1. From the Handout "Video: The Teaching Rocks" Dennis Jones, U of MN.
"Introduction: Peter O'Chiese and Fred Wheatley, two elders, reenacted the travel that the traditional Ojibway would have as if they were going to the Peterborough Petroglyphs. They brought along a film crew and taped the journey. The journey was not staged; in fact the moose that came up to the camera actually occurred. The Peterborough Petroglyphs are situated in southern Ontario near the town of Peterborough, Ontario. This film is about rock paintings and rock carvings."
2. According to Dennis Jones, Peter O'Chiese lived his whole life on mountains in Alberta and he received visions. O'Chiese claims to have seen "Bigfoot" or "Sasquatch" whom he considered to be a person. O'Chiese was told in a vision to come and teach the people. Most Ojibway don't speak their native language but he spoke four Algonquian languages and he learned English easily. All of the elders come to listen to him when he speaks and he does not allow any videotaping or writing (writing is not a traditional way of learning). It is intentional that his name does not appear in the credits, but it is his voice that is speaking during the description of the sweat lodge.
3. A review of historic period records by Joan and Romas Vastoukas (1973:26-27) suggested that local people did not know about the Peterborough Petroglyphs during the recent historic past:
". . . there are no indications that the early settlers or the government survey teams ever came across the site in the course of lumbering, hunting, or exploration. Nor are there any references in the pioneer literature of the area to suggest that the native inhabitants at Chemong Lake or Rice Lake had any knowledge of the petroglyphs. At the turn of the nineteenth century, Stony Lake and the streams and lakes in its vicinity were apparently claimed by the Ojibwa chief Handsome Jack as his hunting and fishing grounds. However, among the interesting details collected by Pelham Mulvaney in 1884 about Handsome Jack, his family, and their lands there is no mention of the petroglyphs. In 1904, Chief Robert Paudash, a Mississauga from the Rice Lake settlement, recorded the oral traditions concerning the coming of his ancestors from the north shore of Lake Huron to the Trent Valley. Robert Paudash came from a long line of hereditary chiefs and was capable and anxious to record the achievementsof the Mississaugas; had he known of the Stony Lake site he would have probably referred to it in the context of the Rice Lake Serpent Mounds, whose authorship he attributed to his forefathers. In addition, it should be borne in mind that when the Mississaugas arrived in southern Ontario in the eighteenth century, they had already been exposed to considerable contact and trade, and that some of the elements of their new culture might have found their way into the array of engraved forms. There is nothing in the site, however, to suggest European contact.
At the present, therefore, it is not possible to establish a direct link between the native inhabitants at the nearby Chemong Lake and Rice Lake settlements and the petroglyphs at Stony Lake. Nor is it at all likely that the artists were the Ontario Iroquois who occupied sections of the Trent waterway during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The most probable conclusion that can be drawn on the available eveidence is that the petroglyphs were engraved by prehistoric Algonkians at the latter end of the Woodland period, sometime between 900 and 1400 A.D." (Vastokas and Vastoukas 1973:26-27).
Joan M. Vastoukas and Romas K. Vastoukas, 1973, Sacred Art of the Algonkians, A Study of the Peterborough Petroglyphs. Mansard Press: Peterborough.
4. My Reaction: Whether or not the local Ojibway knew or did not know about the petroglyphs in recent times is an important point since one is left with the distinct impression from the film that it was in active use as "teaching rocks" for children before 1954 and the local Ojibway who visited it covered it back up with leaves and pine needles. This could adversely affect the believability of the local narrator who indicated that his grandfather brought people there (i.e. this is the local narrator who said that he learned about the site from his 112 year old grandfather).
However, to know about the petroglyphs and to use them as teaching rocks is not the same thing as saying that they were made in recent times. Later cultures sometimes incorporate old petroglyphs made by people from long ago.
In the film it is indicated that it was the first time to the site for the person "reading" the petroglyphs whom I presume was Peter O'Chiese. Based upon his experience he read or interpreted the site but left it open for others to use their own experience to interpret the site themselves.
The conclusion that it was an Algonquian/Ojibway sacred fasting ground where people with wisdom came to think and pray does not seem at all unreasonable and is similar to conclusion of the Vastoukas who also concluded that the Peterborough Petroglyphs were the sacred art of Algonkian shamans.
People are rightfully impressed by the thought that there were wise people who came there to make petroglyphs in the distant past. These petroglyphs are the probably the only remaining artifacts of the dreams and visions, symbols, thinking, and cognition of people who passed away long ago.
I have never been there but the actual experience of visiting the site seems to be very important and it seems to have a striking appearance. Some petroglyphs are carved to go into the cracks and there are figures of a crane and other animals, the shamanic upraised arm posture for gaining power through the wrists, "rabbit eared" anthropomorphs, etc. The film shows a deep crack in the bedrock that was incorporated as the vulva form of a female figure. The water dripping into the cracks is mentioned by the narrator at one point as perhaps the reason for picking this spot. Those first hand observations that are made in the film suggest that visiting the site is a powerful personal experience which inspires feelings of awe and respect for the people who made the petroglyphs and used that spot in the distant past.
1. "In the Stony Lake area near Peterborough, Ontario there are outcroppings of soft rock. Carved in these rocks are symbols which are similar to ones found in many parts of North and South America. The carvings are significant in the social and philosophical teachings of the Ojibway people…but the precise meanings of the many symbols are carefully shrouded in mystery."
