Writing-on-Stone: Sandstone Cliffs and Petroglyphs

I had known since probably elementary school that there were indigenous carvings in the rocks in Southern Alberta. But I had no idea just how culturally significant these petroglyphs were until we visited Writing-on-Stone/Áísínaiʼpi.

The Sweetgrass Hills just over the border in Montana are a sacred place to the Blackfoot people, and they also believe that spirits inhabit the hoodoos and rock formations in the coulees of Writing-on-Stone. Because of this, not just anyone was allowed to write on the rocks - these are not just jottings or musings or recollections (although some are biographic in nature), but the products of visions, sometimes obtained under trying circumstances.

You can hike on your own to see the Battle Scene petroglyph I mentioned in my previous post, but to see the majority of the most significant carvings, you need to take a guided tour into a restricted area of the park -an archaeological preserve. At $19 a person, this is a bargain, and I heartily recommend anyone visiting the park for even a day to take advantage of it.

Thanks to COVID we couldn't take a bus down from the Visitor's Centre. Instead, we and the eight other participants formed a mini-convoy in our own vehicles and followed our interpreter, Laura, past the gate and descending down to a gravel parking area close to the Writing-on-Stone Rodeo Grounds (fun fact - Alberta singer/songwriter Corb Lund competed there in his youth).

After a short briefing on rattlesnake safety in which we were assured that no one in Alberta has ever died of a snakebite (and that there is actually more danger due to bacteria from their dirty fangs than their venom - ick), we set off. It was a short walk up some stairs to a plateau with benches facing the canyon walls, and Laura stood below the first panel, pointing out details with her walking stick.

We were lucky to have Laura - she has degrees in both archaeology and geography as I recall, but more importantly, she possesses a genuine passion and respect for indigenous culture and history which she was eager to share with us.

Over the next hour, she pointed out many details to us about the elements of the various panels we were viewing. A little of this I already knew, like how the horses brought here by the Spaniards predated the arrival of Europeans to the plains and had a tremendous impact on the lives of people living here in the 1700s. In some of the petroglyphs, you can see figures behind large discs which we now know are full-body shields that stretched from shoulder to ankle. These were abandoned once warriors and hunters took to riding horses instead. (Fun fact - the Blackfoot language had no word for horse, so their name for them means "elk-dog.")

These pictures do a poor job of conveying the content, but you might recognize some elements - v-necked people, a buffalo, a beaver. 

Much of what we learned was new to me though, like the idea that the spiritual nature of the carvings meant that Blackfoot Medicine Men stated they could change overnight. They sought wisdom and augury from them, believing they could warn of nearby enemies or dire outcomes of battles.

Just below and to the right of the centre of the picture above is something that looks like an axe (or a hockey stick, as is often volunteered to Laura) and something that looks like a broom. Archaeologists puzzled over these until a Blackfoot elder explained that the first item was in fact a medicine pipe and the second a type of offering pole topped with feathers and stuck in the ground at a ceremony called an All-Night Smoke, variations of which are still done today.

The round impact marks are in fact bullet holes, presumably from the North West Mounted Police outpost located directly across the river. A replica of the outpost was recreated at the mouth of Police Coulee in 1975, making the view far more similar to what it had been over a century ago.

There is settler content on the rocks as well, as NWMP officers, ranchers landowners and travellers felt compelled to add their marks to the writings. Work is being done to remove more modern graffiti, but anything inscribed prior to 1957 (the founding of the park) is considered historical and allowed to remain.

Looking at more panels, we learned how only spiritual beings are given eyes in these carvings, and how the interpretation of one of the carvings has moved from depicting a creature like a fish or fox to perhaps being a landscape, specifically the Sweetgrass Hills to the south of us.

The oldest of the petroglyphs are estimated to be 3500-5000 years old, but one of the most intriguing is actually the most recent. It clearly depicts wheeled vehicles and passengers but its precise date and origin was a mystery until a chance discovery of a photo less than 15 years ago. At an academic conference, the picture, which showed an indigenous man in a headdress carving the sandstone, was shown to a scholar who had worked at Writing-on-Stone and who immediately recognized the panel.

In his work as a road engineer on a Blackfoot reserve in Montana in the early 1920s, Roland Willcomb met several elders and became fascinated by tales of this spiritual place, a place where the spirits spoke through stone and where ghosts lived. He fought for permission for two of the elders, Bird Rattle and Split Ears, to leave the reservation and guide him there. After multiple denials and a persistent nagging of the federal officials, a pass was finally granted, and the three of them, plus an interpreter, made their way to Áísínaiʼpi in September of 1924.

The two elders had visited there as boys in the 1860s, and provided great insights into many of the petroglyphs, including naming one of the combat scenes as the Retreating-Up-the-Hill Battle. A second car containing some of Willcomb's friends joined them at the site as well.

As they prepared to leave, the two elders were grateful to have had the opportunity to return, but saddened at the thought they would likely never have the chance to return. Bird Rattle felt moved to depict their visit, and used a piece of quartz to depict the two Model-T Fords that had brought the group to Áísínaiʼpi. As he did, Willcomb took the picture that answered so many questions.

Bird Rattle's name features prominently in many of the exhibits in the park's visitors centre, and apparently, he was able to return to Writing-on-Stone twice more prior to his death in 1937.

This tale really resonated with us -  a strange connection linking a white engineer to a Peigan elder in the early 20th century, involving a Blackfoot sacred site with petroglyphs dating back further than three millennia, and only discovered in modern times because of the random discovery of a photo at an estate sale. Why hasn't anyone made this into a movie yet? Or at least a Heritage Minute?

On our way back to camp, we took a moment to survey the landscape from a viewpoint overlooking Police Coulee. It is compelling in a way that is difficult for me to articulate. It is not difficult to imagine being here in the late 1800s, when the NWMP maintained a presence here to maintain the border while battling boredom, and while Blackfoot warriors made their way back and forth across a mystical "medicine line" that appeared to confound their pursuers (but which was actually the 49th parallel).

Or you can cast your mind back even further, to pre-colonial times, when indigenous peoples came here to rest, to hunt, and to commune with the spirits. Truly an amazing place that we are privileged to have here in Alberta - very few sites have the ability to convey visitors through time as well as space in the way that Writing-on-Stone does.