A system by which some Indians kept a record of time and important events by drawing or painting crude pictures or symbols on skins, bark, or stone. Picture writing was in a way a permanent record of the sign language, for the Indian made his drawings in a fashion that brought to mind the idea or thing he wanted to express or tell about.
As time went on the Indian became more skillful and artistic and his pictures became symbols, and by a few lines he was able to convey an idea that formerly had required a more complete picture. Colors, too, stood for certain ideas and by the arrangement of colors the Indian could tell a story. Tattooing was a type of picture writing in certain tribes, and the lines and marks on a man's body told a story.
The Indian called the white man's writing "painted speech," for it was in this manner he considered his own picture writing. But when the white man came the Indian had not reached that stage when he had, like the white man, a written sound language - where a symbol like that for a letter meant a certain sound. Many believe, however, that the Indian's picture writing was leading to this and had the white man not come he would have had such an alphabet eventually.
There are some notable examples of picture writing records left by Indians. Among these are the Walum Opum of the Delaware; Sitting Bull's story of his life painted on a buffalo hide; records of the Midewiwin Society, or the Great Medicine Society of the Algonquian; and the Kiowa and Dakota calendars.
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Bull ][ Tattooing ]