Figures
Chronology of Plateau cultures
Petroglyph, western MT
Stickman and animal, Kila, western MT
The Kila pictographs
Western Montana motifs (%)
Stick figure humans, western MT
Communal hunt pictograph, Bitterroot valley
Shield-bearing warriors, Bitterroot valley
Panel at Kila
Upside-down bison at Kila
Variety of animals, western MT
Bison at Kila pictographs
Painted deer, Flathead River site
Pictographs, western MT
Stickmen and tally marks, western MT
Tally marks and geometric figures
Animals and geometric designs
Sun pictograph near Kalispell
Vision quest symbolism
Vision quest art, Columbia Plateau
Interior B.C. motifs (%)
Stick figure humans, B.C.
Hunting theme in B.C. pictographs
Spirit beings
Spirit figure, Keremeos Creek, B.C.
Animal pictographs, B.C.
Painted deer, Kootenay Lake
Lone Cabin Creek petroglyphs
Lone Cabin Creek boulder
Vision quest symbolism
Pictographs of women’s spirit quest
Painted basalt cobble
Humans with rayed arcs
Bear-paw petroglyphs, Lake Pend Oreille, ID
Central Columbia Plateau motifs (%)
Pictographs of humans, central Plateau
The Twins, Vantage, WA
Humans with rayed arcs or rayed heads
Animals, central Plateau
Mountain sheep and hunter, Lake Chelan, WA
Mountain sheep, Vantage, WA
Rock art horses
Circled pictographs, Long Lake, WA
Hunting scene petroglyphs, mid-Plateau
Deer petroglyphs, Vantage, WA
Painted twins, near The Dalles
Columbia Plateau twin figures
Bowman shooting elk
Hunting petroglyphs, B.C.
Communal hunt pictograph, Lake Chelan, WA
Yakima polychrome style motifs
Abstract pictographs, northern OR
Lower Columbia River motifs (%)
Human figures and geometries, Bend, OR
Mountain sheep hunting scene
Horses and riders
Faces or masks of mythical beings
Anthropomorphs and zoomorphs
The Spedis Owl
Rock art animals, lower Columbia River
Mountain sheep and deer or elk, lower Plateau
Dogs in hunting scene, northern OR
Fish petroglyph near The Dalles
Lizards
Rayed arcs and circles
Painted geometric patterns, lower Plateau
Curvilinear petroglyph figures
Tsagiglalal, near The Dalles
Tsagiglalal petroglyphs
The Tsagiglalal motif
Buffalo Eddy site panel
Southeastern Columbia Plateau motifs (%)
Triangular-body humans, Buffalo Eddy petroglyphs
The hand print, Hells Canyon pictograph
Horses and hunting, Hells Canyon pictographs
Animal pictographs, southeastern Plateau
Buffalo Eddy pictographs
Abstract petroglyphs along Snake River
Abstract pictograph, upper Salmon River
Complex pictographs, lower Salmon River
Petroglyphs of humans, Snake River site
Hells Canyon petroglyphs and pictographs
Human and animal figures, Salmon River and Hells Canyon
Stickmen, horses, and tally marks, Stoddard Creek
Horseback buffalo hunters, near Buffalo Eddy
Columbia Plateau horses
Dendrogram of Columbia Plateau styles
Preface
I SAW MY FIRST INDIAN ROCK painting in western Montana when I was nine years old. My father had heard of the site several years before, and finally agreed to take an eager son who had just become fascinated with American Indians and their history. I still remember the experience: I marveled at the red painted deer that covered the rock wall and wondered what the nearby tally marks meant. To look at these pictures and to realize that they were painted before European Americans came to Montana was heady stuff for a boy who had just read about the Indian wars, Custer, Fort Fetterman, and the Wagon Box Fight.
During the next ten years, I visited several more sites in western and central Montana, usually on family outings. Then I entered college, and began studying archaeology, and found the library to be a treasure house of books and articles about rock art across the United States and around the world. I read everything I could find on the subject and scoured professional journals for the few articles concerning the rock art of my home state. In 1974, when I got the chance to do archaeological field work, I began my first rock art research project: recording the pictographs of western Montana, including the site that had sparked my interest fifteen years before. Imagine