PETROGLYPHS.US

Little Blair Valley pictographs

The Kumeyaay people, also referred to as the Ipai, Tipai & Kamia (or Diegueno, which is a Spanish mission designation) inhabited much of the territory encompassed by present day San Diego and Imperial counties and as far south as Ensenada, BC. A few miles south of Ocotillo Wells in the Valecito Mountains of the Anza Borrego Desert. There is an old trail that connects Little Blair Valley with Smuggler Canyon. Along that trail is a large isolated granite boulder bearing about three dozen images painted by the Kumeyaay between 200 and 1000 years ago. The elevation here is about 3100 feet, the summers are hot and the winters mild. This area is dotted with seasonal prehistoric village sites which are identified by bedrock mortars and grinding slicks.

In studying rock art, especially in a ceremonial context, it is important to know something of the practices of the culture that created the images. The Kumeyaay,  as well as other southwestern cultures used red as a 'female' color and black as a 'male' color in certain rituals. Neither males or females had exclusive rights to any color, but in some rituals the color used by the initiates seems to be of importance (D. Whitley, 1996). Young pubescent girls entering womanhood, as determined by their first menstrual period, enacted traditional mock procedures in giving birth, and subjected themselves to the process of acquiring a spirit helper. As part of the initiation the girls would ingest a native tobacco concoction to induce hallucination and at the end of their ordeal the initiates would race from their village to the ceremonial site and paint their rock art under the supervision of a shaman. The most appropriate woman's spirit helper was the rattlesnake, hence the profuse number of diamond chains and zigzag lines found at girls puberty initiation sites.

The pictographs are painted in red and yellow and can be roughly arranged in three panels. Although red is the primary color used at this site, quite a bit of yellow paint was also used; if fact the use of Jon Harmon's D-stretch program shows a greater use of yellow paint than was originally thought. The significance of yellow paint at puberty sites is not well understood. In 1954 D.L. True described the San Luis Rey style of pictographs as ... characterized by rectangular geometric designs in red which include diamonds, diamond chains, zigzags, chevrons, straight lines and dot patterns... rare representational and curvilinear elements. This description might now be expanded to include "additional elements and outlining in yellow, as well as red and yellow polychrome designs are also present."