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Image 9
Petroglyphs and Pictographs: Wyoming's Original
Artwork
Number Nine: “Multiple Dinwoody Style Petroglyphs”
– Fremont County
 This
massive series of petroglyphs illustrates the incredible effort
of the individuals who made the figures. They are good representations
of Dinwoody Tradition with multiple interior designs that meander
through the bodies. These repetitive images, called phosphenes
and/or entoptic phenomena, are often equated with the first states
of trance experiences. Once they appear, the visionary tries to
make sense of them and alters them into recognizable figures in
the second level of the trance, known as the construal stage.
Finally the dreamer enters a full vision in which, if the individual
is worthy, the figures talk, walk and offer advice - as if the
encounter between supplicant and the spirit being were as real
as in everyday life.
The intended representation of these figures is not known. They
may be water ghosts, but if so they lack the characteristic bows
and arrows. Whatever they were intended to be, they represent
some powerful Shoshone beings.
Reproduction of a tracing by Linda Olson with Laura Emerson,
Wendy Hall, Janet Lever, Ann Philips, Brady Potts, Gregory Vettel
and Courtney Yilk. Research sponsored by Loendorf and Associates,
the University of North Dakota, the Lucius Burch Center, and the
Fremont County Historical Preservation Commission.
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