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
In the Oglala Roster mentioned in Chapter XIII, Section 4, infra, one of
the heads of families is called Inyanowapi, translated as Painted (or
inscribed) rock. A blue object in the shape of a bowlder is connected
with the man’s head by the usual line, and characters too minute for
useful reproduction appear on the bowlder. The name is interesting as
giving the current Dakota term for rock-inscriptions. The designation
may have been given to this Indian because he was an authority on
the subject and skilled either in the making or interpretation of
petroglyphs.
The name “Wikhegan” was and still is used by the Abnaki to signify
portable communications made in daily life, as distinct from the rock
carvings mentioned above, which are regarded by them as mystic.
One of the curious facts in connection with petroglyphs is the meager
notice taken of them by explorers and even by residents other than the
Indians, who are generally reticent concerning them. The present writer
has sometimes been annoyed and sometimes amused by this indifference.
The resident nearest to the many inscribed rocks at Kejimkoojik Lake,
Nova Scotia, described in Chapter II, Section 1, was a middle-aged
farmer of respectable intelligence who had lived all his life about 3
miles from those rocks, but had only a vague notion of their character,
and with difficulty found them. A learned and industrious priest, who
had been working for many years on the shores of Lake Superior preparing
not only a dictionary and grammar of the Ojibwa language, but an account
of Ojibwa religion and customs, denied the present existence of any
objects in the nature of petroglyphs in that region. Yet he had lived
for a year within a mile of a very important and conspicuous pictured
rock, and, on being convinced of his error by sketches shown him, called
in his Ojibwa assistant and for the first time learned the common use of
a large group of words which bore upon the system of picture-writing,
and which he thereupon inserted in his dictionary, thus gaining from the
visitor, who had come from afar to study at the feet of this supposed
Gamaliel, much more than the visitor gained from him.
CHAPTER II.
PETROGLYPHS IN NORTH AMERICA.
SECTION 1.
CANADA.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account