Kootenay Lake is home to a impressively large number of pictographs. As I noted in a posting a year and a half ago: pictographs are at once art and narrative.
Our pictographs are certainly the cultural heritage of First Nations, but beyond that, they are a signpost for us all. They speak to our collective deep ancestry.
I am distraught. In June I took a picture of one of my favourite pictographs. Three months later (yesterday), I happened by and took another picture. Sometime between, the pictograph suffered major damage. The comparison is below.
I temporarily imagined that the blue blotches splattered across the ancient images might have been cause by birds. Bird experts assure me: This damage lies outside the capabilities (and poop colour) of birds. The damage was made by humans.
Alas, this archaeological artifact has been damaged to the point of obscuring the storyline. Not only does the blue (paint splatter?) disfigure, the dark seeping stain from it further obscures. Someone appears to have cavalierly disfigured thousands of years of history.
This has been reported to the RCMP and the Provincial RAPP (report a violation).
Will the police and Province act? Who knows? But, for the moment, it seems likely that some thoughtless person has chosen to muddy thousands of years of our (and their own) heritage. Sigh…
The same portion of a pictograph before and after desecration.
The marks look like paint from a paintball gun based on the oily substance spreading out from the colour. Hopefully the damage isn’t permanent but I’ve seen it last a number of years on old cars. Soap and water will remove it but would it damage the pictographs as well? I don’t know.
I am so sad about this. What can I say about the lack of reverence for those who were here first? Unbelievable. Thank for documenting this.
I am prepared to help someone who knows that they are doing to clean this up. 250-354-1983
Brad
Lorna’s comment seems feasible. Hopefully the paintball community will have an idea (like who uses blue paint) and report them. It does give the whole group a black eye. Desecration is the proper word. Way past ‘vandalism’.
If you are familiar with the big rock above Highway 3 just west of Keremeos – that has had spray paint on it for years. When the spray paint was cleaned off, they found that the pictographs underneath were ok . The problem for the ones across from Kaslo is getting up to them to wash off the paintball stuff – they are high above the lake.
Tom, yes, I am familiar with the standing rock near Keremeos. However, your information about the desecration of other local pictographs implies a broader problem with benighted boaters. Sigh….
The big rock just above the highway west of Keremeos has had spray paint all over it for years – when they cleaned it off they found the pictographs underneath were ok.
The problem with the Kaslo ones is the height above the lake – hard to get up to for washing.
As a former tournament paintball player, this makes me annoyed because it makes the local paintball community look bad when it is most likely some punk who doesn’t even play the game..
Travis, I have carefully avoided asserting that the damage resulted from the firing of a paintball gun. I just lack experience in such matters. However, you have experience. Are you reasonably confident that the damage portrayed in the second picture was inflicted by a paintball?
This seems to be a cheap Canadian tire paintball which are oil based unlike tournament paint which is much brighter and water based.
As a paintballer myself, there is no doubt that its from a paintball, and most likely done by a cheap one from Canadian tire
Extremely low grade paints, similar to the vapor junk can tire sells or whatever off brand Walmart used to sell. Shame to see some sorry excuse for a player doing this to artwork.
On September 29, the RCMP issued the following statement:
“For millennia, Aboriginal people in what is now western Canada left traces of their cultural history recorded on stone in the form of pictographs, or rock paintings. Often, pictographs were made to record significant events – a battle, a treaty, or even a long journey.” (Parks Canada website “Forgotton Dreams”. Kootenay Lake has been home to some of these pictographs which many people have enjoyed and serve to document the Aboriginal Culture of the area. Sometime between June and September 25th, 2013 vandals shot paint balls at some of these historic pictographs located on the West Arm of Kootenay lake. These pictographs are located just west of Nelson and are only accessible by boat access. Police are looking for any information as to the culprit(s) responsible for this damage. If you have any information, please call Nelson RCMP at 250-352-2156 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.
M.T. (Michael) Stefani, Cpl.
Central Kootenay Detachment
Nelson Office
1010 Second Street
Nelson, British Columbia
Phone: (250) 352-2156
Fax: (250) 352-7538
i’m not in any way condoning this .. but paintballs are designed to wash off; they’re designed to be shot–thousands of them–in natural environments. those pictographs survived the elements for thousands of years … they’ll be fine.. this action was IGNORANT yes … but just wondering what basis there is for saying any illegal “damage” was done?
[wikipedia: “All ingredients used in the making of a Paintball are food grade quality and are harmless to the participants and environment.”]
as far as I’m aware, any vandalism done to crown land, in a public park, nature preserve etc. is illegal. It is defacing crown (or other listed above) property and is punishable by either jail time or a hefty fine.
As both an archaeologist, and someone who has spent the majority of her life in the kootenays, this saddens me greatly. how can people have such a blatant disregard for the past? we need to preserve what few sites we have, not destroy them. we are supposed to be the guardians of the information ancient people left to us, and there is so much we can learn, but when people do things like this, it destroys the possibility of our learning about our forefathers. I hope whoever did this is caught, and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
PROSECUTED? ummm …… is it illegal to paint [paintball] rocks? if so, are the First Nations going to be prosecuted?
i thought vandalism was usually painting rocks in the first place. but now the travesty is when you paint again where someone painted before …..?
isn’t it true that in 1000 years our graffiti “vandalism” will be revered in the same way these pictographs are now?
personally i don’t get the scumbag who did this … but why did the native guy deface the rocks to begin with??
at what point is it wrong to paint rocks?????
the paintball markings will rinse off.
Just Wondering. Is it illegal to paint those rocks. As a mater of fact it is according to the The Heritage Conservation Act(HCA) that provides substantial penalties for destruction or unauthorized disturbance of archaeological sites including imprisonment for up to two years and fines of up to $1,000,000. Further, scribbling on a slate in one age, is surely different than defacing such historic writing in another age. And does the fact that one may be able to (or may not be able to) restore the original justify defacing it in the first place? When the native wrote on it, it wasn’t defacement, now it is.
nothing justifies this ignorant action ..
but splattering blue environmentally-friendly vegetable oil on a rock [which will rinse off] is far LESS defacing to nature than graffiti-ing rocks with indian paint that will last for thousands of years.
that was pretty ignorant too.
.. or are we condoning painting on rocks..?
just wondering….are you trying to make a political statement or what? There is a clear cultural / societal difference between the two situations. As well, the laws against vandalism of a typical rock are aesthetic and not related to the historical / cultural value (typically, a rock wouldn’t fall under that category). If you were arguing that graffiti had cultural significance, that would be more reasonable. I am sure that any real graffiti artist (not vandal) would respect this historical work.
I suspect that your argument has nothing to do with your stated concerns and has everything to do with you trying to justify your belief system.
Or maybe “just wondering” is just a bit of a troll? I wouldn’t bother playing their game.
Anyways, I’m guessing alcohol, boredom and relative youth are involved with the defacement of the pictographs. I did ridiculous things when I was younger. Many of us have. I do hope they grow out of it, and learn to respect public and private property.
I was out with Friends Of Kootenay Lake water testing on September 9th and the light blue spots were there then.
This makes me mad more than sad. Seriously, would you walk into an art class and ruin someone elses picture? No. Then WHY would you paintball a historical painting? It’s not a matter of politics or semantics. This is a matter of MORALS. If you are going to paintball it in the first place ( using you as a broad term for the loser who did this) then clean it up when you are finished. (Ya know, since it seems to be so easy as stated before this post.) A little respect for our country’s history PLEASE!