TSAGAGLALAL - CASTORIDES (THE GIANT BEAVER) IN ROCK ART:

Castoroides ohioensis, the Pleistocene giant beaver,

compared to a modern beaver (Castor castor).

            Many experts believe that a people’s mythology and legends begin as tales of actual events passed down by being told and retold through the generations. Tale becomes myth at some point when the actual connections of memory between the living generation and the generations in the stories are lost. Such myths and legends can properly be classified as cultural fossils making the study of creatures of myth applicable to the study of the influence of fossils upon the belief of the people. Many tribes granted a prominent place in their mythology to the giant beaver, including; the Cree, Chippewa, Hidatsa, Jicarilla Apache, Algonquin, Cheyenne, and others, but perhaps the greatest number of beliefs and legends came from the Northwest Coast peoples.

            The giant beaver (Castoroides) had evolved during the Pleistocene in North America. In North America Castoroides ranged from Alaska to Florida, and was particularly abundant around the Great Lakes. It lived in lakes and ponds bordered by swamp, and had short legs with large webbed feet, suggesting that it was a powerful swimmer. Adults were as large as a black bear, probably reaching 200 kg. in weight and 2.5 meters in length.

Kiksadi pole, Wrangell, Alaska. The bottom figure is

Wishpoosh, the giant beaver. Photo Peter Faris, 2001.

Among people of the northwest coast giant beavers were important totem and ancestral animals. The Kiks’adi totem pole in Wrangell, Alaska, was carved about 1895 by William Ukas. It shows the crests of the Kiks’adi clan of the Stikine Tlinget including the crest of the giant beaver Killisnoo.

A Yakima story entitled “How the Coyote Made the Indian Tribes” sheds some interesting light on the origin of the Columbia River. A giant beaver had inhabited Lake Cle Elum on the eastern side of the Cascades. His name was Wishpoosh and he abused the people so that Coyote decided to help them. Coyote and Wishpoosh got into a fight in Lake Cle Elum and caused an earthquake which made a large hole in the lake, and it began to rain. Wrestling with each other and refusing to give in, Coyote and Wishpoosh rolled down the eastern slope of the Cascades to Kittitas valley, where the waters made a great lake. The combat continued on, Coyote and Wishpoosh, struggling with the waters rushing behind in their wake. They cut the channel for the Yakima River, created a second lake, and tore through Union Gap. The waters overflow this path and form another lake in the Walla Walla country. The fight then took an abrupt turn to the left and the Oregon-Washington border channel of the Columbia was made to the Pacific Ocean. This Yakima story is echoed in several other tribal traditions where only part of the sequence is mentioned; the Colville, Sanpoil, and Okanogan tribes all repeat parts of this story.

            In 1953 Ella Clark published a myth that she attributed to both Colville and Lake Indian Informants that credited Coyote with the creation of the Columbia River in its present configuration. In that myth Coyote ordered the four kinds of salmon to swim up the Columbia and made the beaver their chief. “The people of many tribes will come here to fish,” Coyote said to Beaver. “You will be chief over all of them. You must share the salmon with everyone who comes.”

Beaver drawn from Haida button blanket,

1890. Peter Faris, 2003.

            In Northwest Coast symbolism Beaver is identified by two main characteristics. Although Beaver always has ears and rounded nostrils, the two most identifying symbols are the tail and the two large incisor teeth. – The incisor teeth are close together and not pointed as are the canines of the bear or wolf. Many of these characteristics are illustrated by the beaver image drawn from a Kaigani Haida button blanket collected ca. 1890. Now in the collection of the Philbrook Art Center in Tulsa, OK, the image was made by sewing mother-of-pearl buttons on wool and flannel fabric.

Tsagaglalal (She Who Watches), The Dalles,

Washington. Photo: Peter Faris, 2000.

            South of Puget Sound there are a few carved sites on the lower Columbia that reflect the classic Northwest Style. A noteworthy example is the pecked and painted head of Tsagaglalal (She Who Watches), a legendary woman ruler who was turned to stone by Coyote. It is very skillfully pecked into basaltic rock above the Columbia River at the present site of The Dalles Dam. Remains of red paint on the rock suggest that the lines of many of the petroglyphs were originally filled with paint that has eroded away.

