maliekvi lone-dog's winter count. 91 



stated that be had seen another copy at Standing Eock Agency in the 

 hands of Blue-Thunder, a Blackfoot Dakota. He said it showed " some- 

 thing put down for every year about their nation." He knew how to 

 use it as a calendar, beginning from the center and couutiug from right 

 to left, and was familiar with the meaning of many of the later charac- 

 ters and the events they commemorated, in which he corroborated 

 Clement's translation, but explained that he had forgotten the interpre- 

 tation of some of the earlier signs, which were about those things done 

 before his birth. 



All the investigations that could be made elicited the following ac- 

 count, which, whether accurate or not, the Indians examined certaiuly 

 believed : Probably with the counsel of the old men and authorities of 

 his tribe, Lone-Dog ever since his youth has been in the habit of de- 

 ciding upon some event or circumstance which should distinguish each 

 year as it passed, and when such decision was made he marked what 

 was considered to be its appropriate symbol or device upon a buffalo 

 robe kept for the purpose. The robe was at convenient times exhibited 

 to other Indians of the nation, who were thus taught the meaning and use 

 of the signs as designating the several years, in order that at the death of 

 the recorder the knowledge might not be lost. A similar motive as to the 

 preservation of the record led to its duplication in 1870 or 1871, so that 

 Clement obtained it iu a form ending at that time. It was also reported 

 by several Indians that other copies of the chart iu its various past 

 stages of formation had been known to exist among the several tribes, 

 being probably kept for reference, Lone-Dog and his robe being so fre- 

 quently inaccessible. 



Although Lone-Dog was described as a very old Indian, it was not 

 supposed that he was of sufficient age in the year 1800 to enter upon 

 the duty as explained. Either there was a predecessor from whom he re- 

 ceived the earlier records or obtained copies of them, or, his work being 

 first undertaken when he had reached manhood, he, gathered the tradi- 

 tions from his elders and worked back so far as he could do so accurately, 

 the object either then or before being to establish some system of chro- 

 nology for the use of the tribe, or more probably iu the first instance 

 for the use of his particular band. 



Present knowledge of the Winter Count systems renders it improba- 

 ble that Lone-Dog was their inventor or originator. They were evi- 

 dently started, at the latest, before the present generation, and have 

 been kept up by a number of independent recorders. The idea was 

 one specially appropriate to the Indian genius, yet the peculiar mode 

 of record was an invention, and is not probably a very old invention, 

 as it has not, so far as known, spread beyond a definite district or been 

 extensively adopted. If an invention of that character had been of 

 great antiquity it would probably have spread by intertribal channels 

 beyond the bauds or tribes of the Dakotas, where alone the copies of 

 such charts have beeu found and are understood. Yet the known ex- 



