the long-handled dirk in the bloody
wound and the withered arm. Though the Mandans are also of the great
Siouan family, the Dakotas have pursued them with special hatred. In 1823,
their number, much diminished by wars, still exceeded 2,500.
No. III. A Minneconjou Dakota wounded with a large knife by a Gros
Ventre. The large knife was a sword, and the Indian who was wounded was
named, afterwards, Lame-Shoulder. This is an instance of a change of name
after a remarkable event in life.
1828-’29.—No. I. Chardran, a white man, builds a house at forks of
Cheyenne River. This name should probably be spelled Chadron, with
whom Catlin hunted in 1832, in the region mentioned.
No. II. A white man named Shardran, who lately (as reported in 1877) was
still living in the same neighborhood, built a dirt lodge. The hatted head
appears under the roof.
III. Trading post opened in a dirt lodge on the Missouri a little below the
mouth of the Little Missouri River.
1829-’30.—No. I. A Dakota found dead in a canoe.
No. II. Bad-Spike killed another Indian with an arrow.
No. III. A Yanktonai Dakota killed by Bad-Arrow Indians.
The Bad-Arrow Indians is a translation of the Dakota name for a certain
band of Blackfeet Indians.
Mato Sapa says: a Yanktonai was killed by the Bad-Arrow Indians.
Major Bush says the same as Mato Sapa.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XIX
1830-’31.

1831-’32.
1832-’33.
THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.

1830-’31.—No. I. Mandans kill twenty Crows at Bear Butte.
No. II. Bloody battle with the Crows, of whom it is said twenty-three were
killed. Nothing in the sign denotes number, it being only a man-figure with
red or bloody body and red war bonnet.
No. III. Twenty Crow and one Cheyenne Indians killed by Dakotas at Bear
Butte.
Mato Sapa says: One Cheyenne and twenty Crows were killed by Dakotas
at Bear Butte.
Major Bush says the same as Mato Sapa.
1831-’32.—No. I. Two white men killed by a white man at Medicine Creek,
below Fort Sully.
No. II. Le Beau, a white man, killed another named Kermel. Another copy
reads Kennel. Le Beau was still alive at Little Bend, 30 miles above Fort
Sully, in 1877.
No. III. Trader named Le Beau killed one of his employés on Big Cheyenne
River, below Cherry Creek.
1832-’33.—No. I. Lone-Horn’s father broke his leg.
No. II. Lone-Horn had his leg “killed,” as the interpretation gave it. The
single horn is on the figure, and a leg is drawn up as if fractured or
distorted, though not unlike the leg in the character for 1808-’09, where
running is depicted.
No. III. A Minneconjou Dakota, Lone-Horn’s father, had his leg broken
while running buffalo.
Mato Sapa and Major Bush also say Lone-Horn’s father.
Battiste Good says: “Stiff-leg-With-war-bonnet-on-died winter.” He was
killed in an engagement with the Pawnees on the Platte River.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “One-Horn’s-leg-broken winter.”

In Catlin’s “North American Indians,” New York, 1844, Vol. I, page 211,
the author, writing from the mouth of Teton River, Upper Missouri, site of
Fort Pierre, described Ha-won-je-tah, The One-Horn, head chief of all the
bands of the Dakotas, which were about twenty. He was a bold, middle-
aged man of medium stature, noble countenance, and figure almost
equalling an Apollo. His portrait was painted by Catlin in 1832. He took the
name of One-Horn, or One-Shell, from a simple small shell that was
hanging on his neck, which descended to him from his father, and which he
valued more than anything else which he possessed, and he kept that name
in preference to many others more honorable which he had a right to have
taken, from his many exploits.
On page 221, the same author states, that after being the accidental 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.
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.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XXXI
1866-’67.

1867-’68.
1868-’69.
THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.

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.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XXXII
1869-’70.
1870-’71.
THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.

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 (1m 48s.)
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.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XXXIII
1871-’72.

1872-’73.
1873-’74.
1874-’75.
1875-’76.
1876-’77.
THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.

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.
The explanations of the counts are far from complete, as the recorders who
furnished them could in many instances recall nothing except the name of
the year, and in others were loth to speak of the events or else their
explanations were vague and unsatisfactory, and, again, the interpreters
were sometimes at fault. Many of the recent events are fresh in the memory
of the people, as the warriors who strive to make their exploits a part of the
tribal traditions proclaim them on all occasions of ceremony—count their
coups, as it is called. Declarations of this kind partake of the nature of
affirmations made in the presence of God. War-shirts on which scores of the
enemies killed are kept, and which are carefully transmitted from one
generation to another, help to refresh their memories in regard to some of
the events. By testing many Indians I learned that but few could interpret
the significance of the figures; some of them could point out the year of
their birth and that of some members of their families; others could not do
so, or pretended that they could not, but named the year and asked me to
point it out and tell their age.
In the following explanation of the winter counts, [figured on Plates
XXXIV-LI,] No. I refers to that of American-Horse and No. II to that of
Cloud-Shield.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XXXIV
1775-’76.

1776-’77.
1777-’78.
1778-’79.
1779-’80.
1780-’81.
THE CORBUSIER WINTER COUNTS.

1775-’76.—No. I. Standing-Bull, the great-grandfather of the present
Standing-Bull, discovered the Black Hills. He carried home with him a pine
tree of a species he had never seen before. (In this count the Dakotas are
usually distinguished by the braided scalp-lock and the feather they wear at
the crown of the head, or by the manner in which they brush back and tie
the hair. It will be noticed that the profile of most of the faces is given,
whereas Battiste Good gives the full face. The Dakotas have of late years
claimed the Black Hills, probably by right of discovery in 1775-’76; but the
Crows were the former possessors.)
This is also the first winter of White-Cow-Killer’s count and is called
“Two-warriors-killed winter.”
1776-’77.—No. I. Many of their horses were killed by some of their own
people, who were jealous because they were fatter than their own.
1777-’78.—No. I. It was an intensely cold winter, and the Man-who-has-
no-skin-on-his-penis froze to death. The sign for snow or winter, i. e., a
cloud with snow falling from it, is above his head. A haka-stick, which, in
playing that game, they cast after a ring, is represented in front of him.
Battiste Good’s record is that a Dakota named Skinned-Penis was killed in a
fight with the Pawnees, and his companions left his body where they
supposed it would not be found, but the Pawnees found it, and as it was
frozen stiff, they dragged it into their camp and played haka with it.
No. II. A war party brought in the lone pine tree from the enemy’s country.
They met no enemies while out. This event is also the first in No. I, in
which it marks the winter of 1775-’76.
1778-’79.—No. I. The Ponkas came and attacked a village, notwithstanding
peace had just been made with them. The people repulsed and followed
them, killing sixty. Some elk-hair and a feather represent Ponka. Horse
tracks are used for horses. Attack is indicated by signs which were said to

represent bullet marks, and which convey the idea that the bullet struck. The
sign seems to be derived from the gesture-sign for “it struck.”
No. II. Many of their horses were killed, but by whom is not known. The
same event is recorded in No. I, 1776-’77.
1779-’80.—No. I. Long-Pine was killed in a fight with the Crows. The
absence of his scalp denotes that he was killed by an enemy. The wound
was made with the bow and arrow.
No. II. Skinned-his-penis was used in the ring-and-pole game.
1780-’81.—No. I. Many died of small-pox.
No. II. “The policeman” was killed by the enemy.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XXXV
1781-’82.

1782-’83.
1783-’84.
1784-’85.
1785-’86.
1786-’87.
THE CORBUSIER WINTER COUNTS.

1781-’82—No. I. Many died of small-pox.
No. II. Many people died of small-pox. They all record two successive
winters of small-pox, but No. I makes the first year of the epidemic one
year later than that of Battiste Good, and No. II makes it two years later.
1782-’83.—No. I. A Dakota named Stabber froze to death. The sign for
winter is the same as before.
No. II. Many people died of small-pox again.
1783-’84—No. I. The Mandans and Rees made a charge on a Dakota
village. The Dakotas drove them back, killed twenty five of them, and
captured a boy. An eagle’s tail, which is worn on the head, stands for
Mandan and Ree.
No. II. The-Stabber froze to death. The man’s name is suggested by the
spear in the body over his head, which is connected with his mouth by a
line.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Big-fire winter,” possibly because big fires were
required to keep them warm.
1784-’85.—No. I. A young man who was afflicted with the small-pox, and
was in his tipi, off by himself, sang his death-song and shot himself. Suicide
is more common among Indians than is generally suspected, and even boys
sometimes take their own lives. A Dakota boy at one of the agencies shot
himself rather than face his companions after his mother had whipped him,
and a Pai-Ute boy at Camp McDermit, Nevada, tried to poison himself with
the wild parsnip because he was not well and strong like the other boys. The
Pai-Utes usually eat the wild parsnip when bent on suicide.
No. II. An Omaha woman who was living with the Oglálas attempted to run
away from them, and they killed her. A war between the two tribes was the
result.

1785-’86.—No. I. Bear’s-Ears, a Brulé, was killed in an Oglála village by
the Crows.
No. II. The Oglálas killed three lodges of Omahas.
1786-’87.—No. I. Broken-Leg-Duck, an Oglála, went to a Crow village to
steal horses and was killed. A line connects the name with the mouth.
No. II. Long-Hair was killed. To what tribe he belonged is not known.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XXXVI
1787-’88.

1788-’89.
1789-’90.
1790-’91.
1791-’92.
1792-’93.
THE CORBUSIER WINTER COUNTS.

1787-’88.—No. I. They went out in search of the Crows in order to avenge
the death of Broken-Leg-Duck. They did not find any Crows, but, chancing
on a Mandan village, captured it and killed all the people in it.
No. II. A year of famine. They lived on roots, which are represented in front
of the tipi.
1788-’89.—No. I. Last-Badger, an Oglála, was killed by the Rees.
No. II. The winter was so cold that many crows froze to death.
White-Cow-Killer calls 1787-’88 “Many-black-crows-died winter.”
1789-’90.—No. I. The cold was so intense that crows froze in the air and
dropped dead near the lodges.
No. II. White-Goose was killed in an attack made by some enemies.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Goose-Feather-killed winter.”
1790-’91.—No. I. They could not hunt on account of the deep snow, and
were compelled to subsist on anything they could get, as herbs (pézi) and
roots.
No. II. Picket-Pin went against the Cheyennes. A picket-pin is represented
in front of him and is connected with his mouth by the usual line. The black
band across his face denotes that he was brave and had killed enemies. The
cross is the symbol for Cheyenne. The mark used for Cheyenne stands for
the scars on their arms, or stripes on their sleeves, which also gave rise to
the gesture sign for this tribe, given in Sign Language among the North
American Indians, etc., First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p.
465, viz.: Draw the extended right index, or the inner edge of the open right
hand, several times across the base of the extended left index or across the
left forearm at different heights.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “All-the-Indians-see-the-flag winter.”

