DERE TIBURON LIBRARY ;
I
II
3 1111 02237 9422
'
^^
^^
|y|
^ ^^
|
^^ fj^ |\|
Indian Art David W. Penney
Thames & Hudson world of art
BEL-TIB NEW BOOKS 709. 01 Penney 2004
Penney, David W North American Indian art
31111022379422 l^lof
DAVID W. PENNEY
is
Vice President of
Museum Programs and
Curator of Native American Art
at the Detroit Institute of Arts.
GEORGE HORSE CAPTURE
is
Assistant to the Director at the
Museum of the American Indian and former Curator Indian Museum in Cody, Wyoming.
National Plains
DATE DUE a ug
o i
zm
n[
THAMES & HUDSON INC 500
Fifth
New
Avenue
York.
Printed
in
New
York 10
Singapore
1
10
S\
of the
187 illustrations.
80
in
color
North American Indian Art David
^^
Thames & Hudson
W. Penney
© 2004 Thames & Hudson Ltd, London All Rights
Reserved.
No
part of this publication
may be reproduced or
including any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, retrieval system, photocopy, recording or any other information storage and
transmitted
in
without prior permission
First
published
in
2004
Thames & Hudson
Inc.,
in
in
writing from the publisher.
paperback
500
Fifth
in
the United States of America by
Avenue.
New York. New York
thamesandhudsonusa.com
.
of Congress Catalog Card
Number 01 -2003108929
ISBN 0-500-20377-6 Frontispiece: I
Powwow
dancer.
photographed by Kenny Blackbird.
- ied
by John Morgan
Printed and
bound
in
Singapore by
C S Graphics
10 10 1
Contents
Foreword by George Horse Capture 7
Chapter
I
Chapter
2
Ancient Woodlands 26
Chapter
3
Eastern Woodlands 53
Introduction
9
Chapter 4
Southwest 79
Chapter
Plains
5
107
West
Chapter 6
Far
Chapter
Northwest Coast
7
127
141
Chapter 8
Arctic and Subarctic
Chapter
Artists of the
9
Maps
Modern and Contemporary World
213
Chronology
218
Select Bibliography
221
List of Illustrations
226
Index
230
166
189
^*^fni^v
~*XiuL
-*
t^^Ljf^r^f
m> *1
v
m *[ *
% •
4
a.»
3*..
* •
-
^
11
1
Foreword
It is
work with David
always an education and a pleasure to
Penney.
A perceptive and
intellectual scholar in the field,
he
keeps up on the literature, the developing art scene, and evolving thoughts, and then develops a theory, detailing
examples, and articulating and solidifying
methodology
clearly at
is
work
it
The book
here.
with numerous writing.
in his
it
chock
is
That full
of
interesting stories and information, as well as bold declarative
statements. In
the very
first
Indian people are
paragraph, Dr. Penney notes that American
still
vibrantly alive and
creating their
still
traditional art, as well as participating in age-old ceremonies.
This enlightenment started
in
the
is
a far cry
museum
field
from what
approach then was to preserve those at
all
costs, perhaps even to the
dark, far
from prying
responsibility
was to
As
a curator
I
was
relics
like
ago.
when
Our
from
I
standard
a long
ago time
degree of sealing them away
in
the
No one was to touch them; their sole exist. On occasion the most popular items eyes.
were allowed to be on away.
it
many moons
so
but the vast majority were locked
display,
was often scolded and instructed on how
to properly handle these ancient things from the lost past, but
something inside of
me
rendered the items
lifeless,
how
often reflected
Years later of the
I
American
felt
something was wrong. Isolation and the treatment of the objects
the Indian people themselves
Indian and the earlier restrictive
philosophy changed dramatically. collection,
we
invited
In
people - the
of the material - to have access to
the collection
were viewed.
Museum museum
had the privilege of joining the National
came
alive.
The
addition to caring for the tribal
members
their artifacts,
tribes
came
in
of the makers
and suddenly
and met their items
with great emotion. Instead of persisting with the older concept 2
Hamatsa dancer wearing cedar
bark clothing and a
from red cedar
mask carved
at a potlatch
ceremony given by Chief
Cranmer Columbia
in
WT
Alert Bay. British
of "don't touch: this material
is
ours,"
we embraced
the reality
that the tribes' ancestors had created these objects, and that
the collection
was
a living
one
that could
become
a
"connector"
between the ancestors, the descendants, and others. Over the years at this
museum
I
have witnessed such
joy. pain,
happiness.
awe, and reverence
when
tribal
understand the art and the
acknowledge
artist
was
a
good one.
American Indians with
goal to familiarize
Dr.
people experience their
The step we took to respect the people and
heritage.
their cultural
and
It
One
museums
remains our
their material, and to
spiritual needs.
Penney expresses other "stages of growth"
interesting book.
living
to better
in this
tragic limitation of ethnographic
has been the anonymity of the artists that created the
masterpieces on
With
display.
names are
rare exceptions their
we cannot even identify the tribe. Dr. Penney acknowledges that we don't know nearly enough about the art and the artist, and he also provocatively asks the question, "What is Native American?" He defines this in differing tiers that compel lost in time.
Often
additional study, and he goes
on to observe that the
towards addressing the question It is
it
is
here that the essence of what
speak we
could
could
all
step
first
established on a local
will
become
level.
art begins, and
if
communities across the
hear. Indian
continent are similarly engaged, and as such are an equal part of this
foundation.
together, they Dr.
When
of the local presentations are viewed
all
form "Native America."
Penney suggests that the researcher not only study the
art piece, but also find out life,
all
that
thoughts, relationships, family,
essentials,
because art
is
a
is
possible about the artist's
spirituality,
and other
testimony to existence. Together
these tenets have formed a force that has guided the
may allow
hand, and they
artist's
us a greater understanding not only
of the art, but also of the artist and their humanity.
This evolution of understanding
when many
is
a far cry
from long ago
anthropologists and other collectors obtained
ethnographic masterpieces from a suffering people for cents, without even troubling to obtain the artist's
But times are changing for American Indians, as intelligence are
becoming "connectors" between us
We are grateful to these
new
David and to others
is
will
make
life
them
in
we
all
easier as
George Horse Capture, National
Museum
Washington,
8
life
and
as well.
are recognizing
remarkable, coming from a non-artist, as
paints the items and interprets It
few
"stages of growth" of understanding. David's
perception
manner.
who
a
name.
