Dreams and dream names were important in medicine, curing, and in determining one's occupation. For the Ojibwa, sickness was believed to come from a spirit underground and dreams and visions were essential to curing sickness (Copway 1851:38-39).
One of Densmore's shaman informants related the dream that gave him the authority and power to name children. In his dream he saw three men: one from the sky, one from the North, "and one whose body was half under the ground" (Densmore 1979:55).
The image of a half-emerged human with upraised arms appears in Winchell (1911:610-611 Plate IX), in an illustration of an Ojibwa medicine Tom-Tom. According to Winchell: "(T)he medicine man from time to time tapped the patient and rattled the pebbles to frighten away the bugs, or evil monidos" (Winchell 1911:610).
The half-emerged figure with upraised arms was a powerful spirit received in a vision or dream. At the Nett Lake site there is a petroglyph (Figure 1) of an anthropomorph with upraised hands and bent legs. The figure is holding up what is probably his or her medicine bag , and is connected by a superimposed zigzag to what appears to be a half-emerged figure with one leg out of the ground, and half of one arm still in the ground. The zigzag, an entoptic form, is a commonly used symbol in the shamanic birch bark scrolls, representing such things as, (1) the gaining of medicine or power, (2) being set free from the disturbing influences of evil manidos, and (3) the curing of a patient by a shaman, etc. (Hoffman 1891:203,219,233,248,255).
According to David Whitley (1992) the upright arm posture was a common symbol in the far west for representing the shamanic "dance" posture during ceremonies and supernatural performances. It was believed that the wrist was the "seat" of supernatural power and this dance posture was often a prelude to entering altered states of consciousness (Whitley 1992:104).
Albert B. Reagan, the Indian agent at Nett Lake, described the Nett Lake rock art as including "human beings, dance scenes and outlines of the animal gods worshipped by the men who made the pictures" (Reagan 1958:8).
In interpreting the Algonkian Peterborough site the Vastoukas (1973:65-71) appear to have also reached the same conclusion that the upraised arm figures represent shamans. As Grace Rajnovich has pointed out regarding the Algonkians of the Canadian shield: "The upraised arm figure is a frequent morph on the pictographs. A number of song scrolls interpret an arms-up sign as a depiction of giving and receiving medicine" (Rajnovich 1989:187). At the Jeffers site in southwestern Minnesota this is a relatively frequently seen posture. Lothson counted eighteen anthropomorphs with upraised hands (Lothson 1976:24).
Another important Minnesota rock art symbol directly connected to shamanism, mythology, and curing visions is the horned serpent which also appears at the Nett Lake site (Figure 2). Densmore published a detailed account from an informant who related a shaman's transformation into such a being. In his transformed state the shaman lay half in, and half out of, water and was able to cure people (Densmore 1979:181-182).
In 1844 Catlin noted that the dog feast was a "religious" event and dog images were carved into rocks as a symbol of fidelity (Catlin 1844:230). Dogs were also sacrificed as offerings to the underground spirit that caused illness, and were drowned in lakes, along with tobacco, as an offering (Copway 1851). Lothson, who counted the various figures at the Jeffers site, identified six figures as "wolves or dogs" (Lothson 1976:27).
Smith referred to the use of "dream-inducing medicine" by Ojibwa shamans involved in treating an illness: "From these symptoms they diagnose the disease. Usually they want time to dream over the case, and drink a draught of their own dream-inducing medicine before going to sleep" (Smith 1932:349).
Smith (1932:405) lists catnip (Nepeta cataria) leaves as being used by the Flambeau Ojibwa in making a beverage tea. Siegel, in the medical literature on hallucinogens lists catnip (Nepeta cataria) as a mild hallucinogen, smoked or used in tea as a marijuana substitute (Siegel 1976:454).
One of Smith's intriguing entries is for "spreading dogbane" (Apocynum androsaefolium). The Pillager Ojibwe said it "is one of the roots the use of which is taught in the fourth degree of the medicine lodge, and that it is not only eaten during the medicine lodge ceremony, but is also chewed to keep the other witch doctors from affecting one with an evil charm" (Smith 1932:428).
Dogbane typifies a family (Apocynaceae) that includes periwinkle. Periwinkle is a hallucinogen that if smoked or made into a tea is a euphoriant (Siegel 1976:474). Euphoriants are drugs that induce a feeling of well-being, relaxation, and happiness (RDGED 1966:457).
Atropine hallucinogens can be obtained from plants that are widely available in North America and Europe. A study of European witchcraft's relationship to widely available atropine hallucinogens indicates that older women "riding the broomstick" were ingesting atropine hallucinogens through the skin who then believed that they went flying (Harner 1973:131,140). Harner suggests that the effect of these drugs also accounts for the stories of lycanthropy or the belief in human transformation into a wolf or predatory animal.
Black Nightshade (Solanurn nigrum), a poisonous and sometimes deadly plant due to its atropine content, is listed by Reagan as being used by the Nett Lake Ojibwa both as a medicine and in their shamanistic medicine ceremonies (Reagan 1928:239). Atropine is well known to the medical profession as a medical drug, as a hallucinogen used by the "hippies" in the 1960s, and as a poison that can kill (Patniak 1992:130; Ellenhorn and Barceloux 1988:1257).
