The device is believed to represent an Arickara palisaded village and attacking soldiers. Not only the remarkable character and triumphant result of this expedition, but the connection that the Dakotas themselves had with it, made it a natural subject for the year’s totem. All the winter counts refer to this expedition. No. III. United States troops fought Ree Indians. Battiste Good says: “General----- -first-appeared-and-the-Dakotas-aided-him-in-an-attack-on-the-Rees winter,” also “Much-corn winter.” For his character see Figure 69, page 166. The gun and the arrow in contact with the ear of corn show that both whites and Indians fought the Rees. White-Cow-Killer calls it “Old-corn-plenty winter.” Mato Sapa’s chart gives the human figure with a military cap, beard, and goatee. [Illustration: BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XVII 1824-’25. 1825-’26. 1826-’27. THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.] 1824-’25.--No. I. All the horses of Little-Swan’s father are killed by Indians through spite. No. II. Swan, chief of the Two Kettle tribe, had all of his horses killed. Device, a horse pierced by a lance, blood flowing from the wound. No. III. Swan, a Minneconjou Indian, had twenty horses killed by a jealous Indian. Mato Sapa says: Swan, a Minneconjou chief, lost twenty horses killed by a jealous Indian. Major Bush says the same. 1825-’26.--No. I. River overflows the Indian camp; several drowned. The-Flame, the recorder of this count, born. In the original drawing the five objects above the line are obviously human heads. No. II. There was a remarkable flood in the Missouri River, and a number of Indians were drowned. With some exercise of fancy, the symbol may suggest heads appearing above a line of water, or it may simply be the severed heads, several times used, to denote Indians other than Dakotas, with the uniting black line of death. No. III. Thirty lodges of Dakota Indians drowned by a sudden rise of the Missouri River about Swan Lake Creek, which is in Horsehead Bottom, 15 miles below Fort Rice. The five heads are more clearly drawn than in No. II. Battiste Good says: “Many-Yanktonais-drowned winter;” adding: The river bottom on a bend of the Missouri River where they were encamped was suddenly submerged, when the ice broke and many women and children, were drowned. This device is presented in Figure 43. [Illustration: FIG. 43.--River freshet.] All the winter counts refer to this flood. 1826-’27.--No. I. All of the Indians who ate of a buffalo killed on a hunt died of it, a peculiar substance issuing from the mouth.