DC.
of the American Indian,
his
mind
an insightful and helpful
become more
real.
Chapter
I
Introduction
American Indian art now Artists of Native
moment.
art today, at this
All over the United States, countless dancers, singers,
who
artists
American ancestry are making
work
will display their
fry-bread cooks prepare for a
in
booths, T-shirt vendors, and
weekend
"Gathering of Nations" website
lists
of
among them
Fourth of July 2003 weekend,
powwows. The
thirty-six
powwows
on-line
for the
the Navajo Fourth of
Powwow at Window Rock, Arizona, the 131 st Annual Quapaw Tribal Powwow in Quapaw, Oklahoma, the 35th Annual Ute Fourth of July Powwow at Fort Duchesne, Utah, and the 8th Annual Eastern Woodlands Intertribal Powwow in Lebanon,
July
Maine. At the beginning of each event, every dancer, dressed regalia perfected to the best of their abilities
up
in
and
in
talents, will line
order of seniority and parade into the arena
led by military
veterans carrying flags and accompanied by the singers of the lead
drum In
in
the heart-stopping spectacle
town
the
assemble
gifts
as
"Grand Entry"
[l].
of Alert Bay, British Columbia, several families
and goods to distribute at potlatches scheduled for
later in the year.
Some
will
feature
treasured family possessions like
known
Beau Dick,
will
[2].
masked dances presented
Skilled carvers in the
receive commissions to carve
Old ones preserved
in
as
community,
new masks.
family collections will be painted and
refurbished so they look their best during the ceremony.
Outside Santa
Fe,
Nancy Youngblood.
a
descendant of
a long
lineage of potters including matriarchs Margaret Tafoya and her
mother Sara of
clay.
Her
ultimately
Fina of Santa Clara Pueblo, builds
lustrous black
jars,
and polishes vessels
whose ribbed forms
derive
from the shapes of squashes and pumpkins, are
sought-after by collectors and
before she finishes them.
In
museums
[3].
Many
highly
are sold
the recent past, long lines of hopeful
purchasers formed early Indian
Market
she sold In
all
in
the morning
in
in
front of her booth at
Some walked away
Santa Fe.
disappointed after
she brought for the day.
Washington, D.C., Ho-Chunk (or Winnebago) sculptor
Truman Lowe, formerly the
chair of the art
department
at the
now serves as the curator National Museum of the American
University of Wisconsin, Madison, of
contemporary
Indian.
Among
art at the
many
his
that will feature Native 3
Ribbed melon
jar,
Nancy Youngblood.
made c.
upcoming exhibitions
plans for
American
artists
who work
is
one
electronic
in
media.
by
1995.
Some
Native Americans today criticize
museum
exhibits,
Youngblood's art builds upon the blackware traditions of her ancestral
Pueblo,
in
Mexico. Her
mother Mela Youngblood was potter, as
American
home, Santa Clara
New was
and very
many mothers before
that.
one, because they often situate
like this
a historical past, as
in
today. This failure to
if
there
is
no Native
frame the past from the
a
Mela's mother, the
Fina,
Indian culture
American culture
great Margaret Tafoya, Margaret's
mother Sara
popular media, and books
standpoint of the present
is
when
particularly unfortunate
considering Native American arts, since indigenous artists have
likely
always been, and
are now,
still
among those who most
actively
reconcile the traditions of the past with the circumstances of the present. Art
is,
and has been, one of the principal strategies of
Native American "survivance," to use writer Gerald Vizenor's term. While the
word
"survival"
term "survivance"
tenacity, the
memory and
adaptability,
summons up more
refers
images of last-gasp
to the
wisdom
of
and the strategies of resistance,
accommodation, and transformation. Histories of survivance connect the present with the
past, linking the
experiences of
the aforementioned artists active today with those of countless forebears, the generations of Native American artists
whose
creations are the subject of this book.
Art and aesthetics
Readers of
this
book may be unaccustomed to
which implies
a "strategy,"
be
more accustomed
an
artist's creativity.
and
a social
thinking of art as
political intention.
We may
to regarding art as a personal expression of
Some may be comfortable
with the notion
of art as a collective expression of a worldview, particularly
considering religious symbols or the
ceremony. The term these things.
The
of aesthetics. There
There art.
is
no
"Art"
is
is
no
it
object single
will is
a
word used all
hand, seems to be a
to
of art
in
when
religious
be used here, encompasses
all
created within a cultural system
and universal system of aesthetics.
privileged standard for
definition changes
10
"art," as
artistic
ritual role
name
what can or cannot be
called
certain kinds of things and
its
the time. Aesthetic expression, on the other
human
universal.
Human
beings
all
over the
world express values about what or inappropriate, beautiful or
is
ugly,
good or
bad, appropriate
holy or profane, through a
system of aesthetic valuation. Aesthetics shape the qualitative and ethical perceptions of social the
political, religious,
life.
As
such, aesthetics
permeate
and economic realms of every society.
Aesthetic systems are culture-bound. Cultural
misunderstandings and conflict can stem from contesting aesthetic
and
ethical systems.
For example, the Enlightenment-era judgment
that contrasted European civilization with the "primitive savages"
of the
New World
can be understood as an essentially aesthetic
evaluation deeply rooted
thought
[4,5].
in
European philosophical and
religious
The eighteenth-century French philosopher
Jean-Jacques Rousseau's appreciation of the "Noble Savage"
represented a reversal of this aesthetic assessment, but
his
writing
had more to do with a critique of European society than any
real
understanding of North American Indians. Aesthetic systems change. They are permeable and easily
absorb new
ideas, attitudes,
and
shifting valuations.
They are not
always internally consistent. They are at once reenacted and
reinvented by individuals, who, for the purposes of this book, are
4 Watercolor portrait of Jean Baptist Brouillette. painted by
George Winter, based upon
a
c
1863-71,
sketch of 1837.
