HORSE PETROGLYPHS AS INDICATORS OF CULTURAL TRANSFORMATION – PART 2:

The Cheyenne acquiring their first horse by trading. Ledger Book art by Howling Wolf (Southern Cheyenne). Online image, public domain.

In Part 1 of this series I presented the concept of the early Iconic Mode of horse portrayals illustrating them as somewhat otherworldly spiritual beings. At this stage the horse was shown separately and usually alone. The latter Iconic Mode shows the beginnings of integrating the horse into the Native American culture.

The Blackfoot name for the horse translates as “elk dog”. A name like “elk dog” expresses the results of fitting a new element into preconceived mental templates. When they saw their first horse it was an animal the size of an elk, but domesticated like the dogs around their own camp – thus “elk dog”. Predictably this was not unique to the Blackfoot. “Other tribes of the Great Plains also regarded the horse as strong medicine. Witness the Sioux name for this animal – Shonka Wakan, “Medicine Dog.” (Ewers 1997:207)

Equestrian figure, Shavano Canyon, Montrose County, Colorado. Photograph Peter Faris, 1981.

The Piegan name for the horse was "Missutuim - Big Dogs" (Secoy 1966:36). As the dog was the only domesticated animal that the inhabitants of the Great Plains knew, variations of Dog were natural for naming horses. As Michael Klassen (1998:67) stated: "An individual's first encounter with horses would have been a unique, astonishing, and totally unprecedented experience, which would not immediately fit within the explanatory cultural framework available. The uniqueness of this event, and its lack of cosmic or mythical precedence, may have on a certain level encouraged the recognition of its 'historicality.'"

Equestrian figure, Farrington Springs, Bent County, Colorado. Photograph Peter Faris, 2002.

In later stages of the Iconic Mode, horse portrayals are usually shown with a rider, but anonymously, without details or characteristics that identify the image as representing a specific occasion or individual. This implies an acceptance and appreciation of what the horse and rider together can represent, but shown as an abstract concept instead of an individual portrayal. These modes of representation are both classifiable as iconic. Klassen (1998:53) noted that mounted Horse motifs do not intrinsically display a greater degree of narrativity than that noted for the unmounted Horse motif.

Equestrian figure, Hayden, Routt County, Colorado. Photograph Peter Faris, 1986.

Images portrayed in the Iconic mode lack time sequence relationships (Maurer et al. 1992:23) so they do not represent a specific time, place, or event, but rather evoke the eternal present of the spirit world. Iconic images can be recognized as presentations of sacred subject matter and themes, such as the objects and beings associated with visions and medicine powers. Furthermore the thematic and formal repetition of Iconic motifs reflects the ritualized nature of sacred activities (Klassen 1998:45) 

The development of horse imagery through the Iconic Mode presents the early phases of Plains Biographic Style art.

Equestrian figure, Shield Cave, Glenwood Canyon, Eagle County, Colorado. Photograph Peter Faris, 1991.

As the use of, and dependence upon, the horse became integrel to Indian societies Iconic portrayals continued to be produced in some instances (such as records of visions) but the bulk of these were supplanted by portrayals in the Narrative Mode (Faris 2001:5-6). The Narrative Mode represents the more familiar imagery that we are used to in Plains Biographic Art, in with the artist is recording a deed or event, or telling a story. This can also be seen in rock art produced in the Plains Biographic Style. I will go into this in the next part of the series.

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:

Ewers, John C., 1997, Plains Indian History and Culture: Essays in Continuity and Change, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman..

Faris, Peter K., 2001, Horse Petroglyphs as Indicators of Cultural Transformation, pages 1 - 13, in Southwestern Lore, Winter 2001, Vol. 67, No. 4, Colorado Archaeological Society, Denver.

Klassen, Michael A., 1998, Icon and Narrative in transition: contact-period rock art at Writing-On-Stone, Southern Alberta, Canada. In The Archaeology of Rock Art, edited by Christopher Chippindale, and Paul S. Taçon, pp. 42-72. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Maurer, E. M., L. Lincoln, G. Horse Capture, D. W. Penney and Father P. J. Powell, 1992, Visions of the People: A Pictorial History of Plains Indian Life. The Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

Secoy, F. R., 1966, Changing Military Patterns on the Great Plains (17th Century through Early 19th Century), in Monographs of the American Ethnological Society No. 21. Edited by Esther S. Goldfrank, University of Washington Press, Seattle.