Pictographs of the North American Indians. A preliminary paper: Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1882-83, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1886, pages 3-256 — John Shaqi
Pictographs of the North American Indians. A preliminary paper: Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1882-83, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1886, pages 3-256Mallery, Garrick
History
Pictographs of the North American Indians. A preliminary paper: Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1882-83, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1886, pages 3-256
Mallery, Garrick
Haida Indians; Picture-writing, Indian; Tattooing
A number of pictographs in Wyoming are described in the report on
Northwestern Wyoming, including Yellowstone National Park, by Capt.
William A. Jones, U. S. A., Washington, 1875, p. 268 _et seq._, Figures
50 to 53 in that work. The last three in order of these figures are
reproduced in Sign Language among North American Indians, in the First
Annual Report, Bureau of Ethnology, pages 378 and 379, to show their
connection with gesture signs. The most important one was discovered on
Little Popo-Agie, Northwestern Wyoming, by members of Captain Jones’s
party in 1873. The etchings are upon a nearly vertical wall of the
yellow sandstone in the rear of Murphy’s ranch, and appear to be of
some antiquity.
Further remarks, with specimens of the figures, are presented in this
paper as Figure 150, on page 227.
Dr. William H. Corbusier, U. S. Army, in a letter to the writer,
mentions the discovery of rock etchings on a sandstone rock near the
headwaters of Sage Creek, in the vicinity of Fort Washakie, Wyoming.
Dr. Corbusier remarks that neither the Shoshoni nor the Arapaho Indians
know who made the etchings. The two chief figures appear to be those
of the human form, with the hands and arms partly uplifted, the whole
being surrounded above and on either side by an irregular line.
The method of grouping, together with various accompanying appendages,
as irregular lines, spirals, etc., observed in Dr. Corbusier’s drawing,
show great similarity to the Algonkin type, and resemble some etchings
found near the Wind River Mountains, which were the work of Blackfeet
(Satsika) Indians, who, in comparatively recent times, occupied
portions of the country in question, and probably also etched the
designs near Fort Washakie.
A number of examples from Idaho appear _infra_, pages 228 and 229.
ROCK CARVINGS IN NEVADA.
At the lower extremity of Pyramid Lake, Nevada, pictographs have been
found by members of the United States Geological Survey, though no
accurate reproductions are available. These characters are mentioned as
incised upon the surface of basalt rocks.
On the western slope of Lone Butte, in the Carson Desert, Nevada,
pictographs occur in considerable numbers. All of these appear to have
been produced, on the faces of bowlders and rocks, by pecking and
scratching with some hard mineral material like quartz. No copies have
been obtained as yet.
Great numbers of incised characters of various kinds are found on the
walls of rock flanking Walker River, near Walker Lake, Nevada. Waving
lines, rings, and what appear to be vegetable forms are of frequent
occurrence. The human form and footprints are also depicted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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