The clothing worn by a
Brouillette,
Miami mens or mixed-blood of
Indiana,
merited the following
comment "He wore
in
the
a fine frock
coat of the
latest fashion. His "pes-mo-kin"
shirt
was white spotted with
or
a
small red figure, overhanging very
handsome blue with very rich
leggings,
silk
winged'
ribbons of
prismatic hues, exhibiting the
[women's]
I
artist's journal:
skillful
handiwork
"
I
5
Godfned Maes. America,
pen and
ink with gray
over black chalk, Distinctions
c
wash
1690-1700.
between broad
categories of
human
beings.
European and Native American,
depend upon equally broad generalizations. in this
Note
that even
extraordinarily early and
allegorical representation of a
Native American, the artist has included the stereotypical
feathered headdress, bow, and quiver
full
of arrows.
f
3pB&%?
artists
and their audiences. For example, attitudes about media
and design can change
easily. In
the eighteenth century
women
of the Great Lakes region quickly understood the aesthetic
opportunities offered by trade goods such as cotton cloth,
silk
ribbon, and glass beads.
They adopted new techniques to use
these kinds of materials
when decorating
formal clothing.
More
impervious to change were the underlying ideas that valued formal clothing and self-worth.
its
display during public events as an expression of
The powwows
of this chapter stand as a
of today mentioned at the beginning
contemporary expression of that
underlying aesthetic value. So at any particular time, aesthetic
systems reach simultaneously back into the past and forward to the future. topical
Some
aspects of an aesthetic system respond to the
and contemporary, others draw from the traditions of
generations past. This perspective reveals to us the continuities
and innovations
American
12
art.
visible in the
many thousands
of years of Native
What If
is
Native American art?
art stems
from an aesthetic system, and aesthetic systems
develop and operate within the realm of culture, what, then, is
Native American art? Native American aesthetics? Native
American culture? The world of North America, prior to the identification of Indians,
was
a
its
inhabitants as Native
world unto
itself. It
Americans or American
had been
home
to
human
societies for at least 15,000 years before the voyages of
Columbus. The breadth of
cultural diversity
its
was equal to
or surpassed that of any comparable landmass on the planet.
At
least 170 different languages
were spoken
in
North America,
probably more. The multitude of languages, life-ways, and
conventions for understanding the world spawned as many understandings of art and aesthetics. Prior to contact with
Europe,
it
would be
difficult
to imagine that any resident of North
America thought self-consciously of him or herself as
a Native
American. People referred to their cultures by names that translate frequently as their language A'aninin,
"White Clay People"
(later
term for "the people:"
named the Gros Ventre by
the French), for example, or Mesquakie, "Red Earth People" (later
named the Renards, or
Fox, by the French).
of a "Native American" identity
was forced
The
creation
historically by the
circumstances of North America's conquest.
It is
now common
to speak of Native American culture, Native American art, or
even a Native American perception of the world. very human construct stems from a long and
this
And
the implications of this history need
some
My
point
is
that
difficult history.
clarification
because not everybody means the same thing when they speak of things "Native American."
The modern
nations of the United States and
invested a great deal of their cultural identities
in
Canada have the concept of
"Native Americans." Images of Native people have decorated national currencies.
"Red
Skins," "Indians,"
names of sports teams. The "Cherokee" Images of people dressed
everyone
is
in
is
and "Braves" are a
popular automobile.
buckskin and feathers, which
supposed to recognize
as
"American
to advertise products as varied as butter,
fruit,
Indian," are
and tobacco.
used
It
may
be stating the obvious to say that these kinds of appropriations of
names and images have
little
may be
Native people.
It
experiences of
real
less
to
do with the
identities of real
obvious to some, however, that the
Native people are lost from view
replaced by these images.
when
Today some ironies inherent
artists of
Native ancestry draw attention to the
cultural
in this
image of the "Indian." David
Grant
Bradley's American Indian Gothic: Ghost Dancers appropriates
Wood's
iconic painting of
American
cultural identity
[6],
Instead
of the earnest prairie farmer with a pitchfork and his unmarried
daughter, Bradley substitutes another couple presented guise of iconic Plains Indians with flowing hair, braids,
garments, and a
The exchange
instead of a farmhouse
tipi
of stereotypes might
in
the
in
beaded
the background.
seem humorous,
a sly
nod
to the recognition that Native people preceded the so-called
pioneers of the
plains.
Those with more
insider knowledge,
however, might recognize the couple's garments as those worn
Dance mentioned
by practitioners of the Ghost
movement
the painting, a religious
in
the
title
of
of revival and resistance that
spread throughout several Plains reservations during the year
1889 and thereafter. At
Wounded
Knee, South Dakota, during
the winter of 1890, the United States military confronted Lakota
Ghost Dancers and
women, and
killed
than three hundred of them, men,
children. Bradley's seemingly playful manipulations
of stereotypes take on far
more sobering
ironies: the stark
between stereotypes and the experiences of
differences
people.
more
One now thinks
of the Grant
Wood
painting
real
reminded of
the fact that his stereotype of national character remains oblivious
made
to the suffering that
So
who
the
life
of the prairie farmer possible.
are Native Americans? Ultimately, the identity of
Native Americans stems from countless local cultures that, historically,
have found themselves and their descendants bound
together
the situation of contending with the consequences
in
of conquest and colonial repression.
Some
authors of Native
ancestry have attempted to contrast the essential differences
between indigenous North American and European-derived cultures.
becomes obvious, however,
It
differences only 6 David Bradley, American Indian Gothic: Ghost Dancers, acrylic
on
canvas. 1989. Bradley's picture
becomes
The encounter and
its
that drawing these
possible as the result of the encounter.
historical
framework of difference on such
consequences established the a
broad
scale.
The
entire
enterprise of cross-cultural reflection, us looking at
them looking
appropriates the famous Grant
Wood
composition, "American
Gothic," replacing the farmer and his
back at
stems from
us,
consequences, and
this
a long history of
book
is
such encounters and their
a part of that. Native
American
daughter with images of Plains
Indians
in
Ghost Dance
picture
is
a play
substituting
one
dress.
The
on stereotypes, for another,
and
art
on the
level of
participation.
analyzed,
it
the local community
When
becomes
it is
is
experienced through
observed, recorded, translated, and
part of a cross-cultural discourse
nnding the viewer of the il.
