War Stories: Reading Plains Indian Biographic Rock Art

By James D. Keyser and David Kaiser

Plains Indian biographic rock art can be “read” by those knowledgeable in its lexicon. Presented is a lexicon of imagery, conventions, and symbols used by Plains Indians to communicate their warfare and social narratives. The reader is introduced to Plains Indian “warrior” art in all media, biographic art as picture writing is explained, and the lexicon is described, providing a pictographic “dictionary,” and explains conventions and connotations. Finally, it illustrates four key examples of how these narratives are read by the observer. Familiarity with the lexicon will enable interested scholars and laypersons to understand what are otherwise enigmatic rock art drawings found from Calgary, Alberta through ten U.S. states, and into the Mexican state of Coahuila.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Release date: May 12, 2023
• ISBN: 9781800739758

James D. Keyser

James D. Keyser earned his PhD from the University of Oregon. He has conducted rock art research across western North America and has authored more than 200 rock art publications including seven books. Among these are Indian Rock Art of the Columbia Plateau, The Five Crows Ledger: Warrior Art of the Flathead Indians, and Art of the Warriors: Rock Art of the American Plains. He taught anthropology at SUNY-Buffalo and the University of Tulsa before retiring from the U.S. Forest Service. He splits his time between homes in Oregon and Italy.

Book preview

WAR STORIES

WAR STORIES

READING PLAINS INDIAN

BIOGRAPHIC ROCK ART

James D. Keyser and David A. Kaiser

First published in 2023 by

Berghahn Books

www.berghahnbooks.com

© 2023 James D. Keyser and David A. Kaiser

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission of the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Keyser, James D., author. | Kaiser, David A., author.

Title: War Stories: Reading Plains Indian Biographic Rock Art / James D. Keyser and David A. Kaiser.

Other titles: Reading Plains Indian Biographic Rock Art

Description: New York: Berghahn Books, 2023. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2023004641 (print) | LCCN 2023004642 (ebook) | ISBN 9781800739741 (hardback) | ISBN 9781800739758 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Indian art—Great Plains. | Petroglyphs—Great Plains. | Rock paintings—Great Plains. | Indians of North America—Great Plains—Antiquities. | Indians of North America—Wars—Great Plains.

Classification: LCC E98.P34 K499 2023 (print) | LCC E98.P34 (ebook) | DDC 709.01/130978—dc23/eng/20230207

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023004641

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023004642

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-1-80073-974-1 hardback

ISBN 978-1-80073-975-8 ebook

https://doi.org/10.3167/9781800739741

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations

Vignettes

Preface. Navigating through the Book

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1. Biographic Art as Picture Writing

Chapter 2. The Biographic Art Lexicon

Chapter 3. The Pictographic Dictionary

Chapter 4. Conventions and Connotations

Chapter 5. Reading the Narratives

Appendix I. Site Names and Numbers for Figure 1.1, North and South Halves

Appendix II. Source Materials and Site Index for Illustrations

Appendix III. Identification of Source Materials for Figures

Glossary

References

Index

ILLUSTRATIONS

Figures

Figure 0.1a. Map, north half of Plains with extent of Biographic Tradition rock art shown in grey.

Figure 0.1b. Map, south half of Plains with extent of Biographic Tradition rock art shown in grey.

Figure 0.2. Ceremonial Tradition rock art imagery showing humans and animals.

Figure 0.3. This typical Ceremonial Tradition composition shows V-neck humans, juxtaposed with a boat-form elk.

Figure 0.4. Zigzag lines, spirals, and internal organs are sometimes used to show supernatural attributes of Ceremonial Tradition figures.

Figure 0.5. This image of a Buffalo Shaman is identified by the bustle, headdress, and fly whisk he carries.

Figure 0.6. The Hand of God and Bear-Coming-Out shield designs.

Figure 0.7. This red pictograph shows a tally of defeated warriors and a captured shield war trophy.

Figure 0.8. Early Biographic narrative scenes identified by the full-body shields and occasional metal projectile points.

Figure 0.9. This tally of enemies on whom coup had been counted is the work of two artists.

Figure 0.10. Early coup count scenes from the Late Prehistoric and Protohistoric periods.

Figure 0.11. A tally of captured women.

Figure 0.12. The spread of the horse across the Great Plains.

Figure 0.13. Early horses at Atherton Canyon, Montana.

Figure 0.14. Honor mark vocabularies.

Figure 0.15. Blackfoot warrior, Morning Eagle, leads his war horse, elaborately painted with his war honors, through camp, 1908.

Figure 0.16. Early Biographic scenes from the Foureau bison robe, early 1800s.

Figure 0.17. Biographic scene from the Segesser I hide painting, dating to the early 1700s.

Figure 0.18. Combat scenes on one page of the Five Crows ledger folio.

Figure 0.19. A scene from the Samuel Strong, Roman Nose ledger.

Figure 0.20. These three scenes show exactly the same battle action in rock art, robe art, and ledger art.

Figure 0.21. Winter count and pictographic census imagery uses many of the same lexical conventions and synecdoche as other Biographic art.

Figure 1.1. Warning signs with pictograms are a type of picture writing.

Figure 1.2. X-ray perspective is common in the Ceremonial Tradition for both humans and animals.

Figure 1.3. Some Biographic images are also depicted in X-ray perspective.

Figure 1.4. X-ray perspective includes the depiction of unseen elements that are known to be there but are not visible to the observer in real life.

Figure 1.5. Unseeable attributes, such as sound, are sometimes shown in Biographic art.

Figure 1.6. This Elk Dreamer carved in Montana bridges both Ceremonial and Biographic Traditions.

Figure 1.7. Twisted perspective is relatively common in Plains Ceremonial and Biographic rock art.

Figure 1.8. Tie Creek ledger drawing showing a man capturing an unseated cavalry horse while braving enemy fire.

Figure 1.9. Several perspectives are evident in this battle scene.

Figure 1.10. In this red-painted battle scene, the participants have been reduced to two ranks of short dashes and their tracks and horses’ hoofprints.

Figure 1.11. This elaborate Hot Dance petroglyph commemorates the 1882 transfer of the dance from the Hidatsa to the Crow.

Figure 1.12. Sexual capture, shown by a man reaching out to grab a woman’s breast or genitalia.

Figure 1.13. Groups of entrenched combatants are shown encircled by a line representing some form of fortification.

Figure 1.14. Camp circle arrangements can show tipis facing either inward or outward.

Figure 1.15. Camp circles feature a defined perimeter.

Figure 1.16. Hierarchical perspective shows an object or participant in a scene with an exaggerated size to denote its importance.

Figure 1.17. Exaggerated length can indicate an object’s importance, or act as a way to connect elements of a scene.