            Tsagaglalal overlooks the cemetery area of the Wishram Indian town of Nixlu’idix at The Dalles. This was a trading center which had attracted people from throughout the Columbia Plateau, and even farther. Traders came here in ocean-going canoes from southern Alaska, and northern California, and horse-men came from the Mandan villages in North Dakota. Trade flourished and tons of salmon and other goods changed hands in the trade fairs that attracted thousands of people each year. Lewis and Clark came to Nixlu’idix in October 1805 and recorded in their journals twenty large wooden plank houses, each home to three families. From April through mid-October the various species of salmon migrated upriver to their spawning grounds providing the Wishram with large quantities of fish. Clark recorded 107 stacks of dried salmon and estimated their total weight at over 10,000 pounds.

In a 1990 paper James Keyser wrote on possible interpretations of the Tsagaglalal petroglyph. “The ethnographic approach to interpreting this petroglyph has considerable historical depth. Before 1910 Edward S. Curtis reported the story of the ancient Wishram woman chief which is associated with the petroglyph. Coyote got to Nixlu’idix, the furthest upriver village and asked the villagers, “Are you living  well?”“You must ask our chief,” said the people, “she is living up there in the rocks.” “She sees everything that is going on.” So Coyote climbed up to her and said, “Soon the world is going to change and women will no longer be chiefs. You stay here and watch the people who are coming.” With that, Coyote threw her up onto the rim rock to watch from there forever (Keyser 1990: page S-3).

            Keyser relied on this ethnographic data for interpreting Tsagaglalal and, noting the proximity of the petroglyph to the above-mentioned cemetery, assigned a funerary interpretation to the image of Tsagaglalal. They may, however, be completely unrelated with the petroglyph predating the cemetery. In such a case the Wishram may have considered Tsagaglalal to have a funerary significance that had nothing to do with the idea behind its original creation.

            I believe that we need to go back to earlier mythologies and folk-memories to identify Tsagaglalal. In style the petroglyph is recognized as representing stylistic elements of Northwest Coast rock art. In Northwest Coast portrayals of Beaver the ears are rounded and the mouth is shown as slightly open with a square in the middle representing the beaver’s characteristic incisor teeth. Tsagaglalal also has these characteristics. Additionally, we have seen that among the mythologies of people of that area Wishpoosh the Giant Beaver was instrumental in creating the features of the landscape, particularly the Columbia River and many of its falls, rapids, and other features. I suggest that Tsagaglalal portrays the Giant Beaver, chief of all the salmon and thus the benefactor of the Wishram people who resided there and depended upon them for their living, looking out over The Dalles which it created, and which proved to be so vital to the fishing economy of the Wishram people who lived there.

REFERENCES:

Clark, Ella E.

1966    Indian Legends of the Northern Rockies, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.

Keyser, James D.

1990    Tsagaglalal – She Who Watches: Rock Art As An Interpretable Phenomenon, Journal of Interpretation, Volume 14, Number 2.

A PROCESSIONAL CROSS IN GALISTEO BASIN ROCK ART?

I recently received this picture and comments from Richard Coleman concerning New Mexico rock art in the Galisteo Basin south of Santa Fe. 

Hispanic rock art image. Galisteo Basin, New Mexico.

Photo: Richard Coleman, August, 2012.

"During some additional explorations in the Galisteo Basin, near Santa Fe, NM; I came across of basalt "dike" on top of range of hills. The face is native american. The initials are dated 1901. The graphic in the middle: rancher brand, religious symbol, or ???

Richard Coleman."

The question involves the symbol in the center of the photograph. After looking at it for a while I felt I could hazard a guess as to what it represents. The Hispanic culture of that area has historically been very devout Catholic and we know that processions are a major factor in the public face of that belief. I believe that the symbol in question represents a carreta (cart or wagon) with a crucifix on it for just such a public procession. There may be some other good guesses out there, maybe you have seen it before? Let me know and send your pictures.

HALLEY'S COMET AND THE ORIGIN OF THE STAR KACHINA:

The period around ca. AD 1300 was a time of upheaval in the Rio Grande valley area with the migration of Anasazi in from the four-corners area to the northwest, which was being abandoned due to drought.  Such periods of social change are often periods of intellectual change as well as people strive to adapt their beliefs and understandings to the new conditions.

