OBJECT history By Mike Cowdrey On the Northern Plains, where winter may last six months or longer, the Lakota marker for determining the beginning of each year was the fi rst signifi cant snowfall. A Lakota year, therefore, usually started in late October, although in some years it could be as early as mid September or as late as mid November.* Based on this system of reckoning, remarkable graphic documents were created by the Lakota and related Siouan peoples to recall their history. At fi rst snowfall, a council of leading chiefs met to select the outstanding event of the previous year (fi g. 1). An appointed 128 keeper, or band historian, then depicted this event in a distinctive glyph painted usually upon a tanned buffalo or elk skin. Years later, when these materials wore out, the records were recopied onto panels of muslin cloth, and later still, onto paper. Today, more than 100 winter counts are known, although many of these have survived only in written form (Greene & Thornton, 2007). Logically, the Lakota name for these unique cultural documents is waniyetu (winter) wowapi (any graphic record; originally drawings, but later also written or printed matter), or “winter record” (Buechel, 1970: 540 & 613). The Lakota word yawapi means “they are counting or repeating” (Buechel, 1970: 630), so another commonly used name for these records is waniyetu yawapi, “they are recounting the winters,” or “winter count” (Corbusier, 1886: 128). The earliest surviving winter count, beginning in 1680–81, was created by the Yanktonais Sioux (Howard, 1976), who in the last quarter of the seventeenth FIG. 1 (below): Jesse Hastings Bratley (1867– 1941), Leaders of the Wajaje Lakota, Black Pipe District, Rosebud Reservation, South Dakota, July 4, 1897. Denver Museum of Nature & Science, inv. br61-324. L to R, standing: George Steed, Chief Elk Teeth, Chief Otterman, Horn; seated: One Wood, With Horns, Yellow Cloud, Chief Grey Eagle Tail, Chief Turning Eagle, Fast Dog, Pulls the Arrow Out, James Kills Plenty. All councilors of the Wajaje, these men would certainly have been involved in selecting the events depicted during the fi nal decades marked by the Wajaje Winter Count. FIG. 2 (top right): The Wajaje Winter Count. Wajaje, Lakota Sioux, Western Dakotas, North America. Ex Ed and Bill Clerk, Bill Samaha. Muslin cloth, graphite pencil, charcoal, watercolor. 90.2 x 177.8 cm. Museum of Native American History, Bentonville, Arkansas. A winter count is a calendar and historical record used by Plains peoples, primarily the Sioux. Every drawing, or glyph, represents a signifi cant event that took place each year. The Wajaje Winter Count recounts the early history of the Southern Teton Lakota tribes. Beginning with the center blue glyph, it documents the years 1758–59 to 1885–86. FIG. 3 (center right): Progression of years on the Wajaje Winter Count. A Winter Count of the Wajaje Lakota 1758–59 to 1885–86
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