Figure 1.18. This combat scene tells a complete story using many conventions with a minimum of images.

Figure 1.19. The Rocky Coulee battle scene at Writing-On-Stone is a classic example of the donut-hole perspective.

Figure 1.20. The development of the capture hand in Blackfoot Biographic art.

Figure 1.21. Two women wearing fringed leggings.

Figure 1.22. This painting is a progressive narrative showing a sequence of coups counted.

Figure 1.23. This petroglyph of a man spearing another is an example of an explicit, monoscenic narrative any observer would recognize.

Figure 1.24. These narrative scenes, illustrating a warrior touching an enemy to count coup, range from explicit to implied to inferred.

Figure 1.25. Capture of an enemy’s horse is often shown without depicting the protagonist himself.

Figure 1.26. Compositions using the Blackfoot Biographic art ideograms show two men’s success as horse raiders.

Figure 1.27. This Ute warrior shows detailed weapons, hairdo, and items of clothing.

Figure 1.28. This vignette from American Horse’s winter count is a biographic scene.

Figure 1.29. A Crow man’s tally of his coups.

Figure 1.30. This vignette from a coup count tally shows the protagonist only by his footprints.

Figure 1.31. The Schoch war shirt is a masterpiece showing a career’s worth of war honors.

Figure 1.32. This scene is a cyclical narrative showing a running battle near a train and a later adoption ceremony.

Figure 1.33. Trees, such as these shown in a horse stealing scene, are rare in Biographic art.

Figure 1.34. Painted elk skin robe by Blackfoot artist Big Nose, ca. 1893.

Figure 2.1. Key narrative conventions are the same in all Biographic art media.

Figure 2.2. Dancers in rock art and ledger art show the same characteristic postures and regalia.

Figure 2.3. A corkscrew-shaped gun worm.

Figure 2.4. A pipe-carrying partisan shoots an enemy.

Figure 2.5. A quirt can connote many different things in Biographic art.

Figure 2.6. Hoofprints can have a variety of meanings.

Figure 2.7. The Tie Creek ledger shows a mounted warrior using a saber to count coup on an American soldier.

Figure 2.8. Horseshoes depicted on a captured cavalry mount in a ledger drawing.

Figure 2.9. This warrior shows Blackfoot kill shots to the head and chest.

Figure 2.10. Evolution of the horse stealing war honor ideogram in Blackfoot Biographic art.

Figure 2.11. A Crow warrior’s drawing was latter tagged by a Blackfoot artist.

Figure 3.1. A herd of Mature-style horses indicates a successful horse raid.

Figure 3.2. A Crow object tally includes captured war trophies.

Figure 3.3. Blackfoot- and Crow-style humans from various sites.

Figure 3.4. Blackfoot combat scenes typically display humans in static postures, whereas Crow artists show combatants using more fluid lines.

Figure 3.5. Humans are sometimes minimally portrayed, using only their shield, weapon, headdress, or other accoutrements.

Figure 3.6. Women are only occasionally shown as warriors.

Figure 3.7. This large battle scene includes numerous biographic conventions.

Figure 3.8. A warrior dismounts his horse to count coup on a fleeing enemy.

Figure 3.9. A handprint, indicating a war honor, is drawn on a horse’s hip.

Figure 3.10. A variety of animals are shown in Biographic art.

Figure 3.11. Hunting scenes are occasionally part of Biographic Tradition rock art.

Figure 3.12. A horse raid scene shows many shorthand horses.

Figure 3.13. Shorthand horses show minimal detail.

Figure 3.14. Early horses are shown as boat-form animals or stick figures.

Figure 3.15. Ledger style art is often quite realistic.

Figure 3.16. The evolution of horse depictions in rock art, robe art, and ledger art.

Figure 3.17. Tie Creek ledger drawing showing a mounted warrior surviving a hail of bullets to count coup on a soldier.

Figure 3.18. This Crow combat scene uses the floating weapon convention.

Figure 3.19. Ledger drawing by Flathead chief Five Crows depicting a battle.

Figure 3.20. At this Montana site a warrior wearing an antelope horn headdress defeats an enemy on horseback.

Figure 3.21. This wagon train shows nine wagons pulled by oxen.

Figure 3.22. The Bierce Arborglyph shows Indians attacking a Red River cart and a flatboat.

Figure 3.23. At this Montana site a hunting scene is shown above a horse raid.

Figure 3.24. According to tribal tradition, Crazy Horse carved this composition just after the Custer Battle.

Figure 3.25. Scene from the Red Dog ledger shows a horseman killing a Pawnee enemy with his gun.

Figure 3.26. These scenes show the sexual capture of women by touching their breasts or genitalia.

Figure 3.27. This combat scene shows a warrior counting coup on a woman.

Figure 3.28. Capture hand takes a flintlock gun from a mounted woman.

Figure 3.29. Elk and bison are sometimes shown with an emphasized penis.

Figure 3.30. Late Ledger Art-style horses show very realistic details.

Figure 3.31. Women indicated by illustration of the vulva.

Figure 3.32. Shorthand sexual capture shown only as a vulva-form coupled with capture hand.

Figure 3.33. Detailed scene shows the adoption of a captured woman into her captors’ group.

Figure 3.34. Coats and jackets.

Figure 3.35. Military uniforms and priest’s vestments.

Figure 3.36. Two cowboys, wearing distinctive brimmed hats, rope a Texas longhorn.

Figure 3.37. In this combat scene, the lower figure wears a chief’s coat.

Figure 3.38. Leather-armor coats shown with high collars and short sleeves.

Figure 3.39. Images from the Schoch war shirt showing three defeated men wearing chief’s coats.

Figure 3.40. A warrior with a long hairplate dropper is shown multiple times in this coup count tally.

Figure 3.41. At Caballero Shelter, Texas, a horseman rides between two Spanish mission churches.

Figure 3.42. Images redrawn from the Tie Creek Ledger

Figure 3.43. Shaman figure.

Figure 3.44. Sashes were a common item of clothing.

Figure 3.45. An extensive fight scene shows a shield-bearing warrior struck with a Spanish socketed lance.

Figure 3.46. On the left side of this panel, a woman wearing a dress is sexually captured by a man crawling up to touch her vulva.

Figure 3.47. Moccasins are illustrated in various ways.

Figure 3.48. This bear warrior wears bear-paw moccasins, a bear’s-ears hairstyle, and face-paint tear streaks.

Figure 3.49. This Colorado petroglyph shows humans, horses, an elk, and a bear.

Figure 3.50. This unique panel shows unusual bow-spears with a projectile point at both ends and a bi-pointed lance.

Figure 3.51. Mature-style Crow horse with realistic triangular notch cut in its ears.

Figure 3.52. Garters, bracelets, and knee tails.

Figure 3.53. Horseman wearing a long hairplate dropper.

