Fremont
And Barrier Canyon Rock Art
Petroglyphs - Pictographs
by
O.
Ned Eddins
Much
of the Southwest rock art is credited to the
Fremont and Anasazi
Indians, but the
oldest rock art on the Colorado Plateau was not
left by the Anasazi or Fremont Indians, but by
Indians of the Archaic
Period. Archaic Indians were nomadic
hunter-gathers. Indians of this period lived in
caves and in small brush shelters. Some
of the Southwest canyon country's most spectacular
rock art is attributed to Archaic Indians. The
Archaic Period ended with the introduction
of corn in the Southwest. One of the
best examples of Archaic Indian rock art is in Barrier
Canyon (renamed Horseshoe Canyon) in
central Utah. Barrier Canyon pictographs and
Fremont Indian petroglyphs can sometimes be found
on the same
rock art panel.
Fremont
Indian rock art is often positioned on game trails
and commonly depicts mountain sheep, hunting
weapons, and trapezoidal human figures.
Trapezoidal figures with arms are typical of
Fremont Rock Art. Fremont rock art is divided
into two categories: petroglyphs and pictographs.
A
petroglyph is an image or design cut into a rock
surface without the use of pigment or
coloring. In canyon country,
desert-varnished sandstone was most commonly
used. In desert areas, this brown or black
varnish builds up on rocks after prolonged
exposure to the elements. The tool usually used
to produce petroglyphs was agate, chert, or
jasper.
Pictographs
are painted on light-colored sandstone surfaces.
A mixture of sumac, yellow ochre, and pinyon gum
was used to make a black powder; yellow from
rabbit brush., and red from red ochre or the
roots of mountain mahogany. Animal fat and plant
oils may have been used to bind the powders
together.
Fremont
Indian artists used their fingers, dog hair or
yucca fibers brushes, and hollow bird bones
filled with pigment. This primitive bird bone
"spray gun" was often used to
spray around a hand placed on the rock.
The
Fremont used the figure of Kokopelli, a humpbacked
flute player, in petroglyphs several hundred years
before the Hopi were a people (Barnes). Some
archeologists suggest the humpback is a pack, and
Kokopelli was flute playing peddler from
Mesoamerica.
Kokopelli - Dinosaur National Monument
Religious
functions are ascribed to some of the painted and
sculpted figures on rock art panels, but the
purpose and meaning is known only to the creators.
Rock art pictures are interpreted as depicting
concepts of wild resource, fertility, and hunting
magic (Stone).
There
are also petroglyphs of significant events.
Birthing Rock Petroglyph - Moab BLM
Anasazi
Rock Art - Chaco Canyon Petroglyph
This
Chaco Canyon petroglyph and the Fremont petroglyph
shown below demonstrates the superiority of
Fremont rock art over Anasazi rock art...compare
the detail in the figures. The Anasazi built the
great houses and kivas, but the Fremont Indians
excelled in rock art.
Lizards and Trapezoid Rock Art - Dinosaur National
Monument
Fremont Lizards
Petroglyph - Dinosaur National Monument
There
is no way to determine if this lizard is
contemporary with other Fremont petroglyphs, but
the figure is carved with the same skill as
figures of Fremont origin (Schaafsma).
The
Three Kings rock art panel located on the McConkie
Ranch outside of Vernal, Utah. There are at least
six visible figures. The lower parts of these
figures are not the typical trapezoid figure and
may have been added by subsequent rock artists (McConkie
Ranch).
Three Kings Art Panel- James
Q Jacobs
Mr.
Jacobs describes the panel he photographed with a
telephoto lens.
The
Three Kings Panel is about 125 feet above the
cliff base. The nearest photography position is
a six inch ledge on the cliff face. The largest
figure is well over six feet tall. I assume the
circle is about 32 inches, as are other large
circles I have measured in the area. The major
figure in the Three Kings panel is referred to
as the Sun Carrier.
Several
of the rock art pictures on this site were taken
by James Q. Jacobs, and I thank him for making his
website
on Indian rock art work available to internet
users. The
next petroglyph is not on the Three Kings Panel,
but is nearby.
Jared
Robison pointed out I had labeled the Big Foot
petroglyph as the Three Kings. The articles on
this web site are written for me to learn more
about an interesting subject, so I appreciate it
when an error is pointed out.
Big Foot - James
Q. Jacobs
The
Rochester petroglyph panel is on Rochester Creek
between Emery and Castle Dale, Utah. The vast
majority of the pictographs on this panel are from
the Fremont period, but there are several
questionable figures.
