Mandan "History" as Reflected in Butterfly's Winter Count

Abstract

James Howard's record of Butterfly's Mandan Winter Count recently printed in ETHNOHISTORY 1 prompts me to comment on the events reflected in Plains calendrical records and in the Mandan concept of history. One striking thing in Butterfly's count seems to me the mention of no less than six births: that of Buffalo-birdwoman in 1840-41, of Clay-nose in 1847, of Wolf-chief in 1849, of Charly Hoffman in 1869-70, of Goodbird in 1870 and of Many-paints in 1872. Goodbird was the Hidatsa who had written down the text of Butterfly's account in 1911 2 and it is probable that the old man's mention of his scribe's birth was a gesture of graciousness, a form of honoring, fully in accord with Plains patterns. The other possibility, that Goodbird inserted the fact of his own birth into Butterfly's text is not supported by any evidence and would not in any case account for the other births mentioned. One can only suppose that looking back at the years from the vantage point of 1911 Butterfly choose to mention the births of persons who featured prominently in events subsequent to the