Figure 3.54. A group of celebrants, wrapped in blankets, gathers at a ceremonial lodge.

Figure 3.55. Groups of men and women found in rock art are similar to groups shown in late ledger drawings.

Figure 3.56. Blankets are uncommon in rock art.

Figure 3.57. Men’s clothing and accoutrements.

Figure 3.58. In this combat scene the central warrior holds his shield before him.

Figure 3.59. Ledger drawings of cloud-shaped, German silver pectorals.

Figure 3.60. This group of dancing warriors at a site in northern Mexico, are showing off captured war trophies.

Figure 3.61. Elk dreamers wearing trapezoidal or triangular masks with antlers.

Figure 3.62. A shield-bearing warrior wears a bird-beak mask and has a bird bundle tied in his hair.

Figure 3.63. Early Plains combat featured leather armor for both men and their mounts.

Figure 3.64. Personal body armor, shown as a long leather coat with short sleeves and a high collar.

Figure 3.65. This combat scene shows a horse and rider (both wearing armor) attacking a tipi camp.

Figure 3.66. Early Plains combat featured both armor and large shields.

Figure 3.67. A horseman wears a necklace with a suspended knife sheath.

Figure 3.68. This bear shaman wears rectangular earrings, bear paw moccasins, and pendants at his knees.

Figure 3.69. Bear warriors show their power.

Figure 3.70. Face-paint patterns found in rock art compared to robe and ledger art.

Figure 3.71. This scene shows a striped-bodied man riding a stolen horse away from a village.

Figure 3.72. Blackfoot painted robes show honor marks used since the late 1800s.

Figure 3.73. Robes illustrated in ledger drawings show various exploit marks.

Figure 3.74. Crow exploit mark denoting the striking of fourth coup.

Figure 3.75. A horse wearing a necktie, juxtaposed with a picket pin.

Figure 3.76. Headdresses.

Figure 3.77. A possible White man.

Figure 3.78. This scene likely shows the hanging of the Blood warrior, Charcoal, at Fort McLeod in 1897.

Figure 3.79. Explorers Petroglyph shows a Blackfoot horse raid on William Clark’s returning party in 1806.

Figure 3.80. Despite wearing a brimmed hat, the wounded man in the fortification is identified as an Indian or a mixed-race warrior.

Figure 3.81. A horse raider escapes with three horses.

Figure 3.82. Hairstyles.

Figure 3.83. Self-portraits by Medicine Crow in the Barstow ledger collection.

Figure 3.84. Animal medicine bundles.

Figure 3.85. A dancer with a lightly abraded body wears an elaborate headdress, a feather bustle, and a bird bundle.

Figure 3.86. The items of horse tack found in Biographic rock art.

Figure 3.87. Armored horses in rock art.

Figure 3.88. Crow horses and Blackfoot horses show differing morphology.

Figure 3.89. Rock art saddles.

Figure 3.90. Spanish Estradiota-style saddle.

Figure 3.91. Various items of horse tack.

Figure 3.92. Drawing by Mato-tope showing his horse.

Figure 3.93. A tacked up horse.

Figure 3.94. Spanish soldiers riding horses.

Figure 3.95. A person holds the reins of two horses, each wearing a pack strapped to its back.

Figure 3.96. A scene in New Mexico depicts a horseman whose animal is tethered to a Spanish Mission church.

Figure 3.97. Spanish estribos de cruz cruciform stirrups.

Figure 3.98. A war bridle made of a single rawhide rope with a honda loop serving as a rein.

Figure 3.99. Cut picket ropes indicate stolen horses.

Figure 3.100. A raider cuts the picket rope tethering a horse.

Figure 3.101. A New Mexico scene shows the capture of feral horses.

Figure 3.102. Bison scapula from Texas painted with a scene showing an Indian attack on a pair of cowboys.

Figure 3.103. Horse headstalls in rock art and ledger art.

Figure 3.104. Combat scene in ledger drawing by the Crow warrior Above.

Figure 3.105. Decorated bridle bits.

Figure 3.106. Scalps shown suspended from horses’ bridle bits in rock art.

Figure 3.107. Spanish chain bits, Navajo tinkler chain bit.

Figure 3.108. Spanish chain bits are often illustrated as a cluster of zigzag lines hanging directly from the horse’s nose.

Figure 3.109. Spanish chain bits and Navajo tinkler chain bit in ledger drawings.

Figure 3.110. Curb bit with distinctive metal rings to which the headstall and reins are attached.

Figure 3.111. A horse with a curb bit showing circular rings on the shanks.

Figure 3.112. This fringed forelock decoration is found at multiple sites.

Figure 3.113. Beaded keyhole-shaped forehead ornament for horse decoration.

Figure 3.114. Armor coverings are worn by four horses in this scene in New Mexico.

Figure 3.115. This early Historic battle scene shows a variety of weapons.

Figure 3.116. Throatlatch amulets shown in robe and ledger drawings.

Figure 3.117. Stick-figure human amulet attached to the lightning reins of a horse.

Figure 3.118. Tie Creek ledger drawing showing a horse wearing a cloth necktie.

Figure 3.119. Horse wearing a cloth necktie at a site in Montana.

Figure 3.120. Horse raids are frequently indicated by animals picketed next to a tipi.

Figure 3.121. Plains warriors decorated their horses’ tails in a variety of ways.

Figure 3.122. A horse mask.

Figure 3.123. Feather horse bonnets are worn by horses at several rock art sites.

Figure 3.124. A warrior with an elaborately decorated bear-paw shield leads a branded horse.

Figure 3.125. Horse tack on Ute charcoal drawings in Colorado.

Figure 3.126. Horse brands found as repeated examples in Biographic art.

Figure 3.127. Branded horses in one Alberta scene.

Figure 3.128. Stylized body markings indicate piebald or skewbald horses.

Figure 3.129. A horse faces a large keelboat in this Wyoming scene.

Figure 3.130. Combat scenes at Verdigris Coulee.

Figure 3.131. A Texas battle scene.

Figure 3.132. Tally of captured weapons.

Figure 3.133. Spears show a variety of forms from simple to elaborately decorated.

Figure 3.134. Weapon flags decorate the shafts of various weapons.

Figure 3.135. This early fight scene shows opposing forces of shield bearers and warriors without shields.

Figure 3.136. A warrior with a rectangular wood-slat shield counts coup on an enemy.

Figure 3.137. Partizan blades.

Figure 3.138. Spanish socketed lances.

Figure 3.139. Part of a ledger drawing by the Comanche warrior Yellow Wolf.

Figure 3.140. Indian use of metal partizan blades at the Watson Petroglyphs, Oregon, and Bear Gulch, Montana.

Figure 3.141. Shield bearer shown using an atlatl.

