STORY TELLING - BIOGRAPHIC NARRATIVES IN ROCK ART:

It is quite common in looking at rock art to have the feeling that the images are telling a story, and that you can almost understand it, almost being the key word here. Although many rock art researchers deny that we can interpret the imagery we find, I disagree - at least in some cases. Some rock art is obviously telling a story and we are meant to be able to decipher it.

Bird Rattle (Blackfeet) carving his petroglyph,1924, Writing-on-Stone, Alberta, Canada. From James Keyser, 2004, Art of the Warriors, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.

A prime example of this is Bird Rattle’s panel from Writing-On-Stone at Alberta, Canada. As explained by Klassen, Keyser, and Loendorf in their paper in Plains Anthropologist (2000) “The recent discovery of photographs and narrative of a 1924 trip by Roland Willcomb and Piegan elder Bird Rattle demonstrates that a well-known historic petroglyph at Writing-On-Stone was carved by this Plains Warrior as part of the Biographic rock art tradition.” (Klassen et al. 2000:189)

       Bird Rattle's panel, Writing-On-Stone,           Alberta, Canada. Photograph Peter Faris,                           June 25, 2016.

Bird Rattle and Willcomb had met in 1923 in the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana. Willcomb had come to the West as an engineer and in the summer of 1923 joined the Montana Highway Commission, overseeing the building  of roads on the reservation from 1923 to 1925. After meeting Bird Rattle a close friendship developed between Willcomb and him which lasted until the death of Bird Rattle in October 1937. (Klassen et al. 2000:191-2)

         Bird Rattle's panel, Writing-On-Stone, Alberta, Canada. Figure 7, page 196, Klassen                        et al., 2000.

“Within a year of their meeting, Willcomb had arranged to take Bird Rattle on a visit to Writing-On-Stone. Apparently, he had been told of this ‘place of mystery, where the ghosts live’ and he wished to experience it himself. Their journey to Writing-On-Stone was documented by Willcomb with a series of photographs, and he later audio recorded a narrative of the journey, apparently based on his original notes and letters. On the morning of September 13, 1924, Willcomb and Bird Rattle, accompanied by a second Piegan elder, Split Ears, and Jack Wagner, who acted as interpreter, left Browning in Willcomb’s car. The party drove north to the Canadian border. There they were joined by two of Willcomb’s friends from Great Falls.” (Klassen et al. 2000:192-3)

Coso range, California. Photograph Paul and Joy Foster.

The example in the panel from the Coso Range in California by Paul and Joy Foster is another candidate for such attempts at interpretation. Although some of the elements are a little hard to make out what I see in it is; a large anthropomorph holding what might be an atlatl in his right hand with a projectile point superimposed over the end of it. Five more, carefully delineated projectile points are seen on the right side of the panel for a total of six. Additionally, six zoomorphs are illustrated, one overlapping the anthropomorph and five more on the left side of the panel. If this is not a “mighty hunter” bragging I don’t know what would be. I have been around hunters and fishermen enough to know their bragging when I hear it, or in this case see it. “Six animals with six shots.”

Of course, such interpretation is not acceptable in Archeology, but it is fairly common in Art History, so I reserve the right to indulge in it periodically.

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: 

Klassen, Michael A., James D. Keyser, and Lawrence L. Loendorf,  2000, Bird Rattle’s Petroglyphs at Writing-On-Stone: Continuity in the Biographic Rock Art Tradition, Plains Anthropologist, Vol. 45, No. 172, pp. 189-201.

MEET THE ROCK ARTIST - BIRD RATTLE AT WRITING-ON-STONE:

Bird Rattle's petroglyph record of his 1924

visit to Writing-On-Stone. Photograph

Peter Faris, 25 June 2016.

It is a verity in our branch of Art History study that we rarely get to know who created the art we study. In my March 3, 2018, posting I presented rock art (of a sort) that had been created by Sir Isaac Newton. Now, in this posting, I am visiting the author of a historic panel found in Writing-On-Stone, in Canada.

