| OCR Text |
Show 172 PICTOGRAPHS OP THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. willing to tell his proper name to a white man as to an Indian; and, of coarse, between the Indian and the white man there is no relationship the term for which can serve as a proper name. An Indian, therefore, when he has to do with a European, asks the latter to give him a name, and if one is given to him, always afterwards uses this. The names given in this way are generally simple enough- John, Peter, Thomas, and so on. But sometimes they are not sufficiently simple to be comprehended and remembered by their Indian owners, who therefore, haying induced the donor to write the name on a piece of paper, preserve this ever after most carefully, and whenever asked for their name by another European, exhibit the document as the only way of answering. Sometimes, however, an Indian, though he cannot pronounce his English names, makes it possible by corruption. For instance, a certain Macusi Indian was known to me for a long time as Shassapoon, which I thought was his proper name, until it accidentally appeared that it was his ' English name,' he having been named by and after one Charles Appun, a Qerman traveler. The original of Figure 76 was made by Lean- Wolf, second chief of the Hidatsa, for Dr. W. J. Hoffman in 1881, and represents the method which this Indian has employed to designate himself for many years past. During his boyhood he had an- "" V***-**^ other name. This is a current, or perhaps it may be ' Vi^-** ) called cursive, form of the name, which is given more elaborately in Figure 74, Figure 77 is taken from the winter count of Bat-tiste Good for the year 1841-' 42. He calls the year FIO 76- Lean- wolf " Pointer- made- a- eommemoration- of- the- dead winter." Also " Deep- snow winter." The extended index denotes the man's name, " Pointer," the ring and spots, deep snow. The spots denoting snow occur also in other portions of this count, and the circle, denoting quantity, is also attached in Figure 141, p. 219, to a forked stick and incloses a buffalo head to signify much meat. That the circle is intended to signify quantity is probable, as the gesture for " much" or " quantity" is made bypassing the hands upward from both sides and together before the body, describing the upper half of a circle, i. e., showing a heap. Figure 78 is also from the winter count of Battiste Good for the year 1785-' 86. This year he calls " The- Cheyennes- killed- Shadow's- father winter." Fm/ 77 - Pointer. The umbrella signifies Shadow; the three marks under the arrow, Cheyenne; the blood- stained arrow in the man's body, killed; Shadow's name and the umbrella in the figure intimates that he was the first Dakota to carry an umbrella. The advantages of the umbrella were soon recognized by the Dakotas, and the first they obtained from the whites were highly prized. In the record prepared by Battiste Good this is the only instance where the short vertical lines below the arrow signify Cheyenne. In all others these marks are numerical, and denote the number of persons killed. That these short lines signify Cheyenne may be attributable |