•
violent,
and tragic events
ootypes attempt to hide.
such broad terms as "Native American" might apply.
in
which
History
and anthropology
Most of the objects
Some
illustrated in this
museums now
art
American
artists,
New York,
as the
in
natural history and anthropology
American Museum of Natural History
in
Museum of Natural History in Chicago, and Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian Institution)
the Field
the National in
made by Native
but the largest collections of Native American
"material culture" reside
museums, such
book belong to museums.
collect and display items
Washington, D.C. During the period between the end of the
Civil
War and
World War
the beginning of
I,
hundreds of
thousands of objects were excavated from the ground or collected (purchased, gifted, stolen) from Native people and
placed
in
century,
museums. During the
museum
first
years of the twentieth
among Native communities became
collecting
so competitive that curators often ran into each other
in
the
field,
racing to procure artifacts before their colleagues could find them.
A vast network of traders and
field
who
agents
collected items
from Native communities waited for the parade of curators to up
at their
with
all
door and purchase them. What
did
line
museums want
these things?
The growth
of American natural history
collections of Native
century
is
American
tied closely to the
and anthropology. Early
in
museums and
their
"artifacts" during the nineteenth
development of American ethnology
the nineteenth century most
ethnological thinking about
American Indians concerned
with speculations about the origins of the
New World
their connection to Genesis (the divine origin of
itself
races and
human
beings
according to Judaic-Christian traditions). There was an implicit question here:
how
did the societies of the
world become so
diverse, with such evidently disparate capacities for technological
invention and social complexity? To put the question
language of the time, Genesis,
why
are
if all
"we" so
mankind descends from civilized
a
in
the
common
while "they" are so savage?
Lewis Henry Morgan, an extremely
influential
American
anthropological theorist of the mid-nineteenth century, addressed this
question
when he reasoned
that
complex
simple ones.
The
the fact that
some had grown more complex
differences
between
societies
societies,
grew from
he thought,
lay in
than others.
Therefore, these differences reflected stages of growth from simple to complex "civilized."
or,
to use his terms, from "savage" to
Drawing upon the ideas of the
English naturalist
Charles Darwin, Morgan viewed social growth as a natural, almost biological process.
16
He
called
it
"social evolution."
From
his
point
of view,
distant historical past
in its
European
passed through a stage of "savagery" and
uppermost stage of refine
social evolution,
civilization
now
had
represented the
which would continue to
and improve
itself
through progress, while Native American
remained
at an
abased evolutionary stage. Morgan and
societies
subsequent anthropologists reasoned that understanding processes of social evolution as a whole would profit from the study of what they considered to be
American
A society
imagined to be stuck
evolution has no history. 7
North
Museum c.
1910.
Pacific Hall,
American
was
of Natural History,
The canoe
full
of figures
intended to represent the
when
American
and
his
at a village as
guests of a potlatch. Captives hold
the canoe steady
in
their decline
in
the
many
In fact,
in
an early stage of social
the only history of Native
concerned many early anthropologists
wake of American
of whom
worked
in
These
progress.
the
field
and
collected for
museums, feared that Native American
societies
were destined to disappear altogether or would become so transformed by their contacts with
civilization that
they would
the surf with
no longer
those waiting on shore. The entire
They
Northwest Coast
societies that
anthropologists,
poles as the nobles sing songs for
display freezes the
of savagery:
moment
a Chilkat Tlingit chief
entourage arrive
is
living fossils
Indians.
reflect accurately earlier stages of social evolution.
did not
want
their research tainted by "acculturation,"
customs of natives
in
a
timeless "ethnographic present."
a
term that
interactions
refers to changes resulting
from contacts and
between Native American and European American
17
societies.
During their fieldwork, these anthropologists interviewed
elders and mined their
memories
When
before whites had come.
made
avoided "trinkets"
argued, "They chiefly in
for accounts of the old days
making their collections, they
one anthropologist
for sale because, as
embody
no proper sense represent
the ideas of the white race and Indian arts." Anthropologists
transcribed oral accounts of old ways and collected old things in
order to preserve
texts and
museum
a
record of Native American cultures
Native societies had disappeared.
When we
ethnographic texts or look at old
museum
read these older
representations of
Native cultures (the North Pacific Hall at the American of Natural History
a well-preserved
is
seem
thus described
in
collections that could be consulted long after
situated
example
no particular
in
[7]),
Museum
the cultures
moment,
historical
we know, enduring no more. moment of time without time, without
but timeless, forever enduring but,
We can call this conceptual
history, the "ethnographic present."
More recent anthropology looks
critically at this legacy
ethnographic research. Anthropologists today reject unilinear social evolution.
They remain interested
dynamics of culture change but have become to the particularities of local histories. of the relations
far
in
a
studying the
more
In this light,
of
model of
sensitive
the history
between Native communities and white outsiders
becomes profoundly
interesting: the histories of resistance,
adaptation, and transformation (Gerald Vizenor's "survivance").
When
earlier generations of anthropologists in the field failed
to situate themselves historically within the context of the
communities they studied, the texts they produced often to take notice of
acculturation they dismissed of culture change. collected for
As
was part and
parcel of a local history
for those of us interested
museums, we are
in
less interested in
of primitive technologies or design and
more
the objects they
them
examples
as
interested
in
particular histories of their creation, use, and circulation. called trinkets
made
for sale
consumers. And, not in
surprisingly,
museums when
many
the
The
become extremely important
regard, as artists adapted their craft to the possibilities of
ended up
failed
what was going on around them, how the
so-
in this
new
of these kinds of objects
early anthropologists collected
them
while remaining ignorant of their local histories. Situating these objects historically dismantles the monolithic construct of the
ethnographic present and restores the potential of a understanding.
fuller
Artists
from the
Individual artists are largely absent
historical
record of
Native America. Unlike the art histories of Europe, which are
American
largely biography-based, Native
things.
It is
"artifacts,"
easy to see why.
When
were collected
objects
culture, the identity of the individual
Focusing on relations,
as
With
artists,
this
emphasis
repressed.
is
however, their motivations, social
and the cultural significance of the things they make,
brings into light the aesthetic system find culture
through the
which they operate.
in
cultural expressions,
cultural
and
We
through personal experience,
individual,
not the other way around. The objects
fulfill
who made
they were intended to be representative examples of
the kinds of things that the culture produced.
on
been
art history has
hard pressed to recover the names of the people
make
artists
are not simply
but the creations of individuals intended to
Their imagery, form, design,
social purposes.
symbolism, and iconography are intended to bring the ideas that
informed their creation into collective perception and help motivate social action.
