The Oregon Archaeological Society Press
has published reports on various archaeological sites and topics since 1959. They are produced through the efforts of Society volunteers, with the guidance of professional archaeologists.
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NEW from the OAS Press
Carved high above the Milk River in southern Alberta is a first-person record of Plains Indian warfare spanning the period from A.D. 1600 through 1870. Building on his own 1976 tracing of the most downstream images at the site, James Keyser revisited DgOw-32 in 2010 and 2019 when his crew used an unmanned aerial vehicle to make a full record of this site—probably the most important Historic rock art on the Plains.
Using a combination of photography and direct tracing, the authors have recorded nearly 400 images at DgOw-32. Then, by noting the presence and absence of material culture items, by determining the superimpositions between images, and by subjecting many figures to statistical analyses they develop a chronology that is one of the most detailed for any Plains site.
8.5″X11″ 108 pages, 89 figures
OAS Publication #28
ISBN # 978-0-9915200-6-0
Price $22.00 plus $5.00 Shipping and Handling
“No Bear: Visions Through Time”
James D. Keyser, Carl M. Davis, David A. Kaiser, Mark D. Willis, Stephen J. Lycett
Located on Montana’s Blackfeet Indian Reservation is the No Bear rock art site, one of the most enigmatic known on the Northern Plains. Archaic period painters about 3000 years ago first put their own handprints at No Bear and generations of later artists painted a series of bizarre supernatural beings on the cliff face in response to these earlier images. Later artists, only 500 to 1000 years ago, carved a group of dancers at the site, and finally, ancestors of the Blackfeet people painted a large upside-down human in the center of the display.
In this volume, Keyser and colleagues describe the No Bear images in detail and compare them to other Northern Plains rock art. Although many questions remain about these strange paintings and carvings, this volume begins to integrate them into the well-known rock art of the region.
8.5″X11″ 81 pages, 43 figures, 2 pages of color photos and figures
OAS Publication #27
ISBN # 978-0-9915200-5-3
Price $22.00 plus $5.00 Shipping and Handling
Visions for Life and Death: Pictographs of the Lower Columbia River
James D. Keyser, David A. Kaiser, David L. Minick
Painted at two sites in the lower Columbia River region are fascinating sets of pictographs detailing the ritual activities of the people who have lived along the Columbia and Deschutes rivers for thousands of years. Bright red and red-and-white polychrome pictographs found at Spedis Creek and Harris Canyon document the vision quests of shamans and laypersons and show the deeply held beliefs people had about the supernatural world. Informed by ethnography and mythology, these paintings are a testament to generations of people practicing their customs and passing their traditions and knowledge on to others.
With dozens of photographs and color plates, accompanied by other illustrations, as well as various maps and charts, the authors present the first detailed study of a Yakima Polychrome type site.
In addition, they undertake a detailed comparison between that site and a much simpler group of pictographs at the nearby Harris Canyon site.
8.5″X11″ 112 pages, 59 illustrations, 6 pages of color photos
ISBN #: 978-0-9915200-4-6
OAS publication #26
Price $22.00 plus $5.00 Shipping and Handling
Horse Raiders in the Missouri Breaks: Eagle Creek Petroglyphs, Montana 
James D Keyser and David L. Minick
Carved at Eagle Creek Canyon, in the Wild and Scenic Missouri Breaks of central Montana, is a group of historic Indian horse petroglyphs that document the use of this site by Crow and Blackfoot raiders during the mid-1800s. Traveling the war trail between Crow and Blackfoot country, Crow raiding parties stopped at the Eagle Creek crossing of the Missouri River several times to rest and scout ahead for enemy villages rich in horses. While awaiting the scouts return, Crow warriors carved horses on the cliffs above Eagle Creek as “calling cards” to taunt Blackfoot residents of the area by demonstrating their presence in the area and their prowess as horse raiders.
Not to be outdone, one Blackfoot raider, traveling homeward from a successful expedition against his Crow enemies, spotted one Crow petroglyph and cancelled its implied insult by carving his own horse image over it. Showing a horse in characteristic Blackfoot style superimposed directly on an earlier Crow-style horse, this image documents an animal recently stolen from a Crow village and represents one man reasserting Blackfoot hegemony over this area.
