Picture-Writing of the American Indians / Tenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1888-89, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1893, pages 3-822

by Garrick Mallery

SECTION 3.
GAMES.

Many accounts of the games of the Indians have been published, but they are not often connected with pictography. Those now presented refer to the picturing connected with only three games.

Fig. 772.—Haka game. Dakota.

Fig. 772.—A dead man was used in the ring-and-pole game. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1779-’80.

The figure represents the stick and ring used in the game of haka, with a human head in front to suggest that the corpse took the place of the usual stick. This and the next figure illustrate the game.

Fig. 773.—Haka game. Dakota.

Fig. 773.—It was an intensely cold winter and a Dakota froze to death. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1777-’78.

The sign for snow or winter, i. e., a cloud with snow falling from it, is above the man’s head. A haka-stick, which is used in playing that game, is represented in front of him.