Rock Paintings at Hueco Tanks State Historic Site

R O C K P A I N T I N G SA T H U E C O T A N K S S T A T E H I S T O R I C S I T E

by Kay Sutherland, Ph.D.

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Unless otherwise indicated, the illustrations are photographs of watercolors by Forrest Kirkland, reproduced courtesy of Texas Memorial Museum. The watercolorswere photographed by Rod Florence.

Editor: Georg ZapplerArt Direction: Pris Martin

Mescalero Apache design, circa 1800 A.D., part of a rock painting depicting white dancing figures.

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R O C K P A I N T I N G SAT

HUECO TANKS STATE H ISTORIC S ITE

by Kay Sutherland, Ph.D.

Watercolorsby

Forrest Kirkland

Dedicated to Forrest and Lula Kirkland

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The rock paintings at Hueco TanksState Historic Site are the impres-sive artistic legacy of the differentprehistoric peoples who foundwater, shelter and food at thisstone oasis in the desert. Over3000 paintings depict religiousmasks, caricature faces, complexgeometric designs, dancing figures,people with elaborate headdresses,birds, jaguars, deer and symbols of rain, lightning and corn. Hiddenwithin shelters, crevices and cavesamong the three massive outcropsof boulders found in the park, theart work is rich in symbolism andis a visual testament to the impor-tance of graphic expression for the people who lived and visitedthe area. The impressive outdoorart gallery, accumulated over thecourse of thousands of years,belongs to all of us and is areminder of our connection to the art of ancient peoples.

The oldest rock paintings foundhere were done by early gatherersand hunters, termed Archaic Indians. Later, an agricultural people (archaeologists call them

the “Jornada Mogollon”) lived insmall villages or pueblos at andnear Hueco Tanks and painted onthe rock-shelter walls. Still later,the Mescalero Apaches and possiblyother Plains Indian groups painted pictures of their ritualsand depicted their contact withSpaniards, Mexicans and Anglos.The European newcomers and settlers left no pictures, but somechose instead to record their names with dates on the rockwalls, perhaps as a sign of theimportance of the individual inwestern cultures.

Hueco Tanks is no ordinary stopping place. The niches, sheltersand caves were places of religiousceremony for Native Americans,from remote prehistoric times until the late 19th century. TheIndians filled the hidden and secretplaces with sacred paintings repre-senting their beliefs and the worldaround them. Walking among therocks, climbing the boulders or discovering a hidden niche is thebest way to understand what theancient Indians felt when they

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came to Hueco Tanks – a place towhich their descendants still cometo perform religious ceremonies.

Hueco Tanks is a distinctive andstriking remnant of a dome ofuplifted molten rock (technicallycalled syenite) that cooled about 30 million years ago before it everreached the surface. Weatheringand erosion exposed and sculptedthe present rock masses which, asa result, are heavily fractured andrecessed with hollows that trapand contain water, attracting ani-mals and humans. These hollowsare called “huecos” in Spanish,hence the name Hueco Tanks.Because of available water, standsof juniper and oak, widespread atthe end of the last Ice Age, survivehere as small relict populations.The surrounding desert, beforemodernization and overgrazing,was a semi-arid grassland invitingto deer and antelopes. Humanshave been coming here for close to 11,000 years, drawn above allelse by the water, along with animals to hunt and plants to use.

Overview of Hueco Tanks. Risingprecipitously to a maximum height ofalmost 450 feet above the surround-ing desert floor, three massive outthrustsform a sacred trinity of cathedralsbeckoning the desert pilgrim.

A water-filled hueco. Over thirty millionyears ago, molten rocks from anunderground volcano almost, but notquite, came to the surface. Weatheringand erosion exposed and sculpted thepresent fractured and hollowed-outrock masses. The depressions becamethe water-filled “huecos” (Spanish for“hollows”) for which the site is named.

(Photo by Anna Toness Blubaugh)


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Two important terms:

Pictograph – an ancient paintingor drawing on a rock wall, usually within a shelter. Colorsused at Hueco Tanks are oftenred, black, yellow and white, andsometimes green and blue.

Petroglyph – a carving etched or pecked on a rock surface that is usually weathered or patinated later, creating a contrast in coloration.

What was used for paint?

Colors for painting came fromavailable minerals. Hematite andlimonite, for example, furnishedred hues. Various shades of ochreproduced red and yellow; carbonand manganese were used forblack; white clay and gypsumyielded white; while oxides ofcopper furnished green and blue.The mineral hues may have beenenhanced with vegetable dyes andbinders – most likely, urine, egg

yolk, plant juices and animal fats.Paints were applied with brushesmade from yucca or human hair,or by blowing pigments from reedor bone tubes; finger paintingwas also employed.

