This session explores historic and current research regarding the rock art of the Upper Midwest/Mid-Continent including reviews of the region's rich ethnohistoric sources, the early history of rock art research in the area, recent surveys of the region, and various new approaches to site patterning, theory, and interpretation.

Ethnohistoric accounts regarding Newport, Minnesota's Red Rock are unusually detailed because of its importance as a place name in early Minnesota history and its special geographical position as the first granite glacial erratic encountered while canoeing northward on the Mississippi River after emerging from the "driftless area." The frequent painting of the boulder by the Dakota with vermilion stripes during the historic period, similar to face painting, and the offerings left at this and other granite boulders across the landscape resulted from a widespread Dakota religious belief that stones were both the symbol of, and occasionally the dwelling place of, Taku Skan Skan, the god of movement and Inyan, an older god of stone.

The Pipestone Petroglyphs
Tom Thiessen
National Park Service Archaeologist

Charles R. Bailey
Graphics Artist, UMRARA

Before being reserved by the U. S. government for use by the Yanktons in the nineteenth century, the Pipestone quarry was regarded as a sort of "Mecca" for many Midwestern tribal groups. The site was the largest source of the local red pipestone called Catlinite and considered sacred by, among others, the Oto, Sac and Lakota people. Several features of the landscape were incorporated into the general ethnology of the region including the large granite anomaly known as the Three Maidens. Clustered around these boulders were several petroglyphs carved into the hard quartzite bedrock. Around 1883, the glyphs were quarried in an effort to preserve and display them to the general public. A description of these glyphs, their eventual fate, and the related history and archaeology of the Pipestone quarry will be the subject of this presentation by NPS archaeologist, Tom Thiessen and graphics professional, Charles R. Bailey.

Patterning At Jeffers Petroglyphs
Robert (Bob) Clouse
Head of Archaeology
Minnesota Historical Society

The Jeffers Petroglyphs site in southwestern Minnesota contains over 2000 carvings, some of which may date as early as 5000 B.P. Initial detailed research at the site in the early 1970's was largely descriptive in nature. Recent analysis documents patterning which reflects the episodic nature of the creation and use of the site. The use of ethnographic data, an analysis of subject matter and stylistic representations, spatial patterning, and the absence of specific elements provide a basis for understanding site variability.

T.H. Lewis & The Great Northwestern Archaeological Survey
Deborah Morse-Kahn, Session Co-organizer
Historian, Regional Research Associates

For twelve years, from 1883 to 1895, Theodore Hayes (T.H.) Lewis surveyed rock art and over 12,000 mounds of the Upper Midwest forging an enduring legacy and a written record for Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, the Dakotas and central Canada. Lewis' archaeological survey was the basis for the archaeological site file collection of the Minnesota Historical Society and Minnesota archaeologists are still using his survey today to expand the known archaeological record. Lewis' meticulous survey notes, drawings, and scholarly publications regarding Upper Midwest rock art are, in some cases, the only remaining record of rock art that has since been destroyed. In the history of Upper Midwest rock art research, Lewis stands as a colorful and major figure whose influence continues to the present day.

An Overview of Minnesota Indian Rock Art
Alan Woolworth
Research Fellow Emeritus, Minnesota Historical Society

Many pictographs left by Cree and Ojibwa Indians are found in northern Minnesota along the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. They were studied intensively and published by Selwyn Dewdney during the 1960's and 1970's. In north central Minnesota are the enigmatic Nett Lake petroglyphs carved into the rock surface of Drum Island. They have not been examined in detail since the work of Albert B. Reagan about 1915 and comparatively little is known about them. We have only a vague knowledge of the many damaged and destroyed pictograph sites along the west bank of the Mississippi River in Minnesota which are closely related to rock art in caves and on cliffs along the east bank of the Mississippi in Wisconsin. On the west bank of the Mississippi in southeastern Minnesota was the fabulous sandstone La Moille Cave and nearby was Reno Cave with similar carvings. On the west bank of the St. Croix River lies the Harvey Rock Shelter excavated by Ralph D. Brown and members of the Harvey family in the mid 1930's. On the east bank of the Mississippi in St. Paul is Carver's Cave which contained many carvings into soft sandstone, but it is largely destroyed.

