Lakota winter counts, pictographic records, and record making and remaking histories

  • Jane Zhang Department of Library and Information Science, The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., USA
Keywords: Winter counts, pictographic records, American history of records and recordkeeping, Native American records

Abstract

Winter counts are pictographic calendars created and used by certain Native American communities as mnemonic devices for remembering the sequence of events that mark each year, and for retelling community stories. Drawing on resources from the Smithsonian Institution’s National Anthropological Archives’ winter count collections and related literature, this study reviews and discusses the characteristics of pictographic records, traces their making and remaking histories, and revisits the pictorial tradition in the American history of records and record keeping.

Published
2017-02-09
How to Cite
Zhang J. (2017) “Lakota winter counts, pictographic records, and record making and remaking histories”, Archives & Manuscripts, 45(1), pp. 3-17. doi: 10.1080/01576895.2017.1279062.
Section
Articles