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 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 were killed. Nothing in the sign denotes number, it being only a man-figure with red or bloody body and red war bonnet.

No. III. Twenty Crow and one Cheyenne Indians killed by Dakotas at Bear Butte.

Mato Sapa says: One Cheyenne and twenty Crows were killed by Dakotas at Bear Butte.

Major Bush says the same as Mato Sapa.

1831-’32.—No. I. Two white men killed by a white man at Medicine Creek, below Fort Sully.

No. II. Le Beau, a white man, killed another named Kermel. Another copy reads Kennel. Le Beau was still alive at Little Bend, 30 miles above Fort Sully, in 1877.

No. III. Trader named Le Beau killed one of his employés on Big Cheyenne River, below Cherry Creek.

1832-’33.—No. I. Lone-Horn’s father broke his leg.

No. II. Lone-Horn had his leg “killed,” as the interpretation gave it. The single horn is on the figure, and a leg is drawn up as if fractured or distorted, though not unlike the leg in the character for 1808-’09, where running is depicted.

No. III. A Minneconjou Dakota, Lone-Horn’s father, had his leg broken while running buffalo.

Mato Sapa and Major Bush also say Lone-Horn’s father.

Battiste Good says: “Stiff-leg-With-war-bonnet-on-died winter.” He was killed in an engagement with the Pawnees on the Platte River.

White-Cow-Killer calls it “One-Horn’s-leg-broken winter.”

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

On page 221, the same author states, that after being the accidental cause of the death of his only son, Lone-Horn became at times partially insane. One day he mounted his war-horse, vowing to kill the first living thing he should meet, and rode to the prairies. The horse came back in two hours afterwards, with two arrows in him covered with blood. His tracks were followed back, and the chief was found mangled and gored by a buffalo bull, the carcass of which was stretched beside him. He had driven away the horse with his arrows and killed the bull with his knife.

Another account in the catalogue of Catlin’s cartoons gives the portrait of The One-Horn as number 354, with the statement that having killed his only son accidentally, he became deranged, wandered into the prairies, and got himself killed by an infuriated buffalo bull’s horns. This was at the mouth of Little Missouri River, in 1834.

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 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.

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.

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.

1848-’49.—No. I. Humpback, a Minneconjou, killed.

No. II. Humpback was killed. An ornamented lance pierces the distorted back.

No. III. A Minneconjou Dakota named Broken-Back was killed by the Crow Indians at Black Hills.

Major Bush says: A Minneconjou, Broken-Back, was killed by Crows.

1849-’50.—No. I. Crows steal all the Dakotas’ horses.

No. II. The Crows stole a large drove of horses (it is said eight hundred) from the Brulés. The circle may denote multitude, at least one hundred, but probably is a simple design for a camp or corral from which a number of horse-tracks are departing.

No. III. Crow Indians stole two hundred horses from the Minneconjou Dakotas near Black Hills.

Interpreter A. Lavary says: Brulés were at the headwaters of White River, about 75 miles from Fort Laramie, Wyoming. The Dakotas surprised the Crows in 1849, killed ten, and took one prisoner, because he was a man dressed in woman’s clothes, and next winter the Crows stole six hundred horses from the Brulés. See page 142.

1850-’51.—No. I. Cow with old woman in her belly. Cloven hoof not shown.

No. II. The character is a distinct drawing of a buffalo containing a human figure. Clément translated that “a buffalo cow was killed in that year, and an old woman found in her belly”; also that all the Indians believed this. Good-Wood, examined through another interpreter, could or would give no explanation, except that it was “about their religion.” At first the writer suspected that the medicine men had manufactured some pretended portent out of a fœtus taken from a real cow, but the Dakotas have long believed in the appearance from time to time of a monstrous animal that swallows human beings. This superstition was perhaps suggested by the bones of mastodons, often found in the territory of those Indians; and the buffalo being the largest living animal known to them, its name was given to the legendary monster, in which nomenclature they were not wholly wrong, as the horns of the fossil Bison latifrons are 10 feet in length. The medicine men, perhaps, announced, in 1850, that a squaw who had disappeared was swallowed by the mammoth, which was then on its periodical visit, and must be propitiated.

No. III. A Minneconjou Dakota, having killed a buffalo cow, found an old woman inside of her.

Memorandum from interpreter: A small party of Dakotas, two or three young men, returning unsuccessful from a buffalo hunt, told this story, and it is implicitly believed by the Dakotas.

Major Bush suggests that perhaps some old squaw left to die sought the carcass of a buffalo for shelter and then died. He has known that to occur.

1851-’52.—No. I. Peace made with the Crows.

No. II. Peace with the Crows. Two Indians, with differing arrangement of hair, showing two tribes, are exchanging pipes for a peace-smoke.

No. III. Dakotas made peace with the Crow Indians. It was, as usual, broken immediately.

The treaty of Fort Laramie was in 1851.