In this volume, Keyser and Minick compare the Eagle Creek Canyon petroglyphs with the broadest possible body of Northern Plains rock art images and then integrate them into the rich rock art and ethnographic records now known for the region. With these data they then propose a model for understanding many of the region’s “out-of-character” sites and apply it to half a dozen examples that have confounded experts for years. This work promises to be a key resource for any student interested in Plains Biographic art.
8.5″X11″ 103 pages, 52 illustrations, 2 pages of color photos
ISBN 978-0-99152-3-9
OAS publication #25
Price $22.00 plus $5.00 Shipping and Handling
Pushing The Boundaries: The Pictographs and Petroglyphs of Oregon’s Harney Basin
Don Hann and Daniel Leen
Archaeologists Daniel Leen and Don Hann have joined forces to create this interesting and scientifically important volume on the rock art of the Harney Basin in southeastern Oregon. Hann, a U.S. Forest Service Archaeologist and Leen, a well known archaeologist and artist, describe the major sites in detail, interpret the imagery, and explain that the ancient drawings and carvings are likely the work of groups from both the Columbia Plateau and the Great Basin who used the Harney Basin throughout at least the last 5,000 years.Hann’s knowledge of Blue Mountains/Harney Basin prehistory, coupled with Leen’s excellent tracings have produced a volume that will quickly become a classic for any student of western North American rock art.
8.5” x 11” 107 pages, 100 illustrations, two pages of color plates
ISBN #: 978-0-9915200-2-2 OAS Publication #24
Price $22.00 plus $5.00 Shipping and Handling
Seeking Bear: The Petroglyphs of Lucerne Valley, Wyoming
James D. Keyser and George Poetschat
Carved on the red sandstone cliffs of the Lucerne Valley, just west of the Flaming Gorge in far southwestern Wyoming, is an incredible collection of prehistoric and historic Indian petroglyphs that reflect the use of this area by ancient peoples for more than 3,000 years. Millennia ago the earliest artists carved images on these cliffs to petition the spirits of bears, elk, bison, and bighorn sheep for the supernatural powers that they believed existed here.
The authors, who together have more than 50 years’ experience studying and interpreting Plains rock art, provide an exciting look into the past lives of the ancient artists who drew these pictures to illustrate the stories of their long-ago lives.
8.5” x 11”, 236 pages, 90 figures, 14 tables and two pages of color plates.
ISBN #978-0-9915200-1-5. OAS Publication #23.
Price: $23.00 plus $5.00 Shipping and Handling
Northern Plains Shield Bearing Warriors – A Five Century Rock Art Record of Indian Warfare
James D. Keyser and George Poetschat
The shield bearing warrior is the best-known and most
widespread motif in Northern Plains Indian rock art. Found throughout the region from Calgary, Alberta to Denver, Colorado, and from the Green River to the Black Hills these warriors
memorialize a bygone style of warfare once common across the Great Plains of North America.
Using the data collected and compiled for these warrior images, the authors provide a detailed reconstruction of how Plains warfare was conducted from Late Prehistoric period times until all Plains tribes had ready access to horses and Euro-Americans first saw and described these impressive mounted warriors of the Plains.
Co-Published by the Indigenous Cultures Preservation Society
8.5” x 11”, 314 pages
ISBN#: 978-0-9915200-0-8
Price: $25.00 plus $6.00 Shipping and Handling
Fraternity of War: Plains Indian Rock Art at Bear Gulch and Atherton Canyon, Montana
James D. Keyser, David A. Kaiser, George Poetschat, Michael W. Taylor
Detailed field recordings were done in 2005 and 2007 along with 2007 test excavation in the area below the rock art. Analysis has been ongoing starting in 2005 and culminating with this publication in 2012. This massive amount of information lays the basis for future in-depth analyses of Shield Bearing Warriors on the Northern Plains.
