MS 2002-28 Kiowa calendar on canvas
odd: label: Local Numbers
content: NAA MS 2002-28
place: label: Place
content: North America
culture: label: Culture
content: Kiowa
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 1 Item (pictorial calendar, 77 drawings , graphite and colored pencil on canvas, 4 x 84 inches)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1862-1901
container: label: Container
content: Box 2002-28
custodhist: label: Custodial History
content: This calendar was purchased by the Smithsonian in March 2002 from Historical Artifacts, Inc. of Gerryowen, Montana. They had acquired it through Butterfield's Auction House in 2000, consigned from the private collection of Rex Arrowsmith, an Indian art dealer. It was misidentified as a Sioux pictograph drawing from the 1890s, based on the accompanying history published in the Butterfield's catalog: "This pictograph was obtained from the family of Indian Agent Charles Lyman Ellis. Mr. Ellis was a Federal Indian Agent and spent most of his career working with the Sioux in South Dakota, first arriving there in 1904." It is not known whether this piece actually came from Ellis or whether his name was associated with the object erroneously.
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Anthropological Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NAA.MS2002-28
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Graphic Materials
label: Type
content: Works of art
label: Type
content: Calendars
label: Type
content: Pictographs
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: The collection record is based on information presented in:

Greene, Candace S. and Russell Thornton. The Years the Stars Fell: Lakota Winter Counts at the Smithsonian. University of Nebraska Press, 2007.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Works of art
label: Genre/Form
content: Calendars
label: Genre/Form
content: Pictographs
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The collection consists of a calendar with 77 entries drawn on a piece of coarse cotton cloth with one selvedge edge and one edge machine hemmed. The entries begin near one end of the strip and move from left to right in a staggered linear sequence, stopping well short of the opposite end. Summer and winter entries alternate, with the register of summer entries drawn above the register of winter entries. A green forked pole accompanies pictures for summers when the Medicine Lodge ceremony was held. A yellow diamond outlined in blue indicates winter seasons. The calendar covers the period between 1862 and 1901. No information is known about the original production of this calendar.


Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or National Anthropological Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.