The Partnership | Educational Programming | Monte and Emily Yellowbird |

Winter Counts

"A page in time"

Historical Information

A “winter count” was a visual depiction of symbols, images and markings on animal hides that documented important events for Native American tribes.

Historically, Paleo-lithic and some neo-lithic images, cave drawings and carvings were used to tell stories about tribal people before the advent of drawing on Hides. Winter counts consisted of pictographic images which were painted on buffalo hides that recorded historical information about the tribes evolution and important events that the people should remember to pass on the to the future.

These tribal historians/Artisans were reveared in high esteem for the information/stories that they were passing on. The "Keeper" of the winter count, or translator/orator who told the story of events and drew the images, would make a drawing to represent the event they decided to record- the event most monumental for that particular year. Different drawings represented different events such as the introduction of the horse, buffalo hunts, severe winter storms, small pox epidemics and other events.

Every winter, the “Winter Count Keeper” was responsible for the recording, maintaining and the telling of the stories to the People so they could learn, be responsible for and remember the history of the tribe. Following the winter counts came Ledger Art; with the near extinction of the Buffalo herds, inexessiblity of buffalo hides and a food source, the lifestyle of the Native American tribes changed drastically.

Williston

The birth of Ledger art in the 1860s, became the new method of translating this historical information.

Today, Modern day canvases, water color paper, and modern paint supplies replaced the tradition means and methods of telling stories, As does the story tellers.

Black Pinto Horse's recording of a page in time for the Arikara people,

"The Making of the Relatives"

materials: water color paper, coffee grounds, watercolors

This project will utilize traditional images and modern supplies to tell the partitcipants stories of who they are where they come from and where they are going. This project can be appoached in several ways depending on the length of time and the access of materials that the school/program is willing to provide.

Main Objective

Offered for K-12 grades and continuing education. Students will be able to complete a small winter count by using hides which consist of Brown wrapping paper, pencils, and markers/colors. The main objective is to assist students to understand about one method of preserving history (Native American - oral traditions; history passed down through the telling of stories) as well as they experience and share their own personal histories. They will explain where they come from, where they are presently, and where they want to head. The project is very low budget for materials.

Black Pinto Horse’s personal interpretation of his creation:

This depiction is of Bob Tail Bull; riding between both the Sioux and Cheyenne camps gathering the enemy ponies, this piece is displayed in winter count fashion but is more appropriately a ledger hide painting. The winter counts were pictographic depictions of a tribe’s history documented on a hide or material that gave reference to monumental occurrences of the tribe. Ledger Art was introduced in the 1860s after the near extinction of the Buffalo herds and the implementation of the forced relocation of the Plains peoples to reservations. These images were produced on remnant Ledger paper, and portrayed an individual’s accomplishments.

The Arikara and Crow warriors enlisted as scouts for the 7th Cavalry to locate their age old enemy the Sioux and Cheyenne. Upon the location of the enemy encampment, “Custer disregarded consistent warnings from his scouts that one of the largest encampments of Indians in Plains history awaited him somewhere along the river.” Despite these warnings Custer, or “Yellow Hair” and the 7th cavalry elected to proceed and engage the enemy forces. The scouts were originally obligated only to scout and locate the enemy; they too elected to face their enemy in combat one more time.

Bob Tail Bull was a noted REE (Arikara) scout with the 7th cavalry and was killed in battle June 25th 1876, during the “Battle of Little Big Horn” or commonly known as “Custer’s last stand”. Bob Tail Bull a commissioned sergeant with the 7th Cavalry led a young war party of Arikara scouts into battle against the Sioux and Cheyenne encampment in a strategic flank assault to secure the enemy horses. Gathering the ponies was an essential strategy proposed by the Ree scouts to equalizing the insurmountable numbers of enemy warriors, as the Sioux and Cheyenne warriors were skilled horseman.

Native American Scouts for military operations were practiced by many other tribes’ beside the Arikara and Crow.

Fargo area students display their hides as they interpret "A page in time" Winter Count project.