Counting by Winters

National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

Winter counts are histories or calendars in which events are recorded by pictures, with one picture for each year. The Lakota call them waniyetu wowapi. Waniyetu is the word for year, which is measured from first snowfall to first snowfall. It is often translated as 'a winter.' Wowapi means anything that is marked on a flat surface and can be read or counted, such as a book, a letter, or a drawing.

Winter counts are physical records that were used in conjunction with a more extensive oral history. Each year was named for an event and the pictures referring to the year names served as a reference source that could be consulted regarding the order of the years. People knew the name of the year in which other important events occurred, and could place these in time by referring to the winter count.

The events used to name the years were not necessarily the most important things that happened but ones that were memorable and widely known within the community. One of those events, The Year the Stars Fell, was also widely known to non-Lakota people. The Smithsonian scholar Garrick Mallery recognized it as the Leonid meteor storm of November 1833, and he used this event to correlate the Lakota winter counts with the Western calendar. Much of the following information is based on his publications of 1886 and 1893.

Winter Count Keepers

Each Lakota band, or tiyospaye, had a designated winter count keeper who served as the community historian. The keeper was responsible for recounting the band's history at various events throughout the year and for adding a new image to the winter count each year. Events for which years were named were selected in consultation with a council of band elders. Traditionally only men served as winter count keepers, and the role often was passed down from one family member to another. In the 20th century some counts were passed on to women. The winter counts depicted here is named after its last known author.

Winter counts were copied over many times as they wore out or required more space, or when a new keeper took over. While many counts clearly originated from a common source, recopying led to differences as well. A keeper might have chosen to record a different event, a different aspect of the same event, or might have made a mistake.

The winter count keeper's notes are the foundation for interpreting the counts.

Pictures and Materials

For generations, Plains Indians drew pictures to document their experiences. The pictures on the Lakota winter counts were created to serve as mnemonic devices and are much simpler than ones they drew for other purposes. As some Lakota people learned to write their own language in the 19th century, a few keepers began to add written words to the pictures, and eventually some winter counts consisted entirely of written year names.

The earliest winter counts were painted on hides. These records were transferred to muslin and paper once those materials became available. When an outside market developed for winter counts, Lakota people again painted copies of their counts on hides to satisfy the expectations of the curio trade.

Pictorial art declined as a form of record keeping when literacy became widespread among the Lakota, although many people today see other types of recording — making marks through written words, art, video, and even online exhibits — as a modern continuation of the winter count tradition.

Lone Dog Winter Count

National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

 American Horse

National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

This is a copy made by American Horse of a winter count that he kept on a piece of cloth. He drew it in a sketchbook in 1879 at the request of William H. Corbusier, an Army surgeon. (The Cloud Shield winter count is in the same book.) Corbusier sent it to the Smithsonian together with an explanation of the years provided by the keeper. American Horse said that the winter count had been kept in his family for generations, passed down from his grandfather, to his father, to him.

American Horse was a noted Oglala chief living on the Pine Ridge Reservation when he made this version of his winter count. He was born in the year they stole many horses from the Flatheads, or 1840-41. His death is marked in the No Ears calendar for the year 1908-09.

 Battiste Good

National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

This is a copy made by Battiste Good of a winter count that he kept on a piece of cloth. He also drew it in a sketchbook in 1880 at the request of William H. Corbusier.

Battiste Good's Lakota name was Wapostangi, or Brown Hat. He was born in the year the star passed by with a loud noise, or 1821-22. He was a Brule living on the Rosebud Reservation in the 1880s.

This winter count is unusual because it includes a series of entries that cover periods of seventy years and extend back to the time when the Lakota received the White Buffalo Calf Pipe, a sacred object still maintained by the tribe, which Good calculated to have occurred in 900 A.D. Battiste Good and his son High Hawk are the only winter count keepers who marked periods longer than a single year.

Cloud Shield Winter Count

National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

This is a copy made by Cloud Shield of a winter count that he kept on a piece of cloth. He drew it in a sketchbook in 1879 at the request of William H. Corbusier. (The American Horse winter count is in the same book.)

Cloud Shield was an Oglala living on the Pine Ridge Reservation when he made this version of his winter count. He served as a lieutenant in the Indian Police and was a close associate of Chief Red Cloud.

The Flame Winter Count

National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

This winter count on muslin is a copy made by Lt. Hugh T. Reed from the original kept by The Flame. The Flame also provided an interpretation of the years.

The Flame's name in Lakota was Boide, which can also be translated as The Blaze. His father was a Sans Arc, but he lived most of his life with the Two Kettle band.

The Flame Winter Count

National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

The records indicate that this count on muslin is a copy made by Septima V. Koehler around 1892. It is not known what source she copied, but it contains the same entries as the copy of The Flame winter count made by Lt. Reed. Ms. Koehler and her sister were missionaries and teachers on the Standing Rock Reservation and in nearby communities between 1892 and 1912.

Lone Dog Winter Count

National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

Lone Dog was a Yanktonai who was living in Montana Territory in the 1860s, near where the Fort Peck reservation was later established. There probably were several men with the same name as widely scattered sources refer to a Lone Dog among various bands of the Lakota.

Long Soldier Winter Count

National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

It is not known who drew this winter count on muslin cloth, but Long Soldier provided an interpretation of the years. The count and accompanying information came from  Mrs. M.K. Squires in 1923, who lived at Fort Yates, North Dakota, on the Standing Rock Reservation.

Long Soldier was a Hunkpapa chief who signed the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty and settled on the Standing Rock Reservation.

Rosebud Winter Count

National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

This winter count on cloth came to the museum without any information on who made it or where. It has been named the Rosebud winter count because it belonged to the family of John Anderson, a photographer who worked on the Rosebud Reservation between 1880 and 1935.

The Swan Winter Count

National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

This version of The Swan's winter count is a tracing made from a muslin copy, which was itself a copy of the original count painted on hide. The muslin copy was made in 1870 by Dr. Washington West, an assistant Army surgeon, from The Swan's original hide. This tracing was made at the Smithsonian museum when the muslin was loaned for study. It is accompanied by an explanation provided by the keeper.

The Swan was a Miniconjou, who probably resided on the Cheyenne River Reservation where Dr. West was stationed.

Pictographs of the Battle of the Little Bighorn

The Death of Crazy Horse

In this scene Little Big Man is holding Crazy Horse

  Winter count Creator: American Horse

    Year: 1877 - 1878
   
    Notes: A soldier ran a bayonet into Crazy Horse, and killed him in the guard house, at Fort Robinson, Nebraska (September 5, 1877)
White Cow Killer calls it "Crazy Horse killed winter".
    Many other counts also record the death of Crazy Horse.

   
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