Close-up of the car on the right,

next to large "V"-necked figure

(the figure was not created

by Bird Rattle, it was already there).

Photograph Peter Faris, 25 June 2016.

This car contains 4 passengers.

A couple of years ago I finally had the pleasure of visiting the famous rock art site of Writing-On-Stone provincial park, in Alberta, Canada. There, along the cliffs on the north side of the Milk River valley, a whole lot of world-class rock art can be seen.

Close-up of the car on the left.

Bird Rattle's petroglyph record of his 1924

visit to Writing-On-Stone. Photograph

Peter Faris, 25 June 2016.
This car contains 2 passengers.

Among many images in the Plains Biographic tradition to be found at Writing-On-Stone, one panel shows a pair of automobiles with passengers clearly seen within. While unmistakably of historic origin, the actual details of its creation were debated until a photograph turned up which shows the creation of the images by a Piegan elder named Bird Rattle in 1924.

Bird Rattle carving his petroglyph,1924,

Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park,

Alberta, Canada. Public Domain.

"Taken by Roland Willcomb, the photograph clearly shows the South Piegan elder Bird Rattle carving a petroglyph - one of two very similar, detailed automobiles - on a panel at the main site in what is now Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park. The origin of these automobile images has long been a source of debate. Several early researchers assumed the vehicles were recent Euro-American images, while one of us in more recent research had identified certain stylistic elements which suggested a possible aboriginal source. The photograph conclusively ends the question as to the origin of the automobile petroglyphs, but more importantly, its discovery led the authors to additional photographs, correspondence, and documents pertaining to Bird Rattle's and Willcomb's association with Writing-on-Stone." (Klassen et al 2000:189)

Bird Rattle, ca. 1910, Photograph

Edward S. Curtis. Public Domain.

"Born about 1863 near Writing-On-Stone (Willcomb 1968a:3), Bird Rattle grew up during the last of the buffalo days on the Northern Plains. He was intimately familiar with Writing-On-Stone. As a boy in 1866, he and his famil were camped near the locale at the time of the Retreats-Up-The-Hill battle - one of the last major conflicts involving the Blackfoot Nation. Bird Rattle's name has long been association with both Retreats-Up-The-Hill and Writing-On-Stone, as his version of this battle directly links the rock art with this famous conflict. (Dempsey 1973) After the buffalo were gone, Bird Rattle settled in a cabin on Cut Bank Creek, just north of Browning on the Blackfeet Reservation of Montana. By the 1920s, Bird Rattle was a prominent Piegan elder and the owner of a sacred Beaver Bundle. (Willcomb 1970a:44)." (Klassen et al 2000:191)

Roland H. Willcomb was born in Massachusetts and educated in engineering. He had first come to Montana in 1908 (Willcomb 1970a). Willcomb worked around the American West until 1923 when he returned to Montana to work for the Montana Highway Commission. Between 1923 and 1925, he was the Project Engineer overseeing construction of roads across the Blackfeet Reservation. Willcomb met Blackfeet elders including Bird Rattle in Browning, Montana, and "a close friendship developed between Bird Rattle and Willcomb which continued until Bird Rattle's death on October 31, 1937 (Willcomb 1979a)." (Klassen et al 2000:191-2)

"Within a year of their meeting, Willcomb had arranged to take Bird Rattle on a visit to Writing-On-Stone. Apparently, Willcomb had been told stories of this "place of mystery, 'where ghosts live'" (Willcomb 1968a:1) and he wished to experience it himself. Their journey to Writing-On-Stone was documented by Willcomb with a series of photographs, and he later recorded a narrative of the journey (Willcomb 1968a), apparently based on his original notes and letters." (Klassen et al 2000:191-2)

