New book interprets Piikani and Secwepemc rock paintings

Piikani Nation Elder Harley Bastien calls technology “a double-edged sword,” but he’s quick to say that the DStretch software enhancement program is a positive thing. The program allowed Bastien and other Elders to interpret paintings on rocks in southwestern Alberta and southeastern British Columbia.

Bastien is one of about 30 Elders who collaborated with former Parks Canada archeologist Brad Himour on the book Forgotten Dreams: A New Look at Ancient Rock Art Sites.

Himour took photographs of the rock art and used NASA-developed DStretch technology to enhance even the faded parts of the pictographs. Elders were able to view the photographs and provide interpretations.

Recording events on stone is one of many traditions impacted when Europeans arrived on Indigenous lands, said Bastien. Then with the onset of Indian residential schools, grandparents no longer had the opportunity to pass the oral traditions of such activity and the history down to their grandchildren.

“When you are talking about this type of knowledge, traditional old-time knowledge, a lot of it has been lost. But the thing about the Blackfoot, (the knowledge) wasn't totally wiped out. There was fragments of it that was still around,” he said.

For the Piikani, a member of the Blackfoot Confederacy in southern Alberta, one or two people in the tribe were chosen to record events on stone using ochre processed into paint.

“The painters would have to have been people of high stature, who got the right to go out and record these events that took place. That's kind of how they were chosen, how it was done,” said Bastien.

“As far as I know that tradition is gone. At least here in Blackfoot country. I don't know of anyone who does that.”

However, there are still some from the Piikani Nation who make the trek to land that is now privately owned where they collect the traditional powders that formed the red ochre paint.

“They go up there and now say prayers and lay down tobacco. But the old way has died with the Elders,” said Bastien.

Himour began limited work to preserve the rock art in 2008 when he was with Parks Canada.

“I started talking with the Elders about how we could try to preserve these sites without physically altering them at all, because the Elders wanted a non-invasive, non-intrusive approach, that (the sites) would be left in their natural state,” said Himour.

In 2009, he discovered DStretch technology. Now the enhanced photographs can be taken to Elders for their interpretation. Himour points out that many of the pictograph sites are in hard-to-access locations.

Himour took all the photos in Forgotten Dreams on his own time and points out that 90 to 95 per cent of the pictograph sites are not located in national parks or national historic sites or on federal lands. The pictographs highlighted in the book are instead protected by provincial historical resource legislation in Alberta and B.C.

“It really became kind of an area of interest for me,” said Himour. “I've always enjoyed Indigenous storytelling, Indigenous cultural awareness and cultural preservation.”

Himour and Bastien have worked together on and off for two decades. In 2023, they began Eagle and Raven Consulting, bridging the gap between business, industry and Indigenous communities and fostering inclusion of Indigenous knowledge and moving reconciliation forward.

Himour is clear that while the photographs in the book are under his copyright, the Indigenous knowledge shared by the Elders is owned by them and their families.

That’s an important statement, said Bastien, because it also provides “legal protection of that knowledge being expropriated (and) that in turn protects the text of the Elders and their knowledge.”

Bastien was joined by Piikani Elder Morris Little Wolf to interpret the Blackfoot paintings based on “our instincts.” Some paintings were viewed in person, but the majority were viewed through photographs.

“For Blackfoot people, because when a person has some knowledge (and) gets put into a situation like that, it kind of rekindles something inside a person… (It) almost transports you back in some sort of a way and that’s what we’re doing (in interpreting),” he said.

Himour also worked with Secwepemc Elders.

Secwepemc storytelling or myths and legends, as noted by Elders Xavier and Marge Eugene in Forgotten Dreams, included “fairytales, hunting tales, warrior tales, information on our gathering places and often our ‘spirit stories’ gained from a vision quest or ceremony. There is always a story behind a pictograph.”

Forgotten Dreams focuses on 18 pictograph sites. It also explains the methodology of how pictographs were made.

Himour said one of the intentions of Forgotten Dreams is to underscore the diversity in pictographs, “depending on which nation and what their cultural traditions were. They're each very different and unique and distinct from each other.”

He points out that there are “thousands and thousands” of pictograph sites throughout western Canada with more than 800 just on Kootenay Lake and Arrow Lakes and in southeastern B.C.

The Elders he worked with, said Himour, “really wanted to participate in the project, primarily for the educational aspect. They want this knowledge passed on to future generations.”

Bastien said he would love to see Forgotten Dreams in classrooms, both on and off reserve.

Forgotten Dreams: A New Look at Ancient Rock Art Sites was self-published by Himour with 500 copies printed. The book can be purchased on https://forgottendreamspictographs.com/.

There is reduced pricing for books ordered by First Nation communities, tribal councils, and Indigenous and non-Indigenous educational institutes, such as colleges, universities and schools.

Himour said to contact him at forgottendreamspictographs@outlook.com for the reduced price.