No. II. Many flags were given them by the Peace Commission. The flag refers to the visit of the Peace Commissioners, among whom were Generals Sherman, Terry, and other prominent military and civil officers. Their report appears in the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1868. They met at Fort Leavenworth, August 13, 1867, and between August 30 and September 13 held councils with the various bands of the Dakota Indians at Forts Sully and Thompson, and also at the Yankton, Ponka, and Santee Reservations. These resulted in the great Dakota treaty of 1868. No. III. Made peace with General Sherman and others at Fort Laramie. Mato Sapa says: Made peace with General Sherman and others at Fort Laramie. Major Bush agrees with Mato Sapa. See Corbusier’s Winter Counts, No. II, page 144. 1868-’69.--No. I. First issue of beef by Government to Indians. No. II. Texas cattle were brought into the country. This was done by Mr. William A. Paxton, a well-known business man, resident in Dakota in 1877. No. III. Dakotas had plenty of white men’s cattle (the result of the peace). Mato Sapa agrees with No. III. [Illustration: BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XXXII 1869-’70. 1870-’71. THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.] 1869-’70.--No. I. Eclipse of the moon. No. II. An eclipse of the sun. This was the solar eclipse of August 7, 1869, which was central and total on a line drawn through the Dakota country. This device has been criticised because the Indians believe an eclipse to be occasioned by a dragon or aerial monster swallowing the sun, and it is contended that they would so represent it. An answer is that the design is objectively good, the sun being painted black, as concealed, while the stars come out red, _i. e._, bright, and graphic illustration prevails throughout the charts where it is possible to employ it. In addition, it is learned that Prof. Cleveland Abbé, who was famed as an astronomer before he became so as a meteorologist, was at Sioux Falls, with a corps of assistants, to observe this very eclipse, and explained the subject to a large number of Indians there at that time, so that their attention was not only directed specially to that eclipse, but also to the white men as interested in it, and to its real appearance as apart from their old superstition.