Lumps of prepared color havebeen found in shelters, alongwith “paint pots” – small inden-tations in stone that were usedto mix the colors. (In Europe,tubes made of hollow bone andfilled with color have been foundat cave-art sites.) Although asmany different colors were used

T E C H N I C A L A N DH I S T O R I C A L B A C K G R O U N D

Red-and-green mask (see back coverfor actual colors). This is the onlyexample of green pigment (possiblyturquoise) at Hueco Tanks. The star eyesare similar to the Star Katchina amongthe Hopi. This mask is above eye leveland not easily noticeable.



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in Texas as in polychromaticEuropean rock art, individual pictures using only one color aremore common here than in theOld World. That is not to say that polychrome painting is not well developed in Texas – witness, for example, the manyvaricolored pictographs found in caves along the Lower Pecosand adjoining drainages.

Why do the pictographs last so long?

Rock paintings bind to rockthrough a process of aging. Anexperiment done at Hueco TanksState Historic Site to determineat what point a painting binds torock found that spray-paintedgraffiti binds after two years,and that it cannot be removedwithout removing some of theunderlying surface. (Thus, if graffiti more than two years oldoverlies a pictograph, removal ofthe unwanted markings unfortu-nately also entails destruction ofthe rock art.) This binding of thepaint is due to a weatheringprocess that deposits a micro-scopic mineral glaze over the pigmented area.

The different groups of indige-nous inhabitants of Hueco Tanksrarely painted over each other’spainting, perhaps out of respectfor the existing message. Modern“artists” have not been sorespectful and, disgracefully,their names can be found spray-painted over many of the moreexposed Indian paintings.Because of remote location, most pictographs and petro-glyphs were, until a few yearsago, still in excellent condition,despite weathering. Unfortu-nately, vandalism has now begunto take a serious toll in even themore remote sites.

The First Scientific Recording ofthe Rock Art at Hueco Tanks

On July 1939, in the heat of summer and with storm cloudsgathering overhead, Forrest andLula Kirkland arrived at HuecoTanks to record the rock art. Itwas the last field trip Forrest wasfated to make. (A year later hedied of a heart attack at the ageof 49.) Forrest was a commercialartist, who had discovered andfallen in love with rock art at a


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time when few people in Texasknew or cared anything aboutthe subject. Lula, his wife, photographed and searched,while Forrest quickly and adeptlycopied the images in watercolor.

Lula was impressed with this“veritable oasis in the desert.”She wrote in her journal, “Thesehuge piles of rocks catch rainwater in holes or crevices calledtanks and keep it there clean andsweet for many months after therain.” At that time, Hueco Tankswas owned by Jesus Escontriaswho charged people to picnicthere. One of the first places theKirklands found was “ComancheCave” which, Lula wrote in 1939,“was like walking into an air-conditioned building from a hotstreet with temperature over onehundred. The air that greeted uswas icy cool and so refreshing.On a huge rock up near the topof the cave, a huge slanting crackin the rocks, was one large rockon which someone had printed,no one knows how many yearsago, the sign ‘Watter Hear’ andunderneath through a gap aboutfour feet wide was a huge cisternof water, ice cold. (The story goes

that it has never gone dry.) Theslanting rock leading up to thecistern was polished to a glassysurface by the many feet, Indianand white, that had gone up forwater. Reclining on the cool rockwith the cool air coming from thecave was a delightful experienceafter our climbing over the hotrocks looking for pictures, andover our heads on the top ceilingof the shelter the Indians hadpainted pictographs.” Lula contin-ued, “Comanche Cave is cold andso the Indians had air-conditioneddwelling places in the middle ofthe desert before white mencame to their country.”

As a visitor to Hueco Tanks, youcan go to Comanche Cave andenjoy the same refreshing feelingthe Kirklands did in 1939. Whenyou near the cave, you willnotice a panel of what appear tobe dancers, painted in white (see page 23). The men are playing instruments, someone isriding a horse, a man is chasinga girl, and the dancers are in arow. This is a historic painting ofwhat is most likely a MescaleroApache victory dance. It wasprobably painted some time


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between 1820 and 1840 whenMescaleros raided extensively inthe area. Someone has painted“1849” over some of the pic-tographs, the earliest Anglo dateat Hueco Tanks. The cool watercistern marked “Watter Hear,”where Lula Kirkland got waterfor her canteen, is still there.

Even more remarkable than Forrest Kirkland’s accuracy incopying the rock art was his

speed. In ten days, he, with Lula acting as locator for therock art, painted 27 plates,including 89 masks (of the morethan 200 now-known masks atHueco Tanks). A survey in 1974(35 years later) by the El PasoArchaeological Society foundKirkland’s renderings remarkablyaccurate. The original Kirklandwatercolors are stored at TexasMemorial Museum in Austin,along with his other artwork.

Cave Kiva. This hidden shelter repre-sents the pinnacle of painting, with itsclear stencil-like paintings consciouslyplaced in an undulating row. Theeight masks are as bright as the daythey were painted. Unfortunately, in1993, an irresponsible vandal paintedhis name over the masks, causingHueco Tanks to be put under greaterprotection.

