MALLERY.] COUNT OF YEARS BY WINTERS. 269 
tation, in much the same style as shown in the other charts mentioned. 
Several Indians and half-breeds said that this count formerly embraced 
about the same number of years as the others, but that Battiste Good 
gathered the names of many years from the old people and placed 
them in chronological order as far back as he was able to learn them. 
Another Winter Count, communicated by Dr. Corbusier, is that in 
the possession of American-Horse, an Oglala Dakota, at the Pine 
Ridge agency in 1879, who asserted that his grandfather began it, and 
that it is the production of his grandfather, his father, and himself. 
A third Winter Count is communicated by Dr. Corbusier as kept 
by Cloud-Shield. He was also an Oglala Dakota, at the Pine Ridge 
agency, but of a different band from American-Horse. The last two 
counts embrace nearly the same number of years, viz, from A. D. 1775 
to 1878. Two dates belong to each figure, as a Dakota year covers a 
portion of two of the calendar years common to civilization. 
Dr. Corbusier also saw copies of a fourth Winter Count, which was 
kept by White-Cow-Killer, at the Pine Ridge agency. He did not ob- 
tain a copy of it, but learned most of the names given to the winters. 
With reference to all the Winter Counts and to the above remarks 
that a Dakota year covers a portion of two calendar years, the follow- 
ing explanation may be necessary: The Dakota count their years by 
winters (which is quite natural, that season in their high levels and lati- 
tudes practically lasting more than six months), and say a man is so 
many snows old, or that so many snow seasons have passed since an 
occurrence. They have no division of time into weeks, and their months 
are absolutely lunar, only twelve, however, being designated, which 
receive their names upon the recurrence of some prominent physical 
phenomenon. For example, the period partly embraced by February is 
called the “raccoon moon ;” March, the “‘sore-eye moon;” and April, that 
“in which the geese lay eggs.” As the appearance of raccoons after 
hibernation, the causes inducing inflamed eyes, and oviposition by geese 
vary with the meteorological character of each year, and as the twelve 
lunations reckoned do not bring back the point in the season when 
counting commenced, there is often dispute in the Dakota tipis toward 
the end of winter as to the correct current date. In careful examina- 
tion of the several counts it often is left in doubt whether the event 
occurred in the winter months or was selected in the months immedi- 
ately before or in those immediately after the winter. No regularity 
or accuracy is noticed in these particulars. 
In considering the extent to which Lone-Dog’s chart is understood 
and used, it may be mentioned that every intelligent Dakota of full 
years to whom the writer has shown it has known what it meant, and 
many of them knew a large part of the years portrayed. When there 
was less knowledge, there was the amount that may be likened to that 
of an uneducated person or a child who is examined about a map of the 
United States, which had been shown to him before, with some expla- 
