Throughout the Columbia Plateau region—the area roughly between the Rocky Mountains to the east and the Cascade Mountains to the west, an area which includes eastern Washington—American Indians created rock art: pictographs (painted images) and petroglyphs (carved, etched, and/or pecked images). Created over a period of several millennia, these images provide a glimpse into ancient lives.
Writing about the Columbia Plateau in North America, Keo Boreson, in his chapter in 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 their chapter in Discovering North American Rock Art, Lawrence L. Loendorf, Christopher Chippindale, and David S. Whitley write:
“So this is the strength of the pictures: they are direct statements by ancient people of how they saw and knew their worlds, statements that are fixed in place and—when we are fortunate—enduring in time so that we may see them.”
There are two basic problems with understanding the historic messages of rock art. First, it is difficult to date, although recent innovations in archaeology do allow some accurate dating. Second, is understanding their meaning. There are many people, particularly those with little or no background in either archaeology or Native cultures, who use a “gaze and guess” method to misinterpret the art. In his chapter in Discovering North American Rock Art, Michael Klassen writes:
“Most authors now recognize that rock art studies must rely extensively on oral traditions, ethnographic resources, and the idea of sacred landscapes to provide insights into meaning and to support explanations.”
With regard to the designs in the rock art, James Keyser, Michael Taylor, George Poetschat,and David Kaiser, in their book Visions in the Mist: The Rock Art of Celilo Falls, report:
“The most common Columbia Plateau tradition images across the region are stick figure humans, simple stick figure or black body animals, rayed arcs, rayed circles, dots, tally marks, and a variety of simple geometric designs.”
James Keyser, Michael Taylor, George Poetschat, and David Kaiser have suggested that there are two basic kinds of rock art: private and public. With regard to private rock art, they write:
“Obviously the great majority of these private images were not executed for their artistic merit, and if they were meant to be viewed later it was clearly by single individuals observing them at close range.”
The private rock art may have been created as a part of individual spiritual, mystical experiences, such as the vision quest.
One of the major features of the Columbia Plateau is the Columbia River. During the twentieth century, the American government constructed a series of dams along the river, changing it from a free-flowing river to a series of lakes. The reservoirs behind the dams flooded tradition Indian fishing sites, villages, campsites, and ceremonial sites. In addition, many rock art sites were inundated and destroyed. In some cases, the rock art panels were cut out of the cliffs and moved to new locations. During the construction of Wells Dam, a number of pictograph panels were cut out and moved to the Fort Okanogan Interpretive Center and to the Wells Dam Overlook Park. The panel in the Wells Dam Overlook Park is a granite rock slab which measures 10 by 12 by 2 feet and weighs about 20 tons. The panel is encased in a glass case and some of the pictographs from this panel are shown below.
First, a few words about pictographs.
In his book Indian Rock Art of the Columbia Plateau, James Keyser writes:
“Pictographs are rock paintings. On the Columbia Plateau these are most often in red, but white, black, yellow, and even blue-green pigments were sometimes used.”
The paints used in creating pictographs were made from minerals which were sometimes baked in a fire which intensifies their redness. The paint is applied to the rock with fingers. James Keyser writes:
“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.”
Along the Columbia River, many of the pictograph sites appear to have been associated with vision quests. Both archaeologists and tribal elders feel that understanding these pictographs has to take into account the broader landscapes, particularly the spiritual landscapes of the people who created them.
The information sign includes the words of Mary A. Marchand, Colville Confederated Tribes:
“My words would be, please respect them for future generations, because that’s what they’ve been left there for.”
Ancient America
American Indian history does not begin with the European invasion. This series examines American Indian history through archaeology and oral traditions. More about Ancient America:
Ancient America: Methow Indian rock art (photo diary)
Ancient America: Some Plateau Indian petroglyphs (museum tour)
Ancient America: Columbia River Rock Art (Photo Diary)
Ancient America: Columbia River Pictographs (Photo Diary)
Ancient America: Pictographs
Ancient America: American Indians at Rancho La Brea
Ancient America: Hunting Tools in British Columbia
Ancient America: The Richey-Roberts Clovis site (museum diary)