(Photo by Gary Duff)


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The earliest clue that humans werepresent at Hueco Tanks is a charac-teristic chipped stone spearpointcalled a Folsom point, after a sitein New Mexico where it was firstidentified. Such projectile pointsare relatively common throughoutthe Southwest where they are frequently associated with mam-moth and giant bison bones datedto between 8,000 and 9,000 B.C.(or 10,000 to 11,000 years ago).

The members of the Folsom culturewere Paleo-Indians, that is to saythey belonged to the Ice Age peoples that spread across Northand South America after crossingthe then Bering land bridgebetween Siberia and Alaska at least 12,000 years and possibly aslong as 40,000 years ago. Paleo-Indians depended on and followedthe vast numbers of big mammals,such as mammoths, mastodons,giant bison, camels, ground slothsand horses, that browsed andgrazed the forests and savannahsbelow the ice sheets blanketing thenorthern half of our continent.

None of the rock art at HuecoTanks can be attributed to the Folsom hunters. However, someabstract designs on rock surfaces in the nearby Franklin Mountainsare thought to have been made byPaleo-Indians, mostly because thedesigns are overpainted by artwork characteristic of theArchaic tradition which occurredseveral thousand years later.

T H E F I R S T P E O P L EO F H U E C O T A N K S

Folsom Point. This type of spearpointhas been found at Hueco Tanks. Folsom points were made by Paleo-Indians until about 10,000 years ago.The points are found throughout theSouthwest, often in association with anextinct form of long-horned bison.


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Eventually, the plentiful bounty oflarge game diminished, probablyfrom a combination of changingclimate and overkill by humans.The Southwest was drying up asthe great ice caps were retreatingnorthward. By 8,000 years ago(6,000 B.C.), mastodons, mam-moths, sloths, horses, camels andother large animals were extinct.With the disappearance of thelarge Ice Age mammals, the humanpopulations that lived after thePaleo-Indians depended more onhunting smaller game, such asbighorn sheep, deer, antelopes, rabbits and rodents. In addition,these people followed an endless

cycle of collecting and processingseasonal grains, nuts, fruits andtubers. At Hueco Tanks, they reliedheavily on wild plant foods such asmesquite beans, the fruit of thebanana yucca and the abundantcacti found in the area. Thesenomadic foragers are termedArchaic Indians and they arebelieved to have lived in extendedfamily groups of 25 to 30 people.

The Archaic way of life was deeplyrooted in the desert environmentand remarkably uniform in its cul-tural and artistic artifacts. The richartistic tradition associated withthis culture extended throughoutthe desert Southwest to California.

We can identify at least two kindsof artistic styles among the Archaicnomads, both of which can be seenat Hueco Tanks. The Early ArchaicStyle (6000 B.C. – 3000 B.C.) con-sists of curvilinear and rectilinearabstract designs, such as “comb”designs and parallel wavy lines. It is hard to guess the meanings of these drawings. There are noanimal or human depictions in this earlier style.

T H E A R C H A I C I N D I A N S6000 B.C. UNTIL 450 A.D.

Early Archaic style. Abstract poly-chrome (mostly red) designs are adiagnostic feature. Animals andhumans are absent.


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Certain Archaic groups, downthrough the millennia, added tothe earlier abstract art. This laterart, belonging to what is called theMiddle and Late Archaic Style(3000 B.C. – 450 A.D.), is charac-terized by hunting scenes, with ani-mals such as mountain sheep ordeer, and humans with headdresseswho have shaman-like qualities.The Archaic nomads did not usethe bow and arrow. They huntedonly with a spear and atlatl (spearthrower). We find specific spear-points, such as the Shumla, associ-ated with these drawings.

The artwork shows animals on therun and humans standing still. Thehunters have thick hourglassshaped bodies with thin arms andlegs and a small-to-non-existenthead, which has two horns orfeathers attached. In some cases, aspearpoint is attached to the armof the hunter. Hueco Tanks StateHistoric Site does not have manyArchaic hunting scenes, but nearbysites, such as Alamo Canyon at FortHancock, have hundreds of petro-glyphs depicting hunting activities.

The prehistoric desert foragers arethought to have been animists whobelieved in the aliveness and valueof all of nature, both animate and

inanimate. The art of the Middleand Late Archaic depicted thesupernatural power of the hornedanimals that were hunted and thatwere associated with the concept ofabundance. We find a progressivehumanization of the projectilepoints to the extent that huntershave projectile-point heads andarms. The association of hunterwith spearpoint implies a strongspiritual relationship between thekiller and the killed. The hunter’s

Middle/Late Archaic style. The topmost“shaman” (human-like) figure with run-ning animals is similar to larger suchfigures in what is called the Lower Pecosart style. These designs are in yellow.

Red mountain sheep, deer and hornedhuman figures resembling spearpoints.


