Description

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This absorbing volume examines the cultural role of rock art for the Apsáalooke, or Crow, people of the northern Great Plains. Their extensive rock art developed within the changing cultural life of the tribe. Individual knowledge and meaning of rock art panels, however, relies as much on collective concepts of landscape as it does on shared memories of historic Crow culture. Using this idea as a focus, this book:
-introduces Plains Indian rock art of the 19th century as we know about it from its own stylistic conventions, ethnographic data, and historical accounts;
-investigates the contemporary Crow discourse about rock art and its place within the cultural landscape and archaeological record;
-argues that cultural concepts of space and place are fundamental to the way rock art is discussed, experienced and interpreted.

About the Author

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Timothy P. McCleary has been a professor at Little Bighorn College, the Apsáalooke/ Crow Indian Tribal College for over twenty-five years and the archaeologist for the Crow Tribal Historic Preservation Office for over fifteen years. His lifelong interest in how different cultures perceive the world led him to the field of anthropology. Through his studies he has examined various aspects of the historic and contemporary culture of the Apsáalooke people. This research has covered such varied topics as the legal battles of the Native American Church in Montana, the rise of Pentecostalism on the Crow Indian Reservation, and the cultural, historical and religious significance of land to the Apsáalooke people. This most recent interest has guided him to examine the historic rock art of the Apsáalooke.