Consider for example, Big Plume, role
in
the creation of the "Lord's Shirt"
Museum first
[8],
Sometime before
war expedition and
from
his
still
comrades. While
shining figure nights.
a Blackfeet
On
1850,
and
lost
Plume was on
he dreamed of a
isolated,
wore
a shirt pierced
with holes and instructed Big Plume to
make one
Plume understood that the dream was
in
and that the
right to
make the
shirt
with substantial spiritual powers.
among
It
just like
fact a spiritual
it.
encounter
was
a
common
understanding
tribes as well, that
dreams
sometimes offered such opportunities. Painted images for designs or lodges
(tipis),
as well as designs for items of
dress or special weapons, might be offered things held great potential for personal
Plume made the
Big its
shirt,
benefits. But then,
to a
man named Bear
very
through Chief.
likely
a
Big
in
shield
ceremonial
dreams, and these
power and accomplishment.
with
formal
When
Big
had been given to him, along
many other
the Blackfeet, and
his
became separated
each night for four successive
the shining figure
last night,
his
Denver Art
at the
Big
quite young, he
who comforted him
the
now
when
man, and
some
help,
and enjoyed
of transfer, he gave
ritual
Plume gave
his shirt
away,
he did not lose anything, because he retained the right to make another.
What
he gained,
in fact,
was the formalized
with Bear Chief and the social recognition of Big
Plume made
a
second
Black Bones. Bear Chief,
shirt
and gave
who now
this
relationship
his spiritual
power.
one to Chewing
also possessed the right to
it
reproduce the
made
shirt,
Albert
Mad Plume. When
Albert
Mad Plume made
made
by a
a third version, this third shirt
a fourth one. In the
man named Three
reproduce the
shirt
awkward
spiritual origin. Potentially,
original
is
who
Shirt."
originated
by a
in a
versions.
unknown The shirt
1930.
vision experienced
man named
was made
by an
c.
shirts
Big
rituals of
The story since
it
of Big
its
might have resulted
who owned
them. The
simply the material expression of Big Plume's
through
became known
rights of transfer that created indelible
bonds between those
knowledge remained
Blackfeet artist,
It
translation that refers to
many more
a fire,
was
had received the right to
power. The shirts were useless unless the
8 "Lord's
in
a fifth
experience of Big Plume, but their proliferation
depended upon formal social
Calf,
1930s
from Chewing Black Bones.
as the "Lord's Shirt," an
from the
which he gave to
was destroyed
tied to
them, and
gift
spiritual
this
shirt, in fact,
of spiritual
and
ritual
was accomplished
formal transfer from one recipient to another.
Plume and
his shirt
is
useful to
illustrates a pattern of visionary origin
keep
in
mind
and formalized
Plume and
in at least five
different
circulation of art in
2(
forms that seems to have recurred frequently
North America.
Art making, in
at
some
was
level,
customarily
made and decorated
there were always
some who
century Kiowa of Oklahoma,
a day-to-day activity for
Women
indigenous North America.
clothing for their families. But
excelled. it
many
of the Plains region
Among
the nineteenth-
was customary to honor
a
favored child, an auday, with a cradle or baby carrier elaborately
decorated with glass bead embroidery
V. The
parents might
women widely recognized for their skills to make one for them. Or a female relation might be asked, the family commission
if
was fortunate enough to include their kin.
from
Over the
a skilled
years, such cradles have
their families and found their
Barbara
Hail, a
beadworker among
scholar and
museum
discover the names of several
been separated
way to museum
collections.
curator, has been able to
women who made
cradles
many
years ago by interviewing their descendants and studying historic
photographs.
The
artists'
experience reveals the family structure of support
and lineage descent of training. for artists to learn
from elder
In
many
instances,
it
was customary
relations, either biological
or
fictive.
Excellence of artistic production led to personal and family
prominence.
9 Photograph of Lizzie
(Kiowa) and child cradle, c
in a
Among many
Native communities, the creation
Woodard
beaded
1890
2!
10
Headdress
to Albert (Haida).
frontlet, attributed
Edward Edenshaw
c.
1870 This carving
tells
man who captured and killed a sea-monster and now wears its skin. The man possessed the power to dive beneath the sea the story of a
and hunt whales, holds
in his
like
the one he
hands.
and distribution of art were often tied to the obligations and potentialities of leadership. In this
regard,
we
Edward Edenshaw,
as
might think about the
brought to
historian Robin Wright.
light
life
and art of Albert
by the research of art
Born sometime around 1812
known
in
a small
village
on the Queen Charlotte
Gwaii,
Edenshaw grew up to be one of the most renowned
Islands, also
as
Haida chiefs
of the nineteenth-century Haida. Like his maternal uncle and great-uncle, through which the
name
7idansuu
to "Edenshaw") had passed to him, Albert
Robin Wright explains, "Artists with
was
(sic, later
anglicized
also an artist.
a professional status
As
on the
northern Northwest Coast were usually members of the noble class
who
inherited their position and
well as leaders." Albert
were trained
as artists as
Edenshaw carved monumental memorial
poles from great cedar logs for his wife's family, a customary obligation a
between
blacksmith and,
a fire
22
on
a
in
clans joined by marriage.
one notable
He
trained himself as
instance, salvaged guns
burned
shipwreck, repaired them, and sold them to increase
in
his
wealth.
Some
of his carvings survive today
(carved panel) for a headdress he of the young hero carving, the hero
who
killed a
wears
in his
hands. Albert Edenshaw's
were part and
skills
critical
The perspective
the
stemming from
to his success as a leader.
of the
his
As
and influence. experience also permits more
artist's
who once
between cultures through exchanges of gifts or
who
[io]. In
and holds a whale
and accomplishments as an
consideration of those artists
and those
A frontlet
Haida story
indigenous North America frequently offered
a path to social recognition
insightful
museums.
Wasgo, or sea-wolf
parcel of the obligations
noble status and they were shall see, art in
in
illustrates the
pelt like a headdress
its
artist
we
made
operate
in
negotiated
sales to tourists,
environments today that include both
the art studio and local communities.
