Petroglyph Petroglyph Site

Photos courtesy of South Dakota Department of Tourism

 
     Most of the petroglyphs in South Dakota are between three thousand and five thousand years old. They were probably created by Plains Archaic people who lived in the Black Hills or northwestern South Dakota. Today no one knows what the symbols mean. Maybe the people formed them as prayers for a good hunt. Or maybe they offered the drawings to spirits that were important to them. We do not know. Many are found in caves in the Slim Buttes region of northwestern South Dakota.

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