Figure 3.142. Flintlock pistols are recognized by their curved, rounded-end hand grip.

Figure 3.143. These combat scenes show classic Crow motifs and conventions dating to the 1860s.

Figure 3.144. A horseman wearing an elaborate headdress faces a fusillade of fire from the enemy force.

Figure 3.145. Long guns and their firing mechanisms.

Figure 3.146. Shield-bearing warrior with a flintlock long gun.

Figure 3.147. Ramrods being used to count coup.

Figure 3.148. A rectangular shot pouch with strap and powder horn and shooting cross sticks shown in rock art.

Figure 3.149. Knives are commonly shown in combat scenes.

Figure 3.150. Clubs, varying from triangular to baseball-bat-shaped, held by shield warriors.

Figure 3.151. Gunstock warclubs, with one, two, or three inset metal blades.

Figure 3.152. Maces were clubs with one or two sharpened spikes at the distal end.

Figure 3.153. Two types of swords are found in rock art.

Figure 3.154. Metal tomahawks are shown in four distinctive types.

Figure 3.155. Missouri war axe redrawn from a portrait of Hidatsa chief Addih-Hiddish.

Figure 3.156. A bowman leads a group streaming out to defend their tipi camp.

Figure 3.157. Quirts are illustrated in three primary forms.

Figure 3.158. In this combat scene dashes indicate bullets streaming from the flintlock gun in the center to the defeated enemy.

Figure 3.159. Shield heraldry includes a wide variety of geometric and naturalistic designs.

Figure 3.160. Ethnographic examples of shield trailers and drapes.

Figure 3.161. Freestanding metal projectile point incised as a petroglyph.

Figure 3.162. Battle scene between shield-bearing warriors.

Figure 3.163. Scalps are shown in a variety of ways.

Figure 3.164. A scalp is attached to the lance carried by this pedestrian warrior.

Figure 3.165. Box and Border geometric motifs on women’s decorated hide robes.

Figure 3.166. Pipes indicate war party leadership.

Figure 3.167. Taking a partisan’s pipe.

Figure 3.168. This rock art scene shows an Assiniboine Pipe Dance.

Figure 3.169. This extensive coup-count tally in South Dakota includes numerous defeated enemies and captured weapons.

Figure 3.170. Wounds are key parts of the Biographic art lexicon.

Figure 3.171. Tipis are drawn in a variety of ways.

Figure 3.172. Horse stealing scenes often involve lodges.

Figure 3.173. A natural crack was used as a groundline for this villagescape.

Figure 3.174. Conical, multipole structures, often with crisscrossed lines to represent their pole and bark covering, identify war lodges.

Figure 3.175. Eagle-trapping lodges and/or earth lodges are identified by their odd form.

Figure 3.176. Woman associated with a squat conical lodge representing a menstrual hut.

Figure 3.177. Shield tripods are so far found only at southern Plains sites.

Figure 3.178. This cluster of wooden buildings shows gabled roofs, doors, and windows.

Figure 3.179. Various buildings are occasionally part of Biographic narratives.

Figure 3.180. This church at a Texas site shows three crosses placed on top of the nave’s peaked roof and at both corners of the building.

Figure 3.181. Mission church showing triangles and crosses on the roof.

Figure 3.182. A pole barrier apparently served as a defensive rampart.

Figure 3.183. Four humans approach a tipi.

Figure 3.184. Piegan chief Bird Rattle carved this scene at Writing-on-Stone.

Figure 3.185. A sketchy train engine and cab with a coal tender.

Figure 3.186. Wagons of various sorts in Biographic narratives.

Figure 3.187. Travois can often be identified only when found in scenes.

Figure 3.188. People ride in a flatboat carved at a Kansas petroglyph site.

Figure 3.189. Tracks can tell various stories.

Figure 3.190. A Crow-style horse is juxtaposed with a cluster of thirty-three hoofprints.

Figure 3.191. A charcoal-drawn coup-count tally in New Mexico.

Figure 3.192. The Bear-Coming-Out heraldic motif painted on a Crow shield.

Figure 4.1. Red-painted blood shows wounds.

Figure 4.2. Two people are fatally enveloped by outsized arrows in a likely revenge killing.

Figure 4.3. Red-painted coup count tally in Wyoming.

Figure 4.4. Two warriors holding fringed shields engage an enemy.

Figure 4.5. Beside this tally of captured guns, enemies overcome are shown as Blackfoot wineglass style humans.

Figure 4.6. Two warriors fight a stacked array of generic weapons.

Figure 4.7. Attacking or defending forces can be depicted by a stacked array of weapons.

Figure 4.8. A stacked array of guns with dashes behind indicates a group of armed combatants.

Figure 4.9. Stacked arrays of generic weapons represent a group who could be either friends or enemies.

Figure 4.10. A scene from the Tie Creek ledger shows a horseman striking an army tent.

Figure 4.11. Three scenes show pedestrian warriors counting coup on enemy tipis.

Figure 4.12. The trampling coup in rock art, ledger drawings, and robe art.

Figure 4.13. Taking an enemy’s weapon as a trophy was considered a primary war honor.

Figure 4.14. Horse-raiding scenes in robe and ledger art directly corresponding to rock art scenes.

Figure 4.15. Horse stealing scenes were shown in a variety of ways.

Figure 4.16. Additional ways of showing horse capture.

Figure 4.17. Vignette showing the war record of Piegan warrior, Shortie Whitegrass.

Figure 4.18. Creasing a Horse.

Figure 4.19. Groups of horse hoofprints clustered together as a tally of stolen horses in robe art drawings.

Figure 4.20. Group of horses tallying stolen animals.

Figure 4.21. A Comanche horse raid in New Mexico.

Figure 4.22. A coup-count tally showing enemies struck with spontoon tomahawks and a spear.

Figure 4.23. Capotes were long, hooded coats made of a wool blanket.

Figure 4.24. A possible capote.

Figure 4.25. A tipi village as background for a horse raid is shown in stacked perspective.

Figure 4.26. A horse-raiding scene on an Ojibway warrior’s breechclout design.

Figure 4.27. Two bowmen ready for combat.

Figure 4.28. Shield-bearing warriors often hold arrows at the ready.

Figure 4.29. Fight scene shows a spear wielding horseman counting coup on a pedestrian.

Figure 4.30. Scratching over of an earlier image to tag or obliterate it is called a rubout.

Figure 4.31. Among the Lakota, a scalp hanging from a horse’s bridle indicated the animal had trampled an enemy underfoot.

Figure 4.32. A wolf skin worn over the shoulder marks a war party scout.

Figure 4.33. Two warriors riding a single horse indicate the rescue of a comrade in battle.

Figure 4.34. A warrior carrying a shield and spear rides an armored horse to rescue a comrade.

