Winter Counts at the Smithsonian

Washington, DC

March 2010

 

In March of 2010, Dr. Pammla Petrucka, Deanna Bickford, Logan Bird (NEPS student U of S), and Lyndon Wajunta (youth representative Standing Buffalo Dakota Nation) took a study trip to the Smithsonian American Indian Museum and Smithsonian archives in Washington, DC to learn more about winter counts. The research team at Standing Buffalo Dakota Nation, Fort Qu’Appelle, SK is exploring the utilization of First Nations knowledge and alternative visual research methods.

 

Winter counts are histories and/or calendars recorded by way of pictures, with one picture for each year. The Lakota/Dakota call them waniyetu wowapi. Waniyetu is the word for year, which is measured from first snowfall to first snowfall. Wowapi means anything that is marked on a flat surface and can be read or counted.

 

They are physical records that were used to supplement an extensive oral history. Each year was named for an event and the pictures referring to the year names served as a reference source that could be consulted regarding the order of the years. People could place these in time by referring to specific pictures.

 

Each band had a designated winter count keeper who served as the community historian. The keeper was responsible for recounting the band's history at various events throughout the year and for adding a new image to the winter count each year. Traditionally only men served as winter count keepers, and the role often was passed down from one family member to another. In the 20th century some counts were passed on to women.

 

The earliest winter counts were painted on animal hides. Pictorial art declined as a form of record keeping when literacy became widespread among the Lakota.

 

In addition to learning about winter counts, the group visited the National Museum of the American Indian which is also part of the Smithsonian. This aspect of the museum focuses on the history and culture of Native Americans as well as illustrating a more accurate and broader view of their cultures and beliefs. This part of the museum has many ongoing, yearlong exhibitions such as Return to a Native Place: Algonquian Peoples of the Chesapeake, which focuses on the Native Americans of the Maryland and Virginia area. Also, Our Universes: Traditional Knowledge Shapes Our World Our People, Giving Voice to Our Histories Our Lives and Contemporary Life and Identities. Each of these exhibitions includes maps, ceremonial and everyday objects as well as various pieces of artwork.