1791-’92.—No. I. Glue, an Oglála, froze to death on his way to a Brulé
village. A glue-stick is represented back of his head. Glue, made from the
hoofs of buffalo, is used to fasten arrow-heads on, and is carried about on
sticks.
No. II. The Dakotas and Omahas made peace.
1792-’93.—No. I. Many women died in child-birth.
No. II. The Dakotas camped on the Missouri River near the Gros Ventres
and fought with them a long time. The Dakota tipi and the Gros Ventre
lodge are shown in the figure.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Rees-house-winter.”

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XXXVII
1793-’94.

1794-’95.
1795-’96.
1796-’97.
1797-’98.
1798-’99.
THE CORBUSIER WINTER COUNTS.

1793-’94.—No. I. A Ponka who was captured when a boy by the Oglálas
was killed while outside the village by a war party of Ponkas.
No. II. Bear’s-Ears was killed in a fight with the Rees.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Little-Face-killed winter.”
1794-’95.—No. I. The-Good-White-Man came with two other white men.
He promised that if they would let him and his companions go undisturbed
he would return and bring with him weapons with which they could kill
game with but little labor. They gave them buffalo robes and dogs to pack
them on and sent the party off. The sign for white man is a hat, either by
itself or on a head, and the gesture-sign indicates one who wears a hat.
Draw the open right hand horizontally from left to right across the forehead
a little above the eyebrows, the back of the hand to be upward and the
fingers pointing toward the left, or draw the index across the forehead in the
same manner.
No. II. Bad-Face, a Dakota, was shot in the face.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Long-Hair-killed winter.”
1795-’96.—No. I. The-Man-Who-Owns-the-Flute was killed by the
Cheyennes. His flute is represented in front of him with sounds coming
from it. A bullet mark is on his neck.
No. II. The Dakotas camped near the Rees and fought with them.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Water-Stomach-killed winter.”
1796-’97.—No. I. They killed the long-haired man in a fight with the
Cheyennes while on an expedition to avenge the death of The-Man-Who-
Owns-the-Flute, who was killed by the Cheyennes the year before.
No. II. Badger, a Dakota, was killed by enemies, as shown by the absence
of his scalp.

White-Cow-Killer calls it “War-Bonnet-killed winter.”
1797-’98.—No. I. Little-Beaver and three other white men came to trade,
having been sent by the Good-White-Man. Their goods were loaded on
three sleds, each drawn by six dogs.
No. II. The-Wise-Man was killed by enemies.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Caught-the-medicine-god-woman winter.”
1798-’99.—No. I. Owns-the-Pole, the leader of an Oglála war party,
brought home many Cheyenne scalps. The cross stands for Cheyenne.
No. II. Many women died in child-birth.
White-Cow-Killer says, “Many-squaws-died winter.”

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL.
XXXVIII

1799-1800.
1800-’01.
1801-’02.
1802-’03.
1803-’04.
1804-’05.
THE CORBUSIER WINTER COUNTS.

1799-1800.—No. I. The-Good-White-Man returned and gave guns to the
Dakotas. The circle of marks represents the people sitting around him, the
flint-lock musket the guns.
No. II. A woman who had been given to a white man by the Dakotas was
killed because she ran away from him. [See No. I, 1804-’05.]
White-Cow-Killer says, “The-Good-White-Man-came winter.”
1800-’01.—No. I. Nine white men came to trade with them. The covered
head with short hair stands for a white man and also intimates that the eight
dots over it are for white men. According to this count the first whites came
in 1794-’95.
No. II. The Good-White-Man came. He was the first white man to trade and
live with the Dakotas.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Don’t-Eat-Heart-makes-a-god-house winter.”
1801-’02.—No. I. The Oglálas, Brulés, Minneconjous, Sans Arcs, and
Cheyennes united in an expedition against the Crows. They surprised and
captured a village of thirty lodges, killed all the men, and took the women
and children prisoners. The three tipis stand for thirty; the red spots are for
blood.
No. II. A trader brought them their first guns.
White-Cow-Killer says, “All-sick-winter.”
1802-’03.—No. I. The Ponkas attacked two lodges of Oglálas, killed some
of the people, and made the rest prisoners. The Oglálas went to the Ponka
village a short time afterward and took their people from the Ponkas. In the
figure an Oglála has a prisoner by the arm leading him away. The arrow
indicates that they were ready to fight.

No. II. The Omahas made an assault on a Dakota village. Arrows and
bullets are flying back and forth.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Brought-in-horse-shoes winter.”
1803-’04—No. I. They made peace with the Gros Ventres.
No. II. Little-Beaver, a white trader, came.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Plenty-of-woolly-horses winter.”
1804-’05.—No. I. An Indian woman who had been unfaithful to a white
man to whom she was married was killed by an Indian named Ponka. The
symbol for Ponka indicates the name.
No. II. The Omahas came and made peace to get their people, whom the
Dakotas held as prisoners.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XXXIX
1805-’06.

1806-’07.
1807-’08.
1808-’09.
1809-’10.
1810-’11.
THE CORBUSIER WINTER COUNTS.

1805-’06.—No. I. The Dakotas had a council with the whites on the
Missouri River, below the Cheyenne Agency, near the mouth of Bad Creek
(the Lewis and Clarke Expedition?). They had many flags, which the Good-
White-Man gave them with their guns, and they erected them on poles to
show their friendly feelings. The curved line is to represent the council
lodge, which they made by opening several tipis and uniting them at their
sides to form a semicircle. The marks are for the people. American-Horse’s
father was born this year.
No. II. Nine white men came to trade. The three covered heads represent the
white men.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Eight-Dakotas-killed winter.”
1806-’07.—No. I. Black-Rock, a Dakota, was killed by the Crows. A rock
is represented above his head. He was killed with a bow and arrow and was
scalped.
No. II. The Dakotas killed an Omaha in the night.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Killed-while-hunting-eagles winter.”
1807-’08.—No. I. Broken-Leg was killed by the Pawnees. His leg had been
broken by a bullet in a previous fight with the Pawnees.
No. II. Many people camped together and had many flags flying.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Red-shirt-killed Winter.”
1808-’09.—No. I. Little-Beaver’s trading house was burned down.
No. II. A Brulé was found dead under a tree which had fallen on him.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Blue-Blanket’s-father-dead winter.”
1809-’10.—No. I. Black-Rock was killed by the Crows. His brother, whose
name he had taken, was killed by the Crows three years before.

No. II. Little-Beaver’s house was burned.
White-Cow-Killer says, “Little-Beaver’s (the white man) house-burned-
down winter.”
1810-’11.—No. I. Red-Shirt, a Dakota, was killed by the Crows while
looking for his ponies near Old Woman’s Fork.
No. II. They brought in a fine horse with feathers tied to his tail.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Came-with-medicine-on-horse’s-tail winter.”

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XL
1811-’12.

1812-’13.
1813-’14.
1814-’15.
1815-’16.
1816-’17.
THE CORBUSIER WINTER COUNTS.

1811-’12.—No. I. They caught many wild horses south of the Platte River.
No. II. They had very little buffalo meat, as the empty drying pole indicates,
but plenty of ducks in the fall.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Catching-wild-horses winter.”
1812-’13.—No. I. Big-Waist’s father killed.
No. II. Big-Owl killed.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Big-Belly’s-father-killed winter.”
1813-’14.—No. I. Many had the whooping-cough. The cough is represented
by the lines issuing from the man’s mouth.
No. II. Food was very scarce and they had to live on acorns. The tree is
intended for an oak and the marks beneath it for acorns.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Six-Rees-killed winter.”
1814-’15.—No. I. The Dakotas went to a Kaiowa village, about 6 miles
from Scott’s Bluff, and near the mouth of Horse Creek, to treat for peace;
but their intentions were frustrated by one of their number, who drove his
hatchet into a Kaiowa’s head.
No. II. They made peace with the Pawnees. The man with the blue forehead
is a Pawnee, the other is a Dakota, whose body is smeared with clay. The
four arrows show that they had been at war, and the clasped hands denote
peace.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Kaiowa-hit-on-head-with-axe winter.”
Young-Man’s-Horses-Afraid, i. e., whose horses are afraid, was born this
year. He is now called “Old-Man-afraid-of-his-Horses” by the whites, and
his son, the present chief of the Oglálas, is known as “Young-Man-afraid-
of-his-Horses.” [The present writer has heard another interpretation about

“afraid-of-his-horses,” i. e., that the man valued his horses so much that he
was afraid of losing them. The present representative of the name, however,
stated to the writer that the true meaning was “The-young-man-whose-
horses-they-fear.”]
1815-’16.—No. I. The figure is intended to represent a white man’s house.
No. II. Some of the Dakotas built a large house and lived in it during the
winter.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Made-a-house winter.”
1816-’17.—No. I. They made peace with the Crows at Pine Bluff. The
arrow shows they had been at war.
No. II. They lived in the same house that they did last winter.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Made-a-house winter.”

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XLI
1817-’18.

1818-’19.
1819-’20.
1820-’21.
1821-’22.
1822-’23.
THE CORBUSIER WINTER COUNTS.

1817-’18.—No. I. The Oglálas had an abundance of buffalo meat and
shared it with the Brulés, who were short of food. The buffalo hide hung on
the drying pole, with the buffalo head above it, indicates an abundance of
meat.
No. II. The-Brave-Man was killed in a great fight. The fight is shown by the
arrows flying to and from him. Having been killed by an enemy, he is
scalped.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Plenty-of-meat winter.”
1818-’19.—No. I. A large house was built.
No. II. Many died of the small-pox.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Little-small-pox winter.”
1819-’20.—No. I. Another house was built. The Dakotas made medicine in
it.
No. II. In an engagement with the Crows, both sides expended all of their
arrows, and then threw dirt at each other. A Crow is represented on the
right, and is distinguished by the manner in which the hair is worn.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Made-a-house-of-old-wood winter.”
1820-’21.—No. I. The Dakotas assaulted and took a Crow village of a
hundred lodges. They killed many and took many prisoners.
No. II. A Dakota, named Glue, froze to death.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Two-arrows-made-a-war-bonnet winter.”
1821-’22.—No. I. They had all the mini wakan (spirit water or whisky) they
could drink. They never had any before. A barrel with a waved or spiral line
running from it represents the whisky, the waved line signifying spirit.

No. II. A large roaring star fell. It came from the east, and shot out sparks of
fire along its course. Its track and the sparks are shown in the figure. See
also page 111.
White-Cow-Killer says, “One-star-made-a-great-noise winter.”
Battiste Good, alias Wa-po-ctan-qi (Brown-Hat), historian and chief,
designated this year as that of his birth. Omaha bullets were whizzing
through the village and striking and piercing his mother’s lodge as she
brought him forth. Red-Cloud also was born.
1822-’23.—No. I. Dog, an Oglála, stole seventy horses from the Crows.
Each of the seven tracks stands for ten horses. A lariat, which serves the
purpose of a long whip, and is usually allowed to trail on the ground, is
shown in the man’s hand.
No. II. A Brulé, who had left the village the night before, was found dead in
the morning outside the village, and the dogs were eating his body. The
black spot on the upper part of the thigh shows he was a Brulé.
White-Cow-Killer says, “White-man-peels-the-stick-in-his-hand-broke-his-
leg winter.”