Figure 4.35. Four stick-figure riders shown astride a single horse indicate the rescue of comrades.

Figure 4.36. This red-painted Thunderbird image shows zigzag lightning streaks coming from its wings and hailstones dotting its breast.

Figure 4.37. Horses were painted with zigzag streaks to mark the animal’s power, speed, and agility.

Figure 4.38. A lightning quirt carved with a saw-toothed-edge handle representing the zigzag lightning bolt.

Figure 4.39. Spanish chain bits were often illustrated using a series of zigzag lines, symbolizing lightning and speed.

Figure 4.40. Landscape features occasionally occur in Biographic art.

Figure 4.41. Indian maps drawn on paper show natural features and many narrative elements.

Figure 4.42. Landscape details occasionally feature in rock art.

Figure 4.43. Trees feature in the narrative of a tally of stolen horses and weapons.

Figure 4.44. This communally oriented scene appears to be a horse race, like some in ledger drawings.

Figure 4.45. The capture hand is an abbreviated representation of a warrior used in various ways.

Figure 4.46. This Blackfoot capture hand shows the direct bare-handed touching of an enemy.

Figure 4.47. Capture hands are used to indicate taking an enemy’s weapon or other war trophy.

Figure 4.48. Sexual capture, indicated by touching a woman’s breast or genitalia.

Figure 4.49. A floating action hand holds a weapon to perform an action.

Figure 4.50. Capture hands can be paired with exploit marks or ideographic elements to clarify narratives.

Figure 4.51. Exploit marks were painted on various items to mark the owner’s war accomplishments.

Figure 4.52. This X below the combat scene may be a coup-strike exploit mark.

Figure 4.53. Hidatsa and Arikara artists drew lines above the head of a vanquished enemy to denote various coups counted.

Figure 4.54. A successful stand against the enemy by fighting from behind defensive breastworks was symbolized by a single # or a series of them.

Figure 4.55. Scout-service symbols painted by various groups.

Figure 4.56. Crow leggings painted with war honors, including a bar tally with stolen horses, scalps, and defeated enemies; and quirts signifying horses given away.

Figure 4.57. Cayuse and Nez Perce warriors used a horse track (either square or C-shaped) to signify coups, which they called hit marks.

Figure 5.1. Rocky Coulee battle scene.

Figure 5.2. Explanation of the lexicon elements used to narrate the Rocky Coulee battle scene.

Figure 5.3. Superimposed art episodes at Joliet, Montana.

Figure 5.4. Timber Creek style animals.

Figure 5.5. Tally of coups at Lucerne, Wyoming.

Figure 5.6. Enemy attack on entrenched warriors at 5GF1339, Colorado.

Vignette Figures

Figure V1. A Mandan warrior’s illustrious career captured as a tally of coups counted.

Figure V2. This coup-count tally at Ellison’s Rock uses many conventions of the Biographic art lexicon.

Figure V4. A Crow bar tally uses conventionalized shorthand to document a warrior’s war honors.

Figure V5. Early encounters with firearms must have been awe inspiring.

Figure V6. Warrior artists often repurposed previous drawings to tell their own story.

Figure V8. This horse raid at Writing-on-Stone tells a detailed story.

Table

Table 1.1. Types of pictorial narration.

VIGNETTES

Vignette 1. A Mandan Warrior’s Personal History

Vignette 2. Warrior’s Coup Tally: Ellison’s Rock, Montana

Vignette 3. The Elk Dreamer

Vignette 4. Deciphering A Crow Bar Tally

Vignette 5. Surviving the First Encounter with a Thunderstick

Vignette 6. Atherton Canyon Fortification Scene

Vignette 7. Rescuing a Comrade in Battle

Vignette 8. A Kutenai Horse Raid

PREFACE

NAVIGATING THROUGH THE BOOK

Writing this book has been a monumental task. Likewise, reading it will require significant effort, but we feel the reward of understanding or interpreting the stories of Plains Indian people from centuries past will be worth it. Because the book is data-heavy and because there may be multiple entries for the same or similar images, we feel it necessary to clearly explain the volume’s structure.

Initially the reader will note that we have listed many of the same images and items both in the section laying out the Pictographic Dictionary (chapter 3), where they are described in detail to facilitate identification at newly discovered sites, and also in the chapter on Conventions and Connotations (chapter 4), where we explain the ways such items are animated and interrelated to express the meaning the scene was intended to convey. To give merely one example, arrows are identified by their basic forms in the dictionary but later discussed and illustrated again in the connotations chapter to show how they indicate a warrior’s status as ready for battle. Many such items are shown twice in this way, and the quirt shows up in three different places. This repetition is necessary because the volume serves both as a type of pictographic dictionary (a simple list of items used in this picture writing) and also—in a linguistic sense—as a lexicon (where meaningful morphemes and lexemes are listed and explained). As such, a reader will use the volume in different ways for different purposes, and thus, the serious user will need to rely heavily on the extensive index provided.

Using the Appendices

Because this volume is so data heavy, we include three appendices to assist the reader in identifying the ultimate sources for the illustrated images. For rock art images, Appendix I has site names and numbers referred to in the text and listed on Figure 1.1, and Appendix II includes an alphanumeric listing of all rock art sites referred to in the text, organized by state and province. Appendix II also identifies the source of and provides the cataloguing information (where known) for all ethnographic images that were used as sources for our illustrations. Finally, Appendix III identifies the source material for each specific illustration.

A Note Concerning Figures

Because the stories encoded in these Biographic art narratives often depend on the identification of minute details, and nuances of a story may depend on a single detail, illustrating these drawings is key to accurately retelling these narratives. This can be difficult when attempting to illustrate polychrome paintings done on various media (stone, paper, and hide), but it is equally challenging for lightly incised petroglyphs that have often suffered damage by both natural and cultural agencies since they were originally drawn. Thus, we have used a few standard artistic conventions. That is, in our rock art illustrations, unless otherwise indicated, stippling indicates red pigment while light grey indicates areas damaged by erosion or human agency. For drawings from robes and ledgers, shades of grey indicate various colored pigments.

We have attempted to use the widest variety of imagery possible to illustrate our work. For those interested in original source material, Appendix III provides the source for every illustration.

A Word about Tribal Names

In writing for a generalized audience (rather than a solely professional one) we had to accept that many people would recognize only the commonly used names of many Plains Indian tribes. For example, nearly everyone understands that the Crow are the tribe that occupied south-central Montana and north-central Wyoming in the period when Biographic art was drawn, but far fewer would automatically recognize that same tribe by their name—Apsáalooke—in their own language. The same can be said for nearly all tribes. To constantly refer back and forth to a list of native language names corresponding to the common English tribal names seems cumbersome (especially when there are multiple orthographies used for some tribal names) and doing so risks decreasing the utility of the volume for the greater part of our readership. Therefore, we have tried to use the most well-known common names for all tribes in the area of our study. Only when we believe there could be confusion do we list the name in the native language.

