12 BULLETIN UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SUKVEY. 



either directly from the whites, or from some other ladiaas who had 

 before obtained them from whites, as the ludiaiis never shoe their 

 horses. The symbol is a horseshoe. 



Fig. 4, 1803. — They stole some " curly horses " from the Crows. Some 

 of these horses are still seen on the plains, the hair growing in closely- 

 curling tufts, resembling in texture the negro's woolly pile. It is not, 

 however, supposed that Fremont's celebrated woolly horse was of this 

 breed. The symbol is a horse with black marks for the tufts. The 

 Crows are known to have been early in the possession of horses. 



Fig. 5, 1804. — The Dakotas had a calumet dance, and then went to 

 war. The symbol is a long pipe-stem, ornamented with feathers and 

 streamers. The feathers are white, with black tips, evidently the tail- 

 feathers of the adult golden eagle {Aquila chrysaetos), highly prized by 

 all Indians. The streamers anciently were colored strips of skin or flexi- 

 ble bark; now gayly-colored strips of cloth are used. The word calu- 

 met is a corruption of the French chalumeau, and the pipe, among al 

 the Mississippi tribes, was a symbol of peace. Captain Carver, in his 

 "Three Years Travels through the Interior Parts of North America " 

 (Philadelphia, 1796), which travels began in 1766, after puzzling over 

 the etymology of the word calumet (that honest " captain of provincial 

 troops" obviously not understanding French), reports it as " about four 

 feet long, bowl of red marble, stem of a light wood curiously painted 

 with hieroglyphics in various colors and adorned with feathers. Every 

 nation has a different method of decorating these pipes, and can tell at 

 once to what band it belongs. It is used as an introduction to all trea- 

 ties, also as a flag of truce is among Europeans." The event commemo- 

 rated in the figure was doubtless a grand council of the various tribes of 

 the nation for settlement of all internal difiiculties, so as to act unitedly 

 against the common enemy. J. C. Beltrami, who visited the Sioux not 

 long after this date, describes them, in his " Pilgrimage" (London, 1828), 

 as divided into independent tribes, managing their separate affairs each 

 by its own council, and sometimes coming into conflict with each other, 

 but uniting in a general council on occasions aflecting the whole nation. 



Fig. 6, 1805. — The Crows killed eight Dakotas. Again the short par- 

 allel black lines, this time eight in number, united by a long stroke. 



Fig. 7, 1808. — A Dakota killed an Arickaree (generally abbreviated 

 into " Eee"), as he was about to shoot an eagle. This may be considered 

 a non-transcendental illustration of Emerson's "Brahma", viz: — 



" If the red slayer think he slays, 

 Or if the slain think he is slain," 



for the red slayer not only thinks he slays, but also has excellent reason 

 to think he is slain. The sign gives the head and shoulders of a man 

 with a red spot of blood on his neck, an arm being extended, with a line 

 drawn to a golden eagle. The Arickarees, a branch of the Pawnee fam- 

 ily, though now reduced to less than 1,000, were at the date given a 

 powerful body, divided into ten large bands. 



