A Picture's Worth: The Native American Perspective

A hunter sits patiently on a small hill overlooking the lush green valley below, waiting for a deer to drink from the gently flowing stream. While waiting, he watches a hawk soar through the open sky above, and begins to carve an image of the bird into the rock beside him to help pass the time. Unbeknownst to this prehistoric hunter, he was leaving his mark on history for future inhabitants to discover and analyze.

            Thousand Hills State Park, located just a few miles west of Kirksville, contains many images of animals, such as the hawk etched into rock. These carvings are called petroglyphs and were created by the Native Americans over a thousand years ago.

            Thousand Hills houses the petroglyphs in an enclosed octagonal shelter with an open floor for viewing. This shelter protects the carvings from erosion and graffiti. The site

lies on a hill overlooking Forrest Lake, open to the public year round.

Many of the images appear arbitrary, and Professor of Art History Dr. Sara Orel explained that the purpose and meaning behind the rock art is difficult to interpret.

“The petroglyphs may have been used for indications of direction or to communicate from one group to another, have religious significance or just simply a decoration or a way to mark time—‘I’m stuck here so I might as well entertain myself.’”

Dr. Amber Johnson, assistant professor of anthropology, agrees that there are various ways to interpret the purpose of petroglyphs.

“Some rock art seems to have a ritual context, while others are more what we would call graffiti today,” Johnson said. “A lot of Native American rock art is found in really out of the way places, where maybe hunters were sitting waiting for game to come by possibly for days at a time. They didn’t have a Game Boy or an i-Pod, so to entertain themselves they basically doodled.”

Johnson speculates that the petroglyphs at Thousand Hills State Park were created in this context due to their location and the livelihood of the Native Americans in the Adair County area. Most Native Americans lived in villages near river valleys, and the closest evidence of a permanent settlement is about 25 miles west of Kirksville in the Chariton River valley, according to Johnson. Since Forrest Lake, which is man-made, was not created until the 1950s, the Thousand Hills area was not suitable for villages. 

“Most of the area around Kirksville was hunting territory, where people just passed through,” said Johnson. “The petroglyphs at Thousand Hills are on top of a hill with a good view down below. So this was a good place to sit, wait, and watch for animals. The rock art there is all jumbled and random, which indicates that it was casually produced, and not related to a ritual; so the context being a form of entertainment makes the most sense,” Johnson said.

However, understanding the purpose of the rock art is not the only difficulty visitors to the petroglyphs face.

            Park Superintendent Brent Steacy said many of the visitors complain that the images are difficult to see.

            “We used to have a resident naturalist that would chalk them on a regular basis to make them stand out from the rock, but then a preservation expert said the practice of chalking was harmful, so we don’t do it anymore,” said Steacy.

            Since it is difficult to see the images, the park has placed interpretive signs around the shelter to help indicate what each image depicts. The most visible carvings are a hawk, opossum, deer and turtle. During the summer, Thousand Hills has a seasonal naturalist that puts on interpretative programs to help people understand the petroglyphs and promote interest.

Assistant Professor of English James D’Agostino, has visited the petroglyphs several times.

“I expected the [petroglyphs] to be this kind of really formalized hieroglyphs, but they do feel very much like doodles, like documenting what it is like to see a hawk or a snake.”

D’Agostino finds the petroglyphs intriguing and wants to introduce them to more of his students as a way to study the language of an ancient culture mixed with contemporary culture.  

“In a perverse way, my favorite part is the way the petroglyphs have been defaced over time,” D’Agostino said. “But given that humans are part of the landscape in the same way wind and water erosion will deface the rock, it makes sense to me to have the names of young lovers inhabit the same space as the ancient symbol for the flow of water.”

            Orel believes it is important to observe and study the history of the area you live in.

“It’s a way of understanding what’s here now, and also a really useful way to pay homage to those who’ve come before,” Orel said. “It sounds kind of sappy, but it’s simply a way of being respectful of what’s here today.”

To view the photo gallery, click here: http://tmn.truman.edu/gallery/view_album.asp?gallery=225