Rochester Panel
Note
the woman giving birth just to right of center on
this panel.
Dr.
Polly Schaafsma states that Dr. Gunnerson (1969,
p78) is of the opinion a number of these
creatures, particularly the hippopotamus and
alligator like creatures are of recent derivation.
She goes on to add field inspection indicates, on
the basis of patination and technical execution,
these figures are not recent and are an integral
part of the original panel.
I
agree with Dr. Gunnerson.
1)
Indians of the Fremont era, or any Indians from
the southwest, could not have knowledge of these
animals. Some have suggested they were drawn
based on fossils, but you don't find complete
fossils of animals that size...scientists spend
years collecting bits and pieces of bones to
reconstruct what they think an animal looked
like.
2)
As for technical execution, there is a
difference in the figures. On the questionable
figures, the edges are too straight and are from
1/16th to 1/8th inch deep. The spines on the
crocodile-like figure are perfectly straight
lines. Lines this fine and straight were
probably made with a sharp metal chisel, not
from pecking with stone tools. Likely candidates
for doing this might be historic Indians
(Shoshone, Paiute), college students with one of
the geological surveys, or some other would be
artist....College students with the Hayden Party
that surveyed Yellowstone and the surrounding
areas are thought to have left marks on several
rocks, i.e. William Clark's name near Swan
Valley, Idaho, and the Colter Stone in the Teton
Valley of Idaho.
Because
rock art is one of the most visible and fragile
cultural resources in Utah, it has also been
subject to vandalism and destruction...some jerk
put his initials and shot the woman giving birth
on the Rochester Panel. Rock art must not be
touched; oils from human skin can discolor and
eventually obliterate the designs. The
Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979
and the Antiquities Act of 1906 protect rock art.
Fremont Rock Art Vandalism
This
Fremont panel, containing pictographs and
petroglyphs, demonstrates the sheer stupidity and
destructiveness of too many people. This
remarkable rock art panel, which shows little
change over several hundred years, is now covered
with names and initials. Some archeologists have
proposed the holes in the heart area are for the
spirit to escape.
Dave
Summers of Las Vegas sent a picture of the panel
after it was restored by a joint project of the
citizens of Emery County, Utah and the BLM.
Restored Vandalism Panel
Dave
supplied the following information.
In
1996 the
State of Utah wanted every county to do some
sort of "Centennial Project".
Emery county opted for the Buckhorn Wash panel
restoration. So with local fundraisers and
additional money from the state, they hired a
person who was well known as one of three people
nationwide capable of undertaking such a
restoration project. Her name was
Constance 'Connie' Silver.
With
the aid of dentists drills, various brushes and
chemicals, as well as native elements such as
resins, soils and plants for dyes, she
was able to imitate or duplicate the original
'paints' used by the original 'artists'. After
roughly six weeks, she and her aide completed
the restorations. After which time, the
county and BLM moved the roadway a little
farther away from the panel to enable them to
build fencing, pathways and information kiosks.
A
year or so ago, some moron wrote something on
the panel with charcoal, then after finding out
the law was after him tried to use mud to clean
it off. They hired Connie to come back and
get rid of the damage, and while she was there
she did a little touching up of some of the
previous restoration.
They
did catch the guy and he was prosecuted.
And I was glad to hear he got quite a hefty fine
out of it.
Rock
art cannot be dated accurately by any technique
presently known. As can be seen from
Newspaper Rock in Canyonlands National Park, the
petroglyphs vary from several thousand years old
to three hundred years ago or less...note the
Indian on a horse. The Ute Indians were the
earliest Indians to have horses
in the canyonlands area, and that wasn't until
after the Pueblo
Revolt of 1680.
The first recorded Europeans to enter southeastern
Utah with horses and mules was the Dominguez
Escalante
Expedition in 1776.
Composite of
Newspaper Rock
The
meaning and purpose of rock art remains a mystery
(Madsen). There is no universally accepted
interpretation among archaeologists. Explanations
range from a form of written history to doodling.
Only the artists knew the meaning of the images.
In
addition to the prehistoric Native Americans, the
Ute, Paiute, and Goshute created rock art. The
historic Shoshone rock art is limited, and
concentrates on geometric patterns, especially
concentric circles and geometric scratches on
rock faces (Stone). Modern Numic (Shoshone) groups
do not know its meaning and hunting magic is not
important to them.