In late summer AD 1301 there was a spectacular appearance of Halley's Comet in the skies. Other spectacular comet appearances that were recorded from about that time in European or Chinese records, or both, date from AD 1264, AD 1299, and AD 1337, but the AD 1301 appearance of Halley's Comet may have been the most spectacular. Descriptions indicate that its tail was impressively long, it is estimated to have subtended an angle of as much as 70º across the sky.

Hopi Nangasohu Kachina, Star or Chasing-Planet Kachina.

From Hopi Kachinas, Barton Wright, 1977, Northland Press,

Flagstaff. Four-pointed star painted on front of case mask,

and feathered ruff headdress representing eagle tail.

The Hopi Nangasohu Kachina, the Chasing Star or Meteor Kachina of Oraibi is pictured wearing a case mask with a big star across the front and a ruff of eagle feathers across the top.   This combines two related sky concepts into one: the star of the night sky and the eagle, beast god of the above. Both of these themes can be identified in rock art of the Anasazi and their merging can be followed in rock art of the upper Rio Grande. The Hopi word nanga means "to pursue" and sohu means "star." A beautiful figure, Na-ngasohu appears in the Bean Dance Procession and carries a bell in his right hand.  He wears a large eagle plume fan behind his head.

Galisteo, NM. Star Petroglyph with facial features, Eagle tail, and 
eagle's taloned legs added. This represents a fusion of the star theme
with the sky theme of the Eagle. Photo: Peter Faris, 1988.

The cruciform or four-pointed star is found throughout North America and innumerable examples are illustrated in rock art. These examples range from the simplest pair of crossed lines to more ornate examples, some with single or even double outlines. The variation developed by the Anasazi of the Rio Grande area portrays each arm of the star as a triangle with their bases coming together in the center as do the arms of our traditional five-pointed star. This center was often portrayed with a circle inside it which, in turn, was frequently converted to a simple face by the addition of marks representing two eyes and a mouth.

The added facial features imply personification, the star is not just a light in the sky - it is now a being. It would seem only natural to identify the star as a sky spirit and perhaps various star portrayals were considered by their creators to portray various spirits or deities from their pantheon.

With the important position that the eagle held among these sky-related beings it would only seem natural to find examples of stars combined with the characteristics of eagles.  Examples show the star with facial features and legs ending in eagle talons. Further examples add the eagle's tail and this is illustrated in petroglyphs from West Mesa at Albuquerque, NM, as well as from the Galisteo Basin. These final examples demonstrate that the integration of the Star theme with the Eagle is complete.

Star personage, Galisteo, NM. Photo: Peter Faris, Sept. 1988.

These images from the Albuquerque area are dated from the Pueblo IV period, ca. AD 1300 - 1540, and those from the Galisteo Basin are assigned to the post-ca. AD 1300 period. The fusion of the Star and Eagle concepts developed an image in which the star was portrayed with the tail of an eagle projecting upward, perhaps to illustrate the eagle in a stoop or a dive. This is virtually identical with the Hopi Nangasohu Kachina identified as the Chasing Star or Meteor Kachina and described above. Indeed the combination of the concepts of the stooping eagle and a star would very strongly suggest the appearance of a comet with its tail of light.

                                                                                                                                                                      

Galisteo, NM. Star-Kachina petroglyph.

Note Eagle tail headdress and star head.

Photo: Peter Faris

This suggests that the record preserved in the rock art of the Galisteo Basin and the upper Rio Grande area in New Mexico records the spectacular appearance of Halley's Comet in AD 1301, as well as its evolution into a specific sacred being among the kachinas of the Ancestral Puebloan pantheon, and its subsequent influence on their culture.

MICHI-PESHU AT AGAWA ROCK, LAKE SUPERIOR PROVINCIAL PARK, ONTARIO, CANADA:

Michi-Peshu, a canoe full of paddlers, and two giant underwater

serpents. Agawa Rock, Lake Superior Provincial Park, 

Ontario, Canada.