One further note is needed. There is always potential confusion when one names tribes of the Blackfoot confederacy, which are one of the few major Plains groups to have members living on officially designated reservations/reserves in both the United States and Canada. The tribe in Montana calls itself the Blackfeet Nation (or Blackfeet Tribe), whose land base is the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in northern Montana. Known popularly as the Piegan (or South Piegan), the Montana tribe is most closely related to the Peigan (or North Peigan) who have a reserve in Alberta. Along with the north and south divisions of the Piegan/Peigan, the Blackfoot confederacy also includes the Blackfoot (Siksika) and Blood (Kainah) tribes, both of which also have reserves in southern Alberta. We have tried not to use Blackfoot tribal subdivisions in this book, though that has been necessary in a few instances where a Piegan individual must be specifically identified. In general, however, to avoid confusion in this volume, we use the term Blackfoot to designate the three allied tribes as a whole or to refer to them in general or to designate their common language. When we use the term Blackfeet, we are indicating people of Montana’s Blackfeet Nation.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We both became fascinated with American Indian rock art at an early age, and since that time, we have devoted more than sixty-five years to its study between the two of us. A majority of that time has been spent on the Plains, recording the narrative pictographs and petroglyphs that compose biographic art. Our studies have included many rock art sites but also painted buffalo robes, ledger books, and winter counts, and they have taken us the length and breadth of the Great Plains and even to museums in Europe. We have been fortunate to have opportunities to study at Writing-on-Stone, Bear Gulch, the Cave Hills, the Yellowstone Valley, and the Picketwire Canyonlands—all famous concentrations of biographic rock art. Throughout this research, we became increasingly interested in the stories biographic art illustrated and the fact that there were preliminary dictionaries that enabled us to read them. But prior to Keyser’s (1987) seminal work on a lexicon for Plains biographic rock art, no one had made the leap from painted robes and ledgers to these rock art drawings.

Since Keyser’s first few publications on the rock art at Writing-on-Stone and in the North Cave Hills, which were the genesis of his 1987 article, we have published more than one hundred articles and books addressing Biographic art in its various guises. Along the way we have worked with and received assistance from dozens of colleagues who have shared site data and museum collections with us, others who have worked with us helping record and analyze various sites, and still others who have helped us gain access to different sites and collections. In alphabetical order we list these people: Susan Ashley, Mike Bergstrom, Mike Bies, Janice Bouma, Doug Boyd, Jack Brink, Craig Bromley, Arni Brownstone, Scott Burgan, Phillip Cash Cash, Jean Clottes, Stu Conner, Mike Cowdrey, Carl Davis, Bob Dawe, John Ewers, Pete Farris, Ken Fehyl, Mark Fitzsimmons, Mike Fosha, Angelo Fossati, Severin Fowles, Zane Fulbright, Susan Gray, Mavis and John Greer, Melissa Greer, Loren Haar, Joe Horse Capture, Sueann Jansen, Mike Jordan, Michael Klassen, Jeff LaFave, Halcyon LaPoint, Bill Lawrence, Larry Loendorf, Jannie Loubser, Stephen Lycett, Marty Magne, Carling Malouf, Tim McCleary, Ron McCoy, David Minick, Mark Mitchell, Audrey Murray, Becky Murray, Berta Newton, Jacquie Peterson, George Poetschat, Melissa Ray, Stephanie Renfro, David Rickman, Lisa Ripps, E. Helene Sage, Helen Schuster, Floyd Sharrock, Lorie Sijohn, Paula Sindberg, Becky Steed, Jim Stewart, Linea Sundstrom, Russ Tanner, Mike Taylor, Solveig Turpin, Tim Urbaniak, Dave Vlcek, Danny Walker, and Mark Willis. We also acknowledge numerous other people whom we have failed to mention by name but who provided much valued assistance.

Museum Curators and park employees who provided special access to collections are Jack Brink and Karen Giering (Royal Alberta Museum); Darla Bruner (Pictograph Cave State Park); Hugh Dempsey and Georgeen Barass (Glenbow Institute); Baretta Due (National Museum of Denmark); Candace Greene (Smithsonian Institution); Wolfgang Haberland and Corrina Raddatz (Hamburgisches Museum für Voelkerkunde); Troy Helmick (Broadwater County Museum); Ernest Klay and Daniel Kessler (Bernisches Historisches Museum); Hans Lang (Indianer Museum der Stadt Zürich); Evan Maurer (Minneapolis Institute of the Arts); George Miles (William Robertson Coe Curator of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University); Nancy Merz (Jesuit Missouri Province Archives); Charles Rambo and Mike Fosha (Bear Butte Museum, Tie Creek Ledger); Fred Scotty Shearer and Nancy Shearer, and Megan Berry (Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park); Gaylord Torrence (Nelson-Atkins Museum); and Renate Wente-Lukas (Deutsches Ledermuseum, Offenbach am Main).

Landowners and land managers who graciously provided access to sites are Walt Allen, the Blackfeet Nation, Robert Brubaker, Marie Cantrell and the Turner family, Kierson Crume, Kim Herzog, Marvin Kimmet, Macie Lundin, Tom McCormick, Bill and Johnny O’Hara, Mr. and Mrs. Howard Penrose, and Arlene Weppler.

Susan Gray read the completed manuscript in draft and provided valuable comments.

Funding for various projects from which the data in this book are derived was provided by Ray and Jean Auel, David Easly (Indigenous Cultures Preservation Society), Jacqueline Peterson (Sacred Encounters Project), Alberta Parks, Dominquez Archaeological Research Group, National Endowment for the Humanities (Travel Grant FE-21101-87), Montana Archaeological Society, Oregon Archaeological Society, and the USDA-Forest Service.

Our previous research, which led to this book, has been published in a variety of professional journals. These include American Antiquity, American Indian Rock Art, Archaeology in Montana, Canadian Journal of Archaeology, Journal of Field Archaeology, Plains Anthropologist, and The Wyoming Archaeologist. We would especially like to thank American Indian Rock Art for permission to use parts of our recent article, Hoofprints and Footprints—The Grammar of Biographic Rock Art (Kaiser and Keyser 2020).

In addition to these professional colleagues and organizations, we have been supported by our families during the decades that we did this research. For this Jim thanks Dr. Raymond C. and Mina M. Keyser and Karen McNamee. David expresses his gratitude to Alan Kaiser for taking him to see his first rock art site and Susan Caisse for her unwavering patience and support.

