THE STORY OF HORSETOOTH:

On June 26, 2010, I was driving north to Fort Collins, Colorado, to attend a High School class Reunion, when I got a great view of an old friend – Horsetooth rock. Although there was a forest fire just a few miles south in the foothills making the air smoky, from my vantage point the air was clear enough to give me an unusually good view of the rock.

Horsetooth rock, west of Fort Collins, CO.
Photo: Peter Faris, 26 June 2010.
(Click on photo for an enlarged view.)

Horsetooth rock is a peak in the foothills of what is called the front range of the Rocky Mountains, overlooking the Fort Collins area in Larimer County, Colorado. The distinctive shape of this rock with its two gaps reminded early settlers of the molars of a horse. Those Anglo settlers, however, were not the only people who found this prominent peak remarkable.

An Indian legend I heard back when growing up in Fort Collins referred to what we have named Horstooth rock as the heart of a giant who lived up that canyon. According to this Cheyenne or Arapaho story every time the tribe in their annual rounds and migrations passed by the canyon mouth that leads to Horsetooth; they were accosted by the giant who demanded that they give him a pure young maiden in exchange for peaceful passage. After many years of this sacrifice the maiden chosen one year was beloved by a heroic young warrior of the tribe. Determined to rescue his beloved, he waited behind when the tribe passed on. That night the giant tied the maiden securely and lay down to sleep. As he slept the young hero crept into the giant’s camp and struck two mighty blows with his tomahawk, chopping directly into the heart of the giant. The blows killed the giant, the warrior freed his beloved, and they left the canyon, presumably to live happier ever after.

The distinctive rock that we see now represents the heart of the giant, turned to stone in death and by the passage of time, with the two gaps showing where the young hero struck with his tomahawk. As a young man, climbing and hiking around the rock myself, I felt that the native legend about this rock was of considerably greater interest than any implications of our name for it, however descriptive it might have been. In our search for scientific truth we sometimes give up a certain amount of excitement and glamour.

HOW THE EARTH CHANGED HISTORY - A REVIEW:

HOW THE EARTH CHANGED HISTORY – EPISODE 1, National Geographic Channel, Host: Professor Ian Stewart, 2010.

The introductory episode of this new series focused upon water and how its presence or absence has affected human cultures. As it opened the host was seen driving across the sand of the Sahara and he stated that he was six hours from the nearest human habitation. He arrived at a cliff upon which he pointed out a collection of marvelous petroglyphs of African wildlife. Images on the cliff included giraffes, crocodiles, antelope, a warthog, and many others, and his point was that this locale had once been well watered and lush. This sequence also included some of the most amazing and marvelous film effects I have ever seen. It began with a petroglyph of a lizard which was engraved into the cliff, while the camera was focused directly on it, as we watched all of a sudden the lizard scurried up the cliff face and away. Not turned into a real lizard which ran off mind you, the petroglyph, the image grooved into the cliff face began to move. Then other images also began to move including an elephant petroglyph which shook its head and moved its trunk. The surprise was considerable because I had never seen, or even imagined, anything like this.

While I have not fully figured out my reactions and thoughts about it the first thing that came to mind was that I have just seen something totally new and unique. The whole concept of rock art has always been solid permanence, and the idea of petroglyphs as ephemeral moving images seems a total reversal of our expectations. In the long run this sort of modification to our habitual expectations will open up new areas of consideration and understanding of the meaning and effect of these images. In a small way, in my chosen field of study it was a historic moment, and I did not even know the name of the art director who came up with the idea. I have sent an inquiry to the National Geographic Channel asking for the name of the person who should get credit. I will pass that information on if I receive an answer.

Watch for a rerun of this amazing program on the National Geographic Channel and let me know what you think when you see it.

INSECTS IN ROCK ART – THE EARWIG:

Insect forms, Village of the Great Kivas,
Zuni, New Mexico. Photo: Teresa Weedin.

One insect form found in rock art in the American Southwest consists of a line with a number of shorter crossing lines, and with a fork or prongs at each end. The example illustrated is from Canyon de Chelley, Arizona. I believe that this form may have been intended to represent the common insect known as an earwig.

