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
One of the most frequent is that resembling a horseshoe within which
is a vertical stroke. Sometimes the upper extremity of such stroke is
attached to the upper inside curve of the broken ring, and frequently
there are two or more parallel vertical strokes within one such curve.
Bear-tracks and the outline of human feet also occur, besides several
unique forms. A few of these forms are figured, though not accurately,
in the Ann. Report upon the Geog. Surveys west of the 100th meridian
last mentioned (1876), Plate facing p. 326.
Lieutenant Whipple reports (Rep. Pac. R. R. Exped. III, 1856, Pt. III,
p. 42, Pl. 36) the discovery of pictographs at Pai-Ute Creek, about
30 miles west of the Mojave villages. These are carved upon a rock,
“are numerous, appear old, and are too confusedly obscure to be easily
traceable.”
These bear great general resemblance to etchings scattered over
Northeast Arizona, Southern Utah, and Western New Mexico.
Remarkable pictographs have also been found at Tule River Agency. See
Figure 155, page 235.
COLORED PICTOGRAPHS ON ROCKS.
Mr. Gilbert Thompson reports the occurrence of painted characters at
Paint Lick Mountain, 3 miles north of Maiden Spring, Tazewell County,
Virginia. These characters are painted in red, blue, and yellow. A
brief description of this record is given in a work by Mr. Charles B.
Coale, entitled “The Life and Adventures of Wilburn Waters,” etc.,
Richmond, 1878, p. 136.
Mr. John Haywood (The Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee,
Nashville, 1823, p. 149) mentions painted figures of the sun, moon, a
man, birds, etc., on the bluffs on the south bank of the Holston, 5
miles above the mouth of the French Broad. These are painted in red
colors on a limestone bluff. He states that they were attributed to
the Cherokee Indians, who made this a resting place when journeying
through the region. This author furthermore remarks: “Wherever on
the rivers of Tennessee are perpendicular bluffs on the sides, and
especially if caves be near, are often found mounds near them, enclosed
in intrenchments, with the sun and moon painted on the rocks,” etc.
Among the many colored etchings and paintings on rock discovered by
the Pacific Railroad Expedition in 1853-’54 (Rep. Pac. R. R. Exped.,
III, 1856, Pt. III, pp. 36, 37, Pll. 28, 29, 30) may be mentioned those
at Rocky Dell Creek, New Mexico, which were found between the edge of
the Llano Estacado and the Canadian River. The stream flows through a
gorge, upon one side of which a shelving sandstone rock forms a sort
of cave. The roof is covered with paintings, some evidently ancient,
and beneath are innumerable carvings of footprints, animals, and
symmetrical lines.
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