Fig. 102.—Fifth to strike an enemy. Hidatsa.
Figure 102, according to the Arikara, represents the fourth person to strike the enemy.
Fig. 103.—Struck four enemies. Hidatsa.
According to the Hidatsa, the wearer of the accompanying mark, Figure 103, would have figured in four encounters; in the two lateral ones, each, he was the second to strike the fallen enemy, and in the upper and lower spaces it would signify that he was the third person upon two occasions.
The mark of a black hand, sometimes made by the impress of an actually blackened palm, or drawn natural size or less, was found upon articles of Ojibwa manufacture in the possession of Hidatsa and Arikara Indians at Fort Berthold, Dakota, in 1881. These Indians say it is an old custom, and signifies that the person authorized to wear the mark has killed an enemy. The articles upon which the designs occurred came from Red Lake Reservation, Minnesota, the Indians of the latter locality frequently going west to Fort Berthold to trade bead and other work for horses.
Further signs of particular achievements are given in Figures [174], [175], [176], [177], and [179], and others may be noticed frequently in the Dakota Winter Counts.