Personal decoration
was common, and was largely symbolic; the face and body were painted in
distinctive ways when going on the warpath, in organizing the hunt, in
mourning the dead, in celebrating the victory, and in performing various
ceremonials. Scarification and maiming were practiced by some of the
tribes, always in a symbolic way. Among the Mandan and Hidatsa scars were
produced in cruel ceremonials originally connected with war and hunting,
and served as enduring witnesses of courage and fortitude. Symbolic
tattooing was fairly common among the westernmost tribes. Eagle and other
feathers were worn as insignia of rank and for other symbolic purposes,
while bear claws and the scalps of enemies were worn as symbols of the
chase and battle. Some of the tribes recorded current history by means of
"winter counts" or calendaric inscriptions, though their arithmetic was
meager and crude, and their calendar proper was limited to recognition of
the year, lunation, and day--or, as among so many primitive people, the
"snow," "dead moon," and "night,"--with no definite system of fitting
lunations to the annual seasons. Most of the graphic records were
perishable, and have long ago disappeared; but during recent decades
several untutored tribesmen have executed vigorous drawings representing
hunting scenes and conflicts with white soldiery, which have been
preserved or reproduced. These crude essays in graphic art were the germ
of writing, and indicate that, at the time of discovery, several Siouan
tribes were near the gateway opening into the broader field of scriptorial
culture.
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