Winter Counts and Coup Counts: Plains Pictorial Art as Native History

Re-Visioning the Winter Count

“…They facilitated discussions of important or unusual events by the Elders or community members, preserved and passed on history, and were used to determine one's age (Burke, 2007a). For others, winter counts were created to provide a record of important events to instruct future generations, to keep track of the sequence of events as a reference point for other events (Greene, 2005;Howard, 1976), and to assist the ''People'' in knowing and understanding their history (Scott, 2006). On occasion, the winter count would also be displayed for the purpose of storytelling (Feraca, 1994).…”

“…Each winter count had a keeper who was responsible for recording and remembering the events on the calendar as well as an apprentice who was responsible for learning the stories and sometimes for making a copy of the original winter count (Burke, 2007a). The winter count keeper was responsible for ensuring the winter count and preserving its accompanying stories (Cohen, 1942), for painting or drawing the pictographs (Greene, 2005;Howard, 1976), and for remembering the name of the years, as well as the details about the event that the pictograph represented (Greene, 2005). In many cases, the keeper would decide what pictograph would be used to represent that particular year as well as the name of the year (Chamberlain, 1984).…”

“…This was particularly important because often these pictographs were not selfevident but needed oral history to be passed along in order to understand the stories behind the pictures (Greene, 2005;Palmer, 2008). Other duties of the winter count keeper were to resolve disagreements about dates or the sequencing of events (Greene, 2005).…”

“…This was particularly important because often these pictographs were not selfevident but needed oral history to be passed along in order to understand the stories behind the pictures (Greene, 2005;Palmer, 2008). Other duties of the winter count keeper were to resolve disagreements about dates or the sequencing of events (Greene, 2005). Some winter count keepers may have charged a fee for these types of services or for services such as assisting someone to find their year of birth or for dating certain events (Howard, 1976).…”

“…Most winter counts included one pictograph for each year except the Kiowa winter counts, which include two pictographs for each year, one for the winter and one for the summer (Greene, 2005). To differentiate between the winter and summer pictographs on the Kiowa winter counts, the winter events were drawn with a line connecting them to a black bar in the middle of the drawing, and the summer events were drawn with ''an accompanying picture of the Medicine Lodge where summer ceremonies were held, or merely a picture of the forked center pole of the Lodge,'' and if no ceremony was held during a particular summer, a pictograph of a leafy tree was used (Greene, 2005, p. 3).…”