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power to take animal life in orderthat people may live can be seenas a transformation of the hunter’skill into food for the group. Thismetamorphosis from death to lifewas probably the focus of Archaicreligions. The spiritual counterpartof this physical process – the transference of the animal’s spiritto the human’s – was accomplishedby skilled and sensitive individuals,called shamans, who had access tothe animal spirit world throughtrance and dreaming. Both theskilled hunter and the skilledshaman faced the possibility of“dying” in order that others mightlive. The hunter faced the possibil-ity of death in order to kill, and theshaman’s body “died” (went intotrance) so that the animal spiritcould be brought to the group.

Some good examples of this hunting-oriented shamanistic artcan be found in Utah, Californiaand the lower Pecos River in Texas(Seminole Canyon State Park andHistoric Site near Comstock, Texashas some fine examples of Lower Pecos cave art.)

Middle/Late Archaic style. A hunterwith arm as a spear extension sym-bolized the power to kill.

A Shumla point. This is a triangularspearpoint commonly found in theLower Pecos area. It resembles the oneshown in the rock painting.

Projectile points and Archaic huntersfrom Fort Hancock, Texas. The distinc-tion between hunter and projectilepoint is blurred when body parts arereplaced by projectile points: hunterswith projectile-point bodies, projectile-point headdresses, and arms with pro-jectile points. The hunter’s body looksso much like a spearpoint that it is oftenhard to tell the difference between thehunter and the point. The associationof hunter with spearpoint stronglyimplies a powerful spiritual relation-ship between the killer and the killed.


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Evidence from central Mexico suggests that corn was fully domes-ticated between 5000 B.C. and3400 B.C. Such domesticationentailed a long period of experi-mentation and mutation and eventually a conscious selection byhumans that improved certainspecies of wild grasses. Domesti-cated corn along with beans, chilipeppers, squash and cotton spreadnorth from the Valley of Mexico,reaching the El Paso area by 2000 B.C. It took almost two thou-sand years to achieve a balancebetween gathering, hunting andplanting as a means of existence inthe arid Southwest, as Mogollonfarmers learned to adapt plantingto erratic rainfall, consisting oflong periods of drought followedby sudden downpours that wipedout crops and carved new arroyos.

In the Southwest, corn could neverbe the secure food supply that it was in the lake-filled valley of Mexico or the rain-heavy tropicaljungles further south. Initially, theapproach to corn might have been

similar to that of the Apache Indiansin the nineteenth century whoplanted corn, left it unattended, and returned to see if there was anything growing. Corn supple-mented their traditional wild plantdiet, it did not replace it. In a goodyear of rain, there was a surplus,but it was not reliable. The earlyMogollon people were probably simi-lar in their habits; they planted cornbut then they might move away.

The unpredictability of localizedfood supplies in the desert envi-ronment made commitment to

T H E A G R I C U L T U R I S T STHE JORNADA BRANCH OF THE MOGOLLON — 450 A.D. – 1400 A.D.

A jaguar figure next to a solid maskwith an antelope-horn headdress showsMesoamerican influence. Colors usedare red, black and white.


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settled life difficult. Not until about200 A.D. (to judge from the evi-dence of pithouses) did permanentresidences become established inthe area.

Thus, beginning in the early cen-turies A.D., with crude dwellingsand small-scale corn cultivation,the first agriculturists who lived inthis area developed lifestyles notunlike Pueblo peoples today, suchas the Hopi, Zuni and the people of the upper Rio Grande pueblos.As corn yields were improved,more people could be fed and thepopulation grew and began to con-centrate into villages. (There isarchaeological evidence of a smallvillage at Hueco Tanks State Historic Site around 1000 A.D.)

Sometime around 450 A.D. (at thebeginning of what is called the Jornada Mogollon Tradition), astrong religious influence diffusedto this region from Mesoamerica(Mexico and Central America), possibly through merchant traderssearching for precious turquoise.They were followers of the cult ofQuetzalcoatl, one of the mostimportant deities of Meso-americancultures. Quetzalcoatl took the form

Quetzalcoatl mask with plumedserpent on top showing jaguar teeth.This headdress is similar to one at Fort Hancock, Texas. Note the conicalhelmet, an attribute of Quetzalcoatl,with “step-fret” designs.

(Drawing by Dave Parker)

Cave of the Masks. The pairedpaintings show strong Mesoamericaninfluence as indicated by the presenceof the conical helmet that symbolizesQuetzalcoatl, the plumed serpent.



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of a plumed serpent and incorpo-rated the characteristics of a bird,serpent and jaguar, all of whichwere associated with the priest-hood and ruling class as far backas 1500 B.C. in Mesoamerica. Quetzalcoatl represented a movingenergy that unified a dualistic uni-verse, but the deity also incorpo-rated the concept of regeneration,crucial to the Mesoamerican visionof the cosmos. Pairs are frequentlydepicted in Jornada Mogollon art,representing the dualistic nature ofthe Mesoamerican universe. Equal ininfluence to Quetzalcoatl was Tlaloc,a rain deity who was both benefi-cial and destructive, and who wasassociated with sacred mountains.

