Passage IV

Tracking Time through Winter Counts

Lakota artist Emil Her Many Horses became fascinated by Lakota winter counts. While he was working on an exhibit for the National Museum of the American Indian in 2001. “Winter counts” are pictorially calendars that record, or count, the years by representing each year with a single picture. They’re called winter counts because the Lakota measured a year from the first snowfall of one winter to the first snowfall of the next. Many surviving winter counts date from the nineteenth century and were drawn onto buffalo hides.

Each band or extended family group within the larger tribe kept its own winter count. A council of elders will decide which event the year should be remembered for such as, a crucial, buffalo hunt, the death of a great chief, or a dramatic meteor shower. Over time, a count would accumulate dozens of pictures that, arranged in rows or in a spiral, told the people’s story.

Her Many Horses was inspired to revive the historical practice and creating a new winter count for his own family. Likewise, he talked about what to his relatives had been important to them in the past year. Together, we decided that the first year of their count should be remembered as “The Year Many Ceremonies Were Held at Wakpamani Lake.“ One of these ceremonies involved his niece throwing a handmade beaded ball, so Her Many Horses drew a picture showing a young woman in traditional dress tossing a ball. By becoming the family’s winter count keeper, Her Many Horses took on the role of historian and storyteller. (56)

Thus, a winter count is essentially: a tool for remembering. Each image brings to mind a cascade of stories and memories. History stays alive in the telling, as previous keepers must understand each time they looked at the pictures on their winter count and started to speak.

“It was the year that Walks Far brought back the gray horse with eagle feathers braided into its tail...." (59)