Sunday, July 22, 2012

NATIVE AMERICAN ASTRONOMY – THE CONSTELLATION GONAKADET/WASGO:


Gonakadet, Sproat Lake, Vancouver Island, B.C., Canada.
Photo: Peter Faris, 1995.

Northwest Coast tribes reportedly identified a constellation which was identified with the Sea Wolf, known as Gonakadet by the Tlingit, and Wasgo by the Haida. Next to "Raven," the most popular subject for totem pole art was the Gonakadet. Known also to the Haidas as "Wasgo," this monster is generally depicted as an aquatic wolf with some aspects of the killer whale. He is often depicted with the body and fins of a killer whale and the head of a wolf.

The Myth of Wasgo, the Sea Wolf
 “Wasgo, the Sea Wolf” also known as Sea-Bear, is based on the Tlingit-Haida myth of “Gonakadet” the Lazy Son-in-Law. In one version, he appears as a half killer whale and half wolf, with two fins and a wolf’s tail. In a condensed interpretive version of the story, the son-in-law becomes the hero. His mother continually takes the young man as a lazy so-and-so in law. The young man, despite the chiding from the old woman, secretly trains at night and successfully traps the great mythological creature Wasgo. Stripping it of its coat and donning the immense fur, the young man is granted the supernatural powers of the great creature.
 The young man catches many sea animals such as salmon, seals and Killer whales. Each time, he would take his catch and place it on the beach in front of this mother-in-law’s house. All was accomplished before the break of dawn. The mother-in-law discovers the unclaimed bounty each morning, telling her people that she is a great shaman and has summoned the creatures up from the sea to feed the people of her village. The old woman continuously boasts of her catch, as it increases both in number and in size. At last, the young man brings in three Killer whales to please his mother-in-law. The battle was long, completely exhausting the spirit of the young hunter. Falling on the beach next to his catch the young man finds himself trapped within the heavy skin of the Wasco, dead to the world, as we know it. The mourning call of Raven, finalizes the death of the young hunter.

 The mother in law rises with the morning to discover the great whales and the unusual Sea Wolf. Looking into the Sea Wolf’s eyes, the mother in laws recognizes her son- in-law. She realizes that it was his talents all along that brought the great wealth to her people. The mother- in-law falls to the beach, and dies of shame.

I have not yet been able to find a reference which points to the actual constellation or group of stars in the night sky which represents the constellation Gonakadet/Wasgo to these people of the North American northwest coast. This is however, a clear reminder to us that indigenous people did not leave questions unanswered; they had an explanation for everything, just like we do. Their explanations just might not agree with ours.

Saturday, July 14, 2012

THE HAIRY MAN PICTOGRAPHS – PART II:


Hairy Family panel, Tule River Reservation, California. From: 
Strain, Kathy Moskowitz, 2012, Mayak Datat: The Hairy
Man Pictographs, published in The Relict Hominoid Inquiry,
1:1-12, Idaho State University, edited by Jeff Meldrum.



I continue now with a look at the meanings of the Hairy Man pictograph panel presented by Kathy Moskowitz Strain. Previously I discussed the interpretation by Garrick Mallery who described this panel as a “mourning” ceremony based upon his theory of gestural analysis.

Strain, on the other hand, took the eminently reasonable step of looking at ethnographic material on what the members of the Tule River Indian Tribe on the Tule River Reservation believe about the panel. In her presentation she stated that the pictographs are believed by the Tule River people to “depict how various animals, including Hairy Man, created People. Other stories tell why Hairy Man lives in the mountains, steals food, and still occupies parts of the reservation. Since the Tule River Indians equate Hairy Man to Bigfoot, the pictograph and stories are valuable to our understanding of the modern idea of a hair-covered giant.”

The first three stories were gathered by the Strain in the summer of 1992 from tribal elders and members. The main story tellers were Isadore Garfield, Leona Danby, and J.R. Manuel with help from others in attendance. As stories were told, information was either added or clarified until a written copy was produced and read back to the group. “How People Were Made” details how the pictographs at Painted Rock came to be and identifies the large figure on the main wall as Hairy Man. “When the People Took Over” explains why birds and animals live where they do today while “Food Stealing” is a simple story about Hairy Man and his fondness for an easy meal.

How People Were Made” is a variation of the ubiquitous creation story in which all the animals discuss the qualities that humans should share with them, walk on two legs; talk; hand dexterity; etc. and then hold a race to determine which ones would be granted to the humans. Then the animals created the people. Hairy Man liked the result but when the new humans saw him they became frightened and ran away. This made Hairy Man sad and that is why the pictograph of him is crying. Perhaps it also explains why he is elusive today; he is trying to avoid frightening people.