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XLII
1823-’24.

1824-’25.
1825-’26.
1826-’27.
1827-’28.
1828-’29.
THE CORBUSIER WINTER COUNTS.

1823-’24.—No. I. They had an abundance of corn, which they got at the
Ree villages.
No. II. They joined the whites in an expedition up the Missouri River
against the Rees.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Old-corn-plenty winter.” For further explanation
of the record of this year, see page 111.
1824-’25.—No. I. Cloud-Bear, a Dakota, killed a Dakota, who was a long
distance off, by throwing a bullet from his hand and striking him in the
heart. The spiral line is again used for wakan. The gesture-sign for wakan
(holy, supernatural) is: With its index-finger extended and pointing upward,
or all the fingers extended, back of hand outward, move the right hand from
just in front of the forehead spirally upward nearly to arm’s length from left
to right. [See “Sign Language N. A. Indians,” p. 380, by the present writer,
in the First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology.]
No. II. Cat-Owner was killed with a spider-web thrown at him by a Dakota.
The spider-web is shown reaching to his heart from the hand of the man
who threw it. The blood issuing from his mouth and nose indicates that he
bled to death. It is a common belief among them that certain medicine men
possess the power of taking life by shooting needles, straws, spider-webs,
bullets, and other objects, however distant the person may be against whom
they are directed.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Killed-the-women-picking-cherries winter.”
1825-’26.—No. I. Some of the Dakotas were living on the bottom-lands of
the Missouri River, below the Whetstone, when the river, which was filled
with broken ice, unexpectedly rose and flooded their village. Many were
drowned or else killed by the floating ice. Many of those that escaped
climbed on cakes of ice or into trees.

No. II. Many of the Dakotas were drowned in a flood caused by a rise of the
Missouri River, in a bend of which they were camped. The curved line is
the bend in the river; the waved line is the water, above which the tops of
the tipis are shown.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Great-flood-and-many-Indians-drowned winter.”
[See page 113.]
1826-’27.—No. I. The brother of the Good-White-Man came.
No. II. Held a commemoration of the dead. The pipe-stem and the skull
indicate this.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Long-Whistle-sick winter.”
1827-’28.—No. I. The snow was very deep.
No. II. In a fight with the Mandans, Crier was shot in the head with a gun.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Snow-shoe-making winter.”
1828-’29.—No. I. They provided themselves with a large supply of
antelope meat by driving antelope into a corral, in which they were easily
killed.
No. II. They drove many antelope into a corral and then killed them.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Many-Rees-killed winter.”

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XLIII
1829-’30.

1830-’31.
1831-’32.
1832-’33.
1833-’34.
1834-’35.
THE CORBUSIER WINTER COUNTS.

1829-’30.—No. I. Striped-Face stabbed and killed his son-in-law for
whipping his wife.
No. II. Spotted-Face stabs his son-in-law for whipping his wife.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Spotted-Face-held-on-long winter.”
1830-’31.—No. I. They saw wagons for the first time. Red-Lake, a white
trader, brought his goods in them.
No. II. The Crows were approaching a village at a time when there was a
great deal of snow on the ground and intended to surprise it, but some
herders discovering them the Dakotas went out, laid in wait for the Crows,
surprised them, and killed many. A Crow’s head is represented in the figure.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Killed-many-white-buffalo winter.”
1831-’32.—No. I. Red-Lake’s house, which he had recently built, was
destroyed by fire, and he was killed by the accidental explosion of some
powder.
No. II. A white man, whom they called Gray-Eyes, shot and killed a man
who was working for him.
1832-’33.—No. I. They killed many Gros Ventres in a village which they
assaulted.
No. II. All of Standing-Bull’s horses were killed, but by whom is unknown.
Hoof-prints, blood-stains, and arrows are shown under the horse.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “One-Horn’s-leg-broken winter.”
1833-’34.—No. I. The stars moved around.
No. II. It rained stars.
White Cow-Killer calls it “Plenty-stars winter.”

The records [see page 116] all undoubtedly refer to the magnificent
meteoric display of the morning of November 13th, 1833, which was
witnessed throughout North America, and which they have correctly
assigned to the winter corresponding with that of 1833-’34. All of them
represent stars as having four points.
1834-’35.—No. I. They were at war with the Cheyennes. The Cheyenne is
the one with the stripes on his arm.
No. II. They fought with the Cheyennes. The stripes on the arm are for
Cheyenne as before.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Cheyennes-came-and-one-killed winter.”

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XLIV
1835-’36.

1836-’37.
1837-’38.
1838-’39.
1839-’40.
1840-’41.
THE CORBUSIER WINTER COUNTS.

1835-’36.—No. I. They killed a very fat buffalo bull.
No. II. They killed a very fat buffalo bull.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Two warriors-killed winter.”
1836-’37.—No. I. The Dakotas and the Pawnees fought on the ice on the
North Platte River. The former were on the north side, the right-hand side in
the figure, the latter on the south side, the left in the figure. Horsemen and
footmen on the right are opposed to footmen on the left. Both sides have
guns and bows, as shown by the bullet-marks and the arrows. The red
marks are for blood-stains on the ice.
No. II. They fought the Pawnees across the ice on the North Platte. The man
on the left is a Pawnee.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Fight-on-ice winter.”
1837-’38.—No. I. Paints-His-Cheeks-Red and his family, who were
camping by themselves, were killed by Pawnees.
No. II. Paints-His-Face-Red, a Dakota, was killed in his tipi by the
Pawnees.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Five-Fingers-died winter.”
1838-’39.—No. I. Spotted-Horse carried the pipe around and took the war
path against the Pawnees, to avenge the death of his uncle, Paints-His-
Cheeks-Red.
No. II. Crazy-Dog, a Dakota, carried the pipe around and took the war path.
The waved or spiral lines denote crazy.
White-Cow-Killer says, “Paints-his-Chin’s-lodge-all-killed winter.”
When a warrior desires to make up a war party he visits his friends and
offers them a filled pipe, as an invitation to follow him, and those who are

willing to go accept the invitation by lighting and smoking it. Any man
whose courage has been proved may become the leader of a war party.
Among the Arapahos the would-be leader does not invite any one to
accompany him, but publicly announces his intention of going to war. He
fixes the day for his departure and states where he will camp the first night,
naming some place not far off. The morning on which he starts, and before
leaving the village, he invokes the aid of the sun, his guardian by day, and
often, to propitiate him, secretly vows to undergo penance, or offer a
sacrifice on his return. He rides off alone, carrying his bare pipe in his hand,
with the bowl carefully tied to the stem to prevent it from slipping off. If the
bowl should at any time accidentally fall to the ground, he considers it an
evil omen, and immediately returns to the village, and nothing could induce
him to proceed, as he thinks that only misfortune would attend him if he
did. Sometimes he ties eagle or hawk plumes to the stem of his pipe, and,
after quitting the village, repairs to the top of some hill and makes an
offering of them to the sun, taking them from his pipe and tying them to a
pole, which he erects in a pile of stones. (Some of the stone-heaps seen on
the hills in the Arapaho country originated in this way, but most of them
were made by dreamers, who withdraw from their people to devote
themselves in solitude to contemplation, fasting, and prayer, in order to
work themselves into a state of rapture, hoping to have visions and receive
messages from spirits.) Those who intend to follow him usually join him at
the first camp, equipped for the expedition; but often there are some who do
not join him until he has gone further on. He eats nothing before leaving the
village, nor as long as the sun is up; but breaks his fast at his first camp,
after the sun sets. The next morning he begins another fast, to be continued
until sunset. He counts his party, saddles his horse, names some place six or
seven miles ahead, where he says he will halt for awhile, and again rides off
alone with his pipe in his hand. After awhile the party follow him in single
file. When they have reached his halting place he tells them to dismount and
let their horses graze. They all then seat themselves on the ground on the
left of the leader, forming a semicircle, facing the sun. The leader fills his
pipe, all bow their heads, and, pointing the stem of the pipe upward, he
prays to the sun, asking that they may find an abundance of game, that
dead-shots may be made, so that their ammunition will not be wasted, but
reserved for their enemies; that they may easily find their enemies and kill
them; that they may be preserved from wounds and death. He makes his

petition four times, then lights his pipe, and after sending a few whiffs of
smoke skyward as incense to the sun, hands the pipe to his neighbor, who
smokes and passes it on to the next. It is passed from one to another, toward
the left, until all have smoked, the leader refilling it as often as necessary.
They then proceed to their next camp, where probably others join them. The
same programme is carried out for three or four days before the party is
prepared for action.
1839-’40.—No. I. Left-Handed-Big-Nose was killed by the Shoshoni. His
left arm is represented extended, and his nose is very conspicuous.
American-Horse was born in the spring of 1840.
No. II. They killed a Crow and his squaw, who were found on a trail.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Large-war-party-hungry-eat-Pawnee-horses
winter.”
1840-’41.—No. I. Sitting-Bear, American-Horse’s father, and others, stole
two hundred horses from the Flat Heads. A trailing lariat is in the man’s
hand.
No. II. They stole one hundred (many) horses from the Snakes.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Little-Thunder’s-brothers-killed winter.”

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XLV
1841-’42.

1842-’43.
1843-’44.
1844-’45.
1845-’46.
1846-’47.
THE CORBUSIER WINTER COUNTS.

1841-’42.—No. I. The Oglálas engaged in a drunken brawl, which resulted
in a division of the tribe, the Kiyuksas (Cut-Offs) separating from the
others.
No. II. The Oglálas got drunk on Chug Creek, and engaged in a quarrel
among themselves, in which Red-Cloud’s brother was killed, and Red-
Cloud killed three men. Cloud-Shield (Mahpiya-Wahacanka) was born.
1842-’43.—No. I. Feather-Ear-Rings was killed by the Shoshoni. The four
lodges and the many blood-stains intimate that he was killed at the time the
four lodges of Shoshoni were killed.
No. II. Lone-Feather said his prayers, and took the war path to avenge the
death of some relatives.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Crane’s-son-killed winter.”
1843-’44.—No. I. The great medicine arrow was taken from the Pawnees
by the Oglálas and Brulés, and returned to the Cheyennes, to whom it
rightly belonged.
No. II. In a great fight with the Pawnees they captured the great medicine
arrow which had been taken from the Cheyennes, who made it, by the
Pawnees. The head of the arrow projects from the bag which contains it.
The delicate waved lines (intended probably for spiral lines) show that it is
sacred.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “The Great-medicine-arrow-comes-in winter.”
Battiste Good’s record gives the following for the same year:
“Brought-home-the-magic-arrow winter. This arrow originally belonged to
the Cheyennes, from whom the Pawnees stole it. The Dakotas captured it
this winter from the Pawnees, and the Cheyennes then redeemed it for one
hundred horses.” His sign for the year is somewhat different, as shown in
Figure 46. As before mentioned, an attempt is made to distinguish colors by

the heraldic scheme, which in this instance may require explanation. The
upper part of the body is sable or black, the feathers on the arrow are azure
or blue, and the shaft, gules or red. The remainder of the figure is of an
undecided color not requiring specification.