Recent Rock Art Research in Western Wisconsin
Robert F. (Ernie) Boszhardt
Region 6 Archaeologist, Wisconsin
Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center

Rock art research and recordation has continued in the rugged Driftless Area of western Wisconsin since a synthesis by Stiles-Hanson in the mid-1980's. Numerous additional sites have been located and several formally recorded. Stylistic renditions of bison and other motifs are compared to adjacent areas and dated artifacts. These suggest that many of these are attributable to the late prehistoric Oneota Culture.

Wisconsin Rock Art Systematics
Robert J. (Bob) Salzer
Department of Archaeology
Beloit College, Wisconsin

More than 100 rock art sites have been discovered in Wisconsin, providing a very rich and diverse body of petroglyphs and pictographs. This paper explores how systematics might help us to discover meanings in this data set. For purposes of comparability between analyses of parietal and portable art forms, the strategy used in the analysis of images found on engraved shell artifacts from elsewhere in North America is employed. Ethnographic data, archaeological associations and analyses of decorated museum specimens are used to shed light on the problem of the meanings that rock art motifs, themes and compositions might have. Finally, chronometric and stratigraphic data are used to formulate a preliminary outline of the sequence of rock art styles in the area.

Results of Wisconsin's First Systematic Rock Art Survey
David Lowe
Wisconsin Rock Art Association

Over 80 new rock art sites have been discovered and recorded as a result of a systematic rock art survey in the southwestern "driftless" area of Wisconsin. Roughly half of the rock shelters discovered contain rock art in the form of petroglyphs and pictographs that are anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, and geometric designs. These sites are sandstone overhangs and fissure caves that were fall and winter deer hunting camps which date from Late Woodland back to Middle Archaic time periods.

Preserving Ancient Communications
Cynthia M. Stiles
USDA Forest Service
Chequamegon/Nicolet National Forest

Rock art sites have been reported in Wisconsin since 1878, however until 1986, only 20 sites had been found. Since then, that total has been increased to over 100 sites with less than 10% of high probability areas surveyed. After damage to the Gottschall Rockshelter in 1993-1994, the Office of the State Archaeologist organized a task force to recommend future action in conservation, research and documentation. This paper reviews past rock art research, summarizes recommendations of the task force, and presents the mission and current activities of the Wisconsin Rock Art Association, a Midwest member of ARARA.

Recent Developments in Iowa Rock Art Research
Lori A. Stanley
Department of Sociology, Anthropology & Social Work
Luther College

For more than a century archaeologists have explored the bluff country of northeastern Iowa for evidence of petroglyphs and pictographs. Though such sites are not abundant, some rock art has been preserved on bluff faces and in rock shelters and crevices along the Mississippi river and its tributary streams. Monitoring has shown that while some of the sites are relatively well preserved and stable, others are deteriorating at an alarming rate. This paper summarizes the results of a recent resurvey of known sites in the northeastern corner of the state, describes Native American involvement in that project, and outlines plans for future research.

Rock Art and the Sacred Place: The Problem of Devils Tower
Brian Leigh Molyneaux

It is conventional to interpret rock art as a marker of sacredness. In the Canadian Shield, this relationship seems obvious, as art, oral tradition, and modern Ojibwa rituals and beliefs all share the same dramatic settings. In the rest of the world, the situation is similar. Whatever the case in prehistory, rock art today is an engaging symbol of a hoped-for past, and therefore a highly effective ideological tool. If rock art is a visible display of sacredness, then what is the problem at that most monumentally rocky of sacred places, Devils Tower? Was it once covered with red ochre, now, sadly weathered away? Was the rough porphyry too dark to paint and too hard to hammer? Was it so sacred that it did not need rock art's simple display? Did the ancestors of the many modern tribes who incorporated Devils Tower into their belief systems not have rock art traditions? Or might the absence of rock art say something about the concept of sacredness itself?

Medicine Rocks
Linda Olson
Assistant Professor
Art Department
Minot State University

This paper explores the history of one of North Dakota's most important rock art sites. Early records support the ceremonial use of the petroglyph site, Medicine Rocks, from prehistory to the present. Early contacts from the Lewis and Clark to the Stephen H. Long's expedition documented use of this site by the Mandan and Hidatsa, while modern day informants indicate use by the Sioux.