Tlaloc was characterized by goggleeyes and a blunt, rectilinear bodywith no arms or legs. The Tlalocfigure fused with the trapezoidalspearpoint-shaped body of Archaichunter art, a natural fusionbecause both concepts were associ-ated with masculine forces (hunt-ing and the destructive part ofrain). Along with examples of Quetzalcoatl and Tlaloc at HuecoTanks, there are many symbolsassociated with water, crucial toplanting corn in the desert.

Also at the Cave of the Masks is apainting of a jaguar with a conicalhelmet. An association of the jaguarwith Quetzalcoatl can be traced backto the Olmecs, one of the earliest(about 1500 B.C.) of the Mesoameri-can civilizations.

(Drawing by Dave Parker)

Shown here is the geometric figure ofgoggle-eyed Tlaloc. Associated withTlaloc are “step-fret” designs and sym-bols of rain and abundance, includinga turtle, a rain altar, a solid mask anda mountain sheep. Black, red, whiteand yellow were the colors used.

The projectile-point body merges intoa goggle-eyed anthropomorph. Theincreasing “personification” of theprojectile-point hunter to the morehumanized Tlaloc with its goggleeyes, and the eventual evolution intostylized masked spirits demonstrates atransition of religious thought: theidea that spirits can take human formrather than the ancient animistic beliefthat humans take animal form.

(Drawings from (left to right) Alamo Canyon,Lucero Canyon, Alamo Mt. and Smith Ranch.)


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The most common of these are the“step-fret” or “step wedge” designsrepresenting flowing water, energyand lightning.

Most of the rock paintings atHueco Tanks were drawn by settled agriculturists of the Jornada Mogollon Tradition. As mentioned, the religion of these people centered around thedesire for and control of rainessential to the growth of crops.One can see water symbolism inmany paintings, such as the rainaltar, which consist of two light-ning symbols coming together and the step-fret designs on theTlaloc figures. Representations ofthis deity show the dualism ofcelestial abundance, represented bywater from the sky, and terrestrialabundance, represented by waterstored underground.

It appears that, at Hueco Tanks,Mesoamerican gods, many of whom manifested different aspectsof the same elements, combinedwith the earlier animistic conceptsof the desert Archaic peoples tocreate a new religious force, mani-festing itself in a religion ofmasked spirit beings.

This large (two-meter-long) black-and-white Tlaloc figure is on the ceiling ofa low shelter. Lying on a rock, you canlook up and see the blank, skull-likegoggle eyes staring down, surroundedby smaller Tlaloc figures. The mainTlaloc figure has step-fret designscoming from the head and a flattenedsnout. The art work is so complex thatit forms a continuous line.


Two Tlaloc figures in red with “blanketdesign” bodies and two solid masks.The characteristic blank goggle eyesin both suggest a close relationshipbetween Tlaloc and the “solid” style ofmask with blank eyes.


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For, besides the Quetzalcoatl andTlaloc figures and the water sym-bols, the Jornada Mogollon peoplesleft a tremendous artistic legacy ofpainted masks. These representedtheir ancestral spirits, as do thekatchinas of today’s Pueblo peoples,such as the Hopi and Zuni. Thelargest concentration of Indianpainted masks in North America(more than 200) is at Hueco TanksState Historic Site. These masks aresignificant because their designsand the religion they representinfluenced the rest of Southwesternart. The pueblo designs that are sofamiliar to us were, perhaps, firstseen in the Southwest at HuecoTanks. And, like the Pueblo designscharacteristic of the Katchina Cult, the Hueco Tanks masks arerepresentative of the fusion thatoccurred between Archaic animismand Mesoamerican polytheism.

To elaborate further: the meaningof the mask for the prehistoricMogollon must have been similar toits meaning to the present-day Hopiand Zuni in their katchina dances.More than any other part of ourbody, the face is the gateway toabstract thought. In putting on themask, the masked dancer becomes

A Tlaloc figure with footprints on theface, a symbolic association found inMesoamerica.

A Tlaloc figure with step-fret designsrepresenting lightning.

“White-blanket” designs still seen insouthwestern art today. This panel iscompletely blackened with soot.


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the intermediary between thehuman world and the spiritualworld. Frank Water in his Book of the Hopi says that when thedancer puts on the mask, hebecomes the ancestral katchinaspirit. The masked katchina dancer,like the shaman, experiences transformation, “for he too is agod.” Unlike the shaman, however,the katchina dancer sublimates hisindividuality into the “selfless andfleshless communion” of a commu-nally believed creation, not an individually interpreted religiousexperience. Like the shaman, thedancer is “part bird, part beast,part man” who “wings into thesky” during the dancing, vulnera-ble, “naked and defenseless.” In this sense the dancer is an exten-sion of the shamanistic experience,but the katchina dancer’s religiousexperience – unlike the shaman’s –is induced by communal dancing.The masks represent the centralrole of the human in bringingopposing forces into harmony. Thus did the communal, polytheis-tic religions of Mesoamerica com-bine with the shamanistic-animisticbeliefs of the Archaic hunter-gatherers to create the new religionof the Southwest – the Katchina

Dancing figures with masks appear inmany of the rock art compositions atHueco Tanks. This is a selection puttogether by Kirkland. The figures areearly indications of what would becomethe Katchina Cult among present-dayPueblo groups.