8.5” x 11”, 456 pages. Over 350 Maps, Photographs, and Drawings
ISBN#: 978-0-9764804-9-5
Price: $36.00 plus $6.00 Shipping and Handling
Clan Crests and Shamans’ Masks: Petroglyphs in Southeast Alaska
James D.Keyser and George Poetschat
The Prince of Wales Island west of Ketchikan, Alaska has a long history of occupation by Tlingit First Nations People and they have left numerous petroglyphs bearing witness to their cultural and spiritual lives. Kosciusko Island is just off the northern coast of Prince of Wales Island and was the focus of rock art recording during the summers of 2002 and 2004.
8.5” x 11”,104 pages. Over 60` Maps, Photographs, and Drawings ISBN#: 978-0-9853354-0-3
Price: $22.00 plus $5.00 Shipping and Handling
Rock Art of the Oregon Country Honoring the Lorings’ Legacy
Collected Papers in Oregon Rock Art
James D. Keyser and George Poetschat, Editors
Rock art studies include recording and interpretation of the images as well as ethnographic research into their use and purpose. These collected papers honor Malcolm and Louise Loring, pioneer rock art researchers who provided the first comprehensive documentation of hundreds of sites in the Oregon Country. In this work we carry on the tradition of the Lorings by recording new sites.
8.5”x11”, 128 pages. Over 90 Maps, Photographs, and Drawings. ISBN# 978-0-9764804-8-8.
Price: $22.00 plus $5.00 Shipping and Handling
Crow Rock Art in the Bighorn Basin:Petroglyphs at No Water, Wyoming (OAS Publication #20)
By: James D. Keyser and George Poetschat with Contributions by Amanda Derby and David A. Kaiser.
Carved in the driest part of the southern Bighorn Basin is a remarkable rock art record attesting to the spiritual use of this area by both Shoshone and Crow people for more than 500 years.
In 2007 the No Water site, located east of Lucerne in Wyoming’s Bighorn Basin, was documented by James D. Keyser and a group of Oregon Archaeological Society volunteers. This report documents the petroglyphs at this site which include all of the above events and more in the picture-writing of the Plains Indian Biographic Art.
8.5” x 11” , 120 pages Perfect Bound with Over 50 Maps, Photographs, and Drawings.
Price: $22.00 plus $5.00 Shipping and Handling
Visions in the Mist: The Rock Art of Celilo Falls (OAS Publication #17)
By: James D. Keyser, Michael W. Taylor, George Poetschat, David A. Kaiser.
For thousands and thousands of years people have lived, fished, and celebrated their spiritual beliefs near the thundering waters of Celilo Falls. The falls, a major Indian fishing ground since prehistoric times, were inundated in 1957 by the filling of the pool behind The Dalles Dam. Between 2000 and 2007 a team of professional archaeologists and volunteers scientifically analyzed and recorded 10 rock art sites near Wishram, WA. This important volume presents the information gathered during the project including many of the actual images themselves.
Published in 2008. Softbound, richly illustrated with over 50 photos, drawings, and maps, 100+ pages.
Price: $22.00 plus $5.00 Shipping and Handling
Ute Horse Raiders on the Powder Rim:
Rock Art at Powder Wash, Wyoming (OAS Publication #19)
Authors:James D. Keyser, George Poetschat, Russel L. Tanner, Mavis Greer, John Greer.
Powder Wash is in South Central Wyoming only a few miles from the Colorado border and contains both rock art and wooden structures such as wickiups and a large corral.The publication describes and analyzes the rock art leading to the conclusion that the Ute Indian horse raiders made much of this art. Images also include petroglyphs, one red painted horse, and a striking image of a medicine bundle.
Published in 2008. 112 pages with over 70 maps, photographs, and drawings.
Price: $22.00 plus $5.00 Shipping and Handling
Talking With the Past: The Ethnography of Rock Art (OAS Publication #16)
Editors: James D. Keyser, George Poetschat, Michael W. Taylor.
Clottes, Lewis-Williams, Keyser, Whitley, Hays-Gilpin and rock art scholars from around the world talk with traditionalist Indian elders to exchange knowledge about the roles of rock art in the lives of ancient people.