            Michi-Peshu, the underwater panther, has primacy among underwater monsters in the Great Lakes region. In this realm the underwater horned serpents are relegated to the role of Mishi-Peshu’s helpers. According to Conway:

            "The supernatural feline guardian of Lake Superior, Mishi-Peshu is an amalgam of a tufted-cheek lynx, a dragon with spines running from head to tail, and a minotaur with curved horns. Mishi-Peshu represents a bold abstraction of Lake Superior's power and fury - the unrivaled forces of the world's largest freshwater lake. The composite mythological animal mimics the tension between natural elements.
            To Algonquian speakers, the generic peshu can conjure up cat, lion, panther, or lynx, depending on circumstance or a well-chosen adjective. Following a native worldview, where interrelatedness is more important than divisions between living creatures, they are simply “cat”. Even artistic conventions are reinforced by folklore in the case of Mishi-Peshu. Over half of the Ojibwa and Chippewa tales describing the underwater lion mention its spine-covered tail. The three dream portrait pictographs of Mishi-Peshu marking Agawa Rock strongly emphasize this feature of the lord of the depths.” (Conway 1993:66)

            The red pictograph of Mishi-Peshu at Agawa Rock, in Lake Superior Provincial Park may be the best-known rock art image of the underwater panther in existence.  It is portrayed in red paint with a canoe full of paddlers behind it and its two giant underwater serpent helpers below.

            According to Dewdney and Kidd, portrayals of Mishi-Peshu are common throughout the Great Lakes region. Another mythological creature of great interest that may also be associated frequently with the pictograph sites is Mi-shi-pi-shiw, literally the Great Lynx, actually the Ojibwa demi-god of the water. At Agawa we have an authenticated likeness of this sinister deity of swift or troubled waters. In 1851 Henry Schoolcraft, the Indian Agent at the American Sault Ste Marie whose collection of Ojibwa legends was the basis for Longfellow’s Hiawatha, published his Intellectual Capacity and Character of the Indian Race. Included in it were birch bark renderings of two pictograph sites painted by an Ojibwa shaman-warrior who claimed the special protection of Mishipizhiw (Dewdney 1967:14).

Michi-Peshu, a canoe full of paddlers, and two giant underwater

serpents. Agawa Rock, Lake Superior Provincial Park, 

Ontario, Canada. Pen and ink, Peter Faris, 2004.

The scales covering Michi-Peshu are made of pure copper which is confirmed by the discovery of native copper deposits at locations in the Great Lakes region. Six thousand years ago, descendants of the first settlers of this area were utilizing native copper from the Keweenaw Peninsula and other locations on the shores of Lake Superior. These copper deposits served to confirm the truth of the legends about Michi-Peshu.

Michi-Peshu, woven bag, Potawatomi indian, 

Wisconsin, ca. 1840-1880.

Such was the awsome power of Michi-Peshu, that he was chosen to represent the underworld on native woven bags of the Northeastern woodlands and Great Lakes Region. Such bags were almost invariably decorated with the Michi-Peshu on one side, and Thunderbirds on the other side representing the above world. This theme expresses the dichotomy of existence with the contents of the bag, and thus by extension the person carrying it, representing this world between the above and the below.

I have previously written about the ubiquity of underwater serpents among the mythologies of native North American People (Water Monsters – Unktehi and Uncegila, April 10, 2011). What is fascinating to me about Michi-Peshu is that his myths also include giant underwater serpents, but they are only his helpers. What a wonderful creature, mythological or otherwise.

REFERENCE:

Conway, Thor,

1993    Painted Dreams: Native American Rock Art, Northword Press, Inc., Minocquia, WI.

Dewdney, Selwyn, and Kenneth E. Kidd

1976    Indian Rock Paintings of the Great Lakes, Second Edition, University of Toronto Press.

NATIVE AMERICAN ASTRONOMY – THE CONSTELLATION GONAKADET/WASGO:

Gonakadet, Sproat Lake, Vancouver Island, B.C., Canada.

Photo: Peter Faris, 1995.

Northwest Coast tribes reportedly identified a constellation which was identified with the Sea Wolf, known as Gonakadet by the Tlingit, and Wasgo by the Haida. Next to "Raven," the most popular subject for totem pole art was the Gonakadet. Known also to the Haidas as "Wasgo," this monster is generally depicted as an aquatic wolf with some aspects of the killer whale. He is often depicted with the body and fins of a killer whale and the head of a wolf.

