Book - The Year the Stars Fell: Lakota Winter Counts at the Smithsonian

This is a collection of Lakota winter counts, which were pictorial drawings on a hide recording an important annual event in history. This represents Lakota history and art at its finest and is also a contribution to the world of the Lakota.

There are fourteen winter counts represented in the book which chronicle over two hundred years of Lakota events, history, and culture. They are housed in the Smithsonian National Museum. These are primary sources for recorded history, often overlooked by non-Indian historians who were looking for a written language which did not exist among the Lakota and most other tribes. The title of the book comes from the fact that star phenomena generated great interest and curiosity. Thus, the Lakota historians who recorded this history noted not only the change of seasons but solstices and eclipses of the sun and moon. All of the historians in this collection recorded the spectacular Leonid meteor shower of 1833-34.