Located in Northern California near the former Tule Lake, 4-Mod-22 is a complex Klamath Basin petroglyph site that exhibits three distinctive classes of rock art: iconic motifs, residual markings, and geometric figures. As a Klamath-Modoc descendent, I was contracted by the US Fish and Wildlife Service to provide an interpretive report for this particular site. Information provided by a combination of Klamath-Modoc ethnography and myth suggests that the distinctive rock art categories denote two patterns of ritual use that include shamans’ consultations with their spirit familiars, and shamanic power quests. Through the use of these sources it was also possible to identify a pattern of ritual use on the wider landscape that included the nearby lava fields and possibly a small cave identified as the lodge of the mythical beings, Kumush and Aisis. Through the application of myth, it was also possible to answer calls by previous researchers to bring the voice of the Klamath-Modoc people into the study of this unique aspect of their cultural heritage, where it has for so long been absent.

Recent research in the Klamath Basin has shown that rock art and landscape are intimately connected, mutually informed by indigenous notions of sacred places. Modeling this landscape has been possible through an understanding of Klamath–Modoc myth. This has led some researchers to derive general interpretations of the rock art that are largely in agreement with Klamath–Modoc spiritual beliefs. I take this approach a step further and propose interpretations for specific rock art images and ritual objects, arguing that oral traditions harbor the fundamental logic that underpinned shamanic rituals that led to the creation of these paraphernalia.