For millions of years the Methow Valley in present-day Washington was covered by the vast ice sheets of the Ice Age. The story of the Methow people began when the Ice Age ended, and the ice retreated. According to a display in the Methow Monument Educational Park in Pateros:
“Over ten thousand years ago, the ice receded and people settled along this shoreline and into the surrounding valleys. They were the first ancestors of the Methow people who live in this region since the end of the last ice age.”
Throughout the Pacific Northwest, the prehistory of the region’s earliest inhabitants has been written in rock art—images and designs painted, carved, and pecked into the rock walls near the rivers. According to another display in the Methow Monument Educational Park in Pateros:
“Some of the earliest rock images in Washington state are located in the Methow Valley. These lasting images connect us to the people who created them long ago.”
With the construction of dams along the Columbia River, including Wells Dam near the confluence of the Methow and Columbia Rivers, many archaeological sites, including rock art sites were inundated by the reservoirs and the information which they held about the past was lost. In some instances, the rock art was removed and is displayed at various locations.
In general, there are two basic kinds of rock art: (1) pictographs which are painted on the rock, and (2) petroglyphs which are carved or pecked into the rock. Along the Columbia River, pictograph images are most frequently done with red pigments which were commonly applied by finger painting. In his book Indian Rock Art of the Columbia Plateau, James Keyser reports:
“When freshly applied, the pigment actually stains the rock surface, seeping into microscopic pores by capillary action as natural weathering evaporates the water or organic binder with which the pigment was mixed. As a result, the pigment actually becomes part of the rock.”
A pictograph is shown above.
The meaning of the images is closely associated with the culture of the artist. Writing about the Columbia Plateau, Keo Boreson, in his chapter on rock art in the Handbook of North American Indians, reports:
“These carved and painted images give an intimate glimpse into the lives of people that other archaeological remains do not, a visual memory that goes a step beyond the everyday necessities of food and shelter.”
In order to preserve part of the ancient culture of the Methow people, Pateros High Schools student Roberta “Bobbi” Elaine Hall, a Methow descendant, created her 2017 Senior Project by recreating Methow rock images on concrete tiles which were incorporated into the walk in the Methow Monument Educational Park. Some of these tiles are shown below.
More Ancient America
Ancient America: A collection of stone tools (photo diary)
Ancient America: A very brief overview of stone quarries
Ancient America: A very brief overview of the Hopewell moundbuilders
Ancient America: Avonlea, the early bow hunters
Ancient America: Effigy Mounds
Ancient America: Solar Calendars
Ancient America: The Marmes Rockshelter
Ancient America: Some Plateau Indian petroglyphs (museum tour)