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
Blue-hawk.
80. Hard-to-kill.
81. Iron-boy.
82. Painted-rock.
83. Yellow-wolf.
84. Made-an-enemy.
The information yet obtained from the author of the pictograph
concerning its details is meager, and as it will probably be procured
no unimportant conjectures are now hazarded. It is presented for the
ideography shown, which may in most cases be understood from the
translation of the several names into English as given in the preceding
list. A few remarks of explanation, occurring to the writer, may be
added:
No. 34, on plate LIV, with the translation Red-earth-woman, appears
from the scalp-lock and the warrior’s necklace to be a man, and
Red-earth-woman to be his name.
No. 62 on Plate LVII, probably refers to an Ogalala who was called
Arapaho, the interpretation, as well as the blue cloud, being in the
Dakota language “Blue cloud,” a term by which the Arapaho Indians are
known to the Dakotas, as several times mentioned in this paper. In
No. 65, Plate LVII, the cloud is drawn in blue, the _searching_ being
derived from the expression of that idea in gesture by passing the
extended index of one hand (or both) forward from the eye, then from
right to left, as if indicating various uncertain localities before the
person, _i. e._, searching for something. The lines from the eyes are
in imitation of this gesture.
In No. 77, Plate LVIII, is a reproduction of the character given in
Red-Cloud’s Census, No. 133. See Plate LXVII. The figure appears,
according to the explanation given by several Ogalala Dakota Indians,
to signify the course of a whirlwind, with the transverse lines in
imitation of the circular movement of the air, dirt, leaves, etc.,
observed during such aërial disturbances.
In No. 78 of the same plate the lines above the bird’s head again
appear to signify _sacred_, _mystic_, usually termed “medicine” in
other records. Similar lines are in No. 64, Plate LVII.
RED-CLOUD’S CENSUS.
The pictorial census, shown in Plates LIX to LXXIX, was prepared under
the direction of Red-Cloud, chief of the Dakota at Pine Ridge Agency,
Dakota Territory, about two years ago. The individuals referred to
and enumerated are the adherents of Red-Cloud, and do not represent
all the Indians at that Agency. Owing to some disagreement the agent
refused to acknowledge that chief as head of the Indians at the agency,
and named another as the official chief. The Indians under Red-Cloud
exhibited their allegiance to him by attaching, or having their names
attached, to seven sheets of ordinary manilla paper, which were sent to
Washington and, while in the custody of Dr. T. A. Bland, of that city,
were kindly loaned by him to the Bureau of Ethnology to be copied by
photography. The different sheets were apparently drawn by different
persons, as the drawings of human heads vary enough to indicate
individuality.
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. LIX
RED-CLOUD’S CENSUS.--RED-CLOUD’S BAND.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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