Research Catalog

Title

Plains Indian rock art / James D. Keyser and Michael A. Klassen.

Author

Keyser, James D.

Publication

Seattle : University of Washington Press ; Vancouver : UBC Press, c2001.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

Klassen, Michael

Description

xii, 332 p. : ill., maps,; 27 cm.

Summary

The region stretching from northern Colorado to southern Alberta and from the Rockies to the western Dakotas is the land of the Cheyenne and the Blackfeet, the Crow and the Sioux. Its grasslands and river valleys have nurtured human cultures for thousands of years. On cave walls, glacial boulders, and riverside cliffs, Native people recorded their ceremonies, vision quests, battles, and daily activities in the petroglyphs and pictographs they created on stone surfaces. Some sites were clearly intended for communal use; others clearly mark the occurrence of a private spiritual encounter. Elders often used rock art, such as complex depictions of hunting, to teach traditional knowledge and skills. Other sites document the medicine powers and brave deeds of famous warriors.

Subject

• Art indien d'Amérique > Grandes Plaines
• Grandes Plaines > Antiquités
• Great Plains > Antiquities
• Indians of North America > Great Plains > Antiquities
• Indiens d'Amérique > Grandes Plaines > Antiquités
• Peintures rupestres > Grandes Plaines
• Petroglyphs > Great Plains
• Pétroglyphes > Grandes Plaines
• Rock paintings > Great Plains

Note

• "A Samuel and Althea Stroum book."

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 314-326) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Introduction to rock art -- Dating rock art. Interpretation: Superimpositioning at a North Cave Hills site -- Interpreting rock art. Interpretation: "All kinds of spirits dwell up there" -- The area and its history. Interpretation: Medicine rocks -- Native cultures of the Northwestern Plains. Interpretation: War bridles and otter bundles -- Early hunting tradition -- Columbia Plateau tradition. Interpretation: The Kokopelli of Grotto Canyon -- Dinwoody tradition. Interpretation: Poha Kahni: where spirits live in the rocks -- En toto pecked tradition -- Pecked abstract tradition -- Foothills abstract tradition. Interpretation: Bear power, bear dreamers -- Hoofprint tradition -- Ceremonial tradition. Interpretation: Saahkomappi and the big dogs -- Biographic tradition. Interpretation: The battle scene -- Robe and ledger art tradition. Interpretation: Counting coup at Crossfield Coulee -- Vertical series tradition. Interpretation: Grooves and tallies -- Sites developed for the public -- Summary and conclusions.

ISBN

• 029598094X (pbk. : alk. paper)
• 0774808578

LCCN

^^^00051178^

OCLC

45243237

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library