The Myth of Wasgo, the Sea Wolf

 “Wasgo, the Sea Wolf” also known as Sea-Bear, is based on the Tlingit-Haida myth of “Gonakadet” the Lazy Son-in-Law. In one version, he appears as a half killer whale and half wolf, with two fins and a wolf’s tail. In a condensed interpretive version of the story, the son-in-law becomes the hero. His mother continually takes the young man as a lazy so-and-so in law. The young man, despite the chiding from the old woman, secretly trains at night and successfully traps the great mythological creature Wasgo. Stripping it of its coat and donning the immense fur, the young man is granted the supernatural powers of the great creature.

 The young man catches many sea animals such as salmon, seals and Killer whales. Each time, he would take his catch and place it on the beach in front of this mother-in-law’s house. All was accomplished before the break of dawn. The mother-in-law discovers the unclaimed bounty each morning, telling her people that she is a great shaman and has summoned the creatures up from the sea to feed the people of her village. The old woman continuously boasts of her catch, as it increases both in number and in size. At last, the young man brings in three Killer whales to please his mother-in-law. The battle was long, completely exhausting the spirit of the young hunter. Falling on the beach next to his catch the young man finds himself trapped within the heavy skin of the Wasco, dead to the world, as we know it. The mourning call of Raven, finalizes the death of the young hunter.

 The mother in law rises with the morning to discover the great whales and the unusual Sea Wolf. Looking into the Sea Wolf’s eyes, the mother in laws recognizes her son- in-law. She realizes that it was his talents all along that brought the great wealth to her people. The mother- in-law falls to the beach, and dies of shame.

I have not yet been able to find a reference which points to the actual constellation or group of stars in the night sky which represents the constellation Gonakadet/Wasgo to these people of the North American northwest coast. This is however, a clear reminder to us that indigenous people did not leave questions unanswered; they had an explanation for everything, just like we do. Their explanations just might not agree with ours.

THE HAIRY MAN PICTOGRAPHS – PART II:

Hairy Family panel, Tule River Reservation, California. From: 

Strain, Kathy Moskowitz, 2012, Mayak Datat: The Hairy

Man Pictographs, published in The Relict Hominoid Inquiry,

1:1-12, Idaho State University, edited by Jeff Meldrum.

I continue now with a look at the meanings of the Hairy Man pictograph panel presented by Kathy Moskowitz Strain. Previously I discussed the interpretation by Garrick Mallery who described this panel as a “mourning” ceremony based upon his theory of gestural analysis.

Strain, on the other hand, took the eminently reasonable step of looking at ethnographic material on what the members of the Tule River Indian Tribe on the Tule River Reservation believe about the panel. In her presentation she stated that the pictographs are believed by the Tule River people to “depict how various animals, including Hairy Man, created People. Other stories tell why Hairy Man lives in the mountains, steals food, and still occupies parts of the reservation. Since the Tule River Indians equate Hairy Man to Bigfoot, the pictograph and stories are valuable to our understanding of the modern idea of a hair-covered giant.”

The first three stories were gathered by the Strain in the summer of 1992 from tribal elders and members. The main story tellers were Isadore Garfield, Leona Danby, and J.R. Manuel with help from others in attendance. As stories were told, information was either added or clarified until a written copy was produced and read back to the group. “How People Were Made” details how the pictographs at Painted Rock came to be and identifies the large figure on the main wall as Hairy Man. “When the People Took Over” explains why birds and animals live where they do today while “Food Stealing” is a simple story about Hairy Man and his fondness for an easy meal.

“How People Were Made” is a variation of the ubiquitous creation story in which all the animals discuss the qualities that humans should share with them, walk on two legs; talk; hand dexterity; etc. and then hold a race to determine which ones would be granted to the humans. Then the animals created the people. Hairy Man liked the result but when the new humans saw him they became frightened and ran away. This made Hairy Man sad and that is why the pictograph of him is crying. Perhaps it also explains why he is elusive today; he is trying to avoid frightening people.

“When People Took Over” explains how humanity multiplied and began to fill the land and take all the food. The animals got together again and divided up their roles and resources. Hummingbird would henceforth fly and feed on flowers, Trout would live in the water, and Eagle would fly and eat squirrels and deer, etc.

