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
Mr. Gatschet, furthermore, remarks that the Tuálati attach a trivial
story to the origin of these pictures, the substance of which is as
follows: The Tillamuk warriors living on the Pacific coast were often
at variance with the several Kalapuya tribes. One day, passing through
Patten’s Valley to invade the country of the Tuálati, they inquired
of a passing woman how far they were from their camp. The woman,
desirous not to betray her own countrymen, said that they were yet at
a distance of one (or two?) days’ travel. This made them reflect over
the intended invasion, and holding a council they preferred to retire.
In commemoration of this the inscription with its numeration marks, was
incised by the Tuálati.
Capt. Charles Bendire, U. S. Army, states in a letter that Col. Henry
C. Merriam, U. S. Army, discovered pictographs on a perpendicular cliff
of granite at the lower end of Lake Chelan, lat. 48° N., near old Fort
O’Kinakane, on the upper Columbia River. The etchings appear to have
been made at widely different periods, and are evidently quite old.
Those which appeared the earliest were from twenty-five to thirty feet
above the present water level. Those appearing more recent are about
ten feet above water level. The figures are in black and red colors,
representing Indians with bows and arrows, elk, deer, bear, beaver, and
fish. There are four or five rows of these figures, and quite a number
in each row. The present native inhabitants know nothing whatever
regarding the history of these paintings.
For another example of pictographs from Washington see Figure 109, p.
190.
ROCK CARVINGS IN UTAH.
A locality in the southern interior of Utah has been called Pictograph
Rocks, on account of the numerous records of that character found there.
Mr. G. K. Gilbert, of the United States Geological Survey, in 1875
collected a number of copies of inscriptions in Temple Creek Cañon,
Southeastern Utah, accompanied by the following notes: “The drawings
were found only on the northeast wall of the cañon, where it cuts the
Vermillion cliff sandstone. The chief part are etched, apparently
by pounding with a sharp point. The outline of a figure is usually
more deeply cut than the body. Other marks are produced by rubbing or
scraping, and still other by laying on colors. Some, not all, of the
colors are accompanied by a rubbed appearance, as though the material
had been a dry chalk.
“I could discover no tools at the foot of the wall, only fragments of
pottery, flints, and a metate.
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