SHSND Home > North Dakota History > Unit 3: Commerce Culture, and Conflict, 1800-1878 > Winter Counts > Study & Discussion

Unit 3: Set 1. Winter Counts - Study & Discussion

Activity 1 | Activity 2

Beede's handwritten account of High Dog winter count
Beede's handwritten account

Beede's typed account with translations written on sheet
Beede's translation of High Dog winter count
from Sioux to English
  1. Read Reverend Beede's original handwritten list from High Dog telling of his count. Match it (by number) with the typescript copy and the second typescript with handwritten notes. Finally, read his fuller description in Document 4. Now match that number to the pictograph number. How does Reverend Beede's understanding grow as he works through the process of recording, translating, and discussing the pictograph?
  2. What does mnemonic (or mnemographic) mean? What does this tell us about the ways that the Lakota and other Indians maintained knowledge of their history?
  3. Can you match any of the mnemonic events in John No Ears' count and High Dog's count?
  4. Can you verify some of High Dog's observations? For instance, 1910 indicates a comet. Was there a comet in 1910? Was there another one in 1912? What else can you learn about 1833 the Year the Stars Fell?
  5. What more can you learn about Reverend Aaron Beede? What more can you learn about Major General Hugh L. Scott? These men have very different backgrounds and reasons for collecting winter counts. Does that make a difference in the way we understand Lakota history?
  6. Why did High Dog and other sources refuse to elaborate on some of the glyphs (as in number 83)?
  7. What more can you find out about the captivity of Mrs. Fanny Kelley (number 67)?

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