OCR Text |
Show OF THE BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY. LIII River, and became acquainted with a pictorial chart represented to be a history of the Dakota. He ascertained that its true character was not historic, but that its design was to designate successive years by the most remarkable, or rather the most distinguishable, events that occurred in each. The chart, therefore, became useful as a calendar, and was actually in use as such. Colonel Mallery published it, with interpretations and explanations, under the title of " A Calendar of the Dakota Nation," in a bulletin of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, issued in 1877. The diffusion of this publication, awakening general interest on the subject among Army officers and other persons in the Indian country, resulted in bringing to light other copies of the chart and additional facts relating to its origin, interpretation, and use. The material thus gathered has been the nucleus around which further information on the subject of pictography has been accumulated. The systematic study of sign language, upon which subject Colonel Mallery prepared a preliminary paper published in the first annual report, also brought under his observation many points connected with pictography, both modes of expression being graphic and pictorial. The research, study, and correspondence for the preparation of a monograph on the gesture speech of man has been continued by him since the preliminary paper before mentioned, with which a similar undertaking upon the general subject of picture writing has proceeded pari passu. Both of these modes of conveying ideas and facts, by one of which they are also recorded, prevail among the North American Indians with a development beyond that found among any other existing peoples, and therefore the study of both developments among them is most advantageous when combined. It was deemed advisable to pursue a plan successfully adopted by the Bureau in other departments of work, viz, to publish a preliminary paper before undertaking an exhaustive monograph. By this means the amount and character of the information so far obtained is communicated to persons already interested in the subject. The interest of others is excited and their collaboration is invited, while their researches |