5 Spectacular Pictographs Explained
The Bloodvein River waterway in Pimachiowin Aki contains the largest collection of pictographs in Canada. Hundreds of millennia-old pictographs (rock art paintings) have been documented at over 30 locations, including this cliff face on Artery Lake, beautified with handprints, animals, canoes, snakes, and other symbols painted with a paste made of a red ochre and fish oil or bear fat.
Paddling up to one of these rare images is nothing short of awe-inspiring. Canadian author and pictograph-hunter Selwyn Dewdney called these particular sites along the Bloodvein River a "rare experience" and a "supreme reward."
Elder Leslie Orvis of Bloodvein First Nation suggests making an offering each time you pass by a pictograph.
Here's a close-up look at five spectacular pictographs in Pimachiowin Aki:
1. Moose
Recently, Pimachiowin Aki Board Co-Chair William Young took Elder Leslie Orvis to the site of this moose pictograph on the Bloodvein River. Leslie believes that the message behind this drawing is of respect.
"Respect the land," he says. He then echoes the words of Elder Kenneth Owen—"If you are looking for moose to hunt, you put down tobacco in order to have a successful hunt."
Leslie and other Elders in Bloodvein River First Nation aim to teach local students about Anishinaabe history, culture, and language. They are developing a program that will be a part of the curricula after the community's new school is built.
2. Kingfishers
In some cases, scholars suggest that Anishinaabeg created pictographs to mark significant personal events or associations between certain clans and areas used for traditional land use and ceremony. This pictograph found at Sasaginnigak Lake shows two Kingfishers, one of the clan emblems of Anishinaabeg in Pimachiowin Aki.
This particular pictograph was probably painted in the early 1800s by members of the Kingfisher clan who wintered at Sasaginnigak Lake and used the lake as part of their family harvesting area (Petch 2010).
3. Bison
The bison in this pictograph is recognized for its circular hooves and the dark outline that appears to indicate its heart.
In the 1950s, guided by Ojibwe elders, Selwyn Dewdney began his studies of pictographs on the Canadian Shield. His book titled Indian Rock Paintings of the Great Lakes names this pictograph the Bloodvein Bison and describes it as "beautifully proportioned."
The book, co-authored by Kenneth E. Kidd, suggests that this pictograph is located a hundred miles north of where the bison herds once roamed, and the person responsible for the drawing was from that region or had traveled a far distance to hunt there.
4. Shaman
Dewdney titled this pictograph the Bloodvein Shaman. The shaman is carrying a medicine bag. Dewdney notes that the zig-zag lines that appear above the shaman's head are also seen in other pictographs, and are often interpreted as thoughts or magical powers. He adds that the "large canoe beneath and the porcupine to the left might represent the fighting prowess and clan of the shaman."
5. Wigglers
Dewdney refers to these pictographs as the "two curious wigglers" but does not provide details on what they represent. In his Ramblin' Boy blog, True_North suggests "they may be representations of the medicine serpent."
Many of the drawings in Pimachiowin Aki include animals and people that one can assume were based on powerful spirit beings and first-hand experiences of the artists. Each pictograph has its own significance. Archaeologist Jack Steinbring writes, "The imagery may often be prompted by dreams, or visions sometimes induced by fasting or prolonged concentration."
How Pimachiowin Aki Guardians Help Preserve Pictographs
The spectacular pictographs in Pimachiowin Aki are well preserved. Guardians keep the sites clean of any litter, in addition to educating people about the importance of respecting the pictographs (i.e. leaving offerings, not touching or wetting them, etc.).
The rate at which the pictographs are deteriorating due to natural weathering is unknown. Lichen encroachment is probably the most serious threat.
Locating Pictographs in Pimachiowin Aki
Pictographs are usually found on steep granite rock-faces overhanging the waterways of the boreal forest.
The drawings are typically found in places associated with powerful spirit beings, such as next to water, at the intersections of sky, earth and water, underground, and underwater.
Not all pictograph locations are to be revealed.
"There are rock paintings at Dog-skin that are sacred because the people of Little Grand Rapids believe that those paintings were made by the little rock people (memegwesiwag). The rock people were part of creation and were here from the beginning."
—Joseph Levesque, Sr. (in translation, 2014)
Anishinaabeg communicate with memegwesiwag at particular pictograph sites by presenting offerings to demonstrate respect and request assistance in travel or hunting.
