The peoples that made these little animal effigies were part of the Desert Culture, the forebears of the “Anasazi” culture which occupied the Canyon after them. Modern Puebloan descendants of the Anasazi, including the Hopi have asked that the term “Ancestral Puebloan” be used instead of “Anasazi.” Anasazi in Navajo means "enemy ancestor" or "ancient people who are not us." 

These people dominated the area for over 6,000 years living among and hunting the megafauna of the time. These animals included the bison, mammoths, the stag moose, mastodons, giant beavers and huge ground sloths. So many split twig animal effigies have been found (first in 1932) that they are no longer collected by museums.

Interestingly, there are usually little or no associated cultural remains at most of these sites. Some figurines contain a piece of deer or sheep scat in the body section, seemingly to increase the validity of the effigy by incorporating material from the animals or animals being represented by a willow twig or agave spine. These findings have led to a general consensus that the caves were probably shrines where hunters from the latter part of the archaic period practiced a form of hunting magic by construction and ritually “killing” representations of the deer and sheep that were an important part of their food base during that period. 

More recently the split-twig animal effigies have become a symbol of human interest and fascination with the Grand Canyon. These animal effigies are made in the same manner as those found by archaeologists, that is by splitting a single willow twig and bending it to form the effigy. Those used in the necklaces are a bit smaller than the originals and all have been stabilized with polyurethane, but like the originals each is unique and a faithful reproduction of the earliest religio-artistic objects found in the Southwest.

Bill Ott has devoted his life to photographing the rock art of the Southwest, retouching it to return it photographically to its pre-vandalization splendor while retaining its authenticity. His awesome photography captures the art and mystery of these ancient peoples with a purity of intent and practice.

While on his arduous journeys to the sites, he creates split-willow animal effigies as a pastime. As a result of making thousands of animal effigies, he has mastered the craft while remaining true to the original technique. He has departed from the tradition only in that he sometimes mounts them in a serpentine rock base and he never places them beneath rock cairns at the back of Grand Canyon caves. Bill creates museum-quality animal effigies that you can purchase in our Seventh Fire Store.