This week’s CAIRNS Etanhan Wotanin column examines the unique method that Lakotans used to count using their fingers. It also explains how the column’s title is tied to a journal entry from 529 years ago this week. The column, “Counting Manatees and Mermaids,” can be read now by clicking here, or later this week in the Lakota Times newspaper.

The image above is a detail from a page of notes by Eugene Buechel, probably around 1915.