1852-’53.—No. I. A Crow chief, Flat-Head, comes into the tipi of a Dakota chief, where a council was assembled, and forces them to smoke the pipe of peace. This was a daring act, for he was in danger of immediate death if he failed.

No. II. The Nez Percés came to Lone-Horn’s lodge at midnight. The device shows an Indian touching with a pipe a tipi, the top of which is black or opaque, signifying night. The Nez Percés are so styled by a blunder of the early travelers, as they never have been known to pierce their noses, although others of their family, the Sahaptin, do so. The tribe was large, dwelling chiefly in Idaho.

No. III. An enemy came into Lone-Horn’s lodge during a medicine feast and was not killed. (The enemy numbered about fourteen and had lost their way in a snow-storm.) The pipe is not in the man’s hand, and the head only is drawn with the pipe between it and the tipi.

Mato Sapa says: Several strange Indians came into the Dakota camp, were saved from being killed by running into Lone-Horn’s lodge.

Major Bush says: An enemy came into Lone-Horn’s lodge during a feast and was not killed.

Touch-the-Clouds, a Minneconjou, son of Lone-Horn, on being shown Chart No. II by the present writer, designated this character as being particularly known to him from the fact of its being his father’s lodge. He remembers all about it from talk in his family, and said it was the Nez Percés who came.

1853-’54.—No. I. Spanish blankets introduced by traders. The blanket is represented without the human figure.

No. II. Spanish blankets were first brought to the country. A fair drawing of one of those striped blankets, held out by a white trader.

No. III. Dakotas first saw the Spanish blankets.

See Corbusier records for 1851-’52, page 142.

1854-’55.—No. I. Brave-Bear killed by Blackfeet.

No. II. Brave-Bear was killed. It does not appear certain whether he had already invested in the new style of blanket or whether the extended arms are ornamented with pendent stripes. The latter is more probable.

No. III. A Minneconjou Dakota named Brave-Bear was killed by the Upper Blackfeet. [Satsika?]

See Corbusier winter-counts for the same year, page 143.

1855-’56.—No. I. General Harney (Putin ska) makes a treaty.

No. II. General Harney made peace with a number of the tribes or bands of the Dakotas. This was at Fort Pierre, Dakota. The figure shows an officer in uniform shaking hands with an Indian.

Executive document No. 94, Thirty-fourth Congress, first session, Senate, contains the “minutes of a council held at Fort Pierre, Nebraska, on the 1st day of March, 1856, by Brevet Brig.-Gen. William S. Harney, U. S. Army, commanding the Sioux expedition, with the delegations from nine of the bands of the Sioux, viz., the Two-Kettle band, Lower Yankton, Oncpapas, Blackfeet Sioux, Minneconjous, Sans Arcs, Yanctonnais (two bands), Brulés of the Platte.”

No. III. Dakotas made peace with General Harney (called by them Putinska, white beard or moustache) at Fort Pierre, Dakota.

1856-’57.—No. I. Four-Horns, a great warrior.

No. II. Four-Horn was made a calumet or medicine-man. This was probably the result of an important political struggle, as there is much rivalry and electioneering for the office, which, with its triple character of doctor, priest, and magician, is one of far greater power than the chieftainship. A man with four horns holds out the same kind of ornamented pipe-stem shown in the character for 1804-’05, it being his badge of office. Four-Horn was one of the subchiefs of the Uncpapas, and was introduced to General Harney at the council of 1856 by Bear-Rib, head chief of that tribe.

No. III. A Minneconjou Dakota, named Red-Fish’s-Son, danced calumet dance.

Mato Sapa says the same as last.

Major Bush says, “A Minneconjou, Red-Fish’s-Son, The-Ass, danced the Four-Horn calumet.”

Interpreter Clément, in the spring of 1874, said that Four-Horn and Sitting-Bull were the same person, the name Sitting-Bull being given him after he was made a calumet man. No other authority tells this.

1857-’58.—No. I. White-Robe kills a Crow woman. There is but one arrow and one blood spot in the character.

No. II. The Dakotas killed a Crow squaw. The stripes on the blanket are shown horizontally, Brave-Bear’s, 1854-’55, and Swan’s, 1866-’67, being vertical. She is pierced by four arrows, and the peace made with the Crows in 1851-’52 seems to have been short lived.

No. III. A party of Crow Indians, while on a visit to the Dakotas, had one of their number killed by a young Dakota. The figure has blood from the four arrows running down each side of the body.

Mato-Sapa says: A Crow was killed by a Dakota while on a visit to the latter.

Major Bush says substantially the same as Mato Sapa.

1858-’59.—No. I. Lone-Horn makes medicine. “At such times Indians sacrifice ponies, etc., and fast.” In this character the buffalo-head is black.

No. II. Lone-Horn, whose solitary horn appears, made buffalo medicine, probably on account of the scarcity of that animal. Again the head of an albino bison. One-Horn, doubtless the same individual, is recorded as the head chief of the Minneconjous at this date.

