Section 4 Record of Notable Events
In this group are presented some figures from the Dakota Winter Counts, which record events of tribal or intertribal importance not included under other heads.
Fig 797.—The-people-were-burnt winter. Battiste Good’s Winter Count 1762-’63. He explains the origin of the title “Brulé” Dakota as follows:
Some of the Dakotas were living east of their present country, when a prairie fire destroyed their entire village. Many of their children and a man and his wife, who were on foot some distance away from the village, were burned to death. Many of their horses were also burned to death. All the people that could get to a long lake which was near by saved themselves by jumping into it. Many of these were badly burned about the thighs and legs, and this circumstance gave rise to the name, si-can-gu, translated properly in to English as Burnt Thigh and by the French abbreviated as Brulé, by which latter name they have since been generally known.
Fig. 799.—Nine white men came to trade with the Dakotas. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1800-’01.
The hatted head stands for a white man and also indicates that the eight dots over it are for white men. According to this count the first whites came in 1794-’95, and the party now depicted succeeded them and were the first traders.
Fig. 805.—All of Standing Bull’s horses were killed. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1832-’33.
Hoof-prints, blood-stains, and arrows are shown under the horse. It may be remarked with regard to the name-device for Standing-Bull, that the quadruped can stand on two legs, but cannot run or even walk with that limitation, so that the exhibition of two legs only may properly signify standing, though for convenience the fore legs are depicted.
Fig. 807.—Many goods were issued to the Dakotas at Fort Laramie. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1851-’52.
The goods were the first they received from the United States Government. The blanket which is represented stands for the whole issue.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Large-issue-of-goods-on-the-Platte-river-winter.”
This is a more conventionalized form of the preceding figure.
Fig. 812.—The Oglalas at the Red Cloud agency, near Fort Robinson, Nebraska, cut to pieces the flagstaff which had been cut and hauled by order of their agent, but which they would not allow him to erect, as they did not wish to have a flag flying over their agency. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1874-’75.
This was in 1874. The flag which the agent intended to hoist was lately at the Pine ridge agency, Dakota.
This figure refers to the action of the military authorities of the United States toward the Indian tribes which had been connected with or suspected of favoring the outbreak which resulted in the defeat of the force under Gen. Custer. A body of troops swept the reservations on the Missouri river and took away all the ponies of the tribes, thereby depriving them of their means of transportation for hostile purposes. The hatted man with a star above his head is the brigadier-general in command of the United States forces. The hoof prints without marks of horseshoes indicate the Indian ponies as usual. The black blurs among them probably refer to the considerable number of the ponies that fell and died before they reached Bismark and other points of sale to which they were driven. It was promised that the amount realized from the sale of the drove should be returned to the owners, but the latter received little.