554 PICTURE-WRITING OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS. 
AR Fig. 781. United States troops fought Ree 
Indians. The-Swan’s Winter Count, 1823-24. 
Fia. 781. 
This and the preceding figure are signs of a specially interesting ex- 
pedition, a condensed account of which follows taken from the annual 
report of J. C. Calboun, Secretary of War, November 29, 1823: 
Gen. William H. Ashley, a licensed trader, was treacherously attacked by the 
Arickaras at their village on the west bank of the Missouri river, about midway be- 
tween the present Fort Sully and Fort Rice. Twenty-three of the trading party 
were killed and wounded, and the remainder retreated in boats and sent appeals for 
succor to the commanding officer at Fort Atkinson, the present site of Council Blufts. 
This officer was Col. H. Leavenworth, Sixth United States Infantry, who marched 
June 22, with 220 men of that regiment, 80 men of trading companies, and two 
6-pound cannon, a 54-inch brass howitzer, and some small swivels, nearly 700 miles 
through a country filled with hostile or unreliable Indians, to the Ree villages, 
which he reached on the 9th of August. The Dakotas were at war with the Arickara 
or Rees, and 700 to 800 of their warriors had joined the United States forces on the 
way; of these Dakotas 500 are mentioned as Yanktons, but the tribes of the remainder 
are not designated. The Rees were in two villages, the lower one containing seventy- 
one dirt lodges and the upper seventy, both being inclosed with palisades and a 
a ditch and the greater part of the lodges having a ditch around the bottom on 
the inside. The enemy, having knowledge of the expedition, had fortified and made 
every preparation for resistance. Their force consisted of over 700 warriors, most 
of whom were armed with rifles procured from British traders. On the 9th of Au- 
gust the Dakotas commenced the attack and were driven back until the regular 
troops advanced, but nothing decisive resulted until the artillery was employed on 
the 10th, when a large number of the Rees, including their chief, Gray Eyes, were 
killed, and early in the afternoon the survivors begged for peace. They were much 
terrified and humbled by the effect of the cannon, which, though small, answered the 
purpose. During the main engagement the Dakotas occupied themselves in gath- 
ering and carrying off all the corn to be found. 
See also the record of Lean-Wolf’s expedition in Fig. 452. 
SECTION 2. 
RECORD OF BATTLE. 
Lafitau (b) gives the following account, translated with condensation, 
of the records of expedition, battle, etc., made by the Iroquois and 
northeastern Algonquins: 
The designs which the Indians have tattooed on their faces and bodies are employed 
as hieroglyphics, writing, and records. When an Indian returns from war and 
wishes to make his victory known to the neighboring nations through whose country 
he passes, when he has chosen a hunting ground and wishes it to be known that he 
has selected it for himself and that it would be an affront to him for others to estab- 
lish themselves there, he supplies the Jack of an alphabet by those characteristic 
symbols which distinguish him personally; he paints on a piece of bark, which is 
raised on a pole by a place of passage [trail], or he cuts away some pieces from a 
tree trunk with his hatchet, and, after having made a smooth surface, traces his 
portrait and adds other characters, which give all the information that he desires to 
conyey. 
