Indian Painted Rocks

The board is uneasy with its own subject. It says present-day tribes deny knowing who made the paintings, then argues they must be Indian work because no other people lived here. They are now generally attributed to Spokane people, painted in two groups on a sheltered face of a twenty-five-foot rock above the Little Spokane, and the site went on the National Register in 1970. Steel bars guard the overhang. The paintings have lasted partly by their place: many of the region's pictographs were made near old shorelines and now lie under the reservoirs behind the dams.

What the plaque says

Indian Painted Rocks Such paintings are found in all parts of western North America. Present-day tribes usually deny knowledge of their origin, but they must be the works of Indians, for prior to Europeans, no other peoples are known to have inhabited this region. Their meanings are obscure but they are considered to be hunting records; notes of inter-tribe meetings; or expressions of religious experiences. Area was given to the State Park Commission by Professor and Mrs. H. M. Hart, Jr. Mrs. Hart was the daughter of Aubrey White, founder of the Spokane park system. Erected by the Washington State Highway Commission in cooperation with the State Parks & Recreation Commission.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Spokane House — 1.8 mi
  The trading post Spokane guides led Jaco Finlay to in 1810, closed by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1826, and kept by the man who built it until he died there.
• Spokane Falls — 9.0 mi
  Where the Spokane fished under a salmon chief who shared out the catch, until a dam forty miles downstream ended the runs in 1911.

More markers nearby

• Spokane House — 1.8 mi