Earwig, Canyon de Chelley, AZ,
Photo Peter Faris, 1997.

Earwig.

According to Wikipedia:
Earwigs are characterized by the cerci, or the pair of forceps-like pincers on their abdomen; male earwigs have curved pincers, while females have straight ones. These pincers are used to capture prey, defend themselves and fold their wings under the short tegmina.
The common earwig is one of the few insects that actively hunts for food and is omnivorous, eating arthropods, plants, and ripe fruit. They have also been known to eat corn silk, damaging the corn.
Earwigs are generally nocturnal, and typically hide in small, dark, and often moist areas in the daytime. Earwigs tend to gather in shady cracks or openings or anywhere that they can remain concealed during daylight.

In a patch of growing corn the earwig finds ideal hiding places between the leaves and cornstalk, as well as within the leaves that make up the husks of the ears of the corn plant. Anyone who has ever experienced husking fresh picked corn from the garden has found earwigs in the process and would definitely accept an association between the corn and the insect.

Ancestral pueblo people of the Southwest depended upon their corn crop for the survival of their families. They would be expected to have an intimate knowledge of the life and development of the plants and would have been fully aware of insects associated with their corn crop. While the earwig might have damaged some of the corn crop by eating the silk on developing ears of corn, they also ate insects that may have damaged the corn such as aphids and plant lice. This knowledge may well have inspired the sort of approach-avoidance relationship that would lead to granting the insect a special place in agriculturally related belief complexes.

While I have been personally unable to find any ethnographic background that links this image to the earwig, I have little doubt that there is such based upon locations where this symbol is often found and which relied upon maize agriculture for subsistence.

WATER BUGS IN ROCK ART:

In far northwestern Colorado adjoining Dinosaur National Monument on the north side in Moffat County is an area known as Brown’s Park. Towards the eastern end of Brown’s Park, Vermillion Canyon runs from the north to the south to join up with the Green river. As a permanent source of water in a dry area Vermillion Creek must have served as a travel route for the Native American inhabitants of the area from the arid lands to the north to the more watered Brown’s Park. They left considerable rock art on the canyon walls along the creek, most of it traceable to the Fremont culture of Eastern Utah/Northwestern Colorado.

Water bug petroglyphs, probably Fremont,
Vermillion Canyon, Moffat County, CO.
Photo: Peter Faris, 1988.

The importance of this water source is suggested by the presence of a unique petroglyph found in the narrow reaches of the canyon. This image appears to present four insects above a zigzag horizontal line which is usually thought to represent water, and could be intended to represent Vermillion creek. The canyon in this area is deep and narrow with vertical cliffs, and on a searing hot summer day the bottom of the canyon is cool and comfortable.

So what would this grouping represent? While it is possible to stretch some of the traditional explanations of rock art such as sympathetic magic or shamanism to explain these that would be pretty much a modern intellectual construct. Within an animistic religious framework the spirits of the water bugs could well be thought to appeal to the Great Spirit to keep the cool water flowing for them. I prefer to think, however, that some Native American, probably from among the Fremont people, sitting in the cool shade by the streamside during a mid-summer hot spell, was amused by watching water bugs scooting around on the surface of Vermillion Creek, and decided to affectionately record the moment on the handy cliff face. Remember, not all meanings have to be big, important, and significant. Some rock art may have been done just for fun!

A METEOROLOGICAL MODEL FOR THE CONCENTRIC CIRCLE SUN SYMBOL IN ROCK ART OF THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST:

One common theme in the rock art of the American southwest is the symbol of one or more concentric circles, often around a central dot. This symbol of concentric circles has been recognized as a representation of the sun throughout Ancestral Puebloan rock art of the American Southwest.

The pueblo culture is, and has been, constructed around an agricultural tradition based on maize, beans, and squash. The people depended upon their faith and knowledge of the natural cycles of their environment to provide for their families. Many of the petroglyphs and pictographs created by the Anasazi understandably illustrate a concern with the weather, portraying symbols such as clouds and rain. One of the most common weather symbols is the sun, portrayed as one of the variations of the concentric circles theme. As a symbol for the sun, these concentric circles model a specific atmospheric condition, the haloed sun.

