Winter count facts for kids

Winter counts (in the Lakota language: waníyetu wówapi) are special picture calendars or history books. Native American tribes in North America used them to keep records of important events. Tribes like the Blackfeet, Mandan, Kiowa, and Lakota used these counts a lot. Today, about one hundred winter counts still exist.

What Are Winter Counts?

Most winter counts have one picture, called a pictograph, for each year. This picture showed the most important event that happened that year. For the Lakota people, a "year" went from the first snowfall to the next first snowfall. Kiowa winter counts often had two marks for each year. One mark was for winter, and the other was for their summer Sun Dance. These pictures helped people remember the order of years. They also helped tell longer stories about their history.

Who Kept the Winter Counts?

Traditionally, each group of people chose one person to be the "keeper" of their winter count. Until the 1900s, these keepers were always men. They would talk with older, wise people in the tribe. Together, they would decide on the best name and picture for the year. The keeper would then choose someone to take over after them, often a family member.

How Were They Made?

Until the late 1800s, winter counts were drawn on buffalo hides. When buffalo became harder to find, keepers started using cloth like muslin or linen, or even paper. The yearly pictures usually started on one side of the hide or cloth. They could be drawn in straight lines, spirals, or wavy patterns.

Connecting to Modern Dates

A smart researcher named Garrick Mallery from the Smithsonian noticed something interesting. One event shown in the winter counts was "The Year the Stars Fell." He realized this matched a big meteor shower called the Leonid meteor storm, which happened in November 1833. By using this event, he could match the Lakota winter counts to our modern calendar. This helped people understand the history of these tribes better.

Different Winter Counts

Many different Native American tribes and groups created their own winter counts. Each one tells a unique story of their past. Here are some of the groups that had well-known winter counts:

Images for kids

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  Kiowa winter count by Anko, showing summers and winters for 37 months, 1889-92.