LILLIPUTIAN HALLUCINATIONS AND ROCK ART
One of atropine's side effects is what medical doctors have called "lilliputian hallucinations" where the subject sees "little people," often for half an hour (Asaad 1990:6,39; Leroy 1922:325-333). These lilliputian hallucinations are also commonly seen in the second stage of alcohol withdrawal among long term alcoholics with delirium tremens (Asaad 1990:39). I suggest that these effects may account for reports of "little people" on a worldwide basis. Any hallucination, no matter how induced, can potentially cause a lilliputian hallucination, since visual distortion is a common effect.
Atropine and alcohol withdrawal have been particularly noted by clinical reports to be associated with the phenomena. A "forced perspective shot" in filmmaking simply requires visually confusing or blending the foreground with the background in order to create a lilliputian illusion. Something akin to this confusion of foreground and background objects may be taking place during the synesthesia and perceptual distortion of hallucination.
Many ethnographic accounts from Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario indicate that the rock art of the Algonkians, including the Cree and Ojibwa are directly connected to dreams and visions (Rajnovich 1989:184-185). . Interestingly, half of the people Dewdney (1967) talked to said that the Maymaygwayshi or "little people" made the rock art. This may have originally reflected a taboo about talking about a dead shaman, and the failure to distinguish the shaman from the shaman's spirit helper (Whitley 1994:82).
Spirit Island in Nett Lake, Minnesota is known locally as Picture Island, or Drum Island (Me-tig-wah-kick"). Reagan reported that it was sometimes called "Drum Island" because "the polished rock area is hollow beneath; and on walking over it, it gives out a hollow drum-like sound" (Reagan 1958)
Spirit Island is supposed to be the home of the "Ah ge jaks" who: "keep the pictoglyphs freshly painted. They are small red warriors, covered entirely with hair except for their faces, and when full grown are only a foot high" (Savard 1970).
Although Reagan and others have interpreted the Ojibwa story of arriving at Nett Lake, and pursuing someone or something as referring to pursuing the Dakota, it seems unlikely that Dakota hunters and raiders would have stopped to noisily carve hundreds of petroglyphs into an exposed outcrop on an island. According to Wilford, who excavated a site in the current Village of Nett Lake about 1000 feet from Spirit Island: "The Nett Lake area was probably never Siouan territory. ... The Sioux may have hunted and raided in the Nett Lake area, and it probably had been occupied by Cree or Assiniboine at times" (Wilford 1953:12).
A Midewiwin birch bark scroll dated to 1560 A.D. was found in a cave at Burntside Lake in Quetico Provincial Park, Ontario near the Minnesota border (Kidd 1981:41, cited in Rajnovich 1989:183). Rajnovich (1989) suggests that this makes a strong case for a precontact Midewiwin. The organized Midewiwin may have developed more recently as a specialized development from a much older, more individualistic shamanic tradition (Vastoukas and Vastoukas 1973:461). The Midewiwin birch bark scrolls, most of which are from Minnesota, should not be viewed as providing an exact narrative translation of the petroglyphs, but rather are invaluable in providing data for an understanding of the iconographic significance of images that appear repeatedly and have their origin in the same concepts of manidos, guardian spirits, and shamanistic practice (Vastoukas and Vastoukas 1973:46-47). Birch bark scrolls are mnemonic and ideographic, not phonemic, but the recurring motifs have components that were sufficiently understood to become common figurative signs among Ojibwa shamans (Vastoukas and Vastoukas 1973:43). The figures with upraised arms and bent legs, the medicine bags, the half emerged figures, the zigzag power lines, the horned serpents and many other symbols found in the birch bark scrolls can be found carved into the bedrock of Spirit Island.
The Ojibwa birch bark scrolls of Minnesota serve to illustrate that ethnohistoric information may come in various forms and from sources other than traditional histories and ethnographies. Rock art researchers should therefore continue to look for new lines of evidence from sources that may be unique to their particular region of study.
CONCLUSIONS
Although some Minnesota rock art has been clearly dated to the Archaic period by Steinbring (1990) and Lothson (1976) based upon atlatl and copper projectile point motifs, not all Minnesota rock art is ancient. In fact, some of the most interesting petroglyphs at the Pipestone, Jeffers, and Nett Lake sites may be from the historic period.
Assessment of the neuropsychological model indicates that although entoptic motifs and principles may be identifiable in the rock art, the neuropsychological model's greatest explanatory power locally is in the interpretation of rock art depicting aspects of somatic hallucinations hitherto unnoticed or ignored that are depicted in a directly representational way, such as attenuation, polymelia, somatic transformation, sexual excitation, emergence, etc.
A methodological emphasis on reexamining local ethnography, with an understanding of the use of metaphor and use of the neuropsychological model as a general theoretical framework has provided an explanation of more, and varied, data than competing hypotheses. As a working theoretical framework, the neuropsychological model has provided a means to say more about Minnesota rock art than was possible before. In assessing the model's utility, it has explanatory power, generates new insights, and it enables more to be said about the rock art than was previously possible. The medical, anthropological, and ethnographic grounding of the model provides a distinctly different perspective and dialectically challenges competing hypotheses that fail to incorporate existing, relevant, and available medical and ethnographic data.