Petroform
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Petroforms, or also known as boulder outlines, are the large outline of shapes that were made by arranging many rocks on the open ground into various shapes and patterns. Aboriginal groups made shapes of humans, snakes, turtles, birds, medicine wheels, and geometric shapes in prehistoric times that are still intact today. Petroform sites in North America can be found in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Montana, and many other states and provinces. Petroglyphs and pictographs are quite different, because petroforms are often made from large rocks and boulders over large areas of ground, unlike the smaller glyphs and graphs. Petroforms can also be used much easier and in more complex ways for astronomical predictions, mapping, etc.
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[edit] History
Some of the petroform shapes might be about 2,500 years old and it is difficult to date them accurately. There are some claims that some of these petroforms are even older, up to 8,000 years. Like the petroglyphs, many petroforms have teachings that have been passed down orally by the Ojibway, First Nations, and the Midewiwin (Grand Medicine Society). Some teachings may have been lost, along with the peoples that first made some of the oldest petroforms. In some states and provinces, there are laws to protect these important archeological and historical sites. Vandalism has occurred in the past, and careful protection of these interesting sites is needed. Perhaps some native elders have decided to keep hidden or secret knowledge to avoid the possible destruction or altering of sacred sites and memories. We will learn more about these ancient cultures when there is greater respect given to the ancient ways and artifacts left behind so long ago. Ancient civilizations thrived in North and South America, with grand architecture, math, trading networks, trails, canoes, governing structures, astronomy, symbol making, scrolls, and more. All of this occurred long before the arrival of Europeans in the 1500s and 1600s. There were very few studies or specific mention of these petroform sites until the 1900s. The first detailed study and description of some sites in Manitoba were done by Dr. J Steinbring and R. Sutton after the 1950s.
[edit] Localities
[edit] Whiteshell Provincial Park
One of the locations of a large granite petroform site in North America can be found in Eastern Manitoba, in the Whiteshell Provincial Park, Canada, which is named after the white cowrie shells used by aboriginals in ceremonies. Petroform shapes were probably used to guide travellers, point out the directions, for astronomical use, and for ceremonial use. They provide a way to memorize stories and ideas associated with the shapes and geometrical patterns of the rocks. They are in need of protection from anyone who might accidentily or purposely move any of these ancient rocks, and specific laws are set up to protect them from vandals. The southeastern Manitoba sites contain all the many variations of petroforms from across North America, which suggests that many of these rock art shapes originated in the central area of the North American continent.
There are many unknown questions about these fascinating rock shapes that are found in the boreal forests of Manitoba, on flatter, bare surfaces of the Canadian Shield granite rock ridges. A large nine acre site exists in the Whiteshell Provincial Park and may possibly be the largest, intact petroform site in North America. This site is protected by the province of Manitoba. There are also many other smaller sites in the park, and some sites elsewhere in Manitoba, North Dakota, Montana, Wisconsin, etc. The word "Manitoba" possibly comes from an Ojibway word meaning where the Spirit sits. The locations of these petroforms are considered sacred ground by many, and the area may have been used to pass along stories, knowledge, and to gather for large meetings. One story indicates that this is the area where the first human was put on this Earth. Whiteshell Park has some of the oldest granite bedrock areas on Earth that are mostly composed of a pink coloured granite, or smooth granite ridges, sometimes quite flat,and sometimes a mix of pink and grey granite. There are some very large flat areas of this pink coloured, felsic granite that were excellent areas for aboriginal peoples to regularly gather in large numbers without causing a lot of muddy trails and ground. Some of the granite ridge rock is about 3.8 billion years old. The Canadian Shield is an ancient bedrock of mountains that have been scraped down to smaller ridges by many ice ages. These ridges would have been excellent ancient highways to walk across a land of wetter areas, dense forests, lakes, and away from the river canoe routes. Native peoples used the landscape in a reasonable way, that allowed them to more easily move in search of food, for travel, for gatherings, for ceremonies, and for exploring. These ancient rock ridges became a valuable route that snakes through the thick forests and across wet and difficult terrain. Petroforms made upon these granite ridges would have been partially a natural outcome based on the importance and use of the ridges for practical reasons and the abundance of glacial till and rocks to make the petroforms. The Whiteshell River route was used by natives, traders, and trappers for many years, and was one of the main routes to the prairies and Hudson's Bay from the eastern lakes and rivers. The petroforms found in the Whiteshell River area are close enough to the canoe routes or river highways that native peoples would have needed and used.
Other very similar rock circles and medicine wheels can be found across North America, but sites elsewhere do not have the diversity of shapes that the Whiteshell Park sites have. The Whiteshell Provincial Park is named after a white shell, or the miigis shell (a cowrie shell) that was very important to many native peoples across North America and elsewhere in the world. These shells were used for ceremonies and they are found naturally from the shores of the Pacific Ocean. Stories written on birch bark scrolls document some of the history of Ojibway migrations and the discovery of white miigis shells along Lake Superior and elsewhere.
[edit] Turtle Mountain Provincial Park
There are areas in and around Turtle Mountain Provincial Park that have many medicine wheels and other large petroform shapes.
[edit] Wisconsin
The petrofrom sites in Wisconsin are being studied more closely, and can be dated more easily because of soil deposits over centuries. Many other sites have no layers of soil deposited around the petroforms. In many areas across the prairies, large circular medicine wheels were made as astronomical devices, directional maps, and for ceremonial use. Some of these medicine wheels are large, and many were destroyed for agricultural needs by clearing the grasslands of any rocks. Some are intact, such as in the Turtle Mountains, and other sandy, rocky, or remote areas that had less crop farms and settlements.