When People Took Over” explains how humanity multiplied and began to fill the land and take all the food. The animals got together again and divided up their roles and resources. Hummingbird would henceforth fly and feed on flowers, Trout would live in the water, and Eagle would fly and eat squirrels and deer, etc.

Food Stealing” describes the belief that “in the old days, women learned never to leave their acorn meal unattended. They would spend all day pounding on the big rocks near the river, making the acorn meal, and then take it down to the river to leach it. They would then leave it in the sun to dry, but they would come back and it would be gone. They would find big footprints in the sand where they left the meal and they would know that Hairy Man took it. He likes Indian food and knows to wait until the acorn is leeched of its bitterness before taking it. We always wondered if he liked the sound of women pounding acorn and knew when to come and get food.”


Hairy Woman and Child, Tule River Reservation, California. From: 
Strain, Kathy Moskowitz, 2012, Mayak Datat: The Hairy
Man Pictographs, published in The Relict Hominoid Inquiry,
1:1-12, Idaho State University, edited by Jeff Meldrum.

Hairy Woman and Child, Tule River Reservation, California. From: 
Strain, Kathy Moskowitz, 2012, Mayak Datat: The Hairy
Man Pictographs, published in The Relict Hominoid Inquiry,
1:1-12, Idaho State University, edited by Jeff Meldrum.



“The last story, “Big Foot, the Hairy Man,” was collected by E. B. Johnstone in 1975 from tribal elders Ruby Bays and Jennie Franco. In 1973, at the request of the tribe, Johnstone (1975) began gathering some of the traditional stories told by members of the reservation. The daughter of a tribal elder, who had been the caretaker of the pictograph site in the early 1900s, identified Hairy Man as being the same as Bigfoot (Johnstone 1975, p. 5). Johnstone (1975, p. 19) further noted that Hairy Man was described by the Tule River Indians as “a creature that was like a great big giant with long, shaggy hair” and since Bigfoot also meets that description, the two were the same.”

“Big Foot, the Hairy Man
Big Foot was a creature that was like a great big giant with long, shaggy hair. He was good in a way, because he ate the animals that might harm people. He kept the Grizzly Bear, Mountain Lion, Wolf, and other larger animals away.
During hot summer nights all the animals would come out together down from the hills to drink out of the Tule River. Big Foot liked to catch animals down by the river. He would eat them up bones and all.
It was pleasant and cool down by the river on hot summer nights. That is when grown-ups liked to take a swim. Even though people feared that Big Foot, the hairy man, might come to the river, people still liked to take a swim at night. Parents always warned their children “Don’t go near the river at night. You may run into Big Foot.”
Now Big Foot usually eats animals, but parents said, “If he can’t find any animals and he is very hungry, he will eat you. We won’t know where you have gone or what has happened to you.”
Some people say Big Foot, the hairy man, still roams around the hills near Tule River. - Children are cautioned not to make fun of his picture on the painted rock or play around that place because he would hear you and come after you.
Parents warned their children, “You are going to meet him on the road if you stay out too late at night.” The children have learned always to come home early.”

So to the Tule River people have explained the Hairy Man pictographs as a record of their creation story, a reminder of how the animals and people who inhabit this world were assigned their life ways and habits, and as a place of spiritual power to Hairy Man.  This has also not addressed the presence of figures identified as the Hairy Woman and the Hairy Child, other than the assumption that they, along with Hairy Man, constitute a Hairy Family (which, of course, could be the case). Let us hope that some researcher will revisit the question and try to record stories explaining the Hairy Woman and Child. Still and all, Strain, in her paper has done a great service to us all by recording, explaining, and preserving this information. Thank you Kathy and well done.




REFERENCES:

Garrick Mallery
1989    Picture-Writing of the American Indian, 10th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1888-’89, by J. W. Powell, Director, and subsequently republished by Dover Publications in 1972.

Johnstone, E. B.
1975    Big Foot and Other Stories. Tulare: Tulare Board of Education.

Strain, Kathy Moskowitz
2012    Mayak Datat: The Hairy Man Pictographs, published in The Relict Hominoid Inquiry,
            1:1-12 (2012), Idaho State University, edited by Jeff Meldrum.

