LaVan Martineau

THE BOOKS

EXCERPT FROM LAVAN'S FUTURE ROCKS BEGIN TO SPEAK SECOND BOOK, NOT YET PUBLISHED:

Since my Rocks Begin to Speak book came out, a vocal minority continues to insist that Indian rock writing is not a system of communication understood by many different tribes as essentially a universal type picture writing, "art" is their favorite word and one of their favorite themes is that it could only basically be understood by the person writing it or to his students.  Many of the misconceptions that they present I once had myself.  It's only natural for many people to come up with preconceived ideas or to be oriented in that direction through education, church, society etc. 

My first book took 17 years of study to compile and even then it wasn't my intent to publish just then, I did not seek out a publisher.  I wrote that book at their request.  It has been another 17 years of full time, research and field work.  I could have become rich writing many books on panel interpretation since that time as I am now able to read thousands of panels but as this would have cut into my valuable time in attempting to finish reading the entire system I didn't pursue this.  My first goal is deciphering, publishing is only secondary.  The work is now downhill with perhaps 75% of the symbols deciphered.  I'm still not fully ready to publish a complete technical dictionary just yet.  Without more groundwork and basics most people would be hampered even with a complete symbol dictionary.  This was brought to my attention by the many who had studied the Rocks Begin to Speak and who only memorized the symbols like you would an alphabet without fully understanding the extensions and applications in different contexts. 

To some my work will be more than they want to hear however this will be done with the soft words of science, evidence and common horse sense.  To many this evidence will erase the thousands of unanswered questions that can be created by one lie or misconception.  It is often human nature to pull the strong down to the level of the weakest.  Any scientific work cannot concede to this unscientific leveling so it is hoped that this work upgrades the knowledge of the reader to a level closer to the truth.  This isn't always easy for the reader when some of his peers still maintain the inherited attitude that once put down and destroyed so much of Indian culture.  If truth is to win out prejudice then misunderstanding must be stood up to and cannot be ignored.  Truth is often more fascinating than fiction because of the realization that it is real.  Therefore, let us not leave it to science to rob a great story of its mystery but instead let us use the appropriate science to solve this great mystery.  The purpose structure and messages of Indian rock writing.