POLYDACTYLISM IN ROCK ART - BEAR PAW PRINTS, PART 1:

12-toed bear paw prints, Sieber Canyon, Mesa County, Colorado. Photograph Peter Faris, 23 August 1981.

As I have written elsewhere on the question of polydactyly (polydactylism) in human hand and foot prints in rock art, we also find instances of polydactylism in bear paw prints. Polydactyly is “the condition of having more than the normal number of fingers or toes.” (Webster) Early on in my studies of rock art I noticed that many bear paw prints showed extra toes and claws. I wondered why this might be and have now pondered it for over four decades.

In approaching this question the first thing I want to know is the possibility of an actual bear showing polydactyly. The answer to this is a definite yes. A simple online search for animal polydactyly found hundreds of references to this; mostly among cats (the so-called Hemingway cat), but also for dogs, bovines, camelids, reptiles, and even a kangaroo. So the question of possible polydactyly for a bear had to be answered yes. 

Six-toed bear foot, Facebook photograph, Wade Lemon Hunting.

Six-toed bear track in snow, in Yosemite, California. Internet photograph, Seth Horstmeyer. (it is just possible that this one is a double print made by a normal five-toed bear stepping in the same spot twice).

Six-toed bear paw print, Okanagan, British Columbia, Photograph, 2012, Adam Konanz, provided by Sean Coogan, University of Alberta.

Then I ran across a photograph online of a bear’s hind foot with six toes on a Facebook page for “Wade Lemon - Hunting Guide”. Additionally, photos of bear tracks showing six toes provide extra proof of the existence of polydactyly among bears. Other proof was found online with pictures of bear paw prints in snow showing six toes. So now we have proof that bears too can be subject to polydactyly.

12-toed bear paw prints, Sieber Canyon, Mesa County, Colorado. Photograph Peter Faris, 23 August 1981.

I have written before about Marie Wormington’s comments to me about a Fremont burial of a man with six toes that she excavated. She related him to Native American beliefs that personal differences can point to spiritual significance. That a person with six digits might have been thought special and so celebrated in rock art. I have long since assumed the same thing for bears. Since one of the most significant things about a bear might be considered to be his claws, the way to portray a significant bear, a legendary or mythological bear, would be to enhance the claws. Thus we find a pair of bear paw petroglyphs in Sieber Canyon, Mesa County, Colorado, by a Fremont artist with twelve claws on each paw. That is a very significant bear. There are many Fremont representations of polydactyl bear tracks.

DeBeque Canyon, Mesa County, Colorado. Uncompaghre style.

Photograph by Paul and Joy Foster.

“The bear possesses a number of qualities that have led most Native Americans to regard it with great reverence. Although recognized as an animal and a supernatural being, it also shares many traits with humans. Perhaps most important is that it sometimes walks upright and flat-footed. Its front paws are much like human hands in the way they rotate and grasp things. The bear is omnivorous, consuming roots, berries, corn, and also many kinds of animal prey; it is thus both a hunter and a gatherer. While many animals are predictable in their behavior patterns, bears seem to have a repertoire of moods similar to people ranging from playful to violent.” (Olsen 1998:111)

“The powerful bear paw, with its formidable claws, serves as a clan or ceremonial symbol for many tribes, and is also used in medical treatments and for magic. In prehistoric times, the strong canine teeth and the claws of bears were worn as amulets and ornaments and bear cubs were sometimes given ceremonial burials.” (Olsen 1998:112)

Six-toed bear paw print, Rock Creek Pictograph Site, Montana. Used with permission of Mavis Greer.

Seven-toed bear paw print, Indian Cave Site, Montana. Used with permission of Mavis Greer.

Mavis Greer (1997) illustrated bear paw prints showing polydactyly, from two different sites in Central Montana. One painted at site 24LC33 (Rock Creek pictograph site) has a pad 42 cm. long and six claws 10 -20 cm. long. The other is at 24CA347 (Indian Cave) is a red forefoot paw print with seven toes. (Greer 1997:91) These are located in the region historically associated with the Blackfeet and Gros Ventre peoples.

Polydactyl bear paw print, Pictograph Cave, Billings, Montana. Photograph Peter Faris

Another polydactyl bear paw print can be found at Pictograph Cave, Billings, Montana.

Keyser and Poetschat, 2015, Seeking Bear, fig.33, p.44.

Uncompaghre style, Keyser and Poetschat, 2015, Seeking Bear, fig.30f, g & h, p.42.

In southwestern Wyoming, Keyser and Poetschat show a bear with very detailed toes and claws and a three-track trackway behind him with the same detailing of toes and claws. "The three-track sequence leading to the largest bear shows tracks exactly like those of the bear's own paws and has a right-left-right sequence." (Keyser and Poetschat 2015:45). One of the right paw prints, however, is given six toes and claws while the others, like the bear's paws, only show five. They assign these images to the Uncompaghre complex (probably the farthest north this style has penetrated). Uncompaghre complex rock art had previously been assumed to be pretty much confined to west-central Colorado and a small portion of adjacent Utah, a region dominated by the Uncompaghre Mesa. Given the great care and detail that went into the creation of these bear tracks I have to assume that the one track shown with six toes is done purposefully, although I do not presume to know what that purpose is.

Uncompaghre style bear petroglyph, Keyser and Fossatti, Fig. 4, p. 17.

An additional six-clawed bear from southwestern Wyoming is pictured in Keyser and Fossati’s 2014 study of the Gateway Site in the Green River Basin. This bear has three normal five-toed paws depicted and with its right front paw bearing six claws.

Uncompahgre style bears, Grand Mesa, Colorado. From Sally Cole, 1987, Fig. 33, p. 109.

An interesting example from the Grand Mesa, Mesa County, Colorado, of a polydactyl bear was shownby Sally Cole (1987). Two headless bears are seen with a single six-toed rear paw print between them. The bears have pecked pits where their claws would be indicated and the lower bear has six small pits on the edge of its left hind foot.

This column will resume next week with a continued look at polydactyl bears and bearpaw prints in part two.

NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Cole, Sally J., 1987, An Analysis of the Prehistoric and Historic Rock Art of West-Central Colorado, Bureau of Land Management Cultural Resource Series, number 21, Denver.

Coogan, Sean, 2013,  A Six-Toed Paw Print, International Bear News, Summer 2013, Vol. 22, No. 2.

Greer, Mavis, 1997, Bear Imagery in Central Montana Rock Art, in American Indian Rock Art, Volume 23, Steven M. Freers, Editor, American Rock Art Research Association, pp. 85-94.

Keyser, James D., and George Poetschat, 2014, Seeking Bear: The Petroglyphs of Lucerne Valley, Wyoming, Oregon Archaeological Society Press Publication #23, Portland.

Keyser, James D., and Angelo Eugenio Fossati, 2014, Pecked Petroglyphs at the Gateway Site: The Uncompahgre Style in the Green River Basin, The Wyoming Archaeologist, Vol. 58(2), Fall 2014

Lemon, Wade, 2018, Crazy 6-Toed Bear! What’s Your Thoughts?, 7 June 2018, Facebook.com

Olsen, Sandra L., 1998, Animals in American Indian Life: An Overview, pp. 95 - 118, in  Stars Above, Earth Below: American Indians and Nature, Marsha C. Bol, editor, Robert Reinhart Publishers, Niwot, CO.

Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/polydactyly