Fig. 46.—Magic
arrow.

1844-’45.—No. I. Male-Crow, an Oglála, was killed by the Shoshoni.
No. II. Crazy-Horse says his prayers and goes on the war path. The waved
lines are used again for crazy.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “White-Buffalo-Bull-killed by-the-Crows
winter.”
1845-’46.—No. I. White-Bull and thirty other Oglálas were killed by the
Crows and Shoshoni.
No. II. White-Bull and many others were killed in a fight with the Shoshoni.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Many-sick winter.”
1846-’47.—No. I. Big-Crow and Conquering-Bear had a great feast and
gave many presents.
No. II. Long-Pine, a Dakota, was killed by Dakotas. He was not killed by an
enemy, as he has not lost his scalp.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Diver’s-neck-broken winter.”

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XLVI
1847-’48.

1848-’49.
1849-’50.
1850-’51.
1851-’52.
1852-’53.
THE CORBUSIER WINTER COUNTS.

1847-’48.—No. I. There were a great many accidents and some legs were
broken, the ground being covered with ice.
No. II. Many were thrown from their horses while surrounding buffalo in
the deep snow, and some had their legs-broken.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Many-legs-broken winter.”
1848-’49.—No. I. American-Horse’s father captured a Crow who was
dressed as a woman, but who was found to be an hermaphrodite and was
killed.
No. II. American-Horse’s father captured a Crow woman and gave her to
the young men, who discovered that she was an hermaphrodite and killed
her.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Half-man-and-half-woman-killed winter.”
It is probable that this was one of those men, not uncommon among the
Indian tribes, who adopt the dress and occupation of women. [This is
sometimes compulsory, e. g., on account of failure to pass an ordeal.]
1849-’50.—No. I. Many died of the cramps. The cramps were those of
Asiatic cholera, which was epidemic in the United States at that time, and
was carried to the plains by the California and Oregon emigrants. The
position of the man is very suggestive of cholera.
No. II. Making-the-Hole stole many horses from a Crow tipi. The index
points to the hole, which is suggestive of the man’s name.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “The-people-had-the-cramps winter.”
1850-’51.—No. I. Wolf-Robe was killed by the Pawnees.
No. II. Many died of the small-pox.

White-Cow-Killer calls it “All-the-time-sick-with-the-big-small-pox
winter.”
1851-’52.—No. I. They received their first annuities at the mouth of Horse
Creek. A one-point blanket is depicted and denotes dry-goods. It is
surrounded by a circle of marks which represent the people.
No. II. Many goods were issued to them at Fort Laramie. They were the
first they received. The blanket which is represented stands for the goods.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Large-issue-of-goods-on-the-Platte-River
winter.”
1852-’53.—No. I. The Cheyennes carry the pipe around to invite all the
tribes to unite with them in a war against the Pawnees.
No. II. A white man made medicine over the skull of Crazy-Horse’s brother.
He holds a pipe-stem in his hand. This probably refers to the custom of
gathering the bones of the dead that have been placed on scaffolds and
burying them.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Great-snow winter.”

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XLVII
1853-’54.

1854-’55.
1855-’56.
1856-’57.
1857-’58.
1858-’59.
THE CORBUSIER WINTER COUNTS.

1853-’54.—No. I. Antelope-Dung broke his neck while surrounding
buffalo.
No. II. Antelope-Dung broke his neck while running antelope. His severed
head is the only part of his body that is shown.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Oak-wood-house winter.”
1854-’55.—No. I. Conquering-Bear was killed by white soldiers, and thirty
white soldiers were killed by the Dakotas 9 miles below Fort Laramie. The
thirty black dots in three lines stand for the soldiers, and the red stains for
killed. The head covered with a fatigue-cap further shows they were white
soldiers. Indian soldiers are usually represented in a circle or semicircle.
The gesture-sign for soldier means all in line, and is made by placing the
nearly closed hands with palms forward, and thumbs near together, in front
of the body and then separating them laterally about two feet.
No. II. Brave-Bear was killed in a quarrel over a calf. He was killed by
enemies; hence his scalp is gone.
White-Cow-Killer says, “Mato-wayuhi (or Conquering-Bear) killed-by-
white-soldiers winter.”
1855-’56.—No. I. A war party of Oglálas killed one Pawnee—his scalp is
on the pole—and on their way home froze their feet.
No. II. Torn-Belly and his wife were killed by some of their own people in a
quarrel.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “A-medicine-man-made-buffalo-medicine
winter.”
1856-’57.—No. I. They received annuities at Raw-Hide Butte. The house
and the blanket represent the agency and the goods.

No. II. They have an abundance of buffalo meat. This is shown by the full
drying pole.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “White-hill-house winter.”
1857-’58.—No. I. Little-Gay, a white trader, was killed by the explosion of
a can of gunpowder. He was measuring out powder from the can in his
wagon while smoking his pipe.
No. II. They surrounded and killed ten Crows.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Bull-hunting winter.”
1858-’59.—No. I. They made peace with the Pawnees. The one on the left
is a Pawnee.
No. II. They bought Mexican blankets of John Richard, who bought many
wagon-loads of the Mexicans.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Yellow-blanket-killed winter.”

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XLVIII
1859-’60.

1860-’61.
1861-’62.
1862-’63.
1863-’64.
1864-’65.
THE CORBUSIER WINTER COUNTS.

1859-’60.—No. I. Broken-Arrow fell from his horse while running buffalo
and broke his neck.
No. II. Black-Shield says prayers and takes the war path to avenge the death
of two of his sons who had been killed by the Crows.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Black-Shield’s-two boys-go-hunting-and-are-
killed-by-the-Crows winter.”
1860-’61.—No. I. Two-Face, an Oglála, was badly burnt by the explosion
of his powder-horn.
No. II. They capture a great many antelope by driving them into a pen.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Babies-all-sick-and-many-die winter.”
1861-’62.—No. I. Spider was killed (stabbed) in a fight with the Pawnees.
No. II. Young-Rabbit, a Crow, was killed in battle by Red-Cloud.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Crow-Indian-Spotted-Horse-stole-many-horses-
and-was-killed winter.”
1862-’63.—No. I. The Crows scalped an Oglála boy alive.
No. II. Some Crows came to their camp and scalped a boy.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Crows-scalp-boy winter.”
1863-’64.—No. I. The Oglálas and Minneconjous took the war path against
the Crows and stole three hundred Crow horses. The Crows followed them
and killed eight of the party.
No. II. Eight Dakotas were killed by the Crows. Here eight long marks
represent the number killed.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Dakotas-and-Crows-have-a-big-fight-eight-
Dakotas-killed winter.”

1864-’65.—No. I. Bird, a white trader, went to Powder River to trade with
the Cheyennes. They killed him and appropriated his goods.
No. II. Bird, a white trader, was burned to death by the Cheyennes. He is
surrounded by flames in the picture.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Big-Lips-died-suddenly winter.”

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XLIX
1865-’66.

1866-’67.
1867-’68.
1868-’69.
1869-’70.
1870-’71.
THE CORBUSIER WINTER COUNTS.

1865-’66.—No. I. General Maynadier made peace with the Oglálas and
Brulés. His name, the sound of which resembles the words “many deer,” is
indicated by the two deers’ heads connected with his mouth by the lines.
No. II. Many horses were lost by starvation, as the snow was so deep they
couldn’t get at the grass.
1866-’67.—No. I. They killed one hundred white men at Fort Phil. Kearny.
The hats and the cap-covered head represent the whites; the red spots, the
killed; the circle of characters around them, rifle or arrow shots; the black
strokes, Dakota footmen; and the hoof-prints, Dakota horsemen. The Phil.
Kearny massacre occurred December 21, 1866, and eighty-two whites were
killed, including officers, citizens, and enlisted men. Capt. W. J. Fetterman
was in command of the party.
No. II. Lone-Bear was killed in battle.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “One-hundred-white-men-killed winter.”
1867-’68.—No. I. They captured a train of wagons near Tongue River. The
men who were with it got away. The blanket represents the goods found in
the wagons.
No. II. Blankets were issued to them at Fort Laramie.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Seven-Pawnees-killed winter.”
1868-’69.—No. I. They were compelled to sell many mules and horses to
enable them to procure food, as they were in a starving condition. They
willingly gave a mule for a sack of flour. The mule’s halter is attached to
two sacks of flour.
No. II. They had to sell many mules and horses to get food, as they were
starving.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Mules-sold-by-hungry-Sioux winter.”

1869-’70.—No. I. Tall-Bull was killed by white soldiers and Pawnees on
the south side of the South Platte River.
No. II. John Richard shot a white soldier at Fort Fetterman, Wyoming, and
fled north, joining Red-Cloud.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Tree-fell-on-woman-who-was-cutting-wood-
and-killed-her winter.”
1870-’71.—No. I. High-Back-Bone, a very brave Oglála, was killed by the
Shoshoni. They also shot another man, who died after he reached home.
No. II. High-Back-Bone was killed in a fight with the Snakes (Shoshoni).
White-Cow-Killer calls it “High-Back-Bone-killed-by-Snake-Indians
winter.”

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. L
1871-’72.

1872-’73.
1873-’74.
1874-’75.
1875-’76.
1876-’77.
THE CORBUSIER WINTER COUNTS.

1871-’72.—No. I. John Richard shot and killed an Oglála named Yellow-
Bear, and the Oglálas killed Richard before he could get out of the lodge.
This occurred in the spring of 1872. As the white man was killed after the
Indian, he is placed behind him in the figure.
No. II. Adobe houses were built by Maj. J. W. Wham, Indian agent (now
paymaster, United States Army), on the Platte River, about 30 miles below
Fort Laramie.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Major-Wham’s-house-built-on-Platte-River
winter.”
1872-’73.—No. I. Whistler, also named Little-Bull, and two other Oglálas,
were killed by white hunters on the Republican River.
No. II. Antoine Janis’s two boys were killed by Joe (John?) Richard.
White Cow-Killer calls it “Stay-at-plenty-ash-wood winter.”
1873-’74.—No. I. The Oglálas killed the Indian agent’s (Seville’s) clerk
inside the stockade of the Red Cloud Agency, at Fort Robinson, Nebraska.
No. II. They killed many Pawnees on the Republican River.
1874-’75.—No. I. The Oglálas at the Red Cloud Agency, near Fort
Robinson, Nebraska, cut to pieces the flag staff which their agent had had
cut and hauled, but which they would not allow him to erect, as they did not
wish to have a flag flying over their agency. This was in 1874. The flag
which the agent intended to hoist is now at the Pine Ridge Agency, Dakota.
No. II. The Utes stole all of the Brulé horses.
1875-’76.—No. I. The first stock cattle were issued to them. The figure
represents a cow or spotted buffalo, surrounded by people. The gesture-sign
also signifies spotted buffalo.
No. II. Seven of Red-Cloud’s band were killed by the Crows.