No. III. A Minneconjou chief, named Lone-Horn, made medicine with white buffalo-cow skin.

Lone-Horn, chief of Minneconjous, died in 1874, in his camp on the Big Cheyenne.

1859-’60.—No. I. Big-Crow killed.

No. II. Big-Crow, a Dakota chief, was killed by the Crows. The crow, transfixed by an arrow, is drawn so as to give quite the appearance of an heraldic crest.

No. III. A Minneconjou Dakota, named Big-Crow, was killed by the Crow Indians. He had received his name from killing a Crow Indian of unusual size.

Mato Sapa says: Big-Crow, a Minneconjou, was killed by Crows.

Major Bush says same as Mato Sapa.

1860-’61.—No. I. The-Elk-who-shows himself-when-he-walks makes medicine.

No. II. Device, the head and neck of an elk, like that part of the animal in 1837-’38, with a line extending from its mouth, at the extremity of which is the albino buffalo-head. “The elk made you understand his voice while he was walking.” The interpreter persisted in this oracular rendering, probably not being able to fully catch the Indian explanation from want of thorough knowledge of the language. The ignorance of professed interpreters, who easily get beyond their philological depth, but are ashamed to acknowledge it, has occasioned many official blunders. This device and its interpretation were unintelligible to the writer until examination of General Harney’s report above referred to showed the name of a prominent chief of the Minneconjous, set forth as “The-Elk-that-Hollows-Walking.” It then became probable that the device simply meant that the aforesaid chief made buffalo medicine, which conjecture, published in 1877, the other records subsequently discovered verified.

No. III. A Minneconjou Dakota, named Red-Fish’s-Son, made medicine with white buffalo-cow skin.

Mato Sapa’s record agrees with No. III.

Major Bush says the same, adding, after the words “Red-Fish’s-Son,” “The-Ass.”

Interpreter A. Lavary said, in 1867, that The-Elk-that-Hollows-Walking, then chief of the Minneconjous, was then at Spotted-Tail’s camp. His father was Red-Fish. He was the elder brother of Lone-Horn. His name is given as A-hag-a-hoo-man-ie, translated The Elk’s-Voice-Walking, compounded of He-ha-ka, elk, and Omani, walk—this according to Lavary’s literation. The correct literation of the Dakota word meaning elk is heqaka; voice ho; and to walk, walking, mani. Their compound would be Heqaka ho mani, the translation being the same as above given.

1861-’62.—No. I. Buffalo very plenty.

No. II. Buffalo were so plenty that their tracks came close to the tipis. The cloven hoof-mark is cleverly distinguished from the tracks of horses in the character for 1849-’50.

No. III. Dakotas had unusual abundance of buffalo.

1862-’63.—No. I. Red-Plume kills an enemy.

No. II. Red-Feather, a Minneconjou, was killed. His feather is shown entirely red, while the “one-feather” in 1842-’43 has a black tip.

No. III. A Minneconjou Dakota killed an Assiniboine named Red-Feather.

Mato Sapa says: Minneconjous kill an Assiniboine named Red-Feather.

Major Bush agrees with Mato Sapa.

It is to be noted that there is no allusion to the great Minnesota massacre, which commenced in August, 1862, and in which many of the Dakotas belonging to the tribes familiar with these charts, were engaged. Little-Crow was the leader. He escaped to the British possessions, but was killed in July, 1863. Perhaps the reason of the omission of any character to designate the massacre, was the terrible retribution that followed it, beginning with the rout by Colonel Sibley, on September 23, 1862. The Indian captives amounted in all to about eighteen hundred. A military commission sentenced three hundred and three to be hanged and eighteen to imprisonment for life. Thirty-eight were actually hanged, December 26, 1862, at Camp Lincoln.

1863-’64.—No. I. Crows kill eight Dakotas on the Yellowstone.

No. II. Eight Dakotas were killed. Again the short parallel black lines united by a long stroke. In this year Sitting Bull fought General Sully in the Black Hills.

Interpreter Lavary says General Sully killed seven or eight Crows at The-Place-They-Shot-The-Deer, Ta-cha-con-té, about 90 miles southwest of Fort Rice, Dakota. Mulligan says that General Sully fought the Yanktonnais and the Santees at that place.

No. III. Eight Minneconjou Dakotas killed by Crow Indians.

See Corbusier Winter Counts for same year, page 144.

1864-’65.—No. I. Four Crows caught stealing horses from the Dakotas were tortured to death. Shoulders shown.

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

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

1865-’66.—No. I. Many horses died.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Major Bush says this is historically correct.

1867-’68.—No. I. Much medicine made.

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

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

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

Major Bush agrees with Mato Sapa.

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

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

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

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

Mato Sapa agrees with No. III.

1869-’70.—No. I. Eclipse of the moon.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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