Figure 179 is taken from the winter count of Battiste Good for the year 1840-’41. He names it “Came-and-killed-five-of-Little-Thunder’s-brothers winter” and “Battiste-alone-returns winter.” He explains that the five were killed in an encounter with the Panis. Battiste Good was the only one of the party to escape. The capote is shown, and signifies war, as in several other instances of the same record. The five short vertical lines below the arrow signify that five were killed.
Fig. 179.
Figure 180 is taken from Mrs. Eastman’s Dahcotah, or Life and Legends of the Sioux, New York, 1849, p. xxvii, and shows a Dakota method of recording the taking of prisoners. Nos. 1 and 3 are the prisoners; No. 1 being a female, as denoted by the presence of mammæ, and No. 3 a male. No. 2 is the person making the capture. It is also noted that the prisoners are without hands, to signify their helplessness.
Fig. 180.
In this connection the following quotation is taken from the Historical Collections of Louisiana, Part III, 1851, p. 124, describing a pictograph, as follows: “There were two figures of men without heads and some entire. The first denoted the dead and the second the prisoners. One of my conductors told me on this occasion that when there are any French among either, they set their arms akimbo, or their hands upon their hips, to distinguish them from the savages, whom they represent with their arms hanging down. This distinction is not purely arbitrary; it proceeds from these people having observed that the French often put themselves in this posture, which is not used among them.”
Fig. 181.—Circle of men. Dakota.
Figure 181 is taken from the winter count of Battiste Good for the year 1851-’52. In the year 1851-’52, the first issue of goods was made to the Indians, and the character represents a blanket surrounded by a circle to show how the Indians sat awaiting the distribution. The people are represented by small lines running at right angles to the circle.