Saturday, July 7, 2012

THE HAIRY MAN PICTOGRAPHS – PART I:

Strain, Kathy Moskowitz, 2012, Mayak Datat: The Hairy Man
Pictographs,published in The Relict Hominoid Inquiry, 1:1-12,
(2012), Idaho State University, edited by Jeff Meldrum.
Drawing of Hairy Man, from Strain, Kathy Moskowitz, 2012,
Mayak Datat: The Hairy Man Pictographs, published in
the Relict Hominoid Inquiry, 1:1-12, (2012), Idaho
State University, edited by Jeff Meldrum.


There is a recurring theme in writings about rock art that can be called gestural analysis, in general it is the application of sign language to the gestures and body positions of figures seen in rock art panels. Perhaps the most influential recent proponent of gestural analysis was LeVan Martineau, who, in his book The Rocks Begin To Speak claimed that he could read rock art panels like a book. I have always personally believed that it was a fiction book that he was reading (and writing). Martineau was by no means the first proponent of that idea. Back in the 1880s Garrick Mallery used gestural analysis to try to decipher rock art.

Garrick Mallery, Picture-Writing of the American Indian,
in the10th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology
to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution,
1888-’89, by J. W. Powell, Director, republished
by Dover Publications in 1972. Page 638.

The pictograph panel in these illustrations was first published by Garrick Mallery in his encyclopedic “Picture - Writing of the American Indian” in the 10th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1888-’89, by J. W. Powell, Director, and subsequently republished by Dover Publications in 1972. On pages 637 and 638 Mallery attempts to decipher the meaning of the panel by gestural analysis. In his imagination the figures are all making the gesture for rain referring to tears (eye rain) and they are apparently mourning  a very small figure in the middle of the composition which he identified as having died of starvation.

Now we have a scholarly look at this amazing pictographic panel from Kathy Moskowitz Strain, a professional archaeologist with the U. S. Forest Service at the Stanislaus National Forest in northern California. In her informative paper Strain applies the beliefs and stories of Hairy Man held by the Tule River Indian Tribe on the Tule River Reservation. According to members of the tribe, the thousand-year old pictographs “depict how various animals, including Hairy Man, created People. Other stories tell why Hairy Man lives in the mountains, steals food, and still occupies parts of the reservation. Since the Tule River Indians equate Hairy Man to Bigfoot, the pictograph and stories are valuable to our understanding of the modern idea of a hair-covered giant.”

“The Tule River Indian Reservation was established in 1873 on 54,116 acres and currently boasts a population of approximately 500 people. Today, although there are three federally recognized Yokuts tribes with associated trust lands, most descendents live off-reservation in various local communities and are part of non-federally recognized tribes. This article focuses on the Tule River Reservation and the beliefs and stories of Hairy Man held by the Tule River Indian Tribe.”

“Painted Rock, also known as CA-TUL-19, is a rockshelter associated with a prehistoric village. The site, located immediately adjacent to the Tule River, includes bedrock mortars, pitted boulders, midden and pictographs. The pictographs are located within the rockshelter, and are painted on the ceiling and walls of the shelter. The pictographs include paintings of a male, female, and child Bigfoot (known as the family), coyote (known as Coyote Eating the Moon), beaver, bear, frog, caterpillar, centipede, humans, eagle, condor, lizard and various lines, circles, and other geometric designs. The paintings are in red, black, white, and yellow.”

“Archaeologically, the village at Painted Rock was occupied in the late prehistoric, around 500 years ago. Since it is believed that the paintings were present prior to the village, the paintings are likely 500-1000 years old.”

I have written elsewhere on the various meanings of rock art, not only to the original creators but to later interpreters, be they prehistoric peoples or modern researchers.  In this case if the paintings were truly present prior to the village then we will have whatever they meant to the original creators. Then the inhabitants who built the prehistoric village would have had their explanation of the pictures. Then we have the interpretation of the modern inhabitants of Tule River Indian Reservation, which Strain has explained concern Hairy Man and his conflation with modern stories of Bigfoot. Finally we can add layers of interpretation by Garrick Mallery, and modern researchers.

My next posting will discuss this question of the meanings in a little more detail.

REFERENCES:

Garrick Mallery
1989    Picture - Writing of the American Indian, 10th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1888-’89, by J. W. Powell, Director, and subsequently republished by Dover Publications in 1972.

Strain, Kathy Moskowitz
2012    Mayak Datat: The Hairy Man Pictographs, published in The Relict
            Hominoid Inquiry, 1:1-12, (2012), Idaho State University, edited by Jeff Meldrum.