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1886.] Ancient Rock Inscriptions in Eastern Dakota. 423 
ANCIENT ROCK INSCRIPTIONS IN EASTERN 
DAKOTA. 
BY I. H. LEWIS. 
ta the celebrated map of I. N. Nicollet, of the “ Hydrographi- 
cal basin of the Upper Mississippi river,” published by the 
U. S. Government in 1845, appear, for the first time, two strange 
names in Eastern Dakota, not far from the sources of the Minne- 
sota river. The first is Wakiyan Hurpi (or thunder’s—not light- 
ning’s—nest), placed about thirteen miles north-west of the foot 
of Lake Travers; and the other is Wakiyan Oye, a few miles 
west of the head of the same lake. The route followed by Nicol- 
let, however, did not pass by either place, so he must have put 
them down from the general description of his guides, as he 
makes no mention of them in his text. It is of the latter locality, 
well known by its translated equivalent of “Thunder Bird’s 
Track ”—on account of the incised rocks there—that this article 
treats; together with another rock of like kind in the neigh- 
borhood. 
In the month of August, 1883, I was engaged in the survey of | 
the sepulchral tumuli, forts and other earth-works of Big Stone 
_ and Travers lakes, and thus being brought into the vicinity of the 
rocks in 
question, took the opportunity afforded of making care- 
ful traci 
much archeological interest. These tracings have been reduced 
by pantograph to one-eighth the size of the originals, and draw- 
ings thus made from them accompany this short account of the | 
“track rocks.” 
The first diagram shows the pictographs constituting “ Thun- 
der Bird’s 
Track,” as they are engraved on an irregular shaped 
Tock located some six miles west and a little north of the village 
of Brown’s Valley, Minnesota, and within the limits of the Sisse- 
= and Wahpeton reservation of Dakota Territory. The rock 
es on the summit of a hill which commands a good view of the 
Ountry, though there are other hills in the vicinity which have a 
ngs of the pictographs they showed, considering them of © 
~ 
altitude. It is about three and a half feet in diameter,and : 
