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EPISODE ELEVEN : SIKSIKA NATION
OUR STORYTELLERS
WINTER COUNT
sinaksin
(Siksika)
Winter counts, known in the Siksika language as sinaksin, are pictorial calendars and visual histories painted onto bison hide for record keeping. Winter counts are widespread across the Great Plains of Turtle Island, notably practiced by the Kiowa, Lakota, Mandan and Blackfoot.
Like many other Indigenous peoples, the Blackfoot practiced an oral tradition to transmit information from generation to generation. Although written records were not kept, the pictographs drawn on the winter counts acted as a way of reminding people of the important events of any given year.
With the year running from the first snowfall to the next, elders would agree on the essential events to be recorded that year and task someone to paint it on the winter count.
Notable epidemics, natural disasters, wars and miscellaneous events were recorded on the hides, with many since being corroborated by the archeological record.
Throughout consecutive eras of colonial subjugation, winter counts offered a way for Indigenous peoples to record their own stories without going through the distorted colonial lens of their oppressors, challenging the colonial historical record.
Although winter counts are not kept like they once were, institutions like Old Sun Community College in Siksika Nation continue to decolonize their history in other ways.
The college has recently partnered with the University of Calgary to implement an archeology program based on Siksika knowledge and traditions, working directly with community elders.
This archeological research has corroborated some of the Siksika people’s oral histories, confirming their people’s presence and connection to their territory for millennia.
This archeological work has allowed the community to connect their past and traditional knowledge with the archeological record. Much like their ancestors once did with winter counts, Siksika people are reclaiming their people’s narrative and Indigenizing their history in the process.
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