Masked dancer. This figure clearlyshows the use of masks during ritualdances.


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Cult. This cult is expressed atHueco Tanks in the many maskspainted on its rock surfaces.

The fundamental appeal of theMesoamerican cosmovision was theidea of man’s ability to predict(through scientific understandingof the movement of the sun andVenus) and to that extent controlrain and plant growth. The evolu-tion of the spearpoint hunter toTlaloc the rain god is a visual turning point that cannot haveexpressed more clearly man’s godlike ability to destroy. TheMesoamerican-derived maskedspirit cult espoused man’s centralrole in the continuance of the cosmos. The Mogollon accepted acentral role for the human in thecosmic scheme, but the myths andceremonies that accompanied plant-ing were downscaled for desertadaptation and then incorporatedinto the existing religion of thedesert foragers.

The mask became the symbol forthe intermediary role humansplayed. Before the masked dancercould put on the mask, he had togo through a purification process.Once the dancer put on the mask,

Dancers with mountain-sheep head-dress are similar to Mountain SheepKatchina among present-day Pueblos.This ritual shows a combination ofhunting and agricultural beliefs.

Two solid red masks in hidden nichesare painted to the curve of the wall.

Solid red mask with blank eyes, simi-lar to Tlaloc.

(Photo by Kay Sutherland)


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he became the katchina spirit, acting as an intermediary with theancestral world of “cloud people”who helped to bring rain. All ofthe contemporary katchina dancesof the Hopi and Zuni today areperformed to bring rain and balance to the community.

In hunting cultures, the hunteraccommodates himself to the movement of the animal. In plant-ing cultures, the plant doesn’tmove; it is the rain that moves;humans must accommodate them-selves to the larger forces of nature

White horned dancer with mask-typeface and goggle eyes. The horneddancer is specific to the JornadaMogollon. (Horned masks are notfound in pre-Columbian Meso-america.) The horns are an indicationof the combination of hunting symbol-ism with Mesoamerican-derived masks.


Outline mask with expressive face.Lighting design on one cheek; rainaltar on the other.


Plate of outline masks. Diagnostic features of Jornada Mogollon outlinemasks are the almond-shaped eyesand wedge-shaped nose.


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(storm, wind, rain). Destructive elements are stronger, larger, moreunpredictable and seemingly morecontrollable than animals. In hunt-ing cultures, the individual hunteror shaman confronts the animal. A planter can’t “identify” with astorm nor can he “be” the rain inthe same way that the shaman canbecome the animal spirit. But aplanter, like a shaman, can go into“dance” and “transform” himselfinto that which controls plantgrowth through the wearing, of themask. The masked dancers’ cult ofthe agricultural Mogollon was a

Plate of solid masks. These are distin-guished from outline masks by nothaving the face outlined and by theuse of solid, separated blocks of color.Solid masks are only found hidden inniches, suggesting that they are moresacred than outline masks which arelocated on exposed surfaces. HuecoTanks may have been a sacred centerfor the Jornada Mogollon, since solidmasks are rarely found anywhere else.

In this grouping of solid masks, someof the solid masks have “outline” fea-tures, suggesting some intergradationbetween the two types.


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combination of animistic beliefsand Mesoamerican deities relatedto rain and corn growth.

Forrest Kirkland copied the rockpaintings in 1939. His work waspublished in a book written byW.W. Newcomb called The RockArt of Texas Indians. He recorded89 masks and painted 6 compositeplates, each with an arrangementof masks from various sites. Kirkland was the first to systemati-cally study the masks and todescribe them as “solid” and “outline” masks. “There are twodistinct types: 51 are drawn in outline in the conventional man-ner; 38 are built up of solid massesof color, as if made with a stencil.”These two types are found togetherin some of the shelters. They varyin size from 4 to 8 inches in widthand 6 to 12 inches in height. “Theworkmanship of the outline masksis generally much cruder than thatof the solid type. Nearly all of thesolid masks were painted with athin liquid color that seems tohave soaked into the rock like dye.Each individual block in the masksis sharp and distinct; and thedesigns themselves reflect consider-able artistic ability.” Kirkland per-

Paintings in a large open shelter containing both outline masks and solidmasks along with other designs. Theoutline masks were often painted inlarge open shelters such as this. Insidethis shelter is a paint dripping (wherethe artist spilled the paint). Note thealmost comical faces of the outlinemasks. The significance of the largeoutline figure in the middle is uncertain.

Yellow solid mask with line in cheeksimilar to Flute Katchina.