The
life
of Albert Edenshaw's
nephew, Charles Edenshaw, represents an important transition
Haida social
life,
he
is
known
best
for his carvings of argillite, a
black slate-like stone found on the
Charles trained under
his
perhaps completing
Queen Charlotte
Islands
in
the villages of Skidegate and Masset,
some commissions on
his
own.
A number of
frontlet headdresses are also attributed to his hand, but
known work was made
worked
[11].
uncle and assisted him with several
important memorial poles
his
in
Although he produced many objects customary to
this regard.
most of
for sale to outsiders. Charles also
closely with ethnographers,
making models of noble
houses and house poles that accurately reproduced their complex designs for
museum
displays,
and offered anthropologists
invaluable detailed accounts of crest rights, genealogies, and
II
Charles Edenshaw (Haida).
home.
carving
in his
argillite
model
of a
standing on the box artist
is
like
the
c.
1906.
The
memorial pole in
front of the
many he made
for
purchase by visitors to the
Northwest Coast.
2?
12
Painted spruce root hat with
whale design,
woven by
c.
1905.
Isabella
The
hat
was
Edenshaw and
the whale design was painted by
her husband Charles Edenshaw (Ha.da).
traditional stories. Late
Masset with
his
in his life,
Charles
lived
wife Isabella, herself an artist
and hats of spruce root
[12].
The
painted hats and baskets they
and worked
who wove
in
baskets
argillite carvings, silver bracelets,
made could be purchased
at a
trading post at Port Essington and they often traveled to the larger
towns and
cities
and Victoria
- to
on the Northwest Coast -Juneau, Ketichican, sell
their work. Charles
today one of the most
skilled, prolific,
Northwest Coast. He represents occurred at many different times shall see,
when
from the
local
quickly
came
artists of
is
the
moment, which
different places, as
we
indigenous America expanded their view
of that view, and
the biographies of
his
many
considered
larger
world that
to surround them.
reconciling local with
with
that historical in
is
influential artists of
community to encompass the
The expanse
There
Edenshaw
and
its
artistic potential
more worldly experience,
many Native
the case of the late
artists of the
is
when
revealed
in
twentieth century.
George Morrison, who grew up
Ojibwa family on the Grand Portage reservation on
the Lake Superior shore of Minnesota. His paintings are best
understood
in
the
company
Franz Klein, Clyfford
Still,
of the Abstract Expressionist artists
and Jackson Pollock,
contemporaries and colleagues 1940s and 1950s. Late
in his life.
"never used being Indian" to
American
in his
in
New York
George Morrison work. There
is
perhaps for
his
his
told
me
that he
no overt reference
Indian themes, symbols, or stereotypes
paintings, save
in
any of
his
focus on the subject of the northern
Lake Superior shore which was the
24
who were
City during the
home
of his childhood and the
home in
of his senior years. Although active politically and culturally
Minneapolis,
where he taught
to say that Morrison's
for
many
"American Indian" stemmed from the of his at
home community, Grand
Red Rock,
his
lives
Portage.
the social
sometime between 1855 and the Brooklyn
California,
on 6
in
1870.
Museum
Chico,
July 1908.
lives
produced
amounts to many thousands of
With
of the objects they
individual identities
Curator Stewart Culin purchased this belt for
paintings
a focus
made
[13],
on the
even
artists
when
and
their
made
by a Maidu artist of California
from Ann Barber
sounds, and feeling
from view, but every object they made
reflects the trace of their hands.
belt
The
fair
[172].
ancestry, active over a span that
Ceremonial feather
sights,
probably
of being
of countless additional artists of Native American
years, remain hidden
13
it is
studio on Lake Superior, are profoundly authentic
to that experience
The
years,
most powerful experiences
The
belt
remain obscure, the significance of imagery,
form, design, symbolism, and iconography becomes easier to grasp and understand. Although
we
meanings of many of the objects
illustrated in this
can only approximate the
book,
remembering that
their
meaning resides somewhere
between
artist
and audience provides us with
in
the
had been given to Mrs. Barber by her
first
husband, Pomaho, on the
occasion of their marriage.
interplay
a valuable
starting point for interpretation.
25
Chapter
2
Ancient Woodlands
Paleo-lndian origins
The character is
a
habitation
of
of the earliest art produced
North America
in
matter of conjecture. Even the date of the earliest human
human
is
a matter of
some
controversy.
Many Native
origin recall the earliest ancestors
traditions
emerging from the
earth or descending from the sky. Others describe ancient migrations.
The most widely accepted
for the peopling of the
New World
through migrations from Asia
no more than 15,000 years ago when
Siberia and Alaska
connected across the then-dry Bering earliest objects that evidence
Archaeologists
call
human
Sea.
were
Stone tools are the
North America.
activity in
the earliest Americans Paleo-lndians, from
the Greek palaios for "ancient." Paleo-lndians baskets, painted hides, or artistic
view accounts
scientific
worked with other
may have woven kinds of ephemeral
media, but no evidence of such activity survives today.
Archaeologists think they have identified
woodworking
some
tools, such as scrapers, gravers,
Paleo-lndian
and adzes, but
nobody knows what Paleo-lndians might have made
The stone
tools
tell us,
of
wood.
however, that these earliest Americans
were consummate craftsmen and had
a
thorough knowledge of
the sources and properties of the high-grade cherts they used to fabricate their tools and
Clovis culture,
Draw
near Clovis,
weapons.
first identified at a site called
Blackwater
New
earliest,
Mexico, represents the
based cultural pattern identifiable within the currently archaeological record of
North America. Clovis
sites
date from
13,500 to 12,900 years ago and they are scattered across
North America, from Wyoming to
New
State to Florida. Although Clovis people
26
Mexico, from
made many
broadly
known much
of
New York
different
known
kinds of tools of stone and bone, they are best
made
large, carefully
Pleistocene
for the
lance points with which they hunted
mammoth
and other now-extinct big game
narrow tapering
blade's unique design, a
profile with
[w].
