No. III. No buffalo; Indians made medicine to the Great Spirit by painting a buffalo’s head on lodge; plenty came.
Mato Sapa says: Dakotas were starving; made medicine to Great Spirit by painting buffalo head on their lodges; plenty came.
Major Bush substantially same as Mato Sapa.
1844-’45.—No. I. Mandans wintered in Black Hills.
No. II. The Minneconjous built a pine fort. Device: A pine tree connected with a tipi.
No. III. Unusually heavy snow; had to build corrals for ponies.
Major Bush says: Heavy snow, in which many of their ponies perished.
Probably the Indians went into the woods and erected their tipis there as protection from the snow, thus accounting for the figure of the tree.
BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XXIV