winter counts
Lakota yearly records
Winter counts are pictographic calendars created by Plains Indigenous peoples, particularly the Lakota, recording one significant event per year on animal hide or cloth.
Each image serves as a mnemonic for that year's most memorable occurrence—a battle, epidemic, meteor shower, or notable death.
The practice produced continuous tribal histories spanning generations: The winter count showed the year of the great smallpox.
- pictographSymbol drawn as image
- lunar cyclesRecurring moonlight patterns
- recordPreserved account or achievement
- hidesConceals or animal skins
- mnemonicTechnique for retention
chronicles · keeper · oral traditions · history · buffalo hunting · ceremonial practices · tribal elders · bison hunting · buffalo robe · calendar · traditional storytelling · seasons · cultural preservation · Plains Indians · Sioux · Lakota · tipi · ancestors
- ancient communicationsmoke signal, hieroglyphs, carrier pigeon, pictographs, pictograms
- Indigenous CanadaFirst Nations, Metis, Inuit, Cree, Ojibwe
- indigenous traditionselder council, powwows, totem poles, healing rituals, sweat lodges
- Native American arttotem poles, Navajo rugs, dreamcatchers, featherwork, wampum
- Native Craftsnative crafts, moccasins, beaded moccasins, dreamcatchers, war bonnet
- Native Literatureindigenous authors, indigenous voices, tribal stories, creation stories, trickster tales
winter countswritten language
Communication through inscribed symbols
printed books · cuneiform tablets · codices · oral tradition · quipu
count, winter, wintry, wintertime, winters, midwinter, wintery, winterize, winterizing