Concentric circle sun symbol,
Sego Canyon, Utah.
Photo: Peter Faris, 1980.

Concentric circle sun symbols,
Signal Hill, Tucson, AZ.
Photo: Jack & Esther Faris, 1990.

As the sun moves north of the equator in the Northern Hemisphere summer, the land mass is rapidly warmed. This leads to the development of a low-pressure cell over the arid North American Southwest. Winds follow a pressure gradient from high to low and flow counterclockwise about a low in the Northern Hemisphere, bringing a monsoon flow of moist air from the Gulf of California over Arizona and New Mexico by mid-July, accompanied by afternoon showers and thunderstorms. As the moist air heats up over the desert, it rises and begins to cool with increased altitude. This rising air can reach an altitude of as high as 15 km, forming the thin, sheet like high altitude cloud cover called cirrostratus that often covers the entire sky so thinly that the sun and moon can be clearly seen through them. Ice crystals in the cirrostratus can refract the light passing through them producing a circle around the sun or moon known as a halo. The most common halo is the 22º halo, a ring of light around the sun or moon at a radius of 22º, about the distance from the end of the thumb to the little finger on the outstretched arm. These conditions are also often a precursor to oncoming precipitation within a few hours to a day.

Sun with halo, May 19, 2010. Photo: Peter Faris, 2010.

Sun with halo, May 19, 2010. Photo: Peter Faris, 2010.

The solar halo illustrated was photographed at my home on the morning of May 19, 2010, and rain began to fall approximately four hours later.

Tawa, Sun kachina.

As a precursor of precipitation a circle around the sun would be of great import to a people dependent upon rain for a successful harvest. Such a case might be expected to apply in the American Southwest where agricultural societies were aware of their almost total dependence upon precipitation for the success of their crops. This possibility is reinforced by the design of the case mask worn by the Sun Kachina (Hopi Tawa Kachina) which is quite clearly circular and is surrounded by a border of black-tipped feathers. In this mask the white body of the feather and the ring of their black tips represent the concentric circles around the face of the sun. Thus the haloed sun, which may have originally inspired the concentric circle symbols in Ancestral Puebloan rock art, can still be seen in the Sun kachina mask worn by Puebloan kachina dancers and remains a living factor in their beliefs.

NATIVE AMERICAN PORTRAITURE - THE MAN WITH ONE FOOT:

There is a marvelous panel of Fremont figures located on Gore Ranch, in Glade Park on the Uncompaghre plateau of Mesa County, Colorado. The three stylized figures have been pecked very carefully in great detail up the cliff.

Gore Ranch, Glade Park, Uncompahgre Plateau,
Mesa County, CO. Photo: Peter Faris, 1980.

The lowest figure is blatantly a warrior with a knife in his left hand next to a spiral-decorated shield. He is wearing a Fremont style headdress and in his right hand he holds what appears to be a crane-headed dance staff with feathers down its shaft and a fringed bag connected just under the head. By his right foot a coiled snake reflects the spiral on his shield on the other side. His feet each have five toes carefully delineated, and he has a garment resembling a kilt around his waist.

The uppermost of the three figures holds a knife in his right hand and another crane-headed staff in his left. He was also pecked carefully with the distinctive Fremont headdress (or hairdo), clothing, and his bare feet also have the toes carefully delineated.

The middle figure also wears a headdress and has been carefully pecked to show individual fingers on his hands. He has a zig-zag or wavy line (lightning?) on his left side that connects to him at about waist high. The most interesting thing about this figure is that he again has a carefully delineated right foot – and no left foot. His left leg terminates at what would be about the ankle with no sign that there was ever a foot there. He seems to have been purposely made that way. The fascinating question is, of course, why? Why does he have only one foot?