White-Cow-Killer calls it “Five-Dakotas-killed winter.”
1876-’77.—No. I. The Oglálas helped General Mackenzie to whip the
Cheyennes. The Indian’s head represents the man who was the first to enter
the Cheyenne village. The white man holding up three fingers is General
Mackenzie, who is placed upon the head of the Dakota to indicate that the
Dakotas backed or assisted him. The other white man is General Crook, or
Three Stars, as indicated by the three stars above him.
[This designation might be suggested from the uniform, but General Crook
did not probably wear during the year mentioned or for a long time before it
the uniform either of his rank as major-general of volunteers or as brevet
major-general in the Army, and by either of those ranks he was entitled to
but two stars on his shoulder-straps.]
No. II. Three-Stars (General Crook) took Red-Cloud’s young men to help
him fight the Cheyennes. A red cloud, indicating the chief’s name, is
represented above his head.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “General-Mackenzie-took-the-Red-Cloud-
Indians’-horses-away-from-them winter.”

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. LI
1877-’78.

1878-’79.
THE CORBUSIER WINTER COUNTS.

1877-’78.—No. I. A soldier ran a bayonet into Crazy-Horse, and killed him
in the guard-house, at Fort Robinson, Nebraska (September 5, 1877).
No. II. Crazy-Horse’s band left the Spotted Tail Agency (at Camp Sheridan,
Nebraska), and went north, after Crazy-Horse was killed at Fort Robinson,
Nebraska. Hoof-prints and lodge-pole tracks run northward from the house,
which represents the Agency. That the horse is crazy is shown by the waved
or spiral lines on his body, running from his nose, foot, and forehead.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Crazy-Horse-killed winter.”
1878-’79.—No. I. Wagons were given to them.
No. II. The Cheyenne who boasted that he was bullet and arrow proof was
killed by white soldiers, near Fort Robinson, Nebraska, in the intrenchments
behind which the Cheyennes were defending themselves after they had
escaped from the fort.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Wagons-given-to-the-Dakota-Indians winter.”

NOTIFICATION.
This is an important division of the purposes for which pictographs are used.
The pictographs and the objective devices antecedent to pictographs under
this head that have come immediately to the writer’s attention, may be
grouped as follows: 1st. Notice of departure, direction, etc. 2d. Notice of
condition, suffering, etc. 3d. Warning and guidance. 4th. Charts of geographic
features. 5th. Claim or demand. 6th. Messages or communications. 7th.
Record of expedition.

NOTICE OF DEPARTURE AND DIRECTION.

Fig. 47.—Alaskan notice of hunt.

Dr. W. J. Hoffman obtained the original of the accompanying drawing, Fig.
47, from Naumoff an Alaskan native, in San Francisco, California, in 1882,
also the interpretation, with text in the Kiatexamut dialect of the Innuit
language.
The drawing was in imitation of similar ones made by the natives, to inform
their visitors or friends of their departure for a certain purpose. They are
depicted upon strips of wood which are placed in conspicuous places near the
doors of the habitations.
Dr. Hoffman has published a brief account of this drawing as well as the
succeeding one, in the Trans. Anthrop. Soc. Washington, II, 1883, p. 134, Fig.
3, and p. 132, Fig 2.
The spelling adopted in the Innuit text, following in each case the explanation
of characters, is in accordance with the system now used by the Bureau of
Ethnology.

The following is the explanation of the characters:
1. The speaker, with the right hand indicating himself, and with the left
pointing in the direction to be taken.
2. Holding a boat paddle—going by boat.
3. The right hand to the side of the head, to denote sleep, and the left elevated
with one finger elevated to signify one—one night.
4. A circle with two marks in the middle, signifying an island with huts upon
it.
5. Same as No. 1.
6. A circle to denote another island.
7. Same as No. 3, with an additional finger elevated, signifying two—two
nights.
8. The speaker with his harpoon, making the sign of a sea lion with the left
hand. The flat hand is held edgewise with the thumb elevated, then pushed
outward from the body in a slightly downward curve.
9. A sea lion.
10. Shooting with bow and arrow.
11. The boat with two persons in it, the paddles projecting downward.
12. The winter, or permanent habitation of the speaker.
The following is the text in the Aigaluxamut dialect, with an interlinear
translation:
Hui ta-wá-ut ai-wí-xa-na kui-gí-qta-mŭn a-xi-lú-mŭk ka-wá-xa-lú-a,
I there go (with boat) that island one sleep there,
(to that place)

tca-lí hui ai-wí-lu-a a-xá-mŭn kui-gí-qta-mŭn, ta-wá-ni ma-lú-qnŭk
then I go another that island, there two
(indicated)

ka-wá-xa-lú-a, hui pĭ-qlú-a a-xĭ-lú-mŭk’ wi-na-mŭk tca-lí a-ni-xlú-a
sleeps I catch one sea lion then return
(nights)

nú-nan m’nun.
(to) place mine.
The following is of a similar nature, and was obtained under circumstances
similar to the preceding.

Fig. 48.—Alaskan notice of departure.

The explanation of the above characters is as follows:
1, 3, 5, 7, represent the person spoken to.
2. Indicates the speaker with his right hand to the side or breast, indicating
self, the left hand pointing in the direction in which he is going.
4. Both hands elevated, with fingers and thumbs signifies many, according to
the informant. When the hands are thus held up, in sign-language, it signifies
ten, but when they are brought toward and backward from one another, many.
6. The right hand is placed to the head to denote sleep—many sleeps, or, in
other words, many nights and days; the left hand points downward, at that
place.
8. The right hand is directed toward the starting point, while the left is
brought upward toward the head—to go home, or whence he came.
The following is the text in the same dialect last mentioned, with, translation:
Hui a-qtcí-kua a-xlá mŭn nu-ná-mŭn, am-lić-ka-mŭ´-ik ha-wá-xa-lu-a,
I go (to) another place, many sleeps
(settlement) (nights)

ta-wá-nĭ, tca-lĭ´ hui a-ni-qlú-a.
there, then I return.
The drawing presented in Figure 49 was made by a native Alaskan, and
represents information to the effect that the artist contemplates making a
journey to hunt deer. The drawing is made upon a narrow strip of wood, and

placed somewhere about the door of the house, where visitors will readily
perceive it.

Fig. 49.—Alaskan notice of hunt.

1. Represents the contour lines of the country and mountain peaks.
2. Native going away from home.
3. Stick placed on hill-top, with bunch of grass attached, pointing in the
direction he has taken.
4. Native of another settlement, with whom the traveler remained over night.
5. Lodge.
6. Line representing the end of the first day, i. e., the time between two days;
rest.
7. Traveler again on the way.
8. Making signal that on second day (right hand raised with two extended
fingers) he saw game (deer, 9) on a hill-top, which he secured, so terminating
his journey.
9. Deer.
Figures 50, 51, and 52 were drawn by Naumoff, under the circumstances
above mentioned, and signify “Have gone home.”

Fig. 50.—Alaskan notice of direction.

His explanation of Figure 50 is as follows:
When one of a hunting party is about to return home and wishes to inform his
companions that he has set out on such return, he ascends the hill-top nearest
to which they became separated, where he ties a bunch of grass or other light

colored material to the top of a long stick or pole. The lower end of the stick
is placed firmly in the ground, leaning in the direction taken. When another
hill is ascended, another stick with similar attachment is erected, again
leaning in the direction to be taken. These sticks are placed at proper intervals
until the village is sighted. This device is employed by Southern Alaskan
Indians.

Fig. 51.—Alaskan notice of direction.

He also explained Figure 51 as follows:
Seal hunters adopt the following method of informing their comrades that
they have returned to the settlement. The first to return to the regular landing
place sometimes sticks a piece of wood into the ground, leaning toward the
village, upon which is drawn or scratched the out-line of a baidarka, or skin
canoe, heading toward one or more outlines of lodges, signifying that the
occupants of the boat have gone toward their homes. This is resorted to when
the voyage has been a dangerous one, and is intended to inform their
companions of the safe arrival of some of the party.
This device is used by coast natives of Southern Alaska and Kadiak.

Fig. 52.—Alaskan notice of direction.

He also explained Figure 52 as follows:
When hunters become separated, the one first returning to the forks of the
trail puts a piece of wood in the ground, on the top of which he makes an
incision, into which a short piece of wood is secured horizontally, so as to
point in the direction taken by the individual.
The following instance is taken from the Narrative of an Expedition to the
Source of St. Peter’s River, * * under the command of Stephen H. Long,
major U. S. Top. Eng. [commonly known as Keating’s Long’s Expedition].
Philadelphia, 1824. Vol. I, p. 217.
When we stopped, says Major Long, to dine, White Thunder, (the
Winnebago chief that accompanied me,) suspecting that the rest of
his party were in the neighborhood, requested a piece of paper,
pen and ink, to communicate to them the intelligence of his
having come up with me. He then seated himself and drew three
rude figures, which at my request he explained to me. The first
represented my boat with a mast and flag, with three benches of
oars and a helmsman; to show that we were Americans, our heads
were represented by a rude cross, indicating that we wore hats.

