The result of the writer’s studies upon petroglyphs as distinct from other forms of picture writing may now be summarized.
Perhaps the most important lesson learned from these studies is that no attempt should be made at symbolic interpretation unless the symbolic nature of the particular characters under examination is known, or can be logically inferred from independent facts. To start with a theory, or even a hypothesis, that the rock writings are all symbolic and may be interpreted by the imagination of the observer or by translation either from or into known symbols of similar form found in other regions, were a limitless delusion. Doubtless many of the characters are genuine symbols or emblems, and some have been ascertained through extrinsic information to be such. Sometimes the more modern forms are explained by Indians who have kept up the pictographic practice, and the modern forms occasionally throw light upon the more ancient. But the rock inscriptions do not evince mysticism or esotericism, cryptography, or steganography. With certain exceptions they were intended to be understood by all observers either as rude objective representations or as ideograms, which indeed were often so imperfect as to require elucidation, but not by any hermeneutic key. While they often related to religious ceremonies or myths, such figures were generally drawn in the same spirit with which any interesting matter was portrayed.
While the interpretation of petroglyphs by Indians should be obtained if possible, it must be received with caution. They very seldom know by tradition the meaning of the older forms, and their inferences are often made from local and limited pictographic practices. There is no more conscientious and intelligent Indian authority than Frank La Flêche, an Omaha, and he explains the marks on a rock in Nebraska as associated with the figures of deceased men and exhibiting the object which caused their death, such as an arrow or ax. This may be a local or tribal practice, but it certainly does not apply to similar figures throughout the Algonquian and Iroquoian areas, where, according to the concurrent testimony for more than two centuries, similar figures are either designations of tribes and associations, or in their combinations are records of achievements.
Lossing (b) gives the following explanation of markings on a well known rock:
Among the brave warriors in the battle [of Maumee] who were the last to flee before Wayne’s legion, was Me-sa-sa, or Turkey-foot, an Ottawa chief, who lived on Blanchards Fork of the AuGlaize River. He was greatly beloved by his people. His courage was conspicuous. When he found the line of dusky warriors giving way at the foot of Presque Isle hill, he leaped upon a small bowlder, and by voice and gesture endeavored to make them stand firm. He almost immediately fell, pierced by a musket ball, and expired by the side of the rock. * * * They carved many rude figures of a turkey’s foot on the stone, as a memorial of the English name of the lamented Me-sa-sa. The stone is still there, by the side of the highway at the foot of Presque Isle hill, within a few rods of the swift-flowing Maumee. Many of the carvings are still quite deep and distinct, while others have been obliterated by the abrasion of the elements.
This tale may be true, but it surely does not account for the turkey-foot marks which are so common in the northeastern Algonquian region, extending from Dighton rock to Ohio, that they form a typical characteristic of its pictographs. They have been considered to be the sign for the bird, the turkey, which was a frequent totem. Lossing’s story is an example of the readiness of an Indian, when in an amiable and communicative mood, to answer queries in a manner which he supposes will be satisfactory to his interviewer. He will then give any desired amount of information on any subject without the slightest restriction by the vulgar bounds of fact. It is dangerous to believe explanations on such subjects as are now under consideration, unless they are made without leading questions by a number of Indian authorities independently.
Specially convenient places for halting and resting on a journey, either by land or water, such as is mentioned supra, on Machias bay, generally exhibit petroglyphs if rocks of the proper character are favorably situated there. The markings may be mere graffiti, the product of leisure hours, or may be of the more serious descriptions mentioned below.
Some points are ascertained with regard to the motives of the painters and sculptors on rocks. Some of the characters were mere records of the visits of individuals to important springs or to fords on regularly established trails. In this practice there may have been in the intention of the Indians very much the same spirit which induces the civilized man to record his name or initials upon objects in the neighborhood of places of general resort. But there was real utility in the Indian practice, which more nearly approached to the signature in a visitor’s book at a hotel or public building, both to establish the identity of the traveler and to give the news to friends of his presence and passage. At Oakley springs, Arizona territory, totemic marks have been found, evidently made by the same individual at successive visits, showing that on the number of occasions indicated he had passed by those springs, probably camping there, and the habit of making such record was continued until quite recently by the neighboring Indians. The same repetition of totemic names has been found in great numbers in the pipestone quarries of Minnesota, on the rocks near Odanah, Wisconsin, and also at some old fords in West Virginia. These totemic marks are so designed and executed as to have intrinsic significance and value, wholly different in this respect from names in alphabetic form, which grammatically are proper but practically may be common.
Rock carvings are frequently noticed at waterfalls and other points on rivers and on lake shores favorable for fishing, which frequency is accounted for by the periodical resort of Indians to such places. Sometimes they only mark their stay, but occasionally there also appear to be records of conflict with rival or inimical tribes which sought to use the same waters.
Evidence is presented in the present work that the characters on rock pictures sometimes were pointers or “sign-posts” to show the direction of springs, the line of established trails, or of paths that would shorten distances in travel. It has been supposed that similar indications were used guiding to burial mounds and other places of peculiar sanctity or interest, but the evidence of this employment is not conclusive. Many inquiries have been made of the Bureau of Ethnology concerning Indian marks supposed to indicate the sites of gold, silver, and copper mines and buried treasure generally, which inquiries were answered only because it was recognized as the duty of an office of the government to respond, so far as possible, to requests for information, however silly, which are made in good faith.