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
No. II. The measles broke out and many died. The device in the copy is
the same as that for 1801-’02, relating to the small-pox, except a very
slight difference in the red blotches; and though Lone-Dog’s artistic
skill might not have been sufficient to distinctly vary the appearance
of the two patients, both diseases being eruptive, still it is one of
the few serious defects in the chart that the sign for the two years
is so nearly identical that, separated from the continuous record,
there would be confusion between them. Treating the document as a mere
_aide-de-mémoire_, no inconvenience would arise, it probably being well
known that the small-pox epidemic preceded that of the measles; but
such care is generally taken to make some, however minute, distinction
between the characters, that possibly the figures on Lone-Dog’s robe
show a more marked difference between the spots indicating the two
eruptions than is reproduced in the copy. It is also to be noticed
that the Indian diagnosis makes little distinction between small-pox
and measles, so that no important pictographic variation could be
expected. The head of this figure is clearly distinguished from that in
1801-’02.
No. III. All the Dakotas had measles, very fatal.
Battiste Good says: “Small-pox-used-them-up-again winter.” They at this
time lived on the Little White River, about 20 miles above the Rosebud
Agency. The character in Battiste Good’s chart is presented here in
Figure 41, as a variant from those in the plates.
[Illustration: FIG. 41.--Measles or small-pox.]
Cloud-Shield says: Many died of the small-pox.
White-Cow-Killer calls it “Little-small-pox winter.”
In Mato Sapa’s drawing the head of the figure is distinguished from
that of 1801-’02.
1819-’20.--No. I. Another trading store built.
No. II. Another trading store was built; this time by Louis La Conte,
at Fort Pierre, Dakota. His timber, as one of the Indians consulted
specially mentioned, was rotten.
No. III. Trading post built on the Missouri River above Farm Island
(near Fort Pierre).
Battiste Good says: “Chozé-built-a-house-of-rotten-wood winter.”
White-Cow-Killer calls it: “Made-a-house-of-old-wood winter.”
1820-’21.--No. I. Large dirt lodge made by Two-Arrow. The projection at
the top extends downward from the left, giving the impression of red
and black cloth streamers.
No. II. The trader, La Conte, gave Two-Arrow a war-dress for his
bravery. So translated an interpreter, and the sign shows the two
arrows as the warrior’s totem; likewise the gable of a house,
which brings in the trader; also a long strip of black tipped with
red streaming from the roof, which possibly may be the piece of
parti-colored material out of which the dress was fashioned. This strip
is not intended for sparks and smoke, as at first sight suggested, as
the red would in that case be nearest the roof, instead of farthest
from it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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