Was rock art production related to marking or recording deaths in any Plains Indian cultures?
There is a reference to the production of figurative rock art for men who died of wounds in Omaha ethnography. From Frank La Fleche, Jour. Amer. Folk-Lore vol.II, No.4, pp.10-11: There are a variety of beliefs concerning the immediate action of the spirit upon its withdrawal from the body. Some think that the soul at once starts upon its journey to the spirit land; others that it hovers about the grave as if reluctant to depart . . . There is a belief in the [Omaha] tribe that before the spirits finally depart from men who died of wounds or their results, they float toward a cliff overhanging the Missouri, not far from the present Santee [Dakota] Agency, in Nebraska, and cut upon the rocks a picture showing forth their manner of death. A line in the picture indicates the spot where the disease or wound was located which caused the death. After this record is complete, the spirit flies off to the land of the hereafter. It is said that these pictures are easily recognized by the relative
