PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES - A BOOK REVIEW:

Pushing The Boundaries,

Front Cover

This volume is another rock art publication of the Oregon Archaeological Society (OAS), their 24th book, a remarkable contribution for such a group. This particular book covers a region in southeastern Oregon known as the Harney Basin, centered a couple of hundred miles south of Pendleton, and a transitional area between the Columbia Plateau and the Great Basin. Pushing the Boundaries: The Pictographs Petroglyphs of Oregon's Harney Basin, written by Don Hann and Daniel Leen adds a little-known area to the record, and covers this important region in great detail.

Harney Basin, Oregon. Photo:

used with permission of OAS.

Map of Harney Basin, Oregon.

Wikipedia.

As with other volumes published by the Oregon Archaeological Society this book is seriously scholarly, boasting 14 pages of references out of a 107 page total.

Harney Basin pictograph sites.

Photo: used with permission

of OAS.

The website of the OAS describes the volume with this statement:

"Archaeologists Daniel Leen and Don Hann have joined forces to create this interesting and scientifically important volume on the rock art of the Harney Basin in southeastern Oregon. Sitting at the cultural boundary between the Columbia Plateau and the Great Basin, the pictographs and petroglyphs of the Harney Basin have long captured the interests of both professional and avocational archaeologists. Hann, a U.S. Forest service Archaeologist and Leen, a well known archaeologist and artist, describe the major sites in detail, interpret the imagery, and explain that the ancient drawings and carvings are likely the work of groups from both the Columbia Plateau and the Great Basin who used the Harney Basin throughout at least the last 5,000 years.

Fortunately, Leen, one of the premier rock art recorders in the Pacific Northwest, spent two summers in the early 1980s carefully recording more than 40 Harney Basin sites. Hann's knowledge of Blue Mountains/Harney Basin prehistory, coupled with Leen's excellent tracings have produced a volume that will quickly become a classic for any student of western North American rock art." (http://www.oregonarchaeological.org/publications)

Figure 6, 35HA1372, panel4, p. 22.

Photo: used with permission of OAS.

The finely detailed black and white drawings by  that illustrate this volume are gems in their own right, although they are generally reproduced in small scale. Their detail and clarity make me hungry to see the full-scale originals. A considerable amount of information about the people who created the rock art is provided as well.

Plate 1, Harney Basin, Site 24,

Rattlesnake Rim. Photo: used

with permission of OAS.

"The people living in Harney Basin bay have included members of both Columbia Plateau and Great Basin ethnic groups tied together through bonds of marriage and trade. (Rhode 2012:4-10)" (p.81)

"The Great Basin group which inhabited Harney Basin in the early historic period was the Northern Paiute - Several distinct bands of the Northern Paiute lived here including the Wadatika, Hunipuitoka (Walpapi), and Koa'aga'itoka." (p.6)

"Plateau tribes that lived adjacent to Harney Basin in the southern Blue Mountains include the Western Columbia River Sahaptins (also known as the John Day Band, the Dock-Spus or erroneously the Tenino), Cayuse, Umatilla, Walla Walla and Nez Perce Indians." (p. 7) 

Plate 2, Harney Basin, Site 24,

Rattlesnake Rim. Photo: used

with permission of OAS.

The authors found a cultural association with these groups and the style of the rock art as well as the media it was produced in.

"Harney Basin petroglyphs show clear affiliation with the Great Basin but local variation in design elements demonstrates influence from the Columbia Plateau." (p. 79)

"Harney Basin pictographs are associated with the Columbia Plateau. They fit clearly into Keyser's (1992:83) North Oregon Rectilinear Style." (p. 79)

To me, the striking quality of this book is that the authors present a detailed, scientific record and analysis of the rock art of the region without falling into the trap of trying to fit the material into any current fad espoused by pop rock art analysts. I think I only counted the "s-word" (shaman) once in the whole volume, and did not notice the word "neuropsychological" at all. This book definitely belongs in the library of any serious student of North American rock art.

Five star approval rating.

To purchase a copy of this, or any other of their excellent books, simply visit  http://www.oregonarchaeological.org/publications/.

8.5” x 11” 107 pages, 100 illustrations, two pages of color plates
ISBN #: 978-0-9915200-2-2 OAS Publication: #24. Price $15.00 plus $4.00 Shipping and Handling.

REFERENCE:

Hann, Don, & Daniel Leen

2017 Pushing the Boundaries: The Pictographs Petroglyphs of Oregon's Harney Basin, Oregon Archaeological Society Publication #24 , www.oregonarchaeological.org

THE STONE WOMAN OF CRATER LAKE:

"The Lady of the Woods/Stone Lady of Crater

Lake", Crater Lake National Park, Oregon.

Photograph ca. 1999, by Steve Marks,

National Park Service.

"The Lady of the Woods/Stone Lady of Crater

Lake", Crater Lake National Park, Oregon.

Photograph ca. 1920, by Alex Sparrow,

National Park Service.

About a mile and a half from the lodge at Crater Lake National Park atop Mount Mazama, in Oregon, the nude figure of a woman is carved in relief in a large lave boulder. The story of the “Stone Woman of Crater Lake” was told on Jefferson Public Radio (Southern Oregon University) and has been published by Dennis M. Powers in a story he titled “Trail Leads to Mysterious Stone Woman of Crater Lake”.

Crater Lake, Oregon. Public domain.

