Jeffery R. Hanson is associate professor of anthropology at the University of Texas at Arlington, where he teaches courses on American Indian ethnohistory, ethonology, and prehistory. He has conducted archaeological and ethnographic studies on American Indian cultures, focusing on the human ecology of the Great Plains.

Rock Art in the West:
The Petroglyphs of Dry Fork Canyon
By Jeffery Hanson

Introduction
There is hardly anywhere you can go in the west without seeing the beauty and majestic splendor of deeply carved canyons, the ancient work of wind and water. If you look a little closer, you will also see something else that is ancient. Upon many of these canyons walls are carved or painted images. To almost anyone who takes a moment to stand before them, these images are awe-inspiring, and they provoke in people from all walks of life the same questions. What do these images represent? Who made them? How long ago?

In northeastern Utah, just a few miles northwest of the city of Vernal, lies Dry Fork Canyon. The headwaters of Dry Fork lie in the Uintah Mountains. Draining eastward, Dry Fork (which is often wet) is a narrow, fast stream as it descends through a steep canyon, creating a narrow valley replete with wildlife and gallery forests. As it descends to about 6,000 feet in elevation, Dry Fork opens into a wide valley, bordered on the north and south sides by cliffs of Navaho Sandstone. Dry Fork completes its journey as it empties into Ashley Creek, which skirts the city of Vernal on its way to the Green River. The cliffs, arranged in tiers and supporting sage and cedar, literally explode in gold as the sun hits them in the morning and early afternoon. It is along the faces of these cliffs where the human spirit has met the enduring power of stone.

Along the north side of the canyon, and extending for several miles, there are literally hundreds of panels or image scenes carved and painted into abstract figures, geometric forms, animals, and humans. The rock art, called by archaeologists who study it pictographs if they are painted and petroglyphs if they are carved, appears in some places as new and fresh as if it were created yesterday, while in others it is the faded and barely visible survival of centuries of natural erosion. Still, in other places there has been another hand at work. Human vandalism has taken its toll on many of the petroglyphs in the form of carved initials, bullet holes, and spray paint, causing concern among environmentalists and preservationists.

Archaeological study of the Dry Fork Canyon petroglyphs goes back to the early 1930s when archaeologist Albert Reagan first recorded and published the findings from his surveys. Reagan provided the first scientific photographic and documentary record, the results of which are now housed in the Laboratory of Anthropology in Santa Fe. His interpretations of the meaning of the petroglyphs set the tone for later researchers. Though there were differences in what people thought the petroglyphs meant or depicted, the one constant thread was the belief that these images were ancient, part of antiquity, and part of a past and for all practical purposes, extinct way of life.

While archaeological study of these and other rock art sites brought popular exposure and much needed attention to these fragile cultural resources, it was only one side of the story. Surprisingly, nobody was asking the Indians about these kinds of sites. Only very recently has archaeology turned to the descendants and heirs of the first inhabitants of the west for a different story. To the Ute and Shoshone tribes, the historic inhabitants of northeastern Utah and the Dry Fork Canyon area, these images on stone are anything but art, and anything but ancient. Instead the petroglyphs and pictographs, along with the areas where they are found, are viewed as sacred sites; powerful and enduring testaments to their spiritual relationship to the land.

For the last five years, I have had the good fortune to research these petroglyphs, most of which are found on the McConkie Ranch. With the unbridled help of Jean Mckenzie, who grew up exploring the cliffs and rock shelters of Dry Fork Canyon, and the late Marlin Pemmington, life in the field was made much easier. It has been through the unselfish efforts of these two that literally thousands of people from all over the world have been able to stand in awe before these splendid carvings. Without their permission and kindness our project could not have taken place.

Throughout the five years I have worked with two spiritual practitioners of the Eastern Shoshone tribe, who have offered amazingly complex and detailed interpretations of the Dry Fork Canyon petroglyphs. John Tarnesse, Jr., is a Sun Dance chief and Indian doctor, from the Hikundika, or seed-eater band of Shoshones. Raised on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, John is fluent in the Shoshone language. He is a also member of the Medicine Wheel Coalition for Sacred Sites of North America. The Coalition is an intertribal organization of spiritual practitioners who are devoted to protecting and preserving Native American sacred sites. They are committed to working with federal and state agencies, on whose lands many of these sites are located, and over which they have protective jurisdiction. John has provided Native American consultation on a number of development projects that have threatened such sites. Virgene, his wife, is from the Buffalo-Eater band. She is a Water Woman in the Peyote Religion or Native American Church, and acts as johns assistant in his curing ceremonies. They view themselves as partners, and as the embodiment of the dual principles of male (Sun Dance Way) and female (Peyote Way) qualities that are brought together to achieve unity or balance.

