Spoils of War: Petroglyphs of Captured Women at Red Canyon, 48FR2508

Summary

Two warrior artists documented coups at the Red Canyon site by illustrating capture hands reaching out to take enemy women. The capture of these women has an obvious sexual symbolism, with the capture hands reaching out toward the vulva in one instance and the breast in the other. This symbolism is identical to that which occurs at other Northwestern Plains rock art sites scattered from Writing-On-Stone, Alberta to Wyoming’s Bighorn Basin (Greer and Keyser 2008:95, 98; Keyser and Poetschat 2009:15, 2014:99; Keyser et al. 2006:59; 2012:77-78). In Plains Indian cultures this symbolism served to show a man’s counting coup by claiming (or “capturing”) a woman’s reproductive potential (Keyser et al. 2006:59). Such capture of women was a key component of the Plains warfare system, since captives were highly sought after to replace dead relatives killed by epidemic diseases and inter-tribal warfare. This Red Canyon rock art composition provides another testament to the importance of women captives in the warfare system of the Northwestern Plains.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Wyoming Archaeologist 2014

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Contact(s): Marcia Peterson

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