The representation of himself was a rude figure of a bear over a
kind of cypher representing a hunting ground. The second figure
was designed to show that his wife was with him; the device was
a boat with a squaw seated in it; over her head lines were drawn in
a zigzag direction, indicating that she was the wife of White
Thunder. The third was a boat with a bear sitting at the helm,
showing that an Indian of that name had been seen on his way up
the river, and had given intelligence where the party were. This
paper he set up at the mouth of Kickapoo Creek, up which the
party had gone on a hunting trip.
The following is extracted from an Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh
to the Rocky Mountains, * * under the command of Major Stephen H. Long
[commonly known as James’ Long’s Expedition]. Philadelphia, 1823. Vol. I,
p. 478.
At a little distance [on the bank of the Platte River], in front of the
entrance of this breastwork, was a semicircular row of sixteen
bison skulls, with their noses pointing down the river. Near the
center of the circle which this row would describe, if continued,
was another skull marked with a number of red lines.
Our interpreter informed us that this arrangement of skulls and
other marks here discovered, were designed to communicate the
following information, namely, that the camp had been occupied
by a war party of the Skeeree or Pawnee Loup Indians, who had
lately come from an excursion against the Cumancias, Ietans, or
some of the western tribes. The number of red lines traced on the
painted skull indicated the number of the party to have been
thirty-six; the position in which the skulls were placed, that they
were on their return to their own country. Two small rods stuck in
the ground, with a few hairs tied in two parcels to the end of each,
signified that four scalps had been taken.
When a hunting party of the Hidatsa has arrived at any temporary camping
ground, from which point a portion of the members might leave on a short
reconnoitering expedition, the remainder, upon leaving for a time, will erect a
pole and cause it to lean in the direction taken. At the foot of this pole a
buffalo shoulder-blade or other flat bone is placed, upon which is depicted the
object causing departure. For instance, should buffalo or antelope be

discovered, an animal of the character sighted is rudely drawn with a piece of
charred wood or red lead, the latter being a substance in the possession of
nearly every warrior to use in facial decoration, etc.
When a Hidatsa party has gone on the war path, and a certain number is
detailed to take another direction, the point of separation is taken as the
rendezvous. After the return of the first party to the rendezvous, should the
second not come up in a reasonable length of time, they will set sticks in the
ground leaning in the direction to be taken, and notches are cut into the upper
ends of the sticks to represent the number of nights spent there by the waiting
party.
A party of Hidatsa who may be away from home for any purpose whatever
often appoint a rendezvous, from which point they return to their respective
lodges. Should an individual return to the rendezvous before any others and
wish to make a special trip for game or plunder, he will, for the information of
the others, place a stick of about 3 or 4 feet in length in the ground, upon the
upper end of which a notch is cut, or perhaps split, for the reception of a
thinner piece of twig or branch having a length of about a foot. This
horizontal top piece is inserted at one end, so that the whole may point in the
direction to be taken. Should the person wish to say that the trail would turn at
a right angle, to either side, at about one-half the distance of the whole
journey in prospect, the horizontal branch is either bent in that direction or a
naturally-curved branch is selected having the turn at the middle of its entire
length, thus corresponding to the turn in the trail. Any direction can be
indicated by curves in the top branch.

NOTICE OF CONDITION.

According to Masta, chief of the Abnaki, members of that tribe remove the
bark of trees in prominent places to denote that the inhabitants of the nearest
lodge are in a starving condition.
The Ottawa and the Potawatomi Indians indicate hunger and starvation by
drawing a black line across the breast or stomach of the figure of a man. (See
Fig. 145, page 221.) This drawing is placed upon a piece of wood, either
incised or with a mixture of powdered charcoal and glue water, or red ocher.
This is then attached to a tree or fastened to a piece of wood, and erected near

the lodge on a trail, where it will be observed by passers by, who are expected
to alleviate the sufferings of the native who erected the notice.
Figure 53 illustrates information with regard to distress in another village,
which occasioned the departure of the party giving the notification. The
drawing was made for Dr. W. J. Hoffman, in 1882, by Naumoff, in imitation
of drawings prepared by Alaska natives. The designs are traced upon a strip of
wood, which is then stuck upon the roof of the house belonging to the
recorder.

Fig. 53.—Alaskan notice of distress.

1. The summer habitation, showing a stick leaning in the direction to be
taken.
2. The baidarka, containing the residents of the house. The first person is
observed pointing forward, indicating that they “go by boat to the other
settlement.”
3. A grave stick, indicating a death in the settlement.
4, 5. Summer and winter habitations, denoting a village.
The drawing, Figure 54, made for Dr. Hoffman in 1882, by a native, in
imitation of originals in Alaska, is intended to be placed in a conspicuous
portion of a settlement which has been attacked by a hostile force and finally
deserted. The last one to leave prepares the drawing upon a strip of wood to
inform friends of the resort of the survivors.

Fig. 54.—Alaskan notice of departure and refuge.

1. Represents three hills or ranges, signifying that the course taken would
carry them beyond that number of hills or mountains.

2. The recorder, indicating the direction, with the left hand pointing to the
ground, one hill, and the right hand indicating the number two, the number
still to be crossed.
3. A circular piece of wood or leather, with the representation of a face, placed
upon a pole and facing the direction to be taken from the settlement. In this
instance the drawing of the character denotes a hostile attack upon the town,
for which misfortune such devices are sometimes erected.
4, 5. Winter and summer habitations.
6. Store-house, erected upon upright poles.
This device is used by Alaska coast natives generally.
In connection with these figures reference may be made to a paper by the
present writer in the First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 369,
showing the devices of the Abnaki.
Dr. George Gibbs (Contributions to N. A. Ethnology, Vol. I, p. 222) says of
“symbolic writing” of the northwest tribes:
I am not aware how far this may be carried among the Sound
tribes. Probably there is no great essential difference between
them and their neighbors of the plains in this art. It may perhaps
be best explained by an example given me by a veteran
mountaineer, Dr. Robert Newell, of Champoeg. A party of Snakes
are going to hunt strayed horses. A figure of a man, with a long
queue, or scalp lock, reaching to his heels, denoted Shoshonee;
that tribe being in the habit of braiding horse- or other hair into
their own in that manner. A number of marks follow, signifying
the strength of the party. A foot-print, pointed in the direction they
take, shows their course, and a hoof-mark turned backward, that
they expect to return with animals. If well armed, and expecting a
possible attack, a little powder mixed with sand tells that they are
ready, or a square dotted about the figures indicates that they have
fortified.
The design shown in Figure 55 is in imitation of etchings made by natives of
Southern Alaska to convey to the observer the information that the recorder
had gone away to another settlement the inhabitants of which were in distress.

The drawings were put on a strip of wood and placed at the door of the house
where it might be seen by visitors or inquirers.

Fig. 55.—Notice of departure to relieve distress. Alaska.

Naumoff gave the following explanation:
1. A native making the gesture of indicating self with the right hand, and with
the left indicating direction and going.
2. The native’s habitation.
3. Scaffold used for drying fish. Upon the top of the pole is placed a piece of
wood tied so that the longest end points in the direction to be taken by the
recorder.
4. The baidarka conveying the recorder.
5. A native of the settlement to be visited.
6. Summer habitation.
7. “Shaman stick” or grave stick, erected to the memory of a recently
deceased person, the cause of which has necessitated the journey of the
recorder.
8. Winter habitation. This, together with No. 6, indicates a settlement.
Fig. 56, also drawn by Naumoff, means “ammunition wanted.”
When a hunter is tracking game, and exhausts his
ammunition, he returns to the nearest and most
conspicuous part of the trail and sticks his ihúnŭk
in the ground, the top leaning in the direction
taken. The ihúnŭk is the pair of sticks arranged
like the letter A, used as a gun-rest. This method
of transmitting the request to the first passer is
resorted to by the greater number of coast natives
Fig. 56.—Ammunition wanted.
of Southern Alaska. Alaska.

Fig. 57, also drawn by Naumoff, means “discovery of bear; assistance
wanted.”
When a hunter discovers a bear, and requires assistance, he ties
together a bunch of grass, or other fibrous matter, in the form
of an animal with legs, and places it upon a long stick or pole
which is erected at a conspicuous point to attract attention. The
head of the effigy is directed toward the locality where the
animal was last seen.
This device is also used at times by most of the Southern
Alaskan Indians.
Fig. 57.—
Figure 58 was also drawn by Naumoff, and signifies “starving Assistance
hunters.” wanted in hunt.
Alaska.

Fig. 58.—Starving hunters. Alaska.

Hunters who have been unfortunate, and are suffering from hunger, scratch or
draw upon a piece of wood characters similar to those figured, and place the
lower end of the stick in the ground on the trail where the greatest chance of
its discovery occurs. The stick is inclined toward the locality of the habitation.
The accompanying explanation will serve to illustrate more fully the
information contained in the drawing.
1. A horizontal line denoting a canoe, showing the persons to be fishermen.
2. An individual with both arms extended signifying nothing, corresponding
with the gesture for negation.
3. A person with the right hand to the mouth, signifying to eat, the left hand
pointing to the house occupied by the hunters.
4. The habitation.
The whole signifies that there is nothing to eat in the house. This is used by
natives of Southern Alaska.

Fig. 59.—Starving hunters. Alaska.

Figure 59, with the same signification, and from the same hand, is similar to
the preceding in general design. This is placed in the ground near the landing
place of the canoemen, so that the top points toward the lodge.
The following is the explanation of the characters:
1. Baidarka, showing double projections at bow, as well as the two
individuals, owners, in the boat.
2. A man making the gesture for nothing. (See in this connection Figure 155,
page 235.)
3. Gesture drawn, denoting to eat, with the right hand, while the left points to
the lodge.
4. A winter habitation.
This is used by the Alaskan coast natives.

WARNING AND GUIDANCE.

An amusing instance of the notice or warning of “No thoroughfare” is given
on page 383 of the present writer’s paper, Sign Language among North
American Indians, in the First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology. It
was taken from a rock-etching in Cañon de Chelly, New Mexico. A graphic
warning against trespass appears in Schoolcraft, Vol. I, Plate 48, Figure B, op.
page 338.
During his connection with the geographic surveys west of the one hundredth
meridian under the direction of Capt. G. M. Wheeler, U. S. Army, Dr.
Hoffman observed a practice which prevailed among the Tivátikai Shoshoni,
of Nevada, in which heaps of stones were erected along or near trails to
indicate the direction to be taken and followed to reach springs of water.

Upon slight elevations of ground, or at points where a trail branched into two
or more directions, or at the intersection of two trails, a heap of stones would
be placed, varying from 1 to 2 or more feet in height, according to the
necessity of the case, to attract attention. Upon the top of this would be fixed
an elongated piece of rock so placed that the most conspicuous point
projected and pointed in the course to be followed. This was continued
sometimes at intervals of several miles unless indistinct portions of a trail or
intersections demanded a repetition at shorter distances.
A knowledge of the prevalence of this custom proved very beneficial to the
early prospectors and pioneers.
Stone circles and stone heaps of irregular form were also met with, which to a
casual observer might be misleading. These resulted from previous deposits
of edible pine nuts, which had been heaped upon the ground and covered over
with stones, grass, and earth to prevent their destruction by birds and rodents.
These deposits were placed along the trails in the timbered regions to afford
sustenance to Indians who had failed in the hunt, or who might not reach
camp in time to prevent suffering from hunger.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. LXXX
ROCK PAINTINGS IN AZUZA CAÑON, CALIFORNIA.