Since the Dry Fork petroglyphs were considered sacred to John and Virgene, when conducting our research these images on stone had to be approached in a very special and ritual way. Upon reaching a panel that was to be interpreted, John would often begin with a song, which was a prayer to let the spirits know that our purpose was educational, and that we intended no harm to the images. The fact that many of the panels had been vandalized was bothersome to John and Virgene since they believe such action constitutes sacrilege. More than that, they believe vandalism creates spiritual turbulence, resulting in misfortune to those who have not shown proper respect toward these sacred places.

Upon completion of his song, John would ritually prepare himself by going into what we would call an altered state of consciousness. By doing this, the intangible forces, the spirits, would become tangible; that is they would make themselves known, and through John interpret the petroglyphs. He was adamant about stating that it was not he, but the spirits, that were revealing the knowledge and wisdom contained through the images. Once he was ready, the interpretation would begin. Often, if the petroglyphs represented the female aspect, then Virgene would interpret them.

After five years of researching one hundred and thirty-eight petroglyph panels, and over fourteen hundred individual images, here is some of what I have learned. I should stress that like our own religious leaders, tribal spiritual practitioners dont necessarily agree with each others interpretations, though they accord respect to one another and acknowledge their differences of opinion. In a tradition that lacked strong ecclesiastical authority, each was allowed their own view of the cosmos, its order, and the activities of the spirit world.

Eastern Shoshone First Principles
    To begin with a few first principles, neither petroglyphs nor pictographs are considered art. One Eastern Shoshone rendering for petroglyphs and pictographs is poha kahni, or house of power. These places are like open-air churches. Poha, or puha as it is sometimes called, is an important principle as it forms the heart of Shoshone religious tradition, as power is within all forms and is given to humans through fasting, Sun Dance, visions and prayer. Johns term for power is boha, and he has two terms for petroglyphs. The first is bohantivope, which he translates as powerful writing, a phrase similar to the Western Shoshone phrase tempimpooh, or rock writing. The second is Woko Naga navohant, or Great Spirits writings. Reckoned in this manner, these images are akin to our Bible. Despite the variations in language and terminology, they are all in agreement that these places are very powerful, are very sacred, and are the source for acquiring power or communing with spirits. In Johns view, petroglyphs are the first message from the Great Spirit, providing directions for human life. They are the places where the tangible or material aspects of this world interact with the intangible world of spirits. Furthermore, it is believed that humans did not make petroglyphs. Instead, Woko Naga, the Great Spirit, and an assortment of spirit helpers made them. According to John, pictographs have a different origin. A spiritual practitioner, or pohakanti, who came to a sacred area to fast and pray, applied the painting as an offering or a record of their vision and what had taken place there.

The Thunderbird
To almost every Native American tribe, the Thunderbird held a pre-eminent place in religious belief. To some tribes, like the Lakota, the Thunderbird took the form of an eagle. To, John and Virgene, however, the Thunderbird, called Dukumoobiche, or eater of meat, was the turkey vulture or the condor. The vulture is the messenger from the Great Spirit to humans, and vice versa. As a consumer of flesh, he also consumes the souls of the deceased and takes them to the Great Spirits realm. However, he also eats the prayers and the evil of humans and takes them to the Great Spirit, who in return purifies and cleanses the devotees. Yes, thats right. A bird that we might consider a lowly scavenger is regarded as one of the most sacred of life forms.

In Dry Fork Canyon, the thunderbird is represented in a variety of ways. Sometimes he appears as a full figure with bird-like appendages, in a posture that suggests ascension. (photo at left). Other times, he appears within a circle with reverse chevrons, indicating wings (photo at right).

Duk-a-niite nuh-we-nuh: People from the South
Several times over the last five years John related a legend wherein the Shoshone Bannock, Ute, Paiute, and other related tribes, migrated to their present locations from an ancient homeland far to the south, from Mexico.

   As the legend goes, these people came from the Aztecs and Mayans, but wanted to get away from human sacrifices that were held there. It was the Thunderbird, appearing first as a hummingbird and then as a condor, who led the people out of Mexico, into the Great Basin and ultimately to Wyoming. John refers to these ancient peoples as Duk-a niite nuh-we-nuh, or people from the south. They are also called lizard people or Stick people, ancient ones who still inhabit the Wind River area. Directional markers, rock alignments, and petroglyphs indicating this south-to-north trek are believed to be present at many locations in the Plains, Great Basin and southwest.

These lizard or stick people are indicated at several panels in Dry Fork Canyon. Often, they are pictographs. On the McConkie Ranch, red painted stick figures represent the Lizard People on their northern migration. (Illustration at left)

Sacred Places: The Bighorn Medicine Wheel and Devils Tower.
Continuing the legend, when the southern tribes got to Wyoming, they were taken to what the White Man knows as the Bighorn Medicine Wheel. This large circular stone feature with its twenty-eight radiating spokes is located west of Sheridan Wyoming in the Bighorn Mountains, at an elevation about approximately 10,000 feet. This large stone circle feature has long been the subject of anthropological and historical inquiry. It is regarded as an important sacred site by all northern Plains tribes, and has recently been used by them for vision questing. According to the legend related by John, the medicine wheel had been constructed by the Ninimbeah, or Little People as instructed by the Great Spirit, Woko Naga. It was built as the final destination for the people of the south, the end point of their long journey. The twenty-eight spokes on the wheel represented the twenty-eight tribes. Once arriving, the tribes were told that, due to the scarcity of resources, that they must disperse in all directions so that they might find enough food, but annually they should come back together for renewal ceremonies.

