Picture-Writing of the American Indians: Tenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1888-89, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1893, pages 3-822Mallery, Garrick
History
Picture-Writing of the American Indians: Tenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1888-89, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1893, pages 3-822
Mallery, Garrick
Picture-writing, Indian
Pictographs were lately seen at various points on the banks of
the Kanawha river, both above and below Charleston, but since the
construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad some of the rocks
bearing them have been destroyed. About 6 miles above Charleston there
was formerly a rock lying near its water’s edge upon which, it is
reported by old residents, were depicted the outline of a bear, turkey
tracks, and other markings. Tradition told that this was a boat or canoe
landing, used by the Indians in their travels when proceeding southward.
The tribe was not designated. From an examination of the locality it
was learned that this rock had been broken and used in the construction
of buildings. It is said that a trail passing there led southward, and
at a point 10 miles below the Kanawha river stood several large trees
upon which were marks of red ocher or some similar pigment, at which
point the trail spread or branched out in two directions, one leading
southward into Virginia, the other southwest toward Kentucky.
On a low escarpment of sandstone facing Little Coal river, 6 or 8
miles above its confluence with Coal river and about 18 miles south
of the Kanawha river, are depicted the outlines of animals, such as
the deer, panther (?), etc., and circles, delineated in dark red, but
rather faint from disintegration of the surface. The characters are
similar in general appearance to those in Tazewell county, Virginia,
and appear as if they might have been made by the same tribe. There are
no peculiarities in the topography of the surrounding region that would
suggest the idea of their having served as topographic indications, but
they rather appear to be a record of a hunting party, and to designate
the kinds of game abounding in the region.
Mr. L. V. McWhorter reports pictographs in a cave near Berlin, Lewis
county, West Virginia. No details are given.
A petroglyph found in a rock shelter in West Virginia is also presented
in Pl. XXXI.
WISCONSIN.
A large number of glyphs are incised on the face of a rock near Odanah,
now a village of the Ojibwa Indians, 12 miles northeast from Ashland,
on the south shore of lake Superior, near its western extremity. The
characters were easily cut on the soft stone, so were also easily
worn by the weather, and in 1887 were nearly indistinguishable. Many
of them appeared to be figures of birds. An old Ojibwa Indian in the
vicinity told the present writer that the site of the rock was formerly
a well-known halting place and rendezvous, and that on the arrival of a
party, or even of a single individual, the appropriate totemic mark or
marks were cut on the rock, much as white men register their names at a
hotel.
[Illustration: FIG. 91.--Petroglyphs in Brown’s cave, Wisconsin.]
The Pictured cave of La Crosse valley, called Brown’s cave, is described
by Rev. Edward Brown (_a_) as follows:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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