Linea Sundstrom

Steel Awls for Stone Age Plainswomen: Rock Art, Religion and the Hide Trade on the Northern Plains

Abstract Archaeological, ethnographic, and historic data suggest the presence in Protohistoric times of a women s ceremonial tradition among Dakota and Lakota groups. The tradition involved creation of distinctive rock art, including deeply ground ungulate tracks, vulvas, and hand-and footprints, along with numerous abraded grooves commonly referred to as tool-sharpening grooves. Production of this rock art was related to vision experiences involving Double Woman, women s crafts, and reproductive concerns. The rock art tradition was largely abandoned as the hide trade placed new demands on women to mass produce hides for trade with outsiders. Women increasingly chose to use imported metal tools instead of creating their own awls at the Double Woman sites. Use of the more durable, but less sacred, metal tools resulted in increased status for hide-workers and their families, while preventing powerful quillwork designs from leaving the family and community.

Cheyenne pronghorn procurement and ceremony

Abstract Ethnographic literature shows that historic Cheyenne pronghorn trapping was closely intertwined with ceremonial activity. These procurement and ceremonial activities left behind distinctive archaeological remains, including hunting camps, drive lines, pits, stone and bone alignments, and possibly rock art. The ceremonies are linked through oral tradition to specific landscape features.

Digital infra-red photography for recording painted rock art

Here is a new application of infra-red photography with a digital camera to record rock art. The need to make full and accurate records of the images, without touching (and thus degrading) the rock, requires a method of remote mapping. Trials with digital IR reported here are very promising and especially useful for painted rock art.

Women in War: Gender in Plains Biographic Rock Art

Abstract Women are not commonly drawn in northern Plains rock art, but they do occur in both the Ceremonial and Biographic traditions. When shown in Ceremonial rock art they appear in structure and content roles equivalent to those of males. In contrast, in later Biographic art they appear in various roles—from vanquished enemy to kidnapped wife—but these are nearly always subordinate to the male actors in these scenes. The newly recorded La Barge Bluffs site in Wyoming contains the most complex northern Plains biographic composition yet known that shows women. This scene integrates women as war captive, adoptee, and dance participants and, as such, illustrates nearly all the female roles of Biographic rock art. Although few in number, these women are always key elements for fully understanding the narratives of the scenes in which they participate.

Tribal Affiliation of Shield Petroglyphs from the Black Hills and Cave Hills

This study compares 22 shield designs from Black Hills and Cave Hills rock art with 314 ethnographically recorded shield designs. Based on these comparisons, 11 of the petroglyphs were identified as Cheyenne, two as possibly Cheyenne, one as Lakota or Cheyenne, and one as either Cheyenne or Crow. The seven remaining designs could not be assigned a cultural affiliation.

Rock art and Native Americans : A view from South Dakota

As highly visible features of the archaeological landscape, rock art sites require special management considerations. Native Americans contacted as part of a state-wide rock art survey in 1992-93 had firm, and sometimes surprising, views regarding such issues as opening sites for public visitation, interpretive materials, and site preservation. Public education, site protection, and studies of oral traditions concerning rock art sites were viewed favorably by the Native Americans participating in the survey. Developing sites for public visitation raised concerns about protecting the privacy of individuals using the sites for religious purposes. Personal interviews were more successful than questionnaires in gathering Native American views on rock art site management.