1823-’24.—No. I. They had an abundance of corn, which they got at the Ree villages.
No. II. They joined the whites in an expedition up the Missouri River against the Rees.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Old-corn-plenty winter.” For further explanation of the record of this year, see page [111].
1824-’25.—No. I. Cloud-Bear, a Dakota, killed a Dakota, who was a long distance off, by throwing a bullet from his hand and striking him in the heart. The spiral line is again used for wakan. The gesture-sign for wakan (holy, supernatural) is: With its index-finger extended and pointing upward, or all the fingers extended, back of hand outward, move the right hand from just in front of the forehead spirally upward nearly to arm’s length from left to right. [See “Sign Language N. A. Indians,” p. 380, by the present writer, in the First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology.]
No. II. Cat-Owner was killed with a spider-web thrown at him by a Dakota. The spider-web is shown reaching to his heart from the hand of the man who threw it. The blood issuing from his mouth and nose indicates that he bled to death. It is a common belief among them that certain medicine men possess the power of taking life by shooting needles, straws, spider-webs, bullets, and other objects, however distant the person may be against whom they are directed.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Killed-the-women-picking-cherries winter.”
1825-’26.—No. I. Some of the Dakotas were living on the bottom-lands of the Missouri River, below the Whetstone, when the river, which was filled with broken ice, unexpectedly rose and flooded their village. Many were drowned or else killed by the floating ice. Many of those that escaped climbed on cakes of ice or into trees.
No. II. Many of the Dakotas were drowned in a flood caused by a rise of the Missouri River, in a bend of which they were camped. The curved line is the bend in the river; the waved line is the water, above which the tops of the tipis are shown.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Great-flood-and-many-Indians-drowned winter.” [See page [113].]
1826-’27.—No. I. The brother of the Good-White-Man came.