PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 91 



different interpreters of the most intelligent Indians at Fort 

 Rice, Dakota Territory, and other posts and agencies, eliciting a 

 nearly complete explanation of the symbols, and the following 

 account : — Lone Dog has been, ever since his youth, charged 

 with the duty of deciding upon some event or circumstance 

 v;?-hich should distinguish each year as it passed, and when such 

 decision was made, he marked what was considered by hira its 

 appropriate symbol, upon a buffalo robe kept by himself for the 

 purpose, then calling together a number of the Dakotas, without 

 regard to tribes, explained to them the symbol, and what it repre- 

 sented. This was done annually and formally, but it is under- 

 stood that the robe was also at other convenient times exhibited 

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

 the signs as designating the years. The copy actually discovered 

 was obtained from Basil Clement, a half-breed interpreter, living 

 in 1876 at Little Bend near Port Sully, D. T., and, it is under- 

 stood, is a duplicate of a copy, taken in 1870 or 1871 from Lone 

 Dog's tribe, of its condition at that time. This copy the writer 

 was informed was in the possession of Blue Thunder, a member 

 of the Blackfoot tribe of the Dakotas, who was in October, 1876, 

 at Standing Rock agency, D. T. 



The symbols on the chart are seventy-one in number, and 

 desigrlate the seventy-one years, commencing with the winter of 

 A. D. 1799-1800. It is not yet ascertained whether Lone Dog 

 had a predecessor in his work from whom he received the earlier 

 symbols, or whether the essay at chronological tables being first 

 started when he reached manhood, he gathered the traditions from 

 his elders, and himself distinguished by signs a number of years 

 then past. 



A suspicion naturally arises that intercourse with missionaries 

 and other whites first gave the Dakotas some idea of dates, and 

 awakened in them a sense of want in that direction. The fact 

 that the calendar begins with a time nearly identical with the 

 first year of the present century by our computation, may be 

 due to such influence, or may be a mere coincidence. If mis- 

 sionaries or traders started any plan of chronology, it is remark- 

 able that they did not suggest one similar to that common among 

 themselves, that is, by counting in numbers backward and for- 

 ward from an era. The chart, however, shows nothing of this 

 nature. The earliest symbol merely represents the killing of a 

 small number of Dakotas by their enemies, an event of frequent 

 recurrence, and neither so momentous nor interesting as many 

 others of the seventy-one recorded, more than one of which, 

 indeed, might well have been selected as a notable fixed point, 

 before and after which simple arithmetical notation could have 

 been used to mark the years. The plan actually adopted, to 

 individualize each year by a specific recorded symbol or year- 

 totem, according to the decision of a single designated officer and 



