Summary: These images may portray the early Eastern Shoshone belief in dangerous water baby spirits who lurked near rivers. The construction of Boysen dam destroyed many petroglyphs in this area.
Some researchers speculate that these carvings are female figures in a delivery or sitting position. Others say these figures are "water babies."
The Shoshone believed "children of the water" lived in rivers and lakes. Anthropologist R. B. Lowie who visited the Shoshone in 1909 described water babies as one to two feet tall and so heavy that they could not be moved. This rock art, similar to many Dinwoody panels, faces a water source, the Wind River. This petroglyph is carved on a grainy sandstone surface which easily breaks and flakes.
Notice the uplifted hand with a negative cross design, the beautifully carved feet and internal intestinal-lines which terminates in a ball. One figure holds a rope connected to what appears to be a dog. Archeologist Lawrence Lowendorf has studied the lives of the Mountain Shoshone, called "Tukudika" or "Sheep Eaters. They traveled with large domesticated dogs that assisted hunts and dragged their belongings secured to long poles.
The Wind River flows from mountain peaks southwest, then north, into the Wind River Canyon. A dam, at the mouth of the canyon, created Boysen Reservoir which covered numerous Dinwoody Traditional petroglyphs. My mentor Ruby L. looked for the lost rock art when a recent drought lowered water levels. She said the carvings are lost, erased by water forever.