Pictographs of the North American Indians. A preliminary paper: Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1882-83, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1886, pages 3-256Mallery, Garrick
History
Pictographs of the North American Indians. A preliminary paper: Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1882-83, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1886, pages 3-256
Mallery, Garrick
Haida Indians; Picture-writing, Indian; Tattooing
The interpreter states that this was near the present Cheyenne Agency,
Dakota Territory. In the original character there is a bloody wound at
the shoulder showing that the heroic Indian was wounded. He is shown
bearing a water vessel.
Battiste Good gives a figure for this year recognizably the same
as that in The-Flame’s chart, but with a different explanation.
He calls it “The Rees-stood-the-frozen-man-up-with-the-buffalo
stomach-in-his-hand winter,” and adds: “The body of a Dakota who had
been killed in an encounter with the Rees, and had been left behind,
froze. The Rees dragged it into their village, propped it up with a
stick, and hung a buffalo stomach filled with ice in one hand to make
sport of it. The buffalo stomach was in common use at that time as a
water-jug.”
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Water-stomach-killed winter.”
1796-’97--No. I. A Mandan chief, “The-Man-with the-Hat,” becomes noted
as a warrior. The character is precisely the same as that often given
for white man. Some error in the interpretation is suggested in the
absence of knowledge whether there actually was a Mandan chief so
named, in which case the pictograph would be consistent.
Battiste Good says: “Wears-the-war-bonnet-died winter,” adding: He did
not die this winter, but received a wound in the abdomen from which the
arrow head could not be extracted, but he died of the belly-ache years
after.
White-Cow-Killer says: “War-Bonnet-killed winter.”
The translated expression, “killed,” has been noticed to refer often to
a fatal wound, though the death did not take place immediately.
1797-’98.--No. I. A Ree woman is killed by a Dakota while gathering
“pomme-blanche,” a root used for food. Pomme-blanche, or Navet de
prairie, is a white root somewhat similar in appearance to a white
turnip, botanically _Psoralea esculenta_ (Nuttal), sometimes _P.
argophylla_. It is a favorite food of the Indians, eaten boiled down
to a sort of mush or hominy. A forked stick is used in gathering these
roots.
It will be noticed that this simple statement about the death of the
Arikara woman is changed by other recorders or interpreters into one of
a mythical character.
Battiste Good says: “Took-the-god-woman-captive winter,” adding: a
Dakota war party captured a woman of a tribe unknown, who, in order to
gain their respect, cried out, “I am a ‘Waukan-Tanka’ woman,” meaning
that she feared or belonged to God, the Great Spirit, whereupon they
let her go unharmed.
A note is added: This is the origin of their name for God
[Waka^n-Tañka], the Great Holy, or Supernatural One, they having never
heard of a Supreme Being, but had offered their prayers to the sun,
earth, and many other objects, believing they were endowed with spirits.
White-Cow-Killer says: “Caught-a-medicine-god-woman winter.”
1798-’99.--No. I. Blackfeet Dakotas kill three Rees.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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