”On the morning of September 13, 1924, Willcomb and Bird Rattle, accompanied by a second Piegan elder, Split Ears, and Jack Wagner who acted as an interpreter, left Browning in Willcomb's car. The party drove north to the Canadian border. There they were joined by two of Willcomb's friends from Great Falls, John Stevenson and I. O. Deshon, who arrived in a second car. From the border the two cards proceeded to Writing-On-Stone, where the party set up camp near the cliffs. After briefly inspecting the rock art on the cliffs, the party gathered around the campfire where Bird Rattle and Split Ears described the rock art as messages from the spirit world which could be read by Medicine Men (Willcomb 1968a:13). These messages, which frequently changed overnight, warned of enemies in the area, told them the location of buffalo herds or strayed horses, and foretold future events. One of the stories told by Bird Rattle that evening was that of the Retreats-Up-The-Hill battle, which Willcomb transcribed in great detail in his later narrative. (Willcomb 1968a; Dempsey 1973)." (Klassen et al, 2000:193)

It was during this visit that Bird Rattle decided to add a record of his trip to the Biographic rock art at Writing-On-Stone. "According to Willcomb, at one point during the day, "Bird Rattle decided that he should record our trip. He selected a bare rock face some distance from any of the ancient 'writings.' He tried his best with a hard piece of quartz, but was barely able to scratch the surface of the sandstone" (Willcomb 1968a:17). Bird rattle, in fact, selected a face already containing rock art, and despite Willcomb's assertion to the contrary, he was quite successful in carving his record of the trip, judging from the resulting petroglyphs." (Klassen et al 2000:194)

"By recording this significant event as rock art, Bird Rattle demonstrated the relationship between narrative expression and the spirit powers of a sacred place. Bird Rattle's petroglyphs, and Willcomb's narrative of this trip (together with the anonymous 1932 narrative), provide new insights into the aboriginal significance of Writing-On-Stone, and the meaning of its rock art."

(Klassen et al 2000:195)

(I wonder whether Bird Rattle actually wore his feather headdress as he created his images, or whether the photo was posed later.)

For students of this art form which is all too often presented to us anonymously on the surface of the cliff, cave, or boulder, and incident like this where we have factual knowledge of the time and place, as well as the thoughts of the creator, can be of inestimable value in looking for meaning.

I am personally very grateful to Klassen, Keyser, and Loendorf for their work in winkling out the facts of this story, and then bringing it to us.

NOTE: The images of Bird Rattle 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 originals at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Dempsey, Hugh A.,

1973 A History of Writing-On-Stone, Unpublished manuscript on file with the Provincial Museum of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta.

Klassen, Michael A., James D Keyser & Lawrence L. Loendorf,

2000 Bird Rattle’s Petroglyphs at Writing-On-Stone:Continuity in the Biographic Rock Art Tradition, Plains Anthropologist, 45:172, 189-201.

Willcomb, Roland H.

1968a        Ah-sin-efp: Writing-On-Stone, Manuscript on file at the Montana Historical Society Archives, Helena.

1970a        Bird Rattle and the Medicine Prayer, Montana Magazine of Western History 20:42-49.

WRITING-ON-STONE PROVINCIAL PARK, ALBERTA, CANADA:

Cliffs and hoodoos at Writing-On-Stone

Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada.

Photo. Peter Faris, June 25, 2016.

On June 25, 2016, I had the opportunity to visit a world-class rock art site, Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada. Sitting in the valley of the Milk River, this magical area of cliffs, hoodoos, and petroglyphs, was sacred to the Blackfeet people and still evokes an aura of mystery in the mind of a visitor. There is much more rock art here than a person could expect to see in a number of days so I did not resent the fact that the guided tour skipped a number of sites that we could see as we drove by. I still filled the time available with visiting, photographing, and appreciating some remarkable rock art.

Rock art at Writing-On-Stone

Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada.

Photo. Peter Faris, June 25, 2016.

Although I would not trade this opportunity to visit Writing-On-Stone for the world I must admit to a couple of disappointments with it. First, the sky was an even overcast gray diffusing the daylight and making photography very difficult. Although I do know that I took pictures of rock art I cannot now find the rock art in some of the pictures that I did take. We all know how the lighting affects rock art photography, and this day was one of the more extreme I have had to put up with. I saw the petroglyphs while I was there, but they do not show up in some of the photographs.

Mitigated cliff at Writing-On-Stone

Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada.

