Inyan-oka-la-ka

Inyan-oka-la-ka. . The Sioux aptly named Medicine Rocks Inyan-oka-la-ka, or "Rock with a Hole in It." , Evidence suggests the ancestors of modern-day American Indians lived and hunted in southeastern Montana beginning at the end of the last ice age, or about 12,000 years ago. The summers were cooler then, and large mammals such as woolly mammoths made for a bountiful harvest. , As the climate warmed over the next few thousand years, mammoths and other prehistoric mammals became extinct. American Indians relied on buffalo for food, shelter, clothing and tools. While hunting on the prairie around Medicine Rocks, the Northern Cheyenne, Sioux, Gros Ventre, Assiniboine, Crow, Shoshone and Arapaho tribes sought shelter among the sandstone formations, and gathered edible and medicinal plants growing in the sandy soil. , (Side-bar at the bottom:) , Clues to the Past , Artifacts recovered from the park provide valuable insight on how early people lived and survived on the Plains. Archaeologists used this evidence to better understand how American Indians may have adjusted their travel patterns, hunting and gathering methods and even their daily routines according to the resources available during each season. , Petroglyphs , Engraved images of animals, people and other abstract symbols into sandstone rock faces advertised personal feats, promoted fertility, marked territories and counted days or seasons. , Projectile Points , Flacked from stone and fit to wooden shafts, these small, side-notched arrow points could easily pierce the this hide of a buffalo. , Potsherds , These pottery fragments came from pots, bowls, mortars and other cookware makes from clay that was shaped by hand and baked in fire. , Tipi Rings , American Indians camping on the windy prairie anchored their tipi covers to the ground with rocks, often leaving a circle of stones behind when they moved on.