5 The keeper was in charge of the winter count, which he kept among his
personal belongings. He was the one who added a new picture each year.
If the pictures on the winter count started to fade, he copied them onto a
new one. When a keeper got old, he gave the winter count to his son,
who became the community’s new keeper. Keepers were almost always
male.
6 Caring for the winter count was just one part of a keeper’s job. His larger
task was remembering the community’s history. To do so, he had to
remember hundreds of events, even things that had happened many
years ago. The winter count, though important and useful, did not show
details. Its drawings were very simple. They were meant to trigger
memories, not serve as works of art. When a keeper saw a certain
picture, it was supposed to make him think of all the important things
that had happened during that year.
Ordering the Years
7 When it was time to add a new picture to a winter count, the keeper
talked with the oldest and wisest members of the community. Together
they decided which event should be drawn. The event had to be
something many people had seen or known about. “Black Crow won the
battle” might define one year. “Many buffalo” might mark another year
as special.
8 Sometimes different keepers used the same
event to mark a year. In 1833, many Lakota
Indians saw a spectacular meteor shower.
They watched as many shooting stars
flashed across the night sky and appeared to
drop to Earth. Four different
keepers—American Horse, Rosebud, Lone
Dog, and Flame—drew meteor showers on
their winter counts that year. Each of the
four pictures is different, but they all refer to
the same event.
9 Not all of the pictures on winter counts were
arranged the same way. Some winter counts
had rows of pictures. On other winter
counts, the earliest pictures were in the
The 1833 meteor shower
was recorded by four
different keepers.
Natural Phenomena Archives, Smithsonian Institution INV 03494000
middle, and the more recent pictures circled
outward. The pattern was not important; placement was what mattered.
Each new picture had to be placed next to the one that had been painted
the year before. The placement allowed a person to count backward to
find out how long it had been since, for example, his community had
made peace with another group. The winter count could also show
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