NEVADA ARCHAEOLOGIST VOLUME 18 2000 " ..- . " ""\, NEVADA ARCHAEOLOGICAL ASSOCIA TION (; Membership NEVADA ~/ ARCHAEOLOGICAL /;~~-;~~~) The Nevada Archaeological Association is an ASSOCIATION incorporated, non-profit organization registered in &~1f;.)jj the State of Nevada, and has no paid employees. \,~~;;~j Membership is open to any person signing the d The design for the NAA logo .. ~<>- NAA Code of Ethics who is interested in was adapted by Robert Elston j" \,~ archaeology and its allied sciences, and in the from a Garfield Flat :J conservation of archaeological resources. Requests petroglyph. for membership and dues should be sent to the Membership Chainnan at the address below. Make Neyada Archaeological all checks and money orders payable to the Nevada Association Officers Archaeological Association. Membership cards will be issued on the payment of dues and the President Anne DuBarton 702-434-2740 receipt of a signed Code of Ethics. Active Las Vegas, Nevada members receive subscription to the Nevada Archaeologist and the NAA Newsletter In Situ. Secretary Pat Hicks 702-293-8705 Subscription is by membership only: however, Henderson, Nevada individual or back issues may be purchased separately. Treasurer Oyvind Frock 775-826-8779 Reno, Nevada Dues Editor, Volume 18 Student $5 William G. White Active $12 Las Vegas, Nevada Active Family $15 Supporting $25 Board of Directors Sponsor $50 Patron $100 The Board of Directors of the Nevada Life $500 Archaeological Association is elected annually by Benefactor $1000+ the membership. Board members serve one year terms. The Board of Directors elects the Association's officers from those members elected Future Issues to the Board. The Board of Directors meets five times a year, Twice in March, immediately prior to, Manuscripts submitted for publication in the and immediately following the Annual Meeting, Nevada Archaeologist should follow the style once in June, once in September and once in guide of the January 1992 issue of American December. Antiquity. Manuscripts should be typed and double-spaced throughout, including notes and President Anne DuBarton bibliography, and illustrations should be camera- Las Vegas, Nevada ready with a caption typed on a separate sheet of Treasurer Oyvind Frock paper, also double-spaced. Submissions from Reno, Nevada avocational archaeologists as well as professionals Secretary Pat Hicks are encouraged. Henderson, Nevada Newsletter David Valentine Manuscripts should be submitted to ]I/evada Las Vegas, Nevada Archaeologist, P.O. Box 73145, Las Vegas, Membership Christi Shaw Nevada, 89170-3145. Battle Mountain, Nevada Member Wallace Ward General Correspondence Fallon, Nevada Member Rene Kolvet Inquiries and general correspondence with the Reno, Nevada Nevada Archaeological Association should be Member Doug Dashiel directed as follows: Ely, Nevada Member Steve Daron Nevada Archaeological Association Boulder City, Nevada clo Anne DuBarton (or other board member) P.O. Box 73145, Las Vegas, Nevada, 89170-3145. NEVADA ARCHAEOLOGIST VOLUME 18 2000 EDITOR'S CORNER As we close out this millennium (contrary to those who think that year 2000 is the beginning of the next millennium), petroglyphs and/or pictographs, commonly referred to as rock art, have become a subject of much public interest. Rock art as a scientific research domain has been subjected to new hypotheses and methodologies to address posed questions long neglected by the archaeological community. Along with increased public interest and scientific study comes the concern of the Native Americans, often resulting in a clash of cultures and/or philosophies. The issues that affect the resource, whether it is casual appreciation, scientific scrutiny, or protection of the sacred, should be of concern to all native-born Americans for such sites are part of our common cultural heritage. Featured within the covers of this Nevada Archaeological Association journal are six papers associated with some aspect of rock art research. The presented papers address only some of the many issues involved in understanding the resource. Although the articles specifically pertain to rock art found in Nevada, the information presented is also applicable to rock art sites found throughout the Great Basin. Each of the authors, whether avocational or professional, have extensive experience in this problem domain and are representative of only a handful of such researchers in Nevada. I wish to thank the authors of this issue who answered my call for papers; I hope that I have done them justice. More of a compiler than an editor, responsibility for mistakes found within this volume rest with me and not with the authors. And so with that, please enjoy this volume, support the Nevada Archaeological Association, and