BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XVI
1821-’22.
1822-’23.
1823-’24.
THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.
1821-’22.—No. I. Large ball of fire with hissing noise (aërolite).
No. II. The character represents the falling to earth of a very brilliant meteor, and though no such appearance is on record, there were in 1821 few educated observers near the Upper Mississippi and Missouri who would take the trouble to notify scientific societies of the phenomenon.
No. III. Dakota Indians saw an immense meteor passing from southeast to northwest which exploded with great noise (in Dakota Territory).
Red-Cloud said he was born in that year.
Battiste Good says: “Star-passed-by-with-loud-noise winter.” His device is shown in Figure 42, showing the meteor, its pathway, and the clouds from which it came.