Geometric Designs - Cottonwood Canyon
Besides
rock art, a unique artifact left by the Fremont
Indians are clay figurines. The small figures that
resemble people, often showing intricate details,
such as ear bobs, necklaces, clothing, hair and
facial decorations, and sexual characteristics.
The purpose of the figurines is unknown, but they
were cared for with such great reverence that it
indicates a religious significance. The Fremont
Indians had outside ceremonial places for small
gatherings, but they did not build kivas
(Barnes).
By
A.D. 1350, the Fremont culture was gone from the
Great Basin and northern Colorado Plateau.
The abandonment started as early as 950 A.D. in
the northeastern edge of Utah with the Uinta
Fremont. After the Fremont Indians left, the
canyonlands were unoccupied for hundreds of years.
The historical Native Americans of the Great Basin
and northern Colorado Plateau are relatively
recent arrivals (Stone).
There
is still a question of what happened to the
Fremont Indians. Some Archeologists believe the
Fremont Indians were starved out, or forced out to
the north and east. The
evidence is not conclusive, but Barnes states that
the nomadic Fremont Indians were partially
responsible for the Anasazi abandoning the four
corners area. This seems reasonable, what is not
reasonable is an aggressive, nomadic culture is
going into the Rocky Mountains or Great Basin
deserts when there is a readily obtainable Anasazi
food source to the South.
Dr.
Gunnerson postulates the Uintah Fremont become the
Ute Indians, while Barnes postulates the Fremont
Indians merged with a band of Shoshone and then
become the Ute Indians. In the cliff dwelling, the
Anasazi were safe, but from there they could not
protect the crops on the plateaus or the valley
floors. The
pacifist farmer's fields of corn, squash, and
beans were easy targets for Fremont
raiding parties.
Cliff Dwelling
The
Navajo and the Apache arrived in the southwest
between the fourteenth and fifteenth century.
Anthropologists who specialize in languages
believe these southward-drifting nomads were of
Athabascan stock, from northwestern Canada
and the Alaskan interior. The Paleo-Athabascan
tribes came to
America across the Bering Strait in a second wave
of migration around 6000 B.C. (Stone, Dillehay).
The
Navajo claim much of the Anasazi
lands and some of
that which was occupied by the Fremont Indians. A
series of treaties imposed upon the Hopi and
Navajo by the Federal Government has led to a
territorial dispute rooted in more than 500 years
of cultural history.
The Rock Article was
written by O.
Ned Eddins of Afton, Wyoming.
Permission is given for material from this site to
be used for school research papers.
Citation:
Eddins, Ned. (article name) Thefurtrapper.com.
Afton, Wyoming. 2002.
Article
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Fremont
Indians Anasazi
Indians
Cedar
Mesa Prehistoric
Indians
Barrier
Canyon Rock Art
Hovenweep
Monument
Valley Pre-historic
Indians Meso-American
Indians
References:
Barnes,
F. A and Pendleton, Michaelene. Canyon country
prehistoric rock art: An illustrated guide to
viewing, understanding and appreciating the rock
art of the prehistoric Indian cultures of Utah,
the Great Basin and the general Four Corners
region. Wasatch Publishers, Salt Lake City, Utah.
1989.
Diamond,
Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The fates of Human
Societies. W.W. Norton, New York, N.Y. 1996.
Gunnerson,
James H. The Fremont Culture. The Peabody Museum.
Cambridge, MA. 1969.
Madsen,
David B.. Exploring the Fremont. Utah Museum of
Natural History/University of Utah, Salt Lake
City, Utah. 1989.
Schaafsma,
Polly. The Rock Art of Utah. University of Utah
Press, Salt Lake City, Utah. 2004.
Stone,
Tammy. The Prehistory of Colorado and
Adjacent Areas. University of Utah
Press, Salt Lake City, Utah. 1999.
Internet
Sources:
Archeology
of Horseshoe Canyon
www.nps.gov/cany/horseshoe/
Barrier
Canyon Rock Art
http://www.jqjacobs.net/rock_art/barrier1.html
Jacobs, James Q
http://www.jqjacobs.net/rock_art/ne_utah1.html
McConkie
Ranch
http://www.lookoutnow.com/places/dryfork4.htm
Janetski,
Joel C.
http://www.media.utah.edu/UHE/a/Archeology.html
Paleo-American
Origins
http://www.onlineutah.com/fremontindianhistory.shtml