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ceived that the outline masksappeared in only four colors (red,black, gray and white) while thesolid masks are in seven colors(red, black, white, brown, yellow,blue and green). The outline masks“are quite realistic, showing eyes,ears, nose and mouth. Some haveamusing expressions, remindingone of comic strip faces… in all buta few cases, the features of the facecan easily be recognized. The solidmasks, on the other hand, arehighly conventionalized at best.Many of them barely retain the features of the face; more than 15 are lacking such features andcan only be classified as masksbecause of their general resem-blance to the more realistic exam-ples.” The vast majority of themasks (70 of his 89) are found, hewrites “in small niches, crevices orshelters too small for habitation;(they)… were reached with diffi-culty, and were copied while lyingflat on the back.”

Kirkland identified the masks atHueco Tanks as resembling currentkatchina masks. “Like the maskpaintings, there are two types ofkatchina masks – more or less real-istic faces and highly conventional-

ized faces. Some katchina maskstotally lack facial features likemany of the mask paintings. Thereis a general similarity of decora-tions on the face – the lines on thecheeks, around the mouth and onthe chin.” He noted that the rain-altar symbol, the star emblem, andthe crescent-rain symbol were on

Solid mask with lines coming downacross the cheeks.

Two solid masks. The left mask is“female,” because of the fringe designalong the bottom associated only withfemale katchinas.


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katchina masks as well as theHueco Tanks mask paintings.

The outline masks are facial images with almond-shaped eyesshowing pupils, a triangular noseand a semi-circular mouth area,sometimes with teeth. They are,more often than solid masks,located in large, open shelters andassociated with other motifs, suchas Tlaloc figures and animals.

The solid masks are more abstractthan the outline facial images, giving the former an other-worldlyquality. The eyes are blank-looking(resembling the Tlaloc goggle eyes)and blocks of color are laid pre-cisely. Almost certainly, thesemasks were used for ceremonialpurposes. We have evidence ofsuch a ceremonial cave (similar tothe underground kivas of present-day Pueblos) at a site called CaveKiva, where eight masks, in alter-nating red and orange colors, arearranged in an undulating patternalong one wall (see page 4). Thiscave may have been associatedwith the cycle of the planet Venus,sacred among Mesoamericans, sinceeight is the numeral often con-nected to this planetary cycle.

Many of the designs you see atHueco Tanks, such as masks,plumed serpents, and Venus andsolstice symbols, continue in theKatchina religion of present-dayPueblo peoples. The artists whomade these designs and symbols,the Jornada Mogollon, abandonedthe El Paso and Hueco Tanks areaabout 600 years ago for undeter-mined reasons.

A pair of masks from among the eightat Cave Kiva. Other pairs of masksexist at Hueco Tanks, but this pairshows a special connection throughincomplete eyes on facing sides. Thepair strongly hints at the ultimatelyholistic nature of dualism, a core concept of Mesoamerican cultures diffused to the Southwest during theJornada Mogollon period.



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During the sixteenth and seven-teenth centuries, various nomadicIndian groups acquired Europeanhorses through raiding and trading from the Spanish-occupiedpueblos of the Southwest. TheApaches, Comanches and otherPlains Indians, no longer limited to moving on foot, developed intosuperb horsemen. And, thanks tothe Indians’ newly acquired equestrian skills, their hunting and raiding became considerablymore efficient.

What are believed to have beenmounted Mescalero Apaches visitedHueco Tanks and left drawings oftheir ceremonies and victorydances, such as the white dancersshown here. The Apache figures arefluid and curvilinear, lending sensu-ality and animation to the dancers.Newcomb says that “among theChiricuahuas, whose ritual life wasalmost identical to that of theMescaleros, there was some loosen-ing of conventional sexual behavior,if not outright license, during theirceremonies, raising the possibility

T H E H I S T O R I C P E R I O DAPACHE PLAINS WARRIORS — CIRCA 1500 A.D. – 1879 A.D.

Probable Mescalero Apache panelwith giant white snake, horses andhorse and rider.

Panel possibly depicting aMescalero Apache victory dance.Shown are snakes, horses, dancerswith musical instruments andsexual behavior.


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that the Mescalero practiced thesame customs.”

Archaeologically, the Historic Periodis characterized by items indicatingEuropean contact. In rock art, thiscontact is reflected in the portrayalof horses, cattle, churches and people in European dress.

Spanish settlement in New Mexicobegan in the early 1600s. Thrivingvillages were in existence by 1640along the upper Rio Grande, butthe Pueblo Revolt of 1680 led toSpanish retreat and the establish-ment of several villages of refugees

in the immediate El Paso area,including the Ysleta del Sur settlement in Socorro. Anglo settle-ment in the El Paso-Hueco Tanksregion did not begin until the mid-19th century.

The earliest painted date at HuecoTanks State Historic Site is 1849.Hueco Tanks was a stopping placealong what was called the “UpperImmigrant Road.” Between 1858and 1860, the famous ButterfieldOverland Mail route also used thisroute before being shifted north-ward due to the Civil War. Thestage stopped at Alamo Mountain,Cornudas Mountains and HuecoTanks, and then traveled theremaining 30 miles to El Paso. At each of these stops, travelerswould often paint their names,together with dates, on the rocks.Interestingly, the Anglos and Spanish would inscribe their names where the Apaches hadpainted, not where the earlyMogollon had depicted their sacredart. This was probably because thename painters used open sheltersat ground level, whereas the Mogollon masks are found higherup in hard-to-find places.

