200 years ago today - Jul 18, 1821

the WESTERN FARMER, published in Palmyra, N.Y. reports: "A CURIOSITY. - Among the additions just made to Dr. Mitchell's collection is a letter from the Chippewa tribe of Indians, to the Sioux, with the answer of the Sioux to the Chippewas, done during the summer of 1820. Both are executed with the point of a knife or some other hard body upon the bark of the birch tree. They are examples of PICTURE WRITING, bordering upon the symbolic or hieroglyphic, and show the manner in which the aborigines of North America communicate their ideas at the present day."