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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION—BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY.

A PRELIMINARY PAPER.

BY
GARRICK MALLERY.

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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[14] 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[15] 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[16] 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,[17] 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:

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[18] 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.

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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.

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.[20] 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:

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[21] 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:

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 au[22]thor 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.

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.

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:

The same author, page 377, particularly describes and illustrates one in Georgia, as follows:

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.

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.

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.

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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.

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.[25] 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.

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[26] 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.

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.

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“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.

Captain E. L. Berthoud furnished to the Kansas City Review of Science and Industry, VII, 1883, No. 8, pp. 489, 490, the following:

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.”

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[29] 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. Interpreta[30]tions of many of the separated characters of Figure 1 are presented on page 46 et seq., also in Figures 156 et seq., page 237.

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.

From information received from Mr. Alphonse Pinart, pictographic records exist in the hills east of San Bernardino, somewhat resembling[31] 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.

[32]

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,[33] 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.

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[34] 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)[35] 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.

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.

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[36] 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 conspicu[37]ous 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.

[38]

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.

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:

[40]

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.

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.

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

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

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:

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:

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.

[46]

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:

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.

[47]

The following is the explanation of the figures:

[48]

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

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.

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.

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.

[49]

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:

[50]

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[51] 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[52] 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.

[53]

Everard F. im Thurn, op. cit., p. 316, gives the following details:

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 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[54] 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.”

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 en[55]gaged 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.

[56]

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.:

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.

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.

[58]

These may be divided into:

1st. Natural objects other than the human person.

2d. The human person.

3d. Artificial 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:

[59]

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.

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.

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.

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[60] 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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[61] 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.

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.

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 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.

[62]

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.

A less distinct suggestion arose from the representation of a “Fragment of a lustrous black bowl, with an incised decoration filled with[63] 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.

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[64] 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[65] 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.

[66]

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[67] 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.

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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[69] 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[70] 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.

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 cere[71]monies, 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.

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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).

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.

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.

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.

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

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[73] 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.

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, shal[74]low 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.

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.

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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.

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

Two beautifully tattooed heads are in the collection of the Army Medical Museum at Washington, D. C., of which illustrations are pre[76]sented 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.

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.

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.

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Mr. Everard F. im Thurn, in his work previously cited, pages 195-’96 among the Indians of Guiana, says:

The following extracts are taken from Samoa, by George Turner, LL.D., London, 1884:

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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.

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

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.

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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:

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:

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 settle[81]ments 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.

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[82] 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.

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.

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.”

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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.”

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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.

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, [85]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 [86](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.”

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[87] 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.

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:

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[88] 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.

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

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 ideo[89]graph 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.

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 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.

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[90] 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[91] 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 ex[92]istence 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 expert[93]ness 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.[94] 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.

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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.

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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[97] 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.

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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][99] 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.[100] Reference is also made to the counts in the Corbusier system when correspondence is to be noted.

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.

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1789-’90.—No. I. Two Mandans killed by Minneconjous. The peculiar arrangement of the hair distinguishes the tribe.

The Mandans were in the last century one of the most numerous and civilized tribes of the Siouan stock. Lewis and Clarke, in 1804, say that the Mandans settled forty years before, i. e., 1764, in nine villages, 80 miles below their then site (north of Knife River), seven villages on the west, and two on the east side of the Missouri. Two villages, being destroyed by the small-pox and the Dakotas, united and moved up opposite to the Arickaras, who probably occupied the same site as exhibited in the counts for the year 1823-’24.

Battiste Good says: “Killed-two-Gros-Ventres-on-the ice winter.”

1790-’91.—No. I. The first United States flag in the country brought by United States troops. So said the interpreter. No special occasion or expedition is noted.

Battiste Good says: “Carried-flag-about-with-them winter,” and explains; they went to all the surrounding tribes with the flag, but for what purpose is unknown.

White-Cow-Killer says: “All-the-Indians-see-the-flag winter.”

1791-’92.—No. I. A Mandan and a Dakota met in the middle of the Missouri; each swimming half way across, they shook hands, and made peace.

Mulligan, post interpreter at Fort Buford, says that this was at Fort Berthold, and is an historic fact; also that the same Mandan, long afterwards, killed the same Dakota.

Cloud-Shield says: The Sioux and Omahas made peace.

1792-’93.—No. I. Dakotas and Rees meet in camp together, and are at peace.