Historic inscriptions from westwardtravelers usually give the person’s nameand date of inscription. This Anglo andSpanish tradition continues today in“love” messages and gang insignia.



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Hueco Tanks has one of the largestconcentrations of Indian rockpaintings in North America. Suchan impressive array testifies to theimportance of this site to prehis-toric and historic Indians. HuecoTanks is also the only site in NorthAmerica that has such a large num-ber of painted masks, making thissite a unique and outstanding gemin America’s cultural heritage.Along with the beauty bequeathedto us, comes a duty to preserveand protect this very special his-toric gallery. Over the years, someof the rock art has been damagedor defaced. Most of the destructionhas been accidental, from firesbuilt in shelters where visitorscould not see the pictographs, orfrom people placing their names onrocks without noticing the faintand ancient paintings they aredefacing. Lately there has also been

an increasing incidence of deliber-ate vandalism. Hopefully, this willbe stopped in the future throughstricter enforcement of the TexasAntiquities Code which forbids alldefacement or removal of rock art.After all, how many 8,000-year-oldtraditions are there for our chil-dren and grandchildren to learnfrom and enjoy?

S U M M I N G U P

Pictograph showing a decorated fig-ure and two masks.


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Carrasco, David. Religions ofMesoamerica. Harper; San Fran-cisco, 1990.

Davis, John and Kay SutherlandToness. A Rock Art Inventory atHueco Tanks State Park, SpecialReport 12 of The Artifact, 1974.

Fewkes, Walter. Hopi Kachinas.Drawings by Native Artists, AnnualReport for 1895-1900, No. 21,Bureau of American Ethnology,Washington D.C., 1903.

Kirkland, Forrest and W. W. Newcomb. Rock Art of Texas Indians, University of Texas Press,1967.

Kirkland, Forrest. “Pictographs ofIndian Masks at Hueco Tanks” Bulletin of the Texas Archaeologi-cal and Paleontological Society,Vol. 12. September, 1940.

Schaafsma, Polly. Indian Rock Artof the Southwest, School of American Research, SouthwesternArt Series, Univ. of New MexicoPress, Albuquerque, 1980.

Sutherland, Kay and Dave Parker.“Quetzalcoatl, Mogollon Art andReligious Syncretism” Proceedingsof the Southwest Federation ofArchaeological Societies, El PasoArchaeological Society, 1990.

Waters, Frank. Book of the Hopi.Ballantine, New York, 1963.

In addition, persons interested in articles on rock art will enjoythe Artifact, a publication of the El Paso Archaeological Society.

F U R T H E R R E A D I N G


A B O U T T H E A U T H O R

Kay Sutherland (1942–2002)received an undergraduate degreefrom the University of Texas –Austin and a Ph.D. in Anthropologyfrom the University of Illinois –Urbana. For more than 25 years, Dr. Sutherland specialized in record-ing and interpreting the rock art ofWest Texas, southern New Mexicoand northern Mexico. She was especially interested in the JornadaStyle and the transmission of beliefsystems from Mesoamerica into theSouthwest. Dr. Sutherland wrotenumerous technical and interpretivearticles and monographs.

For this publication, she made a special effort to share her insights on the significance of the rock art at Hueco Tanks State Historic Sitewith the general public.

The author gratefully acknowledged her many discussions with Dave Parker, a formerpark ranger at Hueco Tanks State Historic Site, whose sensitivity to the rock paint-ings contributed a great deal to the ideas expressed in this book. Much of the fieldwork underlying the notions expressed here was done with the help of the El PasoArcheological Society. Their support has been and continues to be exemplary.

Dr. Kay Sutherland and park ranger Dave Parker at

Hueco Tanks State Historic Site.

Experience the wondrous rock paintings at Hueco Tanks State Historic Site through the eyes of a professional anthropologist, as she unveils the art’s hidden meaningsand its religious connections to ancient Mexico and southwestern Pueblo culture in general.

The water in the natural catch-basinsformed by the eroded rocks of HuecoTanks has attracted humans over themillennia and the centuries. ArchaicNative American hunters, early agricul-turalists and historic Indian groups have covered the site’s rock surfaceswith over 3,000 paintings, including several hundred mask-like images reminiscent of present-day PueblanKatchina Cult designs.

Generously illustrated with photographsof the renowned 1930s watercolor renderings of the site’s paintings by Forrest Kirkland, the book clearly revealsto both mind and eye the story behind aunique and ancient Texan art gallery.

4200 Smith School Road • Austin, Texas 78744www.tpwd.state.tx.us

In accordance with Texas State Depository Law, this publication is available at the Texas State Publications Clearinghouse and/or Texas Depository Libraries.

@2006 TPWD PWD BK P4501-095E (6/06)


Rock Paintings at Hueco Tanks State Historic Site

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