the protection of rock art sites wherever the may occur. William G. White Cover: Some of the many anthropomorphs and an unusual zoomporph from the Sloan Rock Art Complex (26CK2240), illustrated by David Smee, 1998. NEVADA ARCHAEOLOGIST VOLUME 18 2000 TABLE OF CONTENTS Editor's Corner William G. White Coming of Age: Rock Art and Reconciliation Alanah Woody Something to Think About Grace Burkholder 9 Interpreting Nevada's Rock Art - The Balancing Act Between General Theory and Ethnography Angus Quinlan 16 Rock Art in the Homeland and on the Border: A Look at Washoe Territory Sue Ann Monteleone 26 Skepticism and the Shamanic Model in Rock Art William G. White 42 Tinajas at the Six Mile Flat Rock Art Site Dawna Ferris-Rowley, Mark Henderson, Farrel Lytle, Manetta Lytle, and Peter Rowley 51 II NEV ADA ARCHAEOLOGIST VOLUME 18 2000 Coming of Age: Rock Art and Reconciliation Alanah Woody Abstract the interest and concerns of all the communities with a stake in rock art. Rock art research has moved from relative This paper is more of a personal obscurity to the cutting edge of archaeological research and is now at a crossroads as the new narrative than an academic presentation, and millelmium approaches. Accompanying tIlis rising deals with two topics that are both prominence has also come a rise in academic rancor emotionally and politically sensitive, but and intellectual bullying mllong professionals, in which are fundamentally linked and critical addition to the issues of cultural patrimony that to all archaeological research in the United plague archaeology in general. These growing pains suggest that now may be the time to re-evaluate our States. First, the role of Native Americans goals and objectives, as well as exmnine ways that in archaeological debate; and second, the differences can be reconciled and alternative views value of multiple approaches in respected. interpretation and the appropriate tone for discllssion. Both are issues in which those Introduction with an interest in the past, Native Americans, professional and avocational The end of this millennium seems an archaeologists, and the concerned public, appropriate time to review and evaluate the must become more actively involved. progress made in the field of rock art As a personal note, 1 have been research over the last decade and to look studying rock art for a little less than 10 ahead to the future. Over sixty years ago, years, and still consider myself to be a Julian Steward (1936406) urged newcomer. Because of my sheltered archaeologists to begin the serious study of academic career as a student, where rock art by saying: "when competent alternative views have been encouraged, archeologists can be enticed to set aside supported, and otherwise nurtured, I was their spades long enough to ponder little prepared for the grim realities of petroglyphs, we may expect a much better professional bullying, intellectual understanding of this interesting subject." domination and "turf' guarding out in the Today rock art studies are enjoying a new "real world" of academic and professional phase of popularity and critical attention archaeology. I remain optimistic, however, from within the archaeological community that an appreciation of rock art can and the general public. Accompanying the transcend the boundaries that divide people. dramatic increase in interest in the field, Rock art may prove to be an important locus however, rock art research has become of conciliation rather than contention, by embroiled in many of the controversies that allowing us all to understand our own plague all of archaeology, and there seems humanity a little better and giving rock art's to be growing division among the various different communities a shared resource to communities with an interest in the past. If protect, appreciate, and understand. rock art studies are to fully develop their Like many American archaeologists, potential, debate must be conducted I am an anthropological archaeologist- constructively, acknowledging the value of something important for someone whose competing perspectives and also addressing study domain has powerful resonance for Native Americans. The prehistoric NEVADA ARCHAEOLOGIST VOLUME 18 2000 archaeological record of North America is extinguish Native American culture saw, almost exclusively one made by Native among other devices of acculturation, the Americans. It should be remembered that establishment of 'Indian Schools' whose our study of another culture's past is not professed function was to turn Native necessarily welcome and frequently is American children into U. S citizens, "for regarded as intrusive and oppressive their own good." (Lippert 1996 58). Faced with this, the earliest I recently took my students to a local American