“Food Stealing” describes the belief that “in the old days, women learned never to leave their acorn meal unattended. They would spend all day pounding on the big rocks near the river, making the acorn meal, and then take it down to the river to leach it. They would then leave it in the sun to dry, but they would come back and it would be gone. They would find big footprints in the sand where they left the meal and they would know that Hairy Man took it. He likes Indian food and knows to wait until the acorn is leeched of its bitterness before taking it. We always wondered if he liked the sound of women pounding acorn and knew when to come and get food.”

Hairy Woman and Child, Tule River Reservation, California. From: 

Strain, Kathy Moskowitz, 2012, Mayak Datat: The Hairy

Man Pictographs, published in The Relict Hominoid Inquiry,

1:1-12, Idaho State University, edited by Jeff Meldrum.

Hairy Woman and Child, Tule River Reservation, California. From: 

Strain, Kathy Moskowitz, 2012, Mayak Datat: The Hairy

Man Pictographs, published in The Relict Hominoid Inquiry,

1:1-12, Idaho State University, edited by Jeff Meldrum.

“The last story, “Big Foot, the Hairy Man,” was collected by E. B. Johnstone in 1975 from tribal elders Ruby Bays and Jennie Franco. In 1973, at the request of the tribe, Johnstone (1975) began gathering some of the traditional stories told by members of the reservation. The daughter of a tribal elder, who had been the caretaker of the pictograph site in the early 1900s, identified Hairy Man as being the same as Bigfoot (Johnstone 1975, p. 5). Johnstone (1975, p. 19) further noted that Hairy Man was described by the Tule River Indians as “a creature that was like a great big giant with long, shaggy hair” and since Bigfoot also meets that description, the two were the same.”

“Big Foot, the Hairy Man

Big Foot was a creature that was like a great big giant with long, shaggy hair. He was good in a way, because he ate the animals that might harm people. He kept the Grizzly Bear, Mountain Lion, Wolf, and other larger animals away.

During hot summer nights all the animals would come out together down from the hills to drink out of the Tule River. Big Foot liked to catch animals down by the river. He would eat them up bones and all.

It was pleasant and cool down by the river on hot summer nights. That is when grown-ups liked to take a swim. Even though people feared that Big Foot, the hairy man, might come to the river, people still liked to take a swim at night. Parents always warned their children “Don’t go near the river at night. You may run into Big Foot.”

Now Big Foot usually eats animals, but parents said, “If he can’t find any animals and he is very hungry, he will eat you. We won’t know where you have gone or what has happened to you.”

Some people say Big Foot, the hairy man, still roams around the hills near Tule River. - Children are cautioned not to make fun of his picture on the painted rock or play around that place because he would hear you and come after you.

Parents warned their children, “You are going to meet him on the road if you stay out too late at night.” The children have learned always to come home early.”

So to the Tule River people have explained the Hairy Man pictographs as a record of their creation story, a reminder of how the animals and people who inhabit this world were assigned their life ways and habits, and as a place of spiritual power to Hairy Man.  This has also not addressed the presence of figures identified as the Hairy Woman and the Hairy Child, other than the assumption that they, along with Hairy Man, constitute a Hairy Family (which, of course, could be the case). Let us hope that some researcher will revisit the question and try to record stories explaining the Hairy Woman and Child. Still and all, Strain, in her paper has done a great service to us all by recording, explaining, and preserving this information. Thank you Kathy and well done.

REFERENCES:

Garrick Mallery

1989    Picture-Writing of the American Indian, 10^th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1888-’89, by J. W. Powell, Director, and subsequently republished by Dover Publications in 1972.

Johnstone, E. B.

1975    Big Foot and Other Stories. Tulare: Tulare Board of Education.

Strain, Kathy Moskowitz

2012    Mayak Datat: The Hairy Man Pictographs, published in The Relict Hominoid Inquiry,

            1:1-12 (2012), Idaho State University, edited by Jeff Meldrum.

http://www.isu.edu/rhi/pdf/Mayak%20Datat%20Hairy%20Man%20Pictographs-1.pdf

THE HAIRY MAN PICTOGRAPHS – PART I:

Strain, Kathy Moskowitz, 2012, Mayak Datat: The Hairy Man
Pictographs,published in The Relict Hominoid Inquiry, 1:1-12,
(2012), Idaho State University, edited by Jeff Meldrum.

