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The Petroglyphs of Southeastern Alaska

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

E. L. Keithahn
E. L. Keithahn*
Affiliation:
Wrangell Institute, Wrangell, Alaska
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Extract

The Tlingit Indians occupy all of Southeastern Alaska from Dixon's Entrance to Cape St. Elias except the southern half of Prince of Wales Island, which is Haida, and Annette Island, which is a Tsimshian reservation. Formerly all of this region was Tlingit.

Throughout this entire district and extending into the southern half of the Northwest Coast culture area, petroglyphs abound. These inscriptions in their simpler forms have much in common with those of widely separated regions of the earth. There are simple cups, rings, spirals, concentric circles, etc. But the typical petroglyphs of this area are as original as the well-known decorative art of the Northwest Coast and apparently closely affiliated with it in both form and meaning.

It is the goal of this article to present tangible evidence that these petroglyphs originated from (a) natural effects and (b) depressions worn in rock in the process of tool-making.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , October 1940 , pp. 123 - 132
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1940

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References

1 This paper was prepared as part of a research project undertaken under the direction of the Dept. of Anthropology, University of Washington, during the summer of 1939, and under the personal supervision of Dr. E. A. Hoebel of New York University.

The observations were made between the years 1928–39 during which the present writer was employed in Southeastern Alaska by the Office of Indian Affairs. At present he is teaching classes in Native Craft, Northwest Coast Culture, and Northwest Coast Decorative Art at Wrangell Institute, a Federal Boarding School for Indians.

2 Swanton, J. R., Tlingit Myths and Texts, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 39, Washington, 1909, pp. 301, 311, gives two Tlingit versions of the story of “Mouldy-End.” See also story of “Sinagula,” p. 243, and “Mouldy Forehead,” p. 197, in Swanton, J. R., The Haida of Queen Charlotte Island, Memoir, American Museum of Natural History, Anthropology, Vol. VIII, Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Vol. V, Pt. I, 1905.

3 Swanton, Tlingit Texts, p. 5.

4 Since this paper was written, considerable evidence has appeared to suggest that these glyphs were always placed in such a way that each tide, in submerging these graven supplications, would dispatch the prayer anew, after the manner of prayer wheels, etc. E. L. K.