6” x 9”, perfect bound soft cover, 380+pages. Richly illustrated with photos and drawings including two pages of color plates.
Price: $26.00 plus $4.00 Shipping and Handling
2011 Edition Warrior Art of Wyoming’s Green River Basin: Biographic Petroglyphs Along the Seedskadee (OAS Publication #15)
by James D. Keyser and George R. Poetschat.
Rock Art sites along the Oregon Trail, including Names Hill, South Piney, and La Barge Bluffs contain hundreds of ancient rock art images. These fantastic images, created by the Plains Shoshone Indians, include both ceremonial and biographic subjects. The Green River, known to the resident Shoshones as Seedskadee Agie, flows through a high Plains-like Basin that was the crossroads of North America during three hundred years of the Historic period. The petroglyphs at these sites document all of these events and more in the picture-writing of Plains Indian Biographic Art.
Published 2005, 2011. Soft back, 210 pages with 91 figures. The 2011 Revised Edition includes a new cover and an Appendix discussing an additional elk found at the Gateway Site. It also contains expanded discussion on elk in Plains Rock Art.
Price: $23.00 plus $5.00 Shipping and Handling
Echoes of the Ancients, Rock Art of The Dalles-Deschutes Region (OAS Publication #14)
Edited by James D. Keyser, Michael W. Taylor and George Poetschat. Many OAS members helped author and research the material in this book.
The Dalles-Deschutes region of the Columbia River, located in the heart of the Columbia Plateau, was a center of prehistoric human habitation for more than 10,000 years. Echoes of the Ancients honors these people by sharing a bit of their history, culture, and spirituality with newer generations.
Soft back, 130 pages with 82 figures and 15 color plates.
Price: $22.00 plus $5.00 Shipping and Handling
Columbia Plateau Rock Art (OAS publication #11) In Oregon – The ButteCreek Sites: Steiwer Ranch, Rattlesnake Shelter. In Washington – Owl Cave.
This report is the culmination of an OAS rock art recording and documentation project under the supervision of James D. Keyser, OAS past president and former Forest Service regional archaeologist.
The three sites contain some of the most spectacular rock art in the Columbia Plateau with more than 400 images that include several spirit figures and the westernmost Biographic rock art yet discovered. Owl Cave contains the deepest dark zone rock art in the region, and is one of the very few dark zone rock art sites in western North America. In addition to describing the sites and motifs, the report discusses the function, age and cultural relationships of the rock art.
It contains 116 pages and 87 figures that illustrate rock art from these sites and comparable images from across the western U.S.
Price: $22.00 plus $5.00 Shipping and Handling
Wakemap Mound (OAS Publication #1)
A stratified Site on the Columbia River and nearby sites on the Long Narrows of the Columbia River. This text covers a famous site near Petroglyph Canyon which was excavated by the University of Washington in 1954 and succeeding years.
Published in 1959. 44 pages.
Price: $6.00 plus $4.00 Shipping and Handling
General Reference Guide (OAS Publication #5)
Identification of Artifacts and Descriptions of Features Encountered in Archaeological Site Excavations. This illustrated guide covers both prehistoric and contact period artifacts from a number of OAS excavation projects on the Lower Columbia River in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
22 pages.
Price: $3.00 plus $4.00 Shipping and Handling
Shoto Clay: Figurines and Forms from the Lower Columbia (OAS Publication #4)
By Robert G. Slocum and Kenneth H. Matsen
“ShotoClay” contains photos and description of this excavation that documented “clay” artifacts at 45CL41, the Herzog Site, that is named after property’s owner, Mr. C. Herzog River of Felida, in SW Washington. The site was excavated by OAS Members between 1964 and 1966. This 2002 edition includes an update to the report by Dr. Alison Stenger. She explains that the “clays” are actually ceramics from a people that we have no other knowledge about, and they are not the historic Native peoples that are in the area today.
Published in 1968
Price: $3.00 plus $4.00 Shipping and Handling