The origin of tribal styles: An evolutionary perspective on plains Indian art

Dating Crow Rock Art through Multivariate Statistical Comparison with Biographic Artworks

“…Although there are large assemblages of both Crow rock art (Conner 1980, 1984; Conner and Conner 1971; Keyser 2010, 2012, 2014, 2018; Keyser and Cowdrey 2008; Keyser and Klassen 2001; Keyser and Minick 2018; Keyser and Poetschat 2009; Keyser and Renfro 2017; Loendorf 2012; McCleary 2008a, 2016) and portable biographic art in the form of painted robes and ledger drawings (Brownstone 2001; Cowles 1982; Heidenreich 1985; Keyser 1996; Logan and Schmittou 1995; Lowie 1935; Wildschut 1926), scholars have long lamented the absence of a strong connection—both chronological and stylistic—between these two datasets that would aid in interpreting the petroglyphs. Conner expressed this gap most succinctly: “Missing in the chain of evidence is a stylistic link between the rock drawings attributed to the Crow and the known Historic Crow hide paintings.…”