"There is a cliff-rock-painting of a snapping turtle [on a certain river]. When someone travels along over there, they'd cut some tobacco. They would say, 'I will kill a moose' as they placed tobacco in their pipe. Sure enough, that was exactly what would happen. That person would get the blessing to kill a moose."
—Elder Kenneth Owen of Pauingassi First Nation (in translation, 2007) explains the importance of a particular pictograph in communicating with the memegwesiwag responsible for the painting
For more images of pictographs, including a link to the digital version of Dewdney and Kidd's book, click here:
https://archive.org/details/indianrockpainti00dewd/page/n1/mode/2up
Anishinaabe Pictographs On The Bloodvein: The Artery Lake Site
Indian Rock Paintings of the Great Lakes by Selwyn Dewdney and Kenneth E. Kidd
Discussion paper: Rock Paintings in the Eastern Lake Winnipeg Watershed by Jack Steinbring
Cultural Landscape: Macro Scale Document. Virginia Petch, August 2010
Filed Under: Uncategorised Tagged With: First Nation, pictograph meaning, Pimachiowin Aki.
Tips on How to Smoke Fish and Meat
After 46 years as a commercial fisherman, Frank Young Senior retired last year. That doesn't mean he has stopped fishing. Today he fishes to feed his family, to share with Elders in the community and neighbouring communities, and to pass on traditions to his children and grandchildren.
Frank and his wife Ellen raised two daughters and a son in Bloodvein River First Nation. He says that his daughter Lisa, who now lives in Winnipeg, wants to learn how to smoke meat, and his grandchildren are interested in fishing.
"We go out on the lake in the boat with the net. They really enjoy that," he says.
Learning to fish, hunt and trap are a right of passage for youth living in Pimachiowin Aki, and learning how to prepare and cook meat is passed down through generations.
"When I cut up and dry meat, my daughter always wants to be there," says Frank, adding that his grandchildren like to watch him filet fish.
Frank has also done a lot of moose hunting, sometimes traveling a long way to "get moose just about every year." He says that he cuts the moose into quarters to haul it home, where he then cuts it up into smaller pieces.
"My daughter wants to learn how to cut up meat into slabs and hang it," he says. She was helping me last year. She's very interested in stuff like that."
If you're interested, too, here are some tips from Frank:
The Best Wood for Smoking Fish and Meat
"Look for dead poplar trees," says Frank. He builds a fire out of dried poplar, found right outside his home. Poplar is best because it doesn't have sap—trees with sap make a black fire.
Frank's Tips on How to Smoke Meat
Historically, many people would smoke meat to dry it out, to preserve it. This was in the days before electricity and deep freezers, Frank explains. "Now that we have a freezer, I still smoke meat because I like the taste of it. It's tradition."
Frank hangs pieces of moose meat on sticks and smokes them.
"There was someone who was drying meat a couple of years ago and he used spices," Frank says. "That's not the traditional way of doing it. I don't use spices, just salt. That's how it was done when I was growing up so that's the way I do it."
Unlike fish, which is smoked for flavour and then boiled or cooked afterward, smoked meat is eaten right away.
Frank's Tips on How to Smoke Fish
Frank has his own smokehouse where he smokes catfish, whitefish and goldeye. "We don't smoke pickerel filets," he says. "We fry those with flour and butter."
Franks recommends using birch sticks to pierce the fish. He smokes six to eight whitefish at a time. The fire should have a small flame, he says.
Frank closes the door and just lets it smoke. "You don't want to dry it out," he warns. "Just smoke it long enough to have the flavour."
Try this Duck Fat Potato Recipe!
Fish, moose, and duck are favourite traditional foods along with delicacies like smoked meats, white fish, and pickerel caviar.
Little Grand Rapids First Nation Guardian Dennis Keeper says that duck is one of his favourite traditional foods. He notes that the ducks are especially fat this year, so he looks forward to trying this duck fat potato recipe:
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/duckfat-potatoes-recipe-1957259
You can watch a video with British Chef April Bloomfield making Duck Fat Potatoes here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93404IQdSSY
The recipe is on page 238 in her cookbook 'A Girl and Her Pig: Recipes and Stories'.
Filed Under: Uncategorised Tagged With: goldeye, indigenous, manitoba goldeye, smoked fish, smoked goldeye, smoked meat, smoker