A more important explanation is due on account of the necessity to omit from Dr. Corbusier’s contribution the figures of Battiste Good’s count and their interpretation. This count is in some respects the most important of all those yet made known. As set down by Battiste Good, it begins in a peculiar cyclic computation with the year A. D. 900, and in thirteen figures includes the time to A.D. 1700, all these figures being connected with legends and myths, some of which indicate European influence. From 1700-’01 to 1879-’80 a separate character for each year is given, with its interpretation, in a manner generally similar to those in the other charts. Unfortunately all of these figures are colored, either in whole or in large part, five colors being used besides black, and the drawing is so rude that without the colors it is in many cases unintelligible. The presentation at this time of so large a number of colored figures—in all one hundred and ninety-three—in addition to the other illustrations of the present paper, involved too great expense. It is hoped that this count can be so far revised, with the elimination of unessential coloration and with more precision in the outlines, as to allow of its publication. Several of its characters, with references also to its interpretation when compared with that of other counts, are given in various parts of the present paper. Where it was important to specify their coloration the heraldic scheme has been used.
The pages immediately following contain the contribution of Dr. Corbusier, diminished by the extraction of the parts comprising Battiste Good’s count. Its necessary omission, as above explained, is much regretted, not only on account of its intrinsic value, but because without it the work of Dr. Corbusier does not appear to all the advantage merited by his zeal and industry.
The Dakotas reckon time by winters, and apply names to them instead of numbering them from an era. Each name refers to some notable occurrence of the winter or year to which it belongs, and has been agreed upon in council on the expiration of the winter. Separate bands have often fixed upon different events, and it thus happens that the names are not uniform throughout the nation. Ideographic records of these occurrences have been kept in several bands for many years, and they constitute the Dakota Winter-Counts (waníyetu wówapi) or Counts Back (hékta yawapi). They are used in computing time, and to aid the memory in recalling the names and events of the different years, their places in the count, and their order of succession. The enumeration of the winters is begun at the one last recorded and carried backward. Notches on sticks, war-shirts, pipes, arrows, and other devices also serve a mnemonic purpose. The Counts were formerly executed in colors on the hides of animals, but the present recorders make use of paper, books, pens, pencils, and paints obtained from the whites. The alignment of the ideographs depends to some extent upon the material on which they are depicted. On robes it is spiral from right to left and from the center outward, each year being added to the coil as the snail adds to its whorl. The spiral line, frequently seen in etchings on rocks, has been explained to me as indicating a snail shell. On paper they are sometimes carried from right to left, sometimes from left to right, and again the two methods are combined as in Battiste Good’s winter-count, which begins at the back of the book and is carried forward, i. e., from right to left, but in which the alignment on each page is from left to right. The direction from right to left is that followed in many of their ceremonies, as when tobacco is smoked as incense to the sun and the pipe is passed around, and when the devotees in the dance to the sun enter and leave the consecrated lodge in which they fulfill their vows.
Among the Oglálas and the Brulés there are at least five of these counts kept by as many different men, each man seeming to be the recorder for his branch of the tribe. I obtained copies of three of them in 1879 and 1880, while stationed at Camp Sheridan, Nebraska, near the Pine Ridge Agency, Dakota. One winter count was made for me by Battiste Good, a Brulé Dakota, at the Rosebud Agency, Dakota, being a copy of the one of which he is the recorder. He explained the meaning of the pictographs to the Rev. William J. Cleveland, of the Rosebud Agency, to whom I am indebted for rendering his explanations into English. Several Indians and half-breeds had informed me that his count formerly embraced about the same number of years as the other two, but that Battiste Good gathered the names of many years from the old people and placed them in chronological order as far back as he was able to learn them.
Another winter count is a copy of the one in the possession of American-Horse, an Oglála Dakota, at the Pine Ridge Agency, who asserts that his grandfather began it, and that it is the production of his grandfather, his father, and himself. I received the explanations from American-Horse through an interpreter.
A third winter count is a copy of one kept by Cloud-Shield. He is also an Oglála Dakota at the Pine Ridge Agency, but of a different band from American-Horse. I also received his explanations through an interpreter. The last two counts embrace nearly the same number of years. I have added the dates to both of them, beginning at the last year, the date of which was known, and carrying them back. Two dates belong to each figure, as a Dakota year covers a portion of two of our calendar years.
I have seen copies of a fourth winter count which is kept by White-Cow-Killer at the Pine Ridge Agency. I did not obtain a copy of it, but learned most of the names given to the winters.
On comparing the winter counts, it is found that they often correspond, but more frequently differ. In a few instances the differences are in the succession of the events, but in most instances they are due to an omission or to the selection of another event. When a year has the same name in all of them, the bands were probably encamped together or else the event fixed upon was of general interest; and, when the name is different, the bands were scattered or nothing of general interest occurred. Differences in the succession may be due to the loss of a record and the depiction of another from memory, or to errors in copying an old one.
The explanations of the counts are far from complete, as the recorders who furnished them could in many instances recall nothing except the name of the year, and in others were loth to speak of the events or else their explanations were vague and unsatisfactory, and, again, the interpreters were sometimes at fault. Many of the recent events are fresh in the memory of the people, as the warriors who strive to make their exploits a part of the tribal traditions proclaim them on all occasions of ceremony—count their coups, as it is called. Declarations of this kind partake of the nature of affirmations made in the presence of God. War-shirts on which scores of the enemies killed are kept, and which are carefully transmitted from one generation to another, help to refresh their memories in regard to some of the events. By testing many Indians I learned that but few could interpret the significance of the figures; some of them could point out the year of their birth and that of some members of their families; others could not do so, or pretended that they could not, but named the year and asked me to point it out and tell their age.