A Lexicon for Historic Plains Indian Rock Art: Increasing Interpretive Potential

Abstract

Historic period Northern Plains Indian rock art consists of well-drawn biographic compositions showing warfare and hunting scenes. In style and content this art closely resembles the hide paintings and ledger drawings done by ethnographic groups throughout the Plains. Some ledger drawings done after 1870 were acquired by whites who also obtained the original artists’ inter. pretations of the messages these scenes were meant to convey. The result is a series of drawings that serve as a “Rosetta Stone” where English translations are provided for the ledger book picture writing. Using this Rosetta Stone quality it is possible to project the meaning of some ledger drawings onto similar rock art scenes, thereby greatly increasing our understanding of Historic period Biographic rock art and improving its utility for use by anthropologists in general.

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