Photo. Peter Faris, June 25, 2016.

The second disappointment regards an attempt made to mitigate vandalism to rock art panels. Over the years since the discovery of the site by Anglos people have been adding their names, initials, dates, etc., to the rock art panels. This is the all-too-common vandalism the we see on most known rock art panels. This mitigation was done by removing the inscription, with a hand wielded dental pick in instances where prehistoric rock art might be affected, to grinding the inscriptions off the rock face with a steel-bristled brush, sometimes held in a rotating electric drill. This was done because there was concern that the vandalism would negatively impact on their application to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site, so they had it removed. Hired workers and volunteer crews between July 26 and August 10, 2012, removed graffiti from 47 panels, and  between September 13 and September 21, 2012, they removed graffiti from a further 47 panels, 94 panels in total were affected.

Mitigated cliff at Writing-On-Stone

Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada.

Photo. Peter Faris, June 25, 2016.

Once the graffiti had been chipped or ground off the work area was camouflaged by painting colorants back onto the surface to mimic the patina of the rock face. Colorants used were natural pigments collected in the area, yellow ochre from a rock shelter in the area, red ochre from nodules found on the ground beneath the cliff faces having weathered out of the rock, and for grayish tones charcoal from local vegetation. These colorants were finely ground and mixed with water from the milk river and then brushed onto the surfaces to emulate the untouched rock surfaces nearby.

These techniques were of limited success as by the time of my visit the camouflaging colorants were obviously washed off by weather and the graffiti removal scars stood out as large light-colored, smooth areas very noticeably different from the natural rock surface. Personally, I dislike this technique greatly, I would rather see good, honest initials and names "defacing" the rock face than these large smooth unnatural-looking scars.

Damaged prehistoric petroglyphs

at Writing-On-Stone Provincial

Park, Alberta, Canada. Photo.

Peter Faris, June 25, 2016.

Even more disturbing to me is the fact that in many cases prehistoric petroglyphs were damaged by the removal of overlying graffiti. I have a number of photographs that illustrate this damage (although as I said above they are very difficult to see because of the lighting). Even sillier to me is the fact that staff had gone to some effort to compile a list of the inscriptions that had historical significance, i.e. early explorers and settlers, that they stipulated should be left alone while other graffiti was to be removed whenever possible. Had they just waited, the passing of time would have given the later inscriptions historical significance as well. Remember, all that history is, is what actually happened, and they had actually happened. A prehistoric petroglyph carved over an earlier prehistoric petroglyph was vandalism when it happened.

Be that as it may, this is now also a part of the history of Writing-On-Stone, a lamentable part to be sure, but a part. No matter what else it is, Writing-On-Stone is still a world class rock art site and should not be missed if the opportunity to visit it comes up. And now it can also be considered an educational site that displays a number of what I consider to be mistaken assumptions about what an authentic rock art site is, and should be. Please world, if anyone out there is listening, please do not replicate these techniques elsewhere. 

ARCHITECTURE IN ROCK ART, TIPIS - PART 2:

On November 30, 2013, I posted part one of this column on tipi portrayals in rock art. In that posting I talked about some examples found in southeastern Colorado rock art. In this second visit to the subject I am going to introduce one of the most complex rock art panels known that portrays a single subject, the Battle Scene panel at Writing-on-Stone. Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park / Áísínai'pi National Historic Site. Set in the prairie grasslands of southern Alberta, Writing-on-Stone / Áísínai'pi is a sacred landscape in the Milk River valley and contains possibly the largest concentration of First Nation petroglyphs (rock carvings) and pictographs (rock paintings) on the great plains of North America.

Left side of Battle Scene panel, Writing-on-stone Provincial

Park, Keyser and Klassen, 2001, fig. 14.33, p. 254.

