Minnesota’s rock art comes from several cultures and time periods. We know that pitched battles, migrations, and cultural disjunctions have all occurred in Minnesota during historic times. A common underlying aspect of much of the rock art is that it is related either directly or indirectly (through Native American naming practices) to shamanism, dream symbolism, altered states of consciousness, and the widespread concepts of manitous and guardian spirits. Cultural borrowing during historic times appears to have taken place, particularly with regard to organized shamanism. Samuel Pond in writing about the eastern Dakota in 1834 thought that they may have received the shamanistic Wakan “medicine lodge” from their eastern neighbors, the Ojibwa, Winnebago, Sacs, or Foxes, all of whom had it.

The meaning of the rock art to the rock artist may in some cases have been disguised. As Anthropologist, Frances Densmore noted with regard to Ojibwa picture writing, the subjects of the picture writing were of two sorts: esoteric i.e. to be understood only by initiates, and public which was to convey information to everyone.

According to Campbell Grant (1983), three “stylistic” rock art areas meet in Minnesota-the northern woodlands, Great Plains, and eastern woodlands. Many early explorers described rock art in the region. Father Jacques Marquette described paintings of horned and winged monsters high on a cliff in 1673 while exploring the Mississippi River. George Catlin reported that in the 1830’s he saw Native Americans carving their “totems” which he termed “symbolic names” in the rocks at the Pipestone Quarry in southwestern Minnesota among other rock carvings of older age.

The Jeffers Petroglyphs site and the Pipestone Quarry are both part of the same Red Sioux Quartzite bedrock that runs for some 300 km from New Ulm, Minnesota into South Dakota. The Jeffers Petroglyphs site, which has about 2000 petroglyphs, has been dated to two periods by Gordon Lothson (1976). Due to the presence of almost 100 representations of atlatls, or spearthrowers, and representations of copper age artifacts, there appears to be rock art at Jeffers that is 5000 to 2500 years old. Similarities to historic period artifacts suggest that there are petroglyphs from more recent historic time periods. The best known of the Pipestone petroglyphs were originally located in a circle around the "Three Maidens" which are large glacial erratics or boulders near the Pipestone Quarry. These petroglyphs were removed from the ground by Charles H. Bennett, the founder of Pipestone City in the late 1800's and put on display in a traveling exhibition. Many of the petroglyphs now reside in the entranceway of the Pipestone National Monument's Visitor's Center. Additional petroglyphs were located at the "Derby Petroglyph site" in Pipestone. Lewis reported that in Traverse County in Brown's Valley in western Minnesota there were also petroglyphs with "bird tracks" related to the Thunderbird located on boulders.

There are in excess of fifty recorded rock art sites in Minnesota including a state historic site, a site listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and 20 pictograph sites mostly situated in the northern boundary lakes and rivers, and along the St. Croix and Mississippi Rivers. Petroglyph sites occur in the southwestern part of the state and in caves and rock outcrops in southeastern Minnesota in the river valleys. There are also drawings of petroforms made from field stones in the writings of Theodore H. Lewis described as being in Murray County in southwestern Minnesota.

In southeastern and central Minnesota, along the soft sandstone and limestone cliffs and inside caves such as at LaMoille Cave, Reno Cave and at Daytons Bluff in St. Paul, petroglyphs were reported and recorded by T.H. Lewis and others. Unrecorded petroglyphs including "grooving petroglyphs" and "vulva forms" still can be found in the sandstone crevices and rock outcrops of the river valleys of southeastern Minnesota. Discoveries of previously unrecorded rock art by David Lowe across the river in Wisconsin suggests a great potential for finding new sites in this area of Minnesota. Sites along the St. Croix River described in earlier literature have been severely damaged by graffitti and erosion.

In northern Minnesota petroglyphs appear at the Nett Lake site at Spirit Island (sometimes called Drum Island). The access to this site located on the Nett Lake Reservation is controlled, partly due to wild rice beds nearby and partly due to active spiritual beliefs regarding the island. Many red ochre and dark brown pictographic sites were reported by Seldwyn Dewdney and others along the boundary waters, in the Superior National Forest and in the islands of Lake of the Woods. The Hegman Lake pictograph site which shows a human with upraised arms with large hands, a moose, canoes, etc. is probably the best known of these red ochre sites in northern Minnesota.

The Jeffers Petroglyphs and the petroglyphs at the Pipestone Quarry can both be visited. You should contact the state tourist information office for days and hours that the sites are open. Should you know of any unrecorded petroglyphs in the state on private property please feel free to notify UMRARA. We would be happy to investigate, evaluate, and properly record them for you.

Suggested further reading:
Grace Rajnovich, 1994 Reading Rock Art: Interpreting The Indian Rock Paintings of the Canadian Shield. Toronto: Natural Heritage/ Natural History, Inc. (available with a 4 month wait from Amazon.com).
Seldwyn Dewdney and K. E. Kidd, 1962 Indian Rock Paintings of the Great Lakes University of Ontario Press. (available in some libraries and through interlibrary loan).
Gordon A. Lothson, 1976 The Jeffers Petroglyphs Site: A Survey and Analysis of the Carvings. Minn. Prehistorical Arch. Series No. 12. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press (this out of print publication is available in some libraries).
Newton H. Winchell, 1911 The Aborigines of Minnesota. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society (a rare book available in some libraries).
For anthropological background regarding the Ojibwe and Dakota:
Frances Densmore, 1979 reprint Chippewa Customs. St. Paul: MHS Press. (available at the Minnesota Historical Society bookstore, etc.).
James Walker, 1991 reprint, (ed. by Raymond DeMaillie and Elaine A. Jahner), Lakota Belief and Ritual. Lincoln and London: University o Nebraska Press (available in many bookstores).
©1996 Kevin Callahan