The two styles of dwellings, viz., the tipi of the Dakotas, and the earth lodge of the Arickaras, are apparently depicted.

Battiste Good says: “Camp-near-the-Gros-Ventres winter,” and adds: “They were engaged in a constant warfare during this time.” The Gros Ventres’ dirt-lodge, with the entry in front, is depicted in Battiste Good’s figure, and on its roof is the head of a Gros Ventre.

See Cloud-Shields’s explanations of his figure for this year, page 133.

1793-’94.—No. I. Thin-Face, a noted Dakota chief, was killed by Rees.

Battiste Good says: “Killed-a-long-haired-man-at-Raw-Hide-Butte winter,” adding that the Dakotas attacked a village of fifty-eight lodges, of a tribe [called by a correspondent the Cheyennes], and killed every soul in it. After the fight they found the body of a man whose hair was done up with deer-hide in large rolls, and on cutting them open, found it was all real hair, very thick, and as long as a lodge-pole. (Mem.: Catlin tells of a Crow called Long-Hair, whose hair, by actual measurement, was 10 feet 7 inches long.) The fight was at Raw-Hide Butte, now so-called by the whites, which they named Buffalo-Hide Butte because they found so many buffalo hides in the lodges.

According to Cloud-Shield, Long-Hair was killed in 1786-’87; and,[102] 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.

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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.

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.

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No. III. Blackfeet Dakotas stole some American horses having shoes on. Horseshoes seen for the first time.

Mato Sapa says: Blackfeet Dakota stole American horses with shoes on, then first seen by them.

Major Bush agrees with Mato Sapa.

White-Cow-Killer calls it “Brought-in-horseshoes winter.”

Battiste Good says: “Brought-home-Pawnee-horses-with-iron shoes-on winter.”

1803-’04.—No. I. A Blackfeet steals many curly horses from the Assinaboines.

No. II. They stole some “curly horses” from the Crows. Some of these horses are still seen on the plains, the hair growing in closely-curling tufts, resembling in texture the negro’s woolly pile. The device is a horse with black marks for the tufts. The Crows are known to have been early in the possession of horses.

No. III. Uncpapa Dakotas stole five woolly horses from the Ree Indians.

White-Cow-Killer calls it “Plenty-woolly-horses winter.”

Mato Sapa says: Uncpapa stole from the Rees five horses having curly hair.

Major Bush same as last, using “woolly” instead of “curly.”

Battiste Good says: “Brought-home-Pawnee-horses-with-their-hair-rough-and-curly winter.”

1804-’05.—No. I. Calumet dance. Tall-Mandan born.

No. II. The Dakotas had a calumet dance and then went to war. The device is a long pipe-stem, ornamented with feathers and streamers. The feathers are white, with black tips, evidently the tail feathers of the adult golden eagle (Aquila chrysaëtos), highly prized by all Indians. The streamers anciently were colored strips of skin or flexible bark; now gayly colored strips of cloth are used. The word calumet is a corruption of the French chalumeau, and the pipe among all the Mississippi tribes was a symbol of peace. Captain Carver, in his Three Years’ Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America, Philadelphia, 1796, which travels began in 1766, after puzzling over the etymology of the word calumet (that honest “captain of Provincial troops” obviously not understanding French), reports it as “about 4 feet long, bowl of red marble, stem of a light wood curiously painted with hieroglyphics in various colors and adorned with feathers. Every nation has a different method of decorating these pipes and can tell at once to what band it belongs. It is used as an introduction to all treaties, also as a flag of truce is among Europeans.” The event commemorated in the figure was probably a council of some of the various tribes of the nation for settlement of all internal difficulties, so as to act unitedly against the common enemy. J. C. Beltrami, who visited the Dakotas not long after this date, describes them in his Pilgrimage, London, 1828, as divided into independent tribes, managing their separate affairs[105] 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.

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.

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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.

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 reli[107]ance 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.

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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.

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 repre[109]sents 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.

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.

1818-’19.—No. I. Many Indians died of cholera [sic].

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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.

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.

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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.

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.

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,[112] 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.

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White-Cow-Killer calls it “Old-corn-plenty winter.”

Mato Sapa’s chart gives the human figure with a military cap, beard, and goatee.

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, 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[114] 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.”

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.

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[115] 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.

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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.

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.

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.

Lame-Deer was a distinguished chief among the hostiles in 1876. His camp of five hundred and ten lodges was surprised and destroyed[117] 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.

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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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.

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.