Fig. 262, 1705-’06.—“They-came-and-killed-seven-Dakotas winter.” It is not known what enemies killed them.
Fig. 263.
Fig. 263, 1706-’07.—“Killed-the-Gros-Ventre-with-snowshoes-on winter.” A Gros-Ventre (Hidatsa), while hunting buffalo on snowshoes, was chased by the Dakotas. He accidentally dropped a snowshoe, and, being then unable to get through the snow fast enough, they gained on him, wounded him in the leg, and then killed him. The Gros-Ventres and the Crows are tribes of the same nation, and are therefore both represented with striped or spotted hair, which denotes the red clay they apply to it.
Fig. 264.
Fig. 264, 1707-’08.—“Many-kettle winter.” A man—1 man—named Corn, killed (3) his wife, 1 woman, and ran off. He remained away for a year, and then came back, bringing three guns with him, and told the people that the English, who had given him these guns, which were the first known to the Dakotas, wanted him to bring his friends to see them. Fifteen of the people accordingly went with him, and when they returned brought home a lot of kettles or pots. These were the first they ever saw. Some numerical marks for reference and the written words in the above are retained as perhaps the worst specimens of Battiste’s mixture of civilized methods with the aboriginal system of pictography. See remarks above, page [288].
Fig. 265.