Anglers Welcome
The Fremont Indians lived a seminomadic existence along the Green River drainagein Utah. That is from 300 A.D. to 800 A.D. - a few years before Utah joined the Union. After visiting this canyon myself, I'm certain why they came here. Abundant fish and game fill this high desert ocasis. A herd of twenty or so big horn sheep crossed the spring creek while I drifted a hopper pattern to large, healthy rainbows.
Much like bookmarking a favorite page, the Fremonts left telling pictographs. Maybe the same families returned year after year to hunt and fish. Maybe they never left. Or maybe, they left information behind to tell anyone else just how good life could be here.
Fremont Indian Pictographs
On a long sandstone wall I photographed these pictographs. Difficult to know what the iterrelationships are, but I framed each pictograph as a standalone scene(at least to my eye).
A typical Fremont representation shows three, square-shouldered human figures each wearing a horned headdress.
My favorite - a rectanglar, grid pattern and to its immediate right a couple of zigzag lines. These lines are a common abstraction for water. The grid placed downstream could easily be a net set for catching fish. The message might as well be Start a fire, fish for dinner tonight.
Animals include mule deer (e.g., cleft feet) and mountain sheep.
The pictograph above shows a number of the above scenes and symbols in a much more tightly woven depiction. Maybe this pictograph portrays the scope of the hunting and fishing to be had here?
