Nova Scotia Archives

Mi'kmaw Teaching and Learning Resources

Tracing of a petroglyph of a dragonfly and a tree

Petroglyph tracings N: Nondescript and unclassified #44. 1 positive. Marion Robertson's Rock Drawings of the Micmac Indians interpret this petroglyph as "a dragonfly and tree…The triangular device with incurving lines attached at the base of the tree suggests that the drawing is saying something about a deceased chief, incurving lines being the symbol of death, outward curving lines the symbol of life. The dragonfly perhaps had special significance as among some Indian tribes the dragonfly was regarded as possessing supernatural power."

Date: 1888

Retrieval no.: George Creed Nova Scotia Archives MG 15 volume 15 N44

Questions to Consider

  • When do you think the document was written?



  • Who do you think wrote the document?



  • Why do you think the document was written



  • Who do you think received the document?



  • Who do you think this document was written for?



  • What information do you think this document provides? What do you think it tells us about the past?



  • How do you think the document reflects the attitudes and values of the time period in which it was written?



  • What impact do you think the document had at the time it was written?



    • Do you think those were different impacts for different people?



               

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