INTRODUCTION

Plains Indian rock art is some of the most recognizable on the North American continent because it represents the tribes that dominated popular culture during the period of westward expansion. From the earliest explorers through the Indian Wars and then into the twentieth century, artists such as George Catlin, Karl Bodmer, Frederic Remington, and Charlie Russell competed with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show; ethnographers such as Grinnell and Wissler and films like Cheyenne Autumn, Little Big Man, and Dances with Wolves captured the attention of North Americans in portraying Plains Indian culture and the lives of famous warrior chiefs. The result is that these tribes—from the village-dwelling Mandan to the nomadic Blackfoot, Lakota (Sioux), and Cheyenne—are known around the world, and their warrior art is one of the most famous North American native art forms.

The fame of this warrior art is also due in large part to its use in so many media, which were highly valued as collectables from the first contacts with Plains Indians. From southern Alberta to northern Mexico, artists, missionaries, businessmen, and soldiers all returned to Europe and the eastern United States and Canada with painted buffalo robes,¹ decorated items of clothing, winter counts, and elaborate war shields. Ledger books filled with warrior art were captured when villages were overrun, but hundreds more such drawings were purchased directly from the warrior artists themselves—the most famous are those interned at Fort Marion, Florida, but numerous others used the drawings as currency at frontier trading posts during the last of the Buffalo Days (Berlo 2000b:12, 166). Today thousands of these artifacts stock museums throughout North America and Western Europe, and nearly every large institution displays one or more such items.

Less well understood, however, is that this same warrior art occurs as paintings (pictographs) and carvings (petroglyphs)—popularly known as rock art—scattered across the landscape of western North America from Canada to northern Mexico (Figure 0.1a and b). Extending from the Rocky Mountains and upper Snake and Colorado River drainages eastward to the Black Hills of South Dakota and the Smoky Hills of Kansas, such rock art sites occur in Alberta, a dozen American states, and the Mexican state of Coahuila. These thousands of rock art images represent a first-person account of Plains Indian life that could be read² and understood by members of all Plains groups, friend and enemy alike. Through detailed study of this art and researching the numerous Plains ethnographies and ethnohistoric accounts that describe and document these Historic period cultures, scholars have recently learned to read these rock art images as well.

Figure 0.1a. Map, north half of Plains with extent of Biographic Tradition rock art shown in grey. Dots represent major sites; circles indicate site clusters. Numbered sites, referred to in text, identified in Appendix I. Drawing by James D. Keyser.

The stories these paintings and carvings tell, written by the hands of their own tribal heroes, are riveting documents of these peoples’ struggles to retain their ancestral homelands in the face of encroaching tribes and the most determined foe of all—the westward-expanding Euro-American populace, who came as gold seekers, traders, military men, and settlers. In this book we provide an overview of Plains Indian Biographic rock art, describe how it functioned as a system of picture writing for the people who drew it, and compile the first attempt at a complete, detailed lexicon to serve as an aid in understanding and interpreting it.

Figure 0.1b. Map, south half of Plains with extent of Biographic Tradition rock art shown in grey. Dots represent major sites; circles indicate site clusters. Numbered sites, referred to in text, identified in Appendix I. Drawing by James D. Keyser.

Plains Indian Warrior Art

Plains Indian representational art from the last millennium includes half a dozen art traditions carved and painted by both men and women (Keyser 2004a; Keyser and Klassen 2001; Sundstrom 2004b). Despite their fascinating subject matter and intriguing imagery, we will not address here the Dinwoody, Hoofprint, or Columbia Plateau traditions because they communicate not about the daily lives and struggles of the artists but rather focus on the relationship of men and women with the supernatural. As such, these arts are infused with mysticism and religion to the point that interpreting specific imagery is often impossible and experts must rely on general concepts of religion and cosmology to have a basic understanding of these pictures (e.g., Keyser 1992; Loendorf 2004; Sundstrom 2002).

Likewise, we do not discuss the most common Plains women’s art—geometric designs painted, quilled, and beaded on clothing, parfleches, some bison robes, and other items. Though highly structured and often understandable based on detailed symbolism reported by many artists, this art tradition has almost no rock art counterpart. Additionally, as with the rock art traditions mentioned above, this art communicates primarily about people’s interaction with spiritual matters rather than actual events. Interested students can refer to the works of several distinguished scholars who discuss these designs and artifacts in detail (e.g., Maurer 1992:288; Taylor 1994:121–22; Torrence 1994; Wissler 1907).

Instead, there are two art traditions that tell the everyday stories of Plains Indian cultures through the eyes of their warrior artists. Spanning the period from just before European contact (ca. AD 1300) to the period just after World War I, these pictographs and petroglyphs are firsthand accounts of tribal conflicts, personal glory, and cultural upheaval. Such images communicate even today—sometimes across several centuries—a narrative that was meant to be read and understood by anyone versed in the warrior art lexicon (Afton, Halaas, and Masich 1997:xxviii; Keyser 1987; Keyser, Kaiser, and Dobrez 2015; Keyser, Dobrez, Hann, and Kaiser 2013; Petersen 1971:269–308, 1988:xvii). These art traditions are the Ceremonial Tradition, known predominantly as rock art, and the Biographic Tradition, known from three primary media: rock art, robe art, and ledger drawings.

Ceremonial Tradition Art

Plains Indian Ceremonial Tradition art (Figure 0.2) began in the Late Prehistoric period and continued into the last years of the Historic period. The earliest known examples are pictographs and petroglyphs—our main interest here—but drawings in many different media were photographed and collected even as late as the early reservation years (Keyser 2004a). Ceremonial Tradition rock art of the Late Prehistoric and Historic periods shows primarily shield-bearing warriors and V-neck, rectangular-body, and stick-figure style humans. These figures are often juxtaposed with one another and with simple boat-form or rectangular-body style animals to form simple, typically static compositions (Figure 0.3). Such poses are termed iconic and were apparently structured as if for a cosmic audience. As such, illustrated human and animal figures regularly show detailed anatomical features, including both external genitalia and internal organs such as ribs, heartline, and kidneys—the places where spirit power was thought to reside. Facial features—especially eyes—are shown on both humans and animals, while horns, antlers, claws, teeth, and hooves are routinely illustrated to specifically identify various beasts, both real and mythical. Furthermore, humans often brandish elaborately decorated weapons or eagle-feather fans, and others have their arms upraised in supplicatory posture. Relatively simple costume details, including headdresses, leggings, shirts, and sometimes even body painting are portrayed. Occasionally geometric designs such as zigzag lightning bolts or spirals are incorporated into these figures or serve to connect one to the other (Figure 0.4).

Figure 0.2. Ceremonial Tradition rock art imagery showing humans and animals. Drawing by the authors.

