142 • CALENDAR HISTORY OF THE KIOWA [eth.ann.17 



TITE WAIAM OliUlU OF THE DEILAAVARES 



East of the Mississippi the most important and best known record 

 is the Walam Olum or "red score" of the Behiwares, originally dis- 

 covered in 1820, and published by Dr T>. G. Brinton iu 1885. It consists 

 of a series of pictographs designed to fix in memory the verses of a 

 genesis and migration chant which begins with the mythic period and 

 comes down to the advent of the whites about the year 1610. It 

 appears to be geuuiTie aud ancient, although the written chant as we 

 find it contains modern forms, having of course been reduced to writing 

 within a comparatively recent period. 



It is said that the Cherokee seventy years ago had a similar long 

 tribal tradition which was recited by the i)riests on ceremonial occasions. 

 If so, it was probably recorded in pictographs, but tradition and record 

 alike are now lost. 



THE DAKOTA CALENDARS 



West of the Mississippi the first extended Indian calendar history 

 discovered was the "Lone-dog winter count," found among the Da- 

 kota by Colonel Garrick Mallei-y, and first published by him in 1877. 

 This history of the Dakota was painted on a buft'alo robe by Lone-dog, 

 of the Yanktonai tribe of that confederacy, and extends over a period 

 of seventy-one years, beginning in 1800. Subsequent iuvestigation by 

 Colonel Mallery brought to light several other calendars iu the same 

 tribe, some being substantially a copy of the first, others going back, 

 respectively, to 1786, 1775, and the mythic period. 



In all these Dakota calendars there is only a single picture for each 

 year, with nothing to mark the division of summer and winter. As 

 they call a year a "winter," aud as our year begins in the middle of 

 winter, it is consequently impossible, without some tally date from our 

 own records, to know in which of two consecutive years any event 

 occurred, i. e., whether before or after I^ew Year. In this respect the 

 Kiowa calendars here published are much superior to those of the 

 Dakota. 



OTHER TRIBAIi RECORDS 



Clark, in his book on Indian sign-language, mentions incidentally 

 that the Apache have similar picture histories, but gives no more 

 definite information as concerns that tribe. He goes on to say that the 

 Santee Sioux claim to have formerly kept a record of events by tying 

 knots in a string, after the manner of the Peruvian quipu. By the 

 peculiar method of tying and by means of certain marks they indicated 

 battles and other important events, and even less remarkable occur- 

 rences, such as births, etc. He states that he saw among them a slen- 

 der pole about 6 feet in length, the surface of which was completely 

 covered with small notches, and the old Indian who had it asstired him 

 that it had been handed down from father to son for many generations. 