Plate LXXX (A, B, C) represents colored pictographs found by Dr. Hoffman
in 1884 on the North Fork of the San Gabriel River, also known as the Azuza
Cañon, Los Angeles County, California. Its description is as follows:
A and B are copies, one-sixteenth natural size, of rock painting found in the
Azuza Cañon, 30 miles northeast of Los Angeles, California.
The bowlder upon which the paintings occur measures 8 feet long, about 4
feet high, and the same in width. The figures occur on the eastern side of the
rock, so that the left arm of the human figure on the right points toward the
north.
The map (C) at the bottom of the plate presents the topography of the
immediate vicinity and the relative positions of the rocks bearing the two
illustrations. The map is drawn on a scale of 1,000 yards to the inch.
The stream is the North Fork of the San Gabriel River, and is hemmed in by
precipitous mountains, with the exception of two points marked c, c, over
which the old Indian trail passed in going from the Mojave Desert on the
north to the San Gabriel Valley below, this course being the nearest for
reaching the mission settlements at San Gabriel and Los Angeles. In
attempting to follow the water-course the distance would be greatly increased
and a rougher trail encountered. The pictograph A, painted on the rock
marked b on the map C, shows characters in pale yellow, upon a bowlder of
almost white granite, which are partly obliterated by weathering and annual
floods, though still enough remains to indicate that the right-hand figure is
directing the observer to the northeast, although upon taking that course it
would be necessary to round the point a short distance to the west. It may
have been placed as a notification of direction to those Indians who might
have come up the cañon instead of on the regular trail. Farther west, at the
spot marked a on the map, is a granite bowlder bearing a large number of
paintings part of which have become almost obliterated. These were drawn
with red ocher (ferric oxide). A selection of these is shown in B on the plate.
This is on the western face of the rock, almost vertical. This also appears to
refer to the course of the trail, which might readily be lost on account of the
numerous mountain ridges and spurs. The left-hand figure appears to place
the left hand upon a series of ridges, as if showing pantomimically the rough
and ridged country over the mountains.
The middle figure represents gesture, which in its present connection may
indicate direction, of the trail, i. e., toward the left, or northward in an up-hill

course, as indicated by the arm and leg, and southward, or downward, as
suggested by the lower inclination of the leg, and lower forearm and hand on
the right of the illustration.
The right-hand figure, although similar in manner of delineating gesture and
general resemblance to the Shoshonian method, is not yet determined in that
connection.
These illustrations, as well as other pictographs on the same rock, not at
present submitted, bear remarkable resemblance to the general type of
Shoshonian drawing, and from such evidence as is now attainable it appears
more than probable that they are of Chemehuevi origin, as that tribe at one
time ranged thus far west, though north of the mountains, and also visited the
valley and settlements at Los Angeles at stated intervals to trade. It is also
known that the Mojaves came at stated periods to Los Angeles as late as
1845, and the trail indicated at point a of the map would appear to have been
their most practicable and convenient route. There is strong evidence that the
Mokis sometimes visited the Pacific coast and might readily have taken this
same course, marking the important portion of the route by drawings in the
nature of guide boards.

CHARTS OF GEOGRAPHIC FEATURES.

Dr. W. J. Hoffman states that when at Grapevine Springs, Nevada, in 1871,
the Pai-Uta living at that locality informed the party of the exact location of
Las Vegas, the objective point. The Indian sat upon the sand, and with the
palms of his hands formed an oblong ridge to represent Spring Mountain, and
southeast of this ridge another gradual slope, terminating on the eastern side
more abruptly; over the latter he passed his fingers to represent the side
valleys running eastward. He then took a stick and showed the direction of the
old Spanish trail running east and west over the lower portion of the last-
named ridge.
When this was completed the Indian looked at the members of the party, and
with a mixture of English, Spanish, Pai-Uta, and gesture signs, told them that
from where they were now they would have to go southward, east of Spring
Mountain, to the camp of Pai-Uta Charlie, where they would have to sleep;
then indicating a line southeastward to another spring (Stump’s) to complete
the second day; then he followed the line representing the Spanish trail to the

east of the divide of the second ridge above named, where he left it, and
passing northward to the first valley, he thrust the short stick into the ground
and said, “Las Vegas.”
It is needless to say that the information was found to be correct and of
considerable value to the party.
Schoolcraft (Vol. I, p. 334, Pl. 47, Fig. B) mentions that the discovery, on one
of the tributaries of the Susquehanna River, “of an Indian map drawn on
stone, with intermixed devices, a copy of which appears in the first volume of
the collections of the Historical Committee of the American Philosophical
Society, Philadelphia, proves, although it is thus far isolated, that stone was
also employed in that branch of inscription. This discovery was in the area
occupied by the Lenapees, who are known to have practiced the art, which
they called Ola Walum.”
The Tegua Pueblos, of New Mexico, “traced upon the ground a sketch of their
country, with the names and locations of the pueblos occupied in New
Mexico,” a copy of which, “somewhat improved,” is given in Vol. III, Pacific
R. R. Explorations, 1856, Part III, pp. 9, 10.
A Yuma map of the Colorado River, with the names and locations of tribes
within its valley, is also figured in the last mentioned volume, page 19. The
map was originally traced upon the ground.
A Pai-Uta map of the Colorado River is also figured in the same connection,
which was obtained by Lieutenant Whipple and party.

Fig. 60.—Lean-Wolf’s map. Hidatsa.

Lean-Wolf, of the Hidatsa, who drew the picture of which Figure 60 is a fac-
simile, made a trip on foot from Fort Berthold to Fort Buford, Dakota, to steal
a horse from the Dakotas encamped there. The returning horse tracks show
that he attained the object in view, and that he rode home. The following
explanation of characters was made to Dr. Hoffman, at Fort Berthold, in 1881:
1. Lean-Wolf, the head only of a man to which is attached the outline of a
wolf.
2. Hidatsa earth lodges, circular in form, the spots representing the pillars
supporting the roof. Indian village at Fort Berthold, Dakota.
3. Human footprints; the course taken by the recorder.
4. The Government buildings at Fort Buford (square).
5. Several Hidatsa lodges (round), the occupants of which had inter-married
with the Dakotas.
6. Dakota lodges.
7. A small square—a white man’s house—with a cross marked upon it, to
represent a Dakota lodge. This denotes that the owner, a white man, had

married a Dakota woman who dwelt there.
8. Horse tracks returning to Fort Berthold.
9. The Missouri River.
10. Tule Creek.
11. Little Knife River.
12. White Earth River.
13. Muddy Creek.
14. Yellowstone River.
15. Little Missouri River.
16. Dancing Beard Creek.

CLAIM OR DEMAND.

Stephen Powers states that the Nishinam of California have a curious way of
collecting debts. “When an Indian owes another, it is held to be in bad taste, if
not positively insulting, for the creditor to dun the debtor, as the brutal Saxon
does; so he devises a more subtle method. He prepares a certain number of
little sticks, according to the amount of the debt, and paints a ring around the
end of each. These he carries and tosses into the delinquent’s wigwam without
a word and goes his way; whereupon the other generally takes the hint, pays
the debt, and destroys the sticks.” See Contrib. to N. A. Ethnology, Vol. III,
321.
Dr. W. J. Hoffman says, “When a patient has neglected to remunerate the
Shaman [Wĭktcŏm´nĭ´ of the Yokŏtsan linguistic division] for his services, the
latter prepares short sticks of wood, with bands of colored porcupine quills
wrapped around them, at one end only, and every time he passes the
delinquent’s lodge a certain number of them are thrown in as a reminder of
the indebtedness.” See San Francisco (Cal.) Western Lancet, XI, 1882, p. 443.

MESSAGES AND COMMUNICATIONS.

Fig. 61.—Letter to Little-Man from his father. Cheyenne.

Figure 61 is a letter sent by mail from a Southern Cheyenne, named Turtle-
following-his-Wife, at the Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency, Indian Territory, to
his son, Little-Man, at the Pine Ridge Agency, Dakota Territory. It was drawn
on a half-sheet of ordinary writing paper, without a word written. It was
inclosed in an envelope, which was addressed to “Little-Man, Cheyenne, Pine
Ridge Agency,” in the ordinary manner, written by some one at the first-
named agency. The letter was evidently understood by Little-Man, as he
immediately called upon Dr. V. T. McGillycuddy, Indian agent at Pine Ridge
Agency, and was aware that the sum of $53 had been placed to his credit for
the purpose of enabling him to pay his expenses in going the long journey to
his father’s home in Indian Territory. Dr. McGillycuddy had, by the same
mail, received a letter from Agent Dyer, inclosing $53, and explaining the
reason for its being sent, which enabled him also to understand the

pictographic letter. With the above explanation it very clearly shows, over the
head of the figure to the left, the turtle following the turtle’s wife united with
the head of the figure by a line, and over the head of the other figure, also
united by a line to it, is a little man. Also over the right arm of the last-
mentioned figure is another little man in the act of springing or advancing
toward Turtle-following-his-Wife, from whose mouth proceed two lines,
curved or hooked at the end, as if drawing the little figure towards him. It is
suggested that the last-mentioned part of the pictograph is the substance of the
communication, i. e., “come to me,” the larger figures with their name totems
being the persons addressed and addressing. Between and above the two large
figures are fifty-three round objects intended for dollars. Both the Indian
figures have on breech-cloths, corresponding with the information given
concerning them, which is that they are Cheyennes who are not all civilized
or educated.
The illustration, Figure 62, was made by a native Alaskan, and represents a
native of the Teninahs making a smoke signal to the people of the village on
the opposite shore of a lake, so that a boat may be sent to carry the signalist
across. The K’niqamūt band of the Tenina have no boats, as they live inland,
and therefore resort to signaling with smoke when desiring transportation. On
account of this custom they are termed “Signal People.” If the pictograph
could be transmitted in advance of the necessity, the actual use of the smoke
signal, with consequent delay in obtaining the boat, would be avoided.

Fig. 62.—Drawing of smoke signal. Alaska.

1. Represents the mountain contour of the country.
2. A Tenina Indian.
3. Column of smoke.
4. Bird’s-eye view of the lake.
5. The settlement on opposite shore of lake.
6. Boat crossing for the signalist.

Under this head of messages and communications may be included the
material objects sent as messages, many accounts of which are published. It is
to be expected that graphic representations of the same or similar objects,
with corresponding arrangement, should have similar significance. Among the
Indians painted arrows, bearing messages when discharged, are familiar. The
Turkish Selam, or flower letters, are in the same category.
The following account of a “diplomatic packet” is extracted from Schoolcraft,
Vol. III, p. 306, et seq.:
In the month of August, 1852, a message reached the President of
the United States, by a delegation of the Pueblos of Tesuque in
New Mexico, offering him friendship and intercommunication;
and opening, symbolically, a road from the Moqui country to
Washington. * * *
This unique diplomatic packet consists of several articles of
symbolic import. The first is the official and ceremonial offer of
the peace-pipe. This is symbolized by a joint of the maize, five
and a half inches long, and half an inch in diameter. The hollow of
the tube is filled by leaves of a plant which represents tobacco. It
is stopped to secure the weed from falling out, by the downy
yellow under plumage of some small bird. Externally, around the
center of the stalk, is a tie of white cotton twisted string of four
strands, (not twisted by the distaff,) holding, at its end, a small tuft
of the before-mentioned downy yellow feathers, and a small wiry
feather of the same species. The interpreter has written on this,
“The pipe to be smoked by the President.” * * The object is
represented in the cut, A, [represented in Figure 63.]

Fig. 63.—Part of diplomatic packet.

