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
In addition to this fact, Dr. Washington Matthews, assistant surgeon
United States Army, communicates the statement that the Indians had
numberless other opportunities all over their country of receiving the
same information. He was at Fort Rice during the eclipse and remembers
that long before the eclipse occurred the officers, men, and citizens
around the post told the Indians of the coming event and discussed it
with them so much that they were on the tip-toe of expectancy when
the day came. Two-Bears and his band were then encamped at Fort Rice,
and he and several of his leading men watched the eclipse along with
the whites and through their smoked glass, and then and there the
phenomenon was thoroughly explained to them over and over again. There
is no doubt that similar explanations were made at all the numerous
posts and agencies along the river that day. The path of the eclipse
coincided nearly with the course of the Missouri for over a thousand
miles. The duration of totality at Fort Rice was nearly two minutes
(1^m 48^{s}.)
No. III. Dakotas witnessed eclipse of the sun; frightened terribly.
It is remarkable that the Corbusier Winter Counts do not mention this
eclipse.
1870-’71.--No. I. The-Flame’s son killed by Rees. The recorder,
The-Flame, evidently considered his family misfortune to be of more
importance than the battle referred to by the other recorders.
No. II. The Uncpapas had a battle with the Crows, the former losing,
it is said, 14 and killing 29 out of 30 of the latter, though nothing
appears to show those numbers. The central object in the symbol is not
a circle denoting multitude, but an irregularly rounded object, clearly
intended for one of the wooden inclosures or forts frequently erected
by the Indians, and especially the Crows. The Crow fort is shown as
nearly surrounded, and bullets, not arrows or lances, are flying. This
is the first instance in which any combat or killing is portrayed where
guns explicitly appear to be used by Indians, though nothing in the
chart is at variance with the fact that the Dakotas had for a number of
years been familiar with fire arms. The most recent indications of any
weapon were those of the arrows piercing the Crow squaw in 1857-’58 and
Brave-Bear in 1854-’55, while the last one before them was the lance
used in 1848-’49, and those arms might well have been employed in all
the cases selected for the calendar, although rifles and muskets were
common. There is also an obvious practical difficulty in picturing by
a single character killing with a bullet, not arising as to arrows,
lances, dirks, and hatchets, all of which can be and are in the chart
shown projecting from the wounds made by them. Pictographs in the
possession of the Bureau of Ethnology show battles in which bullets
are denoted by continuous dotted lines, the spots at which they take
effect being sometimes indicated. It is, however, to be noted that the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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