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Show 126 PICTOGRAPHS OP THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. In addition to this fact, Dr. Washington Matthews, assistant surgeon United States Army, communicates the statement that the Indians had numberless other opportunities all over their country of receiving the same information. He was at Fort Rice during the eclipse and remembers that long before the eclipse occurred the officers, men, and citizens around the post told the Indians of the coming event and discussed it with them so much that they were on the tip- toe of expectancy when the day came. Two- Bears and his band were then encamped at Fort Bice, and he and several of his leading men watched the eclipse along with the whites and through their smoked glass, and then and there the phenomenon was thoroughly explained to them over and over again. There is no doubt that similar explanations were made at all the numerous posts and agencies along the river that day. The path of the eclipse coincided nearly with the course of the Missouri for over a thousand miles. The duration of totality at Fort Bice was nearly two minutes ( lm 481.) No. III. Dakotas witnessed eclipse of the sun; frightened terribly. It is remarkable that the Gorbusier Winter Counts do not mention this eclipse. 1870-' 71.- No. I. The- Flame's son killed by Bees. The recorder, The- Flame, evidently considered his family misfortune to be of more importance than the battle referred to by the other recorders. No. II. The Uncpapas had a battle with the Grows, the former losing, it is said, 14 and killing 29 out of 30 of the latter, though nothing appears to show those numbers. The central object in the symbol is not a circle denoting multitude, but an irregularly rounded object, clearly intended for one of the wooden inclosures or forts frequently erected by the Indians, and especially the* Crows. The Grow fort is shown as nearly surrounded, and bullets, not arrows or lances, are flying. This is the first instance in which any combat or killing is portrayed wheie guns explicitly appear to be used by Indians, though nothing in the chart is at variance with the fact that the Dakotas had for a number of years been familiar with fire arms. The most recent indications of any weapon were those of the arrows piercing the Crow squaw in 1857-' 58 and Brave- Bear in 1854-? 55, while the last one before them was the lance used in 1848-' 49, and those arms might well have been employed in all the cases selected for the calendar, although rifles and muskets were common. There is also an obvious practical difficulty in picturing by a single character killing with a bullet, not arising as to arrows, lances, dirks, and hatchets, all of which can be and are in the chart shown projecting from the wounds made by them. Pictographs iu the possession of the Bureau of Ethnology show battles in which bullets are denoted by continuous dotted lines, the spots at which they take effect being sometimes indicated. It is, however, to be noted that the bloody wound on the Bee's shoulder ( 1806T-' 07) is without any protruding weapon, as if made by a bullet. |