UPRAISED ARM FIGURES The upraised arm figure is a common representation of a shamanic dance posture for imbuing supernatural power through the wrist. This is frequently seen as a stick figure with upraised arms and bent legs.

NANABOUJOU This mythic figure is shown on birch bark scrolls with three lines coming from his head. He was considered the founder of the Ojibwa Midewiwin or organized shamanic society.

MEDICINE BAGS Medicine bags were used to carry important religious objects and were made from the whole skin of a bird, reptile, or animal and were one of the most valued Native American possessions, frequently going to the grave with their owner. All shamen had them and medicine or spirit power was “shot” into an initiate or sick person.

THE HORNED SERPENT The Horned Serpent was a spirit being connected to curing, medicine, and mythology. It was a powerful underground manitou that was the guardian spirit of many Native Americans and liked to reside in rocks near water. Frances Densmore describes a shaman’s curing vision in which he turned into a snake with horns and cured people with an illness.

THUNDERBIRDS The thunderbird was one of the most well known, oldest, and widespread spirit beings to be represented on rock and on clothing. The Algonkians describe the thunderbird as being capable of transformation into a man, able to cause lightning, thunder, and wind, and as the nemesis of the Great Horned Serpent of the underworld. The thunderbird petroglyph symbol has been found across Canada and the United States.

In describing the Jeffers Petroglyphs site, Gordon Lothson (1976) wrote that: "Thunderbird figures appear throughout the site. Five subclasses include obvious thunderbirds, stylized thunderbirds, birds in flight represented by crosses, thunderbirds with attached bison horns, and one thunderbird with the life-line heart motif." Lothson counted 118 thunderbird figures at Jeffers, comprising almost 8 percent of the total petroglyphs of the sample analyzed.

In 1866, Rev. Gideon H. Pond of Bloomington, Minnesota, wrote that: "The lightning . . . is to the Dakota simply the tonwan of a winged monster, who lives and flies through the heavens shielded by thick clouds from mortal vision. By some of the wakan-men [shamen], it is said that there are four varieties of the form of their external manifestation. In essence, however, they are but one. One of the varieties is black, with a long beak, and has four joints in his wing." It seems likely that the petroglyph illustrated above is a representation of this form of the Dakota thunderbird or Wakinyan (flyer). Pond wrote that: "Lightning emanates from this flyer, and the thunder is the sound of his voice. This is the universal belief."

HORNED HEADDRESS Horns indicated either a spirit or a Wabeno shaman filled with a spirit. A horned animal seen in a dream would sometimes be mimicked with a real horned cap in order to increase the shaman’s power.

DOGS According to George Catlin, dog images were carved into rocks as a sign of fidelity. Dogs were eaten at feasts and were drowned with tobacco as offerings to the underground spirit that caused illness.

TURTLES Turtles were both spirit beings and totems and sometimes had horns. The turtle was a symbol of the mother earth seen as a womb and was a symbol of fertility. In mythology the turtle, especially the snapping turtle, was associated with being a great warrior and was a frequent motif on warrior shields and war drums.

RABBIT EARED HUMANS These are shamen and may be a symbolic reference to Nanaboujou or his brothers and “The Great Hare.” Wavy lines going up from the head denote power.

CIRCLED OR RING FEET The circles may refer to the medicine drum, which was important in shamanic curing. Drum sounds were heard underfoot when walking across the petroglyphs at Drum Island. The drum was used to call a spirit to a shamanic incantation or invoke the assistance of his manido.

BISON HOOFPRINTS Linea Sundstrom has suggested that bison hoofprint petroglyphs are representative symbols of “buffalo women” which may be related to puberty rituals and women’s power.

ATLATLS AND PROJECTILE POINTS The appearance of representations of atlatls or spearthrowers, and tanged projectile points, have been used to estimate the date of some of the petroglyphs at the Jeffers site to the Archaic period and the Old Copper Age or between 5000 to 2500 years ago.

ELONGATED BODIES AND EXTRA FINGERS AND TOES According to the medical literature these are common bodily perceptions of human beings going into the deeper stages of altered states of consciousness and were probably representations of shamanistic vision experiences.

HANDS The Maymaygwayshi or little “Men of the Wilderness” who live in the rock were supposed to be the ones who left their handprints on a rock in Rainy Lake. The reference to little people may be due to atropine hallucinogens, a taboo against speaking the name of deceased shamen, or an indirect reference to a spirit helper.

GEOMETRIC FORMS These may be entoptic form constants usually seen in the first stage of altered states of consciousness or in some cases winter counts of the passage of time.

Entoptics generally include: Caternary curves ))) Grids ### Undulating lines ~~~ Dots ... Chevrons ^^^ Parallel lines /// Circles O O Spearlike forms ---- & Zigzags \/\/

HALF HUMAN HALF ANIMAL FIGURES Medical research indicates that in the deepest stages of altered states of consciousness, people frequently believe that they physically transform into animals and they perceive the experience to be real. Shamen in South Africa who are asked to draw a picture of themselves will often draw pictures of the animal that they transform into during altered states, which is who they perceive themselves to really be. When asked to do the same thing, non-shamen tend to draw stick figures.