The overall impression one gets when viewing these iconic images is that they were drawn primarily to communicate with the spirit world. Often carved or painted at sites whose cliffside settings and hoodoo-dominated topography lend an otherworldly air to the location, these images frequently command imposing views of distant landscapes including sacred mountains and mesas or broad valley bottoms. In a summary discussion of such iconic expression, Michael Klassen has written: Iconic images are static, symmetrical, [and highly] detailed motifs found alone or in small, juxtaposed groups. They represent sacred themes . . . [supernatural] beings, and medicine visions (Keyser and Klassen 2001:34). These Ceremonial Tradition sites seem intrinsically connected to the otherworldly aspects of the locations where they occur. Combined with the frequent illustrations of sacred themes and supernatural beings, this has led Klassen (1998:68–69, 2003:177–82; Keyser and Klassen 2001:55–56) to characterize many of these Ceremonial Tradition site locations as sacred places and Medicine Rocks. This idea is borne out by such modern Indian place names as Deer Medicine Rocks, Medicine Creek Cave, Home of the Little People, and Place of the Ghost Writings (McCleary 2016).

Figure 0.3. This typical Ceremonial Tradition composition shows V-neck humans, one with feather fans and feather-fan headdress, juxtaposed with a boat-form elk. Drawing from original tracing modified by photo-tracing. Photograph copyright, Michael A. Klassen. Drawing by James D. Keyser.

From both ethnographic clues and direct ethnographic and ethnohistoric reports we know these sites were places where the spirits dwelt. For in-stance, Writing-on-Stone, in southern Alberta,³ was considered so powerful a place that many people feared to camp there, and those who did heard strange spirit voices and left offerings to placate the supernatural occupants (Klassen, Keyser, and Loendorf 2000: 198). South Dakota’s North Cave Hills (and especially the most impressive site complex at Ludlow Cave) were known as the home of the Buffalo or Buffalo Home Butte where the great herds had originally emerged from underground to populate the Lakota world (Sundstrom 2004b:79–82). Indian scouts re-ported both Writing-on-Stone and Ludlow Cave to early military expeditions as places where White Men had drawn pictures on the rocks (H. Dempsey 1973:24; Sundstrom 2006:54–57). However, by not understanding that this cultural reference equated White men with supernatural beings, in both cases, these early visitors remarked that they found no European images but only rude drawings of men and animals in typical Indian style.

Figure 0.4. Zigzag lines, spirals, and internal organs are sometimes used to show super-natural attributes of Ceremonial Tradition figures. Drawing by the authors.

In addition to their designation as supernatural places, the imagery drawn at these sites is the sort used throughout Plains Indian art to document encounters with spirit beings and spirit power. A pictograph of Thunderbird at Writing-on-Stone (Figure 0.2x), incorporating lightning bolts streaking from its wings, hailstones covering its breast, and a symbol for the sound of thunder clutched in its beak, is nearly identical to others drawn and explained exactly as such by Historic period Blackfoot artists (Taylor 1997). Rock art animals connected to humans by zigzag lines mimic those documented by later artists as images of their supernatural visions. And bugling bull elk, with heads thrown back and bodies marked or surrounded by obvious vulva-forms, show exactly the same details and composition as Historic period drawings by Sioux informants illustrating the acquisition and use of elk ‘love’ medicine (Figure 0.2q).

The artists who drew these Ceremonial Tradition pictographs and petroglyphs were obviously illustrating their own spiritual experiences and/or the denizens of their supernatural cosmos. Some artists would have been vision supplicants, seeking a spirit helper for assistance in the trials of life and afterward recording their contacts with supernatural beings from whom they were soliciting various powers. Such vision quest compositions often show the supplicant juxtaposed with a bird or other animal. These images are like those used in several rock art traditions to illustrate the visionary’s acquisition of a spirit helper. Other artists were religious specialists—shamans—who enlisted supernatural aid to control game animals or the weather, foretell the future, and cast various spells. Some images drawn by these medicine men likely illustrate their own religious rituals or practices, conducted individually or in groups, while others might show Thunderbird, underwater animals, or different supernatural beings to which their prayers were directed. Some images are shamans’ self-portraits showing their own transformation into spirit animals, including birds, elk, and grizzly bears. These typically show dominating therianthropomorphic figures that combine some animal element(s) with a basic human form (Figure 0.4). Quite common are bear-men illustrated with bear claws or entire paws for one or more hands or feet; but examples of men with bird wings, or a bird’s claws and beak, or a man with elk antlers and cloven hooves are known (Keyser, Kaiser, Poetschat, and Taylor 2012:74; Keyser and Sundstrom 2015:132–33).

But not all Ceremonial Tradition images were drawn by shamans or vision supplicants. Some few show an important man or—very rarely—a woman (but neither an obvious shaman nor warrior) dressed in ceremonial regalia (Figure 0.5). Such finery includes detailed headdresses, items of clothing, fringed and decorated leggings, and decorated staffs or feather fans. While such humans might well be portraits of shamans or warriors (or both), no attribute identifies them as such, and they could just as well simply represent an important tribal leader or band chief.

Figure 0.5. This image of a Buffalo Shaman is identified by the bustle, headdress, and fly whisk he carries. Drawing by the authors.

Warriors also drew Ceremonial Tradition images. These men stand stiffly, facing the viewer, and many carry a large, circular, full-body shield. Most of these men are almost completely hidden behind their shield, though in about 10 percent of these drawings, the warrior’s body is visible as if the shield were transparent. Certainly this transparency does not represent reality—such buffalo-hide shields could not actually have been see-through—instead, it represents a type of perspective typical of Plains In-dian art where all parts of a figure are shown precisely because they really do exist, though hidden from view (Keyser and Poetschat 2014:12).

Just more than half of the shield-bearing warriors hold weapons; either projecting up and out from behind their shield or positioned just outside the shield’s perimeter—often held in an outstretched hand. In the region-wide sample, such Ceremonial Tradition warriors are armed with nearly every type of weapon known on the Plains (except certain firearms and the spontoon tomahawk). A somewhat smaller percentage of V-neck, rectangular-body, and stick-figure style warriors are armed, but those that do have weapons have the same types as shield bearers. While the most common armaments for all Ceremonial Tradition warriors are lances and clubs, only a single atlatl is shown. Interestingly, bow-spears, which are well documented in ethnographic accounts, are much more common in Ceremonial Tradition art—more than two dozen are illustrated at ten sites—than they are in Protohistoric and Historic period Biographic Tradition art.

Many shields are decorated with heraldic designs using both naturalistic and geometric motifs. Geometric motifs can range from simple to extraordinarily complex, but any meaning we can ascribe to them is at best an educated guess. Conversely, naturalistic heraldry shows a variety of human and animal forms—some of which have direct counterparts in actual Historic period shields collected from various tribes (Keyser and Kaiser 2014). Extrapolating from Historic period shield heraldry, we can assume with