2. Kinomagewapkong means "the rocks that teach." "Wapkong" is where the rocks are situated. Kinomage is "to teach."
3. Years ago a child who was very active, with his legs going who was obviously going to be a smart person would be brought to the petroglyphs to be trained (like a priest). It was not for everybody but for someone who would become an elder and a priest in his own right. (Narrator) History opened up for me and it was of value when I got older.
4. The narrator found out about the teaching rocks from his 112 year old (!) grandfather. He brought people there. He stayed with people at Stony Lake.
5. According to the elder that read it, Algonquin/Ojibway people made the carvings.
6. The rock is like coarse crystals of salt. The petroglyphs were made by gouging and hammering.
7. At one time the depth of the petroglyphs was the depth of a person’s fingers folded or about 2 ½ to 3 inches deep.
8. The leaves and pine needles protected it.
9. Since it was opened up in 1954 its deteriorated. They would open it up and then cover it up.
10. Its tells of life way,way back and what things were to happen. (Images of a female petroglyph with a vulva form and petroglyphs near cracks)
11. It tells about the female. What her work is, the foundation of the family.
12. The elder had never seen it before. The more he saw it the more he could read it.
13. He’s not given us everything.
14. We have to live a certain way before we can carry the wisdom that it has.
15. He wouldn’t tell us everything. The elder said you don’t learn from the top. "The elder hasn't told us totally."
16. The medicine wheel, the wheel of life usually starts from the east, where day begins, where life begins.
17. The midlife is in the south. The sunset is where our life ends.
18. In the north our spirits may be, when the tobacco is burned, meeting the sun (i.e. the North is where the spirits meet the hereafter and make the journey home at death along the road of souls across the sky, etc.).
19. We are put on the earth to look after and take care of the earth, not to mutilate it.
20. Children who mutilate the earth must be taught not to. You should redirect children not to abuse the Earth.
21. All people are endowed with a soft voice that animals will understand. Speak softly to them so they know you won’t harm them. They are beautiful. We should coexist with animals.
22. You are honored to coexist with animals and not have them run away.
23. The heron arrests the overpopulation of diseased or sick fish. It prevents illnesses. That’s why its held in high regard.
24. My family, the beaver clan, couldn’t trap the beaver. My Grandmother said, "Watch the beaver, you will learn much from them."
25. Every blade of grass has a right to grow. Whenever you set up your shelter don’t leave it there long enough to kill the grass. The Great Spirit gave you a strong body to do these things.
26. Indian people were very well traveled in a season. They would go around Lake Michigan and Lake Superior.
27. Lake Superior was "the large body of water of the Ojibway," entirely encompassed by the Ojibway.
28. There are paintings around the lake about things that happened and what would happen.
29. The Dakota would come down and trade medicines with the Ojibway at Lake Superior at Duluth(e.g. the Dakota brought sage and the Ojibway brought bitterroot). The moon of May (the quiet month) would be when they met. After that the wind began to blow heavily.
30. Paintings are found in many places throughout the Ojibway speaking world. They can be found in unusual places.
31. If an elder had a dream he would paint on the rocks. He knew someone sooner or later would be able to translate or read the paintings. It might be one or two generations before someone would come along who could read the paintings.
32. There are places where birch bark scrolls are hidden away in the Great Lakes.
33. The Mide religion is a slow process. Coexist and be able to see the good in everything.
34. The sweat lodge is a purification process.
35. You bring tobacco to an elder, sweat, fast for 4 days (for the vision), sweat, have a ceremony, and then have a feast.
36. The sweat lodge was created, like the rocks, by the Great Spirit. The rocks and circle symbolize Mother Earth.
37. Water cleans you up. Water has spirit too. It is poured on the sweat lodge rocks.
38. Your mind is no longer in turmoil at peace with everything. It is the most wonderful feeling to have.
39. They paddled the length of Stony Lake to Youth (sp?) Creek which would direct them where they were going.
40. They came to rocks that pointed to the area where they were going to (Shinooge Waabkong or "to point, rocks" or the "pointing rocks").
41. Animals and deer looked at them and they knew they were in hallowed ground and no harm would come to them.
42. They did not speak because it was a place of reverence. They felt eyes on them. This is where some of our elders came to think and to pray there.
43. He could hear water dripping into deep cracks and wondered how far down it was and perhaps that’s the reason why they made the impressions and picked that spot.
44. The creator has always sent prophets or messengers to help guide mankind and to keep balance.
45. They add. Each is like a chapter in a book.
46. Don't contribute to the mess. Young people need to be guided to be environmentally conscious. We start the ball rolling. Young people today are asking. Not everyone’s vision is blocked.
47. If you think when you look at the petroglyphs it will make some sense to you and give you some sense of peace when you think that there were people who existed there at one time with wisdom.
48. Narration: Fred Wheatley; Additional Voices: Kay Taylor, Jim Small Legs, Liana Wolf Ear;Thanks to National Museum of Civilization, Trent University Department of Native Studies.
49. Copyright 1987 Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.
Translation into French by Daniel Arsenault
Notes de Kevin Callahan sur Return to An Introduction to Ojibway Culture and History
© 1997 call0031@tc.umn.edu
Notes on the film:
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