The Lakota people of the Great Plains did not have a written language until the late 1800s. Nor did they think of years as numbers, like 1800 or 1905. But they felt the importance of keeping track of history and found ways to mark the passage of time.

For the Lakota, a year began with the first snowfall of one winter and ended with the first snowfall of the next winter. At the end of a year, elders chose an unusual event to represent the whole year. The horse near the top left of this canvas, for example, stands for 1801–2, the year this group of Lakota got their first horse. People spoke about that year as “the time people had no horses.”

One man was responsible for keeping track of the years on a “winter count,” a calendar made up of pictures. This man, the winter count “keeper,” added a picture to the calendar for each year that passed. He was also expected to remember the details of all the years included on the calendar, in the proper order. The winter count images jogged his memory when he retold the stories of his people’s history on special occasions.

The images on a winter count might refer to natural occurrences, such as meteor showers, unusual weather, or outbreaks of disease. Or they might stand for events such as battles, encounters with European-Americans, or the death of a leader. The events chosen for the count were not necessarily the most important of the year. But they had to be unique and memorable for the entire community.

More than 150 Lakota winter counts exist today, in versions made by several different encampment groups. Certain years are marked by events important to Lakota groups all across the Great Plains. Other years are noted by local happenings, important only to the people who made that particular count.

Scholars can figure out what year an image refers to by matching up the count with known events. A dramatic meteor shower in 1833, for example, appears on every Lakota winter count for that year. Counting from that symbol, we can tell that this calendar shows the years 1798 to 1904. (The years spiral inward, starting at the top left corner and ending near the center.)

The first winter counts were drawn on animal skins. As the keeper ran out of room or the hide wore out, he copied the pictures onto another surface—often a muslin cloth like this canvas or, in the late 1800s, a paper ledger book. Keeping a record of the images and their stories was more important than having the “original” count.

Another reason for copying a winter count was the retirement of a keeper. The span of time covered by winter counts—often one hundred years or more—was longer than one person could record. The first task of a new keeper (usually a son or nephew of the retiring keeper) was to make his own copy, to learn the count’s symbols and stories. Then, as each new year passed, he added a new picture to his copy of the count.

Many of the winter counts now in museums are copies made for non-Indian collectors. In some cases, the collectors also wrote down the stories told by the keepers. Toward the end of the 19th century, many keepers were making copies of winter counts for sale, and some charged extra for telling the count’s story. The stories are very important because they explain historical events from the Lakota point of view.