 “The name Áísínai’pi which is Niitsítapi (Blackfoot) meaning “it is pictured / written”. Writing-on-Stone Park contains the greatest concentration of rock art on the North American Great Plains. There are over 50 petroglyph sites and thousands of works. There is evidence that the Milk River Valley was inhabited by native people as long ago as 9000 years. Native tribes such as the Blackfoot probably created much of the rock carvings (petroglyphs) and paintings (pictographs). Other native groups such as the Shoshone also travelled through the valley and may have also created some of the art. Beginning about 1730, large numbers of horses, metal goods, and guns began to appear on the Western plains. This signified not only a change in the native lifestyle, but a change in the content of the rock art. Pictures of hunters on horseback, and warriors without body shields began to be created.” (Wikipedia 2013)

Battle scene panel, faintly scratched, very hard-to-see. http://digipac.cablog/20130907/writing

-on-stone-provincial-park-september-7.

This panel was described by James Keyser and Michael Klassen (2001).

“Biographic rock art reached its zenith with the Battle Scene panel at Writing-on-stone. It includes the greatest number of figures in the most complex composition of any Northwestern Plains rock art scene. Its detail and complexity clearly suggest that it depicts an actual historical event, possibly linked to a famous battle fought along the Milk River in 1866. The Battle Scene shows a large group of pedestrian warriors attacking a large camp circle of tipis (fig. 14.33). In the camp are several groups of humans, including three figures inside the largest, central tipi. At the camp perimeter a row of fourteen guns, two held by humans, represents warriors defending the camp. The attacking party consists of an advance guard of more than a dozen armed warriors, followed by more than three dozen pedestrian figures. Several rearguard figures carry bows or guns, and at least eight lead horses, six of which pull travois. A stream of bullets issues from the muzzle of nearly every gun in the scene.” (Keyser and Klassen 2001:254)

Same battle scene, Writing-on-stone Provincial Park, Canada.

Scene of center of the camp on the left side with 3

figures in tipi in upper center. Strongly side lighted.

“This scene may relate to a battle described in 1924 by a Piegan elder named Bird Rattle. In his story, he directly linked the rock art of Writing-on-stone to the “Retreat up the Hill” battle fought somewhere along the Milk River in 1866. In the fall of that year, the Piegan winter camps filled all the coulees between the Milk River and the Sweetgrass Hills.” (Keyser and Klassen 2001:255) Note that the village of tipis that is being attacked in the Battle Scene is pictured as a rough ring of triangular shapes with the tips pointing in.

Tipis, 39FA7, Sundstrom, Fig. 1.13, p.18.

Linea Sundstrom has identified portrayals of tipi or wickiup shaped structures from the Black Hills region. ”Two tipis are visible among the confused array of lines on this rock art panel from site 39FA7 in the southern Black Hills.” (Sundstrom 2004:18) Sundstrom has also identified a handful of sites in the north Cave Hills where she believes there are portrayals of tipi-shaped eagle trapping lodges. (Sundstrom 2004:119)

Tipi village in upper center.Taylor, Buckskin and

Buffalo, p.47. The circle of triangles in the upper

center represents a tipi village.

“A large tanned steer hide painted in the spring of 1892 by the Piegan artist Sharp. – The pictographs, in a style typical of the Blackfeet of this period, mainly document the military exploits of White Grass, a highly respected chief of the Buffalo Chip band of the Piegan, who was involved in many actions against such tribes as the Flathead and Pend D'Oreilles of the Plateau region to the west of Blackfeet territory. Here, White Grass is about to enter the Flathead circle of tipis to cut free the two picketed horses at the very heart of the encampment. He also captures the enemy chiefs bow, arrows, and quiver.” (Taylor 1998:47)

Tipi village by Piegan artist Sharp, 1892.Taylor, Buckskin and

Buffalo, p.47.

When we look carefully at a rock art portrayal we can often find much more information than we expected at first glance. Keep looking. 

REFERENCES:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writing-on-Stone_Provincial_Park

Keyser, James D. and Michael A. Klassen

2001   Plains Indian Rock Art, University of Washington Press, Seattle.

Sundstrom, Linea

2004   Storied Stone: Indian Rock Art of the Black Hills, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.

Taylor, Colin

1998   Buckskin and Buffalo, the Artistry of the Plains Indians, Rizzoli, New York.