The other two figures possess weapons and are arguably warriors commemorated on the cliff for their heroic deeds, but what about the man with one foot? Two possibilities can be imagined from the clues provided. Since he is accompanied by two warriors it is possible that he is also a warrior who lost his foot in battle and is commemorated here for his bravery (a possibility that Sally Cole suggested back in 1980). It might also be possible that the zig-zag line which connects to his waist does represent lightning and that he was the victim of a lightning strike which he survived but which cost him his foot. If that were the case he would be a person of tremendous spirit power indeed and would understandably have enough status to be portrayed with the other two heroes.

In any case, these figures must be classified has portraiture with their careful attention to individual details which anyone living in that area at that time would have recognized. They would have known who wore those headdresses and carried those crane-headed staffs, whose shield had that design and which particular warrior had lost that foot. They knew who he was and probably passed on the story of his deeds that had earned him his place on the cliff. Too bad we have forgotten.

SISIUTL - THE TWO-HEADED SERPENT:

A Northwest Coast version of the Push-Me-Pull-You.

Sisiutl, the two-headed serpent of the
Pacific Northwest, Wood Carving.

Of all the many portrayals of animals (zoomorphs) in rock art perhaps the most fascinating are the double ended animals known lightheartedly as push-me-pull-yous. One form is this creature that is frequently seen in the art of Northwest Coast peoples is the Sisiutl, a serpent with a head at each end. Sisiutl is often portrayed in paintings and wood carving. He was sometimes believed to be a fearsome ocean creature, a two-headed sea serpent, and was considered to be a mortal enemy of thunderbird.

Klu'bist, ‘Nlaka’pamux pictographs, Stein River Valley
north of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
York, Daly, and Arnett, They Write Their Dream on the
Rock Forever: Rock Writings of the Stein River Valley
of British Columbia, 1993, p. 156.

Klu'bist, ‘Nlaka’pamux pictograph, Stein River Valley
north of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
York, Daly, and Arnett, They Write Their Dream on the
Rock Forever: Rock Writings of the Stein River Valley
of British Columbia, 1993, p. 115.

The Skagit people called it sulwa’us and regarded it highly as a shamanistic spirit and associated it with thunder and the rainbow. The ‘Nlaka’pamux people of the Stein River Valley north of Vancouver in British Columbia call it klu’biist and have recorded it in numerous pictographs at sites in their territory. In the first of the two illustrations this pictograph panel includes two images of klu'biist, one in the upper left, and a smaller one at bottom center. Many of the portrayals show klu’biist as a four-legged creature and native sources stated that it was a snake with a head at each end, but it could grow legs if it wanted to and then looked something like a lizard with a head at each end. Many of them believe that a sighting of klu’biist foretells a death. The ‘Nlaka’pamux people identify klu’biist as an actual creature that lives in their forests – the India Rubber Boa (Charina bottae) found throughout northwestern North America, and the northernmost member of the boa family. These 18“ brown snakes appear to have a head at both ends with a blunt rounded tail that is hard to distinguish from their real head end and looks amazingly like a length of rubber surgical tubing.

India Rubber Boa, from Ernst and Ernst, Snakes
of the United States and Canada, 2003, p. 115.

As a boy at summer camp one year in the Pacific Northwest I found an India Rubber Boa in the woods. Far from being a harbinger of death and disaster, this peaceful creature was content to be wrapped around my arm and hung on for a considerable time, probably enjoying the body warmth. Surprisingly it made no attempt to bite, or even to uncoil and drop off until I later unwrapped it from my arm and released it back in the woods.

There is a particular satisfaction in having personal connection to the source of the mythology that has led to these portrayals in rock art. Perhaps Sisiutl/Klu’biist is really my personal totem creature.

REFERENCES:

York, Annie, Richard Daly, and Chris Arnett
1993 They Write Their Dream on the Rock Forever: Rock Writings of the Stein River Valley of British Columbia, Talonbooks, Vancouver.

Ernst, Carl H., and Evelyn M. Ernst
2003 Snakes of the United States and Canada, Smithsonian Books, Washington and London.

I was just connected with a site that shows video of an India Rubber boa swallowing a mouse. It is at http://www.wildrockies.com/rocky-mountains/rubber-boa-devours-an-already-dead-mouse. I suppose Parental Warning guidelines require me to warn that some viewers may find it disturbing, but it does add an element of real life to my comments above.