The information yet obtained from the author of the pictograph concerning its details is meager, and as it will probably be procured no unimportant conjectures are now hazarded. It is presented for the ideography shown, which may in most cases be understood from the translation of the several names into English as given in the preceding list. A few remarks of explanation, occurring to the writer, may be added:
No. 34, on plate LIV, with the translation Red-earth-woman, appears from the scalp-lock and the warrior’s necklace to be a man, and Red-earth-woman to be his name.
No. 62 on Plate LVII, probably refers to an Ogalala who was called Arapaho, the interpretation, as well as the blue cloud, being in the Dakota language “Blue cloud,” a term by which the Arapaho Indians are known to the Dakotas, as several times mentioned in this paper. In No. 65, Plate LVII, the cloud is drawn in blue, the _searching_ being derived from the expression of that idea in gesture by passing the extended index of one hand (or both) forward from the eye, then from right to left, as if indicating various uncertain localities before the person, _i. e._, searching for something. The lines from the eyes are in imitation of this gesture.
In No. 77, Plate LVIII, is a reproduction of the character given in Red-Cloud’s Census, No. 133. See Plate LXVII. The figure appears, according to the explanation given by several Ogalala Dakota Indians, to signify the course of a whirlwind, with the transverse lines in imitation of the circular movement of the air, dirt, leaves, etc., observed during such aërial disturbances.
In No. 78 of the same plate the lines above the bird’s head again appear to signify _sacred_, _mystic_, usually termed “medicine” in other records. Similar lines are in No. 64, Plate LVII.
The pictorial census, shown in Plates LIX to LXXIX, was prepared under the direction of Red-Cloud, chief of the Dakota at Pine Ridge Agency, Dakota Territory, about two years ago. The individuals referred to and enumerated are the adherents of Red-Cloud, and do not represent all the Indians at that Agency. Owing to some disagreement the agent refused to acknowledge that chief as head of the Indians at the agency, and named another as the official chief. The Indians under Red-Cloud exhibited their allegiance to him by attaching, or having their names attached, to seven sheets of ordinary manilla paper, which were sent to Washington and, while in the custody of Dr. T. A. Bland, of that city, were kindly loaned by him to the Bureau of Ethnology to be copied by photography. The different sheets were apparently drawn by different persons, as the drawings of human heads vary enough to indicate individuality.