The
sharpened
side edges and a technically challenging "flute" at the base for
was intended to maximize the
hafting,
lance's ability to pierce the
tough hides of big game prey. Their manufacture required a great deal of
skill
and flint-knappers today
still
disagree about the steps
necessary to make one. Clovis blades have been recovered from kill
sites
where they are associated with the butchered carcasses
of big game, from small village sites, and
manufacture at quarry
in
various states of
few rare instances, groups of
sites. In a
Clovis points have been discovered as isolated caches buried
the ground.
Wyoming
The Fenn cache from an unknown
or northern Utah included
Clovis projectile points,
14
quality bifaces, including c.
1
1
.000
bc.
These
many
a
in
southern
site in
group of fifty-six high-
made
finished Clovis points,
of high-
points,
designed to hunt big game, are
grade cherts, obsidian, jasper, and translucent quartz crystal. Here
the earliest stylistically consistent,
and
in
several other instances, the material used for Clovis blades
"culturally diagnostic" artifact type
made
in
had been quarried from sources hundreds of miles away from
North America The
points are often
made
that are high quality
of materials
and
difficult
where the blades were
eventually recovered.
beautiful, technically challenging,
Who made these
and evidently highly coveted
to procure, and that have strong visual qualities
objects?
Their design and
techniques of manufacture would have required great
The
skill
to master.
creation, use. and circulation
Was
on from one
peoples presage the importance of
these objects
material things
necessary to make one to
own
one, or was
them from others?
it
How was
the technical knowledge necessary for their manufacture passed
of the points by America's early
carefully crafted
it
possible or customary to procure
individual to another?
when
What was
the meaning of
they were bundled together, covered with red
and highly valued
in
the social
Native Americans.
lives
of
ocher pigment buried
in
(as
was the case
in
some
caches), and ceremonially
What
it
mean
to
the ground?
did
own
such
a collection
27
15
Wadlow
and
blade of Burlington
chert. Titterington focus. Late
Archaic period,
c.
1000
site. Springfield, Illinois.
bc.
such individuals regarded by others?
In
sum, what
cultural values linked to such things, their manufacture,
Airport
Groups
of
these long and elegant blades had
been placed with
how were
were the
burials at the site.
possession, and use, beyond and
The evidence
utility?
definitive answers, but the
made
for finely this
becomes
centuries
objects
far
in
addition to their technical
for Clovis points
more
little
there
is
is
just
too scant for
hints at social roles
among
ancient North Americans, and
clear
the archaeological record
in
later.
Implements, ornaments, and mortuary
The Airport
site,
rituals
of the Late Archaic
within present-day Springfield,
on an otherwise unremarkable sandy outwash of retreating
located
produced by the
knoll
many thousands
glaciers
Illinois, is
of years ago.
Archaeological excavation has turned up three different episodes of cultural activity at the thirteen individuals
site,
but
were buried
in
approximately
here. Buried with
1
000
bc
them were
thirteen extraordinary blades finely chipped of white Burlington
chert
and
[15].
They are long
(the longest
measures 9
in.,
or 23 cm),
with graceful tapering shapes, and represent virtuoso
thin,
flint-knapping
skills.
They are so
delicate,
however, that they are
completely useless as tools or weapons and their surfaces show
no
signs of wear.
Other blades of this shape and
been found elsewhere
in
central
Illinois,
material have
almost always with
burials.
The
burial
component
of the Airport site belongs to the
Titterington focus of the Late Archaic period
The Archaic period altogether (8000-1000 era of slow population growth
in
(3000-1000
bc).
bc) represents a long
Eastern North America, but the
pace of growth and change quickened during the Late Archaic. By
5000
bc ground stone tools had entered into the archaeological
record: grooved axes, adzes, and spear-thrower weights
<*!
weights).
reductively '
hammering the surface of stone media
shape and then polishing the surfaces to Late Archaic period,
it
becomes
evidence for
The village
this
clear that
comes from the ways
into finished
a high luster.
some
possessed significance beyond technological
objects
(atlatl
These were made with the peck-and-polish method:
in
During the
of these objects
utility.
Most
of the
which certain kinds of
were treated during mortuary ceremonies. Indian Knoll site
is all
that remains of a large
near the banks of the Green River
Evidently,
in
summer
central Kentucky.
hundreds of people gathered here every year during the
Late Archaic period to harvest abundant freshwater mollusks and
other
28
summer
foods, but also to bury their dead. Considering that
16
Bannerstone or
atlatl
weight of
chalcedony. Late Archaic period,
3000-2000 Kentucky.
bc. Indian
The
Knoll
site,
functional identity
of this enigmatic, prism-shaped
category of artifact was established at the Indian Knoll site,
where
archaeologists found bannerstones fitted
on
atlatls.
or spear-throwers.
community members spent
a
good portion
of the year dispersed
into far-flung hunting territories as small family groups, the
mortuary ceremony reinforced the
The remains where It
their descendants
was customary
wooden
atlatls,
shaft,
would
join
them when
cemetery
their time
came.
for the living to place objects with the dead,
most often weapons, buried with
identity of the larger group.
of ancestors resided at the Indian Knoll
tools,
and ornaments. Several
men were
consisting of an antler handle, a straight
an antler
hook
at the
prism-shaped weight mounted
or stone. Indian Knoll
atlatl
in
end of the
the center
shaft,
made
and a curious
of antler,
shell,
weights of stone, sometimes called
"bannerstones," are marvels of ground stone workmanship
[16].
Their highly polished surfaces emphasize the textures and color of the granite, chalcedony, or banded siltstone chosen for material.
Few
of these varieties of stone are available locally and their
procurement must have required their sources.
special effort
and knowledge of
Furthermore, Indian Knoll bannerstones were not
buried just with males of hunting age who may have used them. A few specially honored children and women also received them. One bannerstone was even strung on a necklace along with beads
2*
made
of raw copper. Certainly, the totality of their meaning
not only with their skill
utilitarian
lay
purpose but also encompassed the
and effort required to create them and the significance of
possessing them, giving them away, or exchanging
them with
others.
Mortuary use of
special categories of objects during the Late
Archaic period anticipates the increasing importance of things
in
the social
life
of the Eastern Woodlands.
guess at the various occasions
when members
artful
We can only
of the
community
recognized the efforts to procure visually arresting materials from distant sources and the significant form.