Drawing of Hairy Man, from Strain, Kathy Moskowitz, 2012,
Mayak Datat: The Hairy Man Pictographs, published in
the Relict Hominoid Inquiry, 1:1-12, (2012), Idaho
State University, edited by Jeff Meldrum.

There is a recurring theme in writings about rock art that can be called gestural analysis, in general it is the application of sign language to the gestures and body positions of figures seen in rock art panels. Perhaps the most influential recent proponent of gestural analysis was LeVan Martineau, who, in his book The Rocks Begin To Speak claimed that he could read rock art panels like a book. I have always personally believed that it was a fiction book that he was reading (and writing). Martineau was by no means the first proponent of that idea. Back in the 1880s Garrick Mallery used gestural analysis to try to decipher rock art.

Garrick Mallery, Picture-Writing of the American Indian,
in the10^th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology
to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution,
1888-’89, by J. W. Powell, Director, republished
by Dover Publications in 1972. Page 638.

The pictograph panel in these illustrations was first published by Garrick Mallery in his encyclopedic “Picture - Writing of the American Indian” in the 10^th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1888-’89, by J. W. Powell, Director, and subsequently republished by Dover Publications in 1972. On pages 637 and 638 Mallery attempts to decipher the meaning of the panel by gestural analysis. In his imagination the figures are all making the gesture for rain referring to tears (eye rain) and they are apparently mourning  a very small figure in the middle of the composition which he identified as having died of starvation.

Now we have a scholarly look at this amazing pictographic panel from Kathy Moskowitz Strain, a professional archaeologist with the U. S. Forest Service at the Stanislaus National Forest in northern California. In her informative paper Strain applies the beliefs and stories of Hairy Man held by the Tule River Indian Tribe on the Tule River Reservation. According to members of the tribe, the thousand-year old pictographs “depict how various animals, including Hairy Man, created People. Other stories tell why Hairy Man lives in the mountains, steals food, and still occupies parts of the reservation. Since the Tule River Indians equate Hairy Man to Bigfoot, the pictograph and stories are valuable to our understanding of the modern idea of a hair-covered giant.”

“The Tule River Indian Reservation was established in 1873 on 54,116 acres and currently boasts a population of approximately 500 people. Today, although there are three federally recognized Yokuts tribes with associated trust lands, most descendents live off-reservation in various local communities and are part of non-federally recognized tribes. This article focuses on the Tule River Reservation and the beliefs and stories of Hairy Man held by the Tule River Indian Tribe.”

“Painted Rock, also known as CA-TUL-19, is a rockshelter associated with a prehistoric village. The site, located immediately adjacent to the Tule River, includes bedrock mortars, pitted boulders, midden and pictographs. The pictographs are located within the rockshelter, and are painted on the ceiling and walls of the shelter. The pictographs include paintings of a male, female, and child Bigfoot (known as the family), coyote (known as Coyote Eating the Moon), beaver, bear, frog, caterpillar, centipede, humans, eagle, condor, lizard and various lines, circles, and other geometric designs. The paintings are in red, black, white, and yellow.”

“Archaeologically, the village at Painted Rock was occupied in the late prehistoric, around 500 years ago. Since it is believed that the paintings were present prior to the village, the paintings are likely 500-1000 years old.”

I have written elsewhere on the various meanings of rock art, not only to the original creators but to later interpreters, be they prehistoric peoples or modern researchers.  In this case if the paintings were truly present prior to the village then we will have whatever they meant to the original creators. Then the inhabitants who built the prehistoric village would have had their explanation of the pictures. Then we have the interpretation of the modern inhabitants of Tule River Indian Reservation, which Strain has explained concern Hairy Man and his conflation with modern stories of Bigfoot. Finally we can add layers of interpretation by Garrick Mallery, and modern researchers.

My next posting will discuss this question of the meanings in a little more detail.

REFERENCES:

Garrick Mallery

1989    Picture - Writing of the American Indian, 10^th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1888-’89, by J. W. Powell, Director, and subsequently republished by Dover Publications in 1972.

Strain, Kathy Moskowitz

2012    Mayak Datat: The Hairy Man Pictographs, published in The Relict
            Hominoid Inquiry, 1:1-12, (2012), Idaho State University, edited by Jeff Meldrum.

http://www.isu.edu/rhi/pdf/Mayak%20Datat%20Hairy%20Man%20Pictographs-1.pdf