 “Reports of a sculptured stone woman began filtering into Crater Lake National Park headquarters during the winter and spring of 1917. Workers located the figure on the lake’s rim, about a mile and a half from the lodge.  The nearly full relief of a nude figure was chiseled out of a lava boulder, its legs bent and one arm over its head as if shielding against danger. The news media reported the discovery with headlines such as “Mummy Woman found in woods” and “Ancient figure of woman discovered.”   

Crater Lake, Oregon. Public domain.

 The curator of archaeology at a California museum went so far as to speculate that it could be a petrified human body or a lava-filled cavity resulting from mud enveloping the body of a woman. The mystery was resolved four years later when Dr. Earl Russell Bush, official surgeon for the U.S. Engineers, revealed he was the sculptor. He said he had been stationed at the park in the summer of 1917 and had spent 14 days in October carving the figure. He had pledged his staff to secrecy.   A trail constructed in 1930 leads to the “Lady of the Woods,” where she sleeps surrounded by trees in view of those who can find her. “(Powers, episode 2393).

This “curator of archaeology at a California museum” was our old friend Samuel Hubbard, who found the dinosaur petroglyph and the man fighting the elephant petroglyph at the bottom of Havasupai Canyon, and identified the so-called “Moab Mastodon” as a wooly rhinoceros (to say nothing of his other amazing discoveries).

The full story of the creation of this carving had been printed in an article entitled “Stone Woman of Crater Lake No Longer Mystery” on October 24, 1923, in The Fresno Bee, and reprinted by the Crater Lake Institute in Crater Lake National Park News (www.craterlakeinstitute.com).

Vandalism photo, 2014, Crater Lake National Park.

Of course, were Doctor Bush to do something like this today it would be considered felony vandalism, but that was another time. Modern vandalism has hit Crater Lake National Park in the form of a blue-haired face painted on a boulder overlooking the lake at an elevation of about 9,000 feet. Federal agents have confirmed other painted images “in Yosemite, and four other national parks in California, Utah and Oregon. The images appear to come from a New York state woman traveling across the west and documenting her work on Instagram and Tumblr.” (http://www.cbsnews.com/) Because of its age the Stone Lady qualifies as rock art, but this painted face is just bad – definitely vandalism, certainly not art. Shame on whoever did this!

NOTE: I want to thank Mary Merryman, Curator of Museum Archive and Collections, and Steve Mark, Historian, of Crater Lake National Park, Oregon, for their help and cooperation in preparing this post. Our tax dollars are well spent.

REFERENCES:

http://www.cbsnews.com/

Jefferson Public Radio, Southern Oregon University.

National Park Service.

Stone Woman of Crater Lake No Longer Mystery, The Fresno Bee, Sacramento Bureau, Fresno California, October 24, 1923.

www.craterlakeinstitute.com.

BIRDS IN ROCK ART - THE SPEDIS OWL:

At The Dalles on the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington a number of examples can be found of a curious little fellow known as the Spedis Owl. Figures of this owl have been found from a wider area but seem to concentrate on The Dalles as the focus.

Spedis owl, petroglyph, The Dalles,

Columbia River, Washington/Oregon.

Photo: Peter Faris, 2000.

An Internet search will yield quite a bit of misinformation about the name of the Spedis owls. Arguably the most egregious is that they were produced by the Spedis tribe which that author is the only person to know about, and seems to have personally fabricated. I believe that the version that states that the type site for these owl petroglyphs was found near the site of land originally homesteaded by Mr. Spedis, explained to me by Jim Keyser sounds to be considerably more reasonable.

Spedis owls, petroglyphs, The Dalles,

Columbia River, Washington/Oregon.

Photo: Peter Faris, 2000.

As to their purpose or original meaning, that is also all over the map on the Internet. Various meanings have been proposed based upon the owl mythology of Native American peoples from virtually all over North America. It seems reasonable to me to pay the most attention to myths and beliefs from cultures that were closest to that site, either geographically or culturally.

Spedis owl, petroglyph, The Dalles,

Columbia River, Washington/Oregon.

Photo: Peter Faris, 2000.

The location of The Dalles was roughly on the edge of the Northwest Coast culture area. Kwakiutl people believed that owls were manifestations of people’s souls, and the Tlingit associated the owl with warfare and reportedly believed that warriors hearing an owl were receiving an assurance of impending success in warfare. In Yakima mythology, the owl was the husband of Tah-Tah kle-ah (Owl-woman Monster), one of five monstrous sisters, a very large, horrible woman who lived with one of her sisters in a cave and ate Indians. One day the cave became red hot and blew out killing the monsters (a volcanic eruption?). One of the Spedis owl portrayals is grotesque enough to be easily seen as part of a cannibal-monster myth.

Spedis owl, petroglyph, The Dalles,

Columbia river, Washington/Oregon.

Photo: Peter Faris, 2000.

Local peoples seem to have passed on two other basic ideas about these owls, at least the more benign versions of the Spedis owl. One idea is that this owl is a clan symbol and the petroglyphs were marking clan territory or indicating ownership of specific fishing sites on the river. The other that has been passed on is that the Spedis Owl was placed upon the rock to protect people from water monsters that could pull people into the river and drown them. While these seem to me to be quite reasonable explanations, the protection from water monsters strikes me as the sort of interpretation arrived at by later peoples after the original motivation has been forgotten. Lacking further information I think of these charming owl figures as clan symbols and markings indicating ownership or a record of fishing rights.

Although we may never know the actual original purpose of these figures, we can make some semi-educated guesses, and we can certainly appreciate them for their marvelous and charming inventiveness.