Meteorological panel, Stein River valley, British Columbia,
Canada. Figure 80, York, They Write Their Dreams on
the Rocks Forever, p. 115.
On April 17, 2010, I posted a column titled Meteorology in Rock Art - Lightning, in which I discussed lightning symbols in rock art. Lightning is one of the natural powers that is manifested in very striking ways, and it played a big role in Native American beliefs and mythology. In They Write Their Dreams on the Rocks Forever, 'Nlaka'pamux elder Annie York discussed lighning in the meteorlogical pictograph panel in Stein Valley. What is particularly interesting to me in this instance was that she also identified one symbol as representing ball lighning.
"That sign comes from when the sun threw out his little children. You see that little person? That person is running away from the bad weather. Of course on the other side , that’s the sign for a lightning storm, the two zigzags. Below that, that sort of football, that shows the thunder. You see, a thunder comes in a ball sometimes. It rolls onto the earth and it makes a big clap! It hits the earth and does that.
My mother said it went right through a house at Yale. They were clearing out a chicken house, and my mother heard the thing rolling in. She was brave enough. She opened the door as soon as she seen that thing and it rolled across the floor and went clean outside where it made a really big ditch. It’s a wonder it didn’t explode in the house.” (p. 116-7)
REFERENCE:
York, Annie, Richard Daley, and Chris Arnett,
1993 They Write Their Dreams on the Rocks Forever, Rock Writings in the Stein River Valley of British Columbia, Talonbooks, Vancouver, B.C.
