The subject is here divided into: (1) Record of expedition; (2) Record of battle; (3) Record of migration; (4) Record of sociologic events.
SECTION 1.
RECORD OF EXPEDITION.
The following account from Lafitau (a) explains the device for prisoner, under the heading of marked sticks, in Chapter IX, section [2], supra:
The most grievous time for them is at night; for every evening they are extended on their backs almost naked, with no other bed than the earth, in which four stakes are driven for each prisoner; to these their arms and legs are attached, spread apart in the form of a St. Andrew’s cross. To a fifth stake a halter is tied, which holds the prisoner by the neck and is wound around it three or four times. Finally, he is bound around the middle of the body by another halter or girdle, the two ends of which are taken by the person in charge of the captive and placed under his head while he sleeps, so that he will be awakened if the prisoner makes any movement to escape.
With the same object of explaining pictographic devices, the following is extracted from James’s Long (h):
Returning war parties of the Omaha peel off a portion of the bark from a tree, and on the trunk thus denuded and rendered conspicuous, they delineate hieroglyphics with vermilion or charcoal, indicative of the success or misfortune of the party, in their proceedings against the enemy. These hieroglyphics are rudely drawn, but are sufficiently significant to convey the requisite intelligence [t]o another division of the party, that may succeed them. On this rude chart the combatants are generally represented by small straight lines, each surmounted by a head-like termination, and are readily distinguishable from each other; the arms and legs are also represented when necessary to record the performance of some particular act or to exhibit a wound. Wounds are indicated by the representation of the dropping of blood from the part; an arrow wound, by adding a line for the arrow, from which the Indian is able to estimate with some accuracy its direction, and the depth to which it entered. The killed are represented by prostrate lines; equestrians are also particularized, and if wounded or killed they are seen to spout blood or to be in the act of falling from their horses. Prisoners are denoted by their being led, and the number of captured horses is made known by the number of lunules representing their track. The number of guns taken may be ascertained by bent lines, on the angle of which is something like the prominences of the lock. Women are portrayed with short petticoats and prominent breasts, and unmarried females by the short queues at the ears.
In Margry (e) there is an account of La Salle’s finding in 1683 on the bark of a tree a record of the party of Tonty’s pilot. The picture was that of a man with the costumes and general appearance of the pilot who had deserted, another man tied as a captive, and four scalps. This corresponded with the facts afterwards learned. The pilot had been left free, another man kept alive, and four killed, thus accounting for the lost party of six. The record had been made by the captors.
The figures in the following group, taken from several of the Winter Counts of the Dakotas, picture a number of important expeditions, all of which are independently known. Some of them are narrated in the official documents of the United States.