A LENS ON NATIVE AMERICA T


he first episode titled From Caves to Cosmos features some of the earliest rock art in the Western Hemisphere at the Cave of the Painted Rock in the Monte Alegre hills in


Brazil, dating to around 13,000 years ago. It is discussed by Dr. Anna C. Roosevelt and Dr. Christopher S. Davis of the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Roosevelt observes that, “The Monte Alegre rock art...shows that the Paleoindians made exhaustive and ac- curate observations of the motions of the heavens but chose to ‘see’ them as the heroes and deities of their creation scenario. Thus, scientific understanding, which is also manifest in Paleoindians’ local ecological ad- aptations, is something the Indians merged with their conceptual and aesthetic under- standings, creating a true monument of art iconography that still exists today, so many thousands of years later.”


Shown here are archaeologists Christopher Davis and Anna Roosevelt, who determined that a Paleoindian cliff painting may have been part of an ancient astronomical observatory.


E 12 AMERICAN INDIAN FALL 2018


arly Americans were intimately aware of the movements of the sky and were able to document such knowledge.


The story


continues at the imposing and awe-inspiring Grand Canyon


in the southwestern U.S. Jim Enote (Zuni), CEO of the Colorado Plateau Foundation, is working with Octavius Seowtewa (Zuni) to study petroglyphs, or rock carvings, created thousands of years ago. Enote has hired Na- tive painters to transform Zuni history into illustrated maps. He explains, “We looked at these kinds of petroglyphs and other kinds of images on ceramics, things that were woven in tapestries. We thought about the songs and prayers we have, and we decided that we can make our own kinds of maps.” They “represent the world without defined bound- aries” and are unlike the “geometric maps with streets and roads” to which people may be more accustomed. “When they see Zuni hand-painted maps, they realize there is a dif- ferent way of looking at the world,” he says.


Zuni tribal member Jim Enote returns to the Grand Canyon, place of his people’s emergence from the earth.


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