MooNEY] ABORIGINAL AMERICAN RECORDS 143 



and that tliese notches represented the history of his tribe for more 

 than a thousand years, going back, indeed, to the time when they lived 

 near the ocean {Clarl; 1),^ In this case the markings must have been 

 suggestive rather than definite in their interpretation, and were prob- 

 ably used in connection with ;i migration chant similar to that of the 

 Wajiim Olum. 



THE KIOWA CAL,E]S^I>ARS 



THE ANNUAL CALENDARS OF DOHASAN, POLAN'YI-KAT6n, SETT'AN, 



AND ANKO 



So. far as known to the author, the Dakota calendars and the Kiowa 

 calendars here reproduced are the only ones yet discovered among 

 the prairie tribes. Dodge, writing in 1882, felt so confident that the 

 Dakota calendar of Mallery was the only one ever produced by our 

 Indians that he says, "I have therefore come to the conclusion that it 

 is unique, that there is no other such calendar among Indians. ... I 

 now present it as a curiosity, the solitary eSort to form a calendar ever 

 made by the plains Indians " (Doflge,!). Those obtained by the author 

 among the Kiowa are three in number, viz : the Sett'an yearly calendar, 

 beginning with 1833 and covering a period of sixty years; the Anko 

 yearly calendar, beginning with 1864 and covering a period of twenty- 

 nine years; and the Anko monthly calendar, covering a period of 

 thirty-seven months. All these were obtained in 1892, and are brought 

 up to that date. The discovery of the Anko calendars was an indirect 

 result of having obtained the Sett'an calendar. 



A fourth Kiowa calendar was obtained in the same year by Captain 

 H. L. Scott, Seventh cavalry, while stationed at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, 

 on the Kiowa reservation, and was by him generously placed at the 

 disposal of the author, together with all his notes bearing on the 

 subject. This calendar was procui-ed from Dohasiiu, "Little-bluif," 

 nephew of the celebrated Dohiisiin who was head chief of the Kiowa 

 tribe for more than thirty years. The nephew, who died in 1893 at an 

 advanced age, told Captain Scott that the calendar had been kept in 

 his family from his youth up, having originally been painted on hides, 

 which were renewed from time to time as they wore out from age and 

 handling. The calendar delivered by him to Scott is drawn with col- 

 ored pencils on heavy manila paper, as is also the Sett'an calendar 

 obtained by the author. lu both, the pictographs are arranged in a 

 continuous spir.al, beginning in the lower right-hand corner and ending 

 near the center, the rows of pictographs being separated from each 

 other by a continuous spiral. In both, the winter is designated by 

 means of an upright black bar, to indicate that vegetation was then deatl, 

 while summer is represented by means of the figure of the medicine 

 lodge, the central object of the annual summer religious ceremony. 



' See the list of authorities cited at the end of the memoir. 