The second symbol consists of two small columnar round pieces
of wood, four and a half inches long, and four-tenths in diameter,
terminating in a cone. The cone is one and a half inches long, and
is colored black; the rest of the pieces are blue; a peace color
among the Indians south, it seems, as well as north. This color has
the appearance of being produced by the carbonate of copper
mixed with aluminous earth; and reminds one strongly of the blue
clays of the Dacotahs. The wood, when cut, is white, compact,
and of a peculiar species. A notch is cut at one end of one of the
pieces, and colored yellow. A shuck of the maize, one end of
which, rolled in the shape of a cone, is bound up by cotton strings,
with a small bird’s feather, in the manner of the symbolic pipe.
There is also tied up with the symbolic sticks, one of the
secondary feathers and bits of down of a bird of dingy color. The
feather is naturally tipped with white. Together with this, the tie
holds a couple of sticks of a native plant or small seed of the
prairie grass, perhaps. It may, together with the husk of the maize,
be emblematic of their cultivation. The whole of the tie represents
the Moquis. The following cut, B, [reproduced in Figure 64,]
represents this symbol:

Fig. 64.—Part of diplomatic packet.

Fig. 65.—Part of diplomatic packet.

The third object is, in every respect, like B, [reproduced in Figure
64,] and symbolizes the President of the United States. A colored
cotton cord, four feet long, unites these symbols. Six inches of
this cord is small and white. At the point of its being tied to the
long colored cord there is a bunch of small bird’s feathers. This
bunch, which symbolizes the geographical position of the
Navajoes, with respect to Washington, consists of the feathers of
six species, the colors which are pure white, blue, brown, mottled,
yellow, and dark, like the pigeon-hawk, and white, tipped with
brown. (See the preceding cut, C.)

The interpreter appends to these material effigies or devices
[which are arranged as in D, reproduced in Figure 66] the
following remarks.

Fig. 66.—Part of diplomatic packet.

“These two figures represent the Moqui people and the President;
the cord is the road which separates them; the feather tied to the
cord is the meeting point; that part of the cord which is white is
intended to signify the distance between the President and the
place of meeting; and that part which is stained is the distance
between the Moqui and the same point. Your Excellency will
perceive that the distance between the Moqui and place of
meeting is short, while the other is very long.
“The last object of this communication from the high plains of
New Mexico, is the most curious, and the most strongly indicative
of the wild, superstitious notions of the Moqui mind. It consists of
a small quantity of wild honey, wrapped up in a wrapper or inner
fold of the husk of the maize, as represented in E, [reproduced in
Figure 67.] It is accompanied by these remarks:
“A charm to call down rain from heaven.—To produce the effect
desired, the President must take a piece of the shuck which
contains the wild honey, chew it, and spit it upon the ground
which needs rain; and the Moquis assure him that it will come.”

Fig. 67.—Part of diplomatic packet.

The Maori used a kind of hieroglyphical or symbolical way of
communication; a chief inviting another to join in a war party sent a tattooed
potato and a fig of tobacco bound up together, which was interpreted to mean
that the enemy was a Maori and not European by the tattoo, and by the
tobacco that it represented smoke; he therefore roasted the one and eat it, and
smoked the other, to show he accepted the invitation, and would join him with
his guns and powder. Another sent a water-proof coat with the sleeves made
of patchwork, red, blue, yellow, and green, intimating that they must wait
until all the tribes were united before their force would be water-proof, i. e.,
able to encounter the European. Another chief sent a large pipe, which would
hold a pound of tobacco, which was lighted in a large assembly, the emissary
taking the first whiff, and then passing it round; whoever smoked it showed
that he joined in the war. See Te Ika a Maui, by Rev. Richard Taylor, London,
1870.

RECORD OF EXPEDITION.

Under this head, many illustrations of which might be given besides several
in this paper, see account of colored pictographs in Santa Barbara County,
California, page 34 et seq., Plates I and II, also Lean-Wolf’s trip, Figure 60,
page 158. Also, Figures 135 and 136, pages 214 and 215.

TOTEMIC.
This is one of the most striking of the special uses to which pictography has
been applied by the North American Indians. For convenience, the
characters may be divided into: First, tribal; Second, gentile; and Third,
personal designations.

TRIBAL DESIGNATIONS.

A large number of these graphic distinctions are to be found in the Dakota
Winter Counts.
Rev. J. Owen Dorsey reports that the Tsi[c]u side of the Osage tribe, when
on a war party, have the face painted red, with mud upon the cheek, below
the left eye, as wide as two or more fingers.
The Hañka side of the tribe paint the face red, with a spot of mud upon the
right cheek, below the eye, as wide as two or more fingers.
For an ingenious method of indicating by variation of incisions on trees, the
tribal use of paint by the Absaroka and Dakota respectively, see page 62.
Figure 68 shows the tribal designation of the Kaiowa by the Dakota, taken
from the winter count of Battiste Good, 1814-’15. He calls the winter
“Smashed-a-Kaiowa’s-head-in winter.” The tomahawk with which it was
done is in contact with the Kaiowa’s head.
The sign for Kaiowa is made by passing the hands—naturally extended—in
short horizontal circles on either side of the head, and the picture is
probably drawn to represent the man in the attitude of making this gesture,
and not the involuntary raising of the hands upon receiving the blow, such
attitudes not appearing in Battiste Good’s system.

Fig. 68.—Kaiowa.

Figure 69 is the tribal sign of the Arikara made by the Dakotas, taken from
the winter count of Battiste Good for the year 1823-’24, which he calls
“General-——-first-appeared-and-the-Dakotas-aided-in-an-attack-on-the-
Rees winter”; also “Much-corn winter.”
The gun and the arrow in contact with the ear of corn
show that both whites and Indians fought the Rees.
The ear of corn signifies “Ree” or Arikara Indians,
who are designated in gesture language as “Corn
Shellers.”

Fig. 69.—Arikara.

Figure 70 is the tribal designation of the Omahas by the Dakotas, taken
from the winter count of Battiste Good.

A human head with cropped hair and red cheeks signifies
Omaha. This tribe cuts the hair short and uses red paint upon the
cheeks very extensively. This character is of frequent
occurrence in Battiste Good’s count.

Fig. 70.
Omaha.

Figure 71 is the tribal designation of the Pani by the Dakotas, taken from
Battiste Good’s winter count for the year 1704-’05.
He says: The lower legs are ornamented with slight
projections resembling the marks on the bottom of an
ear of corn [husks], and signifies Pani.
A pictograph for Cheyenne is given in Figure 78,
page 173, with some remarks.

Fig. 71.—Pani.

Figure 72 is the tribal designation for Assiniboine by the Dakotas from
winter count of Battiste Good for the year 1709-’10.
The Dakota pictorial sign for Assiniboine or Hohe, which means the voice,
or, as some say, the voice of the musk-ox, is the outline of the vocal organs,
as they conceive them, and represents the upper lip and roof of the mouth,
the tongue, the lower lip, and chin and neck. The view is lateral, and
resembles the sectional aspect of the mouth and tongue.

Fig. 72.—
Assiniboin
e.

Figure 73 is the tribal designation of the Gros Ventres, by the same tribe and
on the same authority.
Two Gros Ventres were killed on the ice by
the Dakotas in 1789-’90. The two are
designated by two spots of blood on the ice,
and killed is expressed by the blood-tipped
arrow against the figure of the man above.
The long hair, with the red forehead, denotes
the Gros Ventre. The red forehead illustrates
the manner of applying war paint, and
Fig. 73.—Gros Ventre.
applies, also, to the Arikara and Absaroka
Indians, in other Dakota records. The
horizontal blue band signifies ice.
Stephen Powers says (Contrib. to N. A. Ethnology, III, p. 109) the Mattoal,
of California, differ from other tribes in that the men tattoo. “Their
distinctive mark is a round blue spot in the center of the forehead.”
He adds: Among the Mattoal—
The women tattoo pretty much, all over their faces.
In respect to this matter of tattooing there is a theory entertained
by some old pioneers which may be worth the mention. They
hold that the reason why the women alone tattoo in all other
tribes is that in case they are taken captives their own people
may be able to recognize them when there comes an opportunity
of ransom. There are two facts which give some color of
probability to this reasoning. One is that the California Indians
are rent into such infinitesimal divisions, any one of which may

be arrayed in deadly feud against another at any moment, that
the slight differences in their dialects would not suffice to
distinguish the captive squaws. A second is that the squaws
almost never attempt any ornamental tattooing, but adhere
closely to the plain regulation mark of the tribe.
Paul Marcoy, in Travels in South America, N. Y., 1875, Vol. II, page 353,
says of the Passés, Yuris, Barrés, and Chumanas, of Brazil, that they mark
their faces (in tattoo) with the totem or emblem of the nation to which they
belong. It is possible at a few steps distant to distinguish one nation from
another.

GENTILE OR CLAN DESIGNATIONS.

Rev. J. Owen Dorsey reports of the Osages that all the old men who have
been distinguished in war are painted with the decorations of their
respective gentes. That of the Tsi[c]u wactake is as follows: The face is first
whitened all over with white clay; then a red spot is made on the forehead,
and the lower part of the face is reddened; then with the fingers the man
scrapes off the white clay, forming the dark figures, by letting the natural
color of the face show through.
In Schoolcraft, V, 73, 74, it is stated that by totemic marks the various
families of the Ojibwa denote their affiliation. A guardian spirit has been
selected by the progenitor of a family from some object in the zoological
chain. The representative device of this is called the totem. A warrior’s
totem never wants honors in their reminiscences, and the mark is put on his
grave-post, or adjedatig, when he is dead. In his funeral pictograph he
invariably sinks his personal name in that of his totem or family name.
These marks are, in one sense, the surname of the clan. The personal name
is not indicative of an Indian’s totem.
The same custom, according to Rev. J. Owen Dorsey, prevails among the
Omahas; and with the exception of that portion which relates to the drawing
of the totemic mark upon the grave post the above remarks apply also to the
Dakotas, of Northern Dakota, according to the observations of Dr. Hoffman.
The Pueblos, remarked Mr. James Stevenson in a conversation with the
writer, depict the gens totems upon their various forms and styles of

ceramic manufacture. The peculiar forms of secondary decoration also
permit the article to be traced to any particular family by which it may have
been produced.

PERSONAL DESIGNATIONS.

This head may be divided into (1) Insignia, or tokens of authority. (2)
Connected with personal name. (3) Property marks. (4) Status of the
individual. (5) Signs of particular achievement.

INSIGNIA OR TOKENS OF AUTHORITY.

A large number of examples are presented in connection with other
divisions of this paper. Many more are noted in Schoolcraft, especially in
Vol. I, plates 58 and 59, following page 408. In addition the following may
be mentioned:
Figure 74 is a copy of a drawing made by Lean-Wolf, second chief of the
Hidatsa, to represent himself. The horns on his head-dress show that he is a
chief. The eagle feathers on his war-bonnet, arranged in the special manner
portrayed, also show high distinction as a warrior. His authority as
“partisan,” or leader of a war party is represented by the elevated pipe. His
name is also added with the usual line drawn from the head. He explained
the outline character of the wolf, having a white body with the mouth
unfinished, to show that it was hollow, nothing there, i. e., lean. The
animal’s tail is drawn in detail and dark to distinguish it from the body.