Jeffers Petroglyphs Research Paper

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In Minnesota’s Cottonwood County, Jeffers Petroglyphs stands on rose-colored Sioux quartzite overlooking tallgrass prairies and the Little Cottonwood River. The site is a sacred and spiritual location that has preserved centuries worth of history through images carved on rock surfaces, called petroglyphs. The Minnesota Historical Society and the Indian Advisory Committee along with elders and other members from the “Cheyenne, Ioway, Dakota, Lakota, and Ojibwe tribes, whose ancestors lived and traveled in the prairie-lake region [for the last 350 years], along with the Oto, Ponca, and Omaha,” have all been working together to preserve Jeffers Petroglyphs since 1966 (Connolly). For many Natives, Jeffers Petroglyphs holds cultural and historic knowledge as well as evidence of the presence of Natives living on the land as far back as 5, 000 - 7,000 years ago. …show more content…

The Minnesota Historical Society’s website, does state that their is an absence of bows, arrows, and horses from Jeffers Petroglyphs, suggesting that Natives no longer used the site by the late 1700’s (History). Decedents of the Natives who created the rock images explain that “ the carvings are more than art or mimicry of the natural environment .

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