MALLERY ON THE DAKOTA CALENDAR. 11, 



forced its passage through huuclreds of miles of hostile territory, was, 

 in 1871, reduced to 225 individuals. It is considered within limits to 

 estimate that, at the period first noted in the chart now submitted, the 

 people to whom it relates comprised a quarter of a million souls, divided 

 into distinct tribes, nearly all of which are referred to in the symbols, 

 which also embrace events as they successively occurred in many and 

 widely-separated parts of the vast region above described and its borders. 



Figure 1. — Thirty Dakotas were killed by Crow Indians. By count- 

 ing back from several well-known dates, this year is ascertained to cor- 

 respond with A. D. 1800, or, more accurately, with the year ending 

 when winter began in the latter jjart of A. D. 1799. The Dakotas count 

 their years by winters (as is quite natural, that season in their high 

 levels and latitudes 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 are named from, or, more accurately, receive their names u]Don, 

 the recurrence of some prominent physical phenomenon. For example, 

 the period partly embraced by February is intended to be 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 the twelve lunations reckoned 

 do not bring back the point in the season when counting commenced, 

 there is often dispute in the Sioux tents toward the end of winter as to 

 the correct current date. 



The symbol consists of thirty parallel black lines in three columns, the 

 outer lines being united. In the chart, such black lines always signify 

 the death of Dakotas killed by their enemies. 



The Upsaroka or Crow tribe, although classed by ethnographers as 

 belonging to the Dakota family, has nearly always been at war with the 

 Dakotas proper since the whites have had any knowledge of either. The 

 official tables of 1875 give the number of Crows then living as 1,200. 

 They are tall, well made, bold, and noted for the extraordinary length of 

 their hair. Some writers also credit them with a comparative degree of 

 cleanliness 5 but, to an observer, the legal maxim " de minimis non curaV 

 would seem applicable as to any comparison between Indians on that 

 subject. 



Fig. 2, 1801. — The small-pox broke out in the nation. The symbol is 

 the head and botly of a man, covered with red blotches. 



Fig. 3, 1802. — Dakotas stole horses with shoes on ; i. e., stole them 



* Although the raccoon is still found in the region once occupied by the Sioux 

 tribes, and then gave its name to the month Wicatawi, it is a question ^yhethe^• it now 

 inhabits their present ranges. As the badger comes out of its hole about the time 

 mentioned, and is frequently Tnct with, that animal's habits may be used instead of 

 those of the raccoon to mark the change of season indicated. 