From Johns perspective, the term medicine wheel is inaccurate and misconstrues the meaning of this major sacred site. He calls it Boy-navohant, or the road written. Sometimes he refers to it as spiritual trail. To him this is a ceremonial stone circle, and represents the place where the intangible spirit world comes into contact with the tangible material world, a portal really where these forces reverse themselves so that they can be revealed to one another. It is through rings like these, that one can go from one place to another. One might think of these ceremonial rings as two lane highways that intersect inside the circle, and carrying each entity to the other side. In the case of the Bighorn Medicine Wheel, it is the Mother of all portals. Through it, spirits and spiritual humans can time travel and space travel to and from other similarly constructed stone circles in the Great Plains and elsewhere. Thus they are all connected, sort of like an intangible orb spider web, with the Medicine Wheel at its center. The Bighorn Medicine Wheel is one of the most sacred of sites to all the northern Plains tribes. At Dry Fork Canyon, Bo-uh na-vo-hunt is represented at several panels.

At one, it is represented by the concentric circle on the right, with the twelve radiating spokes. It is connected by a human-like figure to the circle on the left. This circle represents Devils Tower, another sacred site in northeastern Wyoming. The human-like figure represents the spiritual connection between the Medicine Wheel and Devils Tower.

At another panel, a pictograph, Bo-uh na-vo-hunt is represented by the shield-like figure in the left hand of the human figure, just below what John has interpreted as a bear footprint. Because this is a pictograph, it represents a fasting place where a spiritual person encountered the spirits and then left a painting commemorating the event.

Once the Thunderbird had delivered the ancient people safely to the Bighorn Medicine Wheel, he flew to Devils Tower, his roost and his sacred alter. Even today you can see vultures flying around this large and awesome structure.

Devils Tower is one of the most important sacred sites in the Northern Plains, not only to the Eastern Shoshone but to all Plains tribes. But its name is a misnomer. In many of the tribal languages the name for this ancient volcanic neck translates as Bears Lodge. The source of the name has little to do with the devil, the belief in which was foreign to these tribes. One story holds that the name came from an early U.S. military expedition to the area, when a Sioux scout was explaining to an Army officer that powerful spirits lived beneath the tower. Making the interpretation from his own religious logic, the officer assumed the scout was talking about the devil.

The origin of the name Bears Lodge varies in details, but a general legend holds that one day seven little girls were playing away from camp. They had been warned that this area of the Black Hills was dangerous due to the presence of grizzly bears. While at play, and paying little attention to anything else, they were surprised when a giant grizzly bear happened upon them. Frightened, they clung together for protection. As the bear closed in on them, they heard a voice calling them to stand on a large flat rock. They did so, and in a moment the rock began to grow out of the ground and elevate the girls. As the rock grew, the giant bear clawed at the sides in a futile effort to reach his prey, creating the column-like texture of the tower. In some tales, the girls were then carried to safety by an eagle. In others they were taken up to the sky where they became the Pleiades or Seven Sisters.

  In Eastern Shoshone Devils Tower is called Aguay-ha-Guy-uh, or Bears Lodge. At the McConkie Ranch in Dry Fork Canyon, Bears Lodge was represented by what archaeologists have defined as the shield-bearing warrior motif. This motif consists of a human-like figure (the warrior) in combination with a circle (the shield).

For John and Virgene, however, the circle represents Bears Lodge while the human-like figure represents the spirit and guardian of this holy place. On more than one occasion John told me that Bears Lodge was a place where one would go to obtain songs, prayers to be sung to spirits for health, healing and renewal.

Throughout the years of our project, we were guided by two important principles, education and preservation. First, through education, that is, by exposing non-Indian people to a Native American perspective, we hope that the general public and especially visitors to the McConkie Ranch will take with them a greater appreciation of these cultural landscapes. In doing so we hope that people, from all walks of life and from different religious views, will acquire a respect for the religions and sacred places of our nations first inhabitants. By revealing just a little, we can all learn a lot. Second, whether we approach images on stone as art or religion, through science or spirituality, we should all call for the protection and preservation of these sites as valuable cultural resources and sacred places. No matter what lens shapes your perception of pictographs and petroglyphs, these are truly magnificent contributions to our western heritage.

Copyright © 2001 Jeffery Hanson. No unauthorized reproduction or transmission by any means whatsoever permitted under federal criminal law.