We do
community
until
in
life
skills
not
that fashioned these media into
know what
such time
accompany the dead during
a
possessions of the dead, or
gifts
socially
acknowledged
when
part these objects played
they were selected to
mortuary ceremony. Here,
identity.
from survivors, they
as
reflect a
Perhaps control over these kinds
of objects led to social prominence. For example, Indian Knoll
residents sought out marine shell from sources
on the southern
Atlantic coast or Gulf of Mexico, which they carved into beads and
pendants.
Over
time, analysis has shown, larger quantities of shell
ornaments were concentrated among fewer and fewer
One way
to interpret the data
is
individuals.
to posit that increased access to
these valuables became concentrated within a smaller
number
of
socially aspirant people.
Late Archaic peoples ranged across 17
Three birdstones
(atlatl
bar
weights?) of slate and porphyry.
Late Archaic period, 1500-1000 bc.
Red Ocher complex, Andrews
site,
Michigan. These three
birdstones illustrate the range of visually
for
America to procure materials and
much
objects.
of eastern
North
Doing so helped
establish advantageous relations with distant neighbors as well as bring social recognition
back home. And, always, these exotic
materials
were fashioned
of artists.
Around the Great Lakes and Midwest,
into significant
form through the
skills
burial sites
were
resplendent materials used
sumptuary objects during the
Late Archaic period.
often located on the abundant natural elevations of this glacial terrain, distant
30
from
village sites.
The Old Copper, Red Ocher, and
18 Sandal sole shell.
gorget of marine
Late Archaic period,
1500-500
bc. Glacial
shell
was
imported from the southern
Mexico. The animal, with
and
complexes can be dated to the Late Archaic,
customarily found placed with the dead. Blades and implements
hammered
into shape
Woodlands peoples
Atlantic coast or the Gulf of
tail
burial
Kame
Ohio. The marine
encircling
Kame
but they are identified principally by the kinds of objects
complex, William Spitzer Farm site,
Glacial
Copper
its
ear-like horns,
sites.
red pigment
from nuggets of copper (Ancient
did not smelt copper) characterize
Red Ocher
made
Old
burials are liberally sprinkled with this
of heated iron-based minerals. Individuals
resembles the Underwater Panther of later Great Lakes oral tradition (see figs 40.
50 and
175).
buried at the
Andrews
site, a
Red Ocher
site in
Saginaw County,
Michigan, possessed hundreds of oversized ceremonial blades
made awls,
of fine Flint Ridge
and beads. Four
known today
flint
as birdstones
seated birds with squared atlatl
from Ohio, along with copper axes,
men were
interred with effigy
due to the
tails
fact that they
and pointed beaks
weights and marine shell ornaments
known
[
atlatl
weights
resemble
17],
Birdstone
as sandal sole
gorgets (pendants drilled with three holes for suspension or
attachment to clothing) were favored objects sites.
The
from
large
distinctive
conch
shape of these
shells
latter
at Glacial
Kame
ornaments were cut
with sources ultimately along the
southeast Atlantic shore or Gulf coast.
Some
rare sandal sole
gorgets were carved with the images of animals
[
18]
or with
geometric, perhaps cosmologically inspired designs.
The Late Archaic Poverty
Point culture of Louisiana imported
Appalachian steatite from the east to make stone bowls, red
31
19
Jasper bead
in
the form of a
locust or grasshopper, from
Badlow Creek, Arkansas. Poverty Point culture, Late Archaic period,
1500-700
bc.
developed
a
tradition,
Poverty Point artists
unique lapidary
making exquisite
effigy
beads of imported jasper and other hard stone.
jasper for
ornaments
galena from the upper Mississippi, and
[19],
other exotic stone. Virtually nothing burial practices, but
some
At one Poverty Point
is
known about Poverty
Point
of their towns built massive earthworks.
site,
houses sat on
six large
embankments
arranged as concentric semi-circles that stretched over an area of
500
656
ft
acres.
A massive
earthen mound, 66
(200 m) long stands
just to the
ft
(20 m) high and
west of the embankments.
Archaeologists have long searched for evidence that this kind of
town planning and the
social organization required to
stemmed from Mesoamerican
such massive projects
but they have found nothing concrete to support
construct
influence,
this notion.
The Adena people
The Adena Mound, located
just outside
present-day Chillicothe,
Ohio, had been the location of a circular enclosure made of upright
wooden
posts sunk into the ground. Inside, a modestly
community or
sized
family
dead, laying the bodies
in
group had gathered twenty-one of their
carefully
prepared tombs made of logs
and lined with bark. At some point, they burned the structure and covered the charred remains with a
mound
of earth. Others,
perhaps descendants of the original group, returned
more
earth to the mound, and buried thirteen
later,
added
more members
of
the community.
Mortuary
sites like
the
Adena Mound
are found throughout
south-central Ohio, northern Kentucky, and the upper watershed of the
Ohio River
to
West
form and attributes of
who made them
Virginia.
ritual
Their similarity of structural
practice suggest that the people
shared cultural attitudes,
beliefs,
and language.
Archaeologists refer to them as Adena people. They also
made
thick-walled, low-fired pottery, as did their neighbors to the in
present-day
valley. In
n
Illinois
the Eastern
and elsewhere throughout the Mississippi
Woodlands
a
west
region, the appearance of this
kind of pottery marks the end of the Late Archaic period and the
beginning of the Early Woodland,
Copper flint,
Perhaps most extraordinary
represents a in a slightly
wears
a
man with
is
an 8
of banded
his loins,
burials.
(20 cm) pinkish stone
in.
itself [20].
crouched position, arms held straight
The
pipe
standing
legs,
at his sides.
He
with large ornamental rings
in
and two crescent-shaped ornaments that curve back on
either side of his head.
Mound wore
just
Some
The
sculptural image
dress of an
Adena
of the people interred at the
such wrappers of woven fabric, and one wore a
pair of crescent-shaped hair
ornaments made of thin translucent
shows
us,
perhaps, the ceremonial
Adena man. But the object
hollowed out on the
inside.
smoking
also a tubular
is
Tobacco was inserted
at the
pipe of pipestone.
Effigy
culture, Early
period,
made
an oversized head and short
garment around
his ears,
Adena
weights
smoking pipe from the Adena Mound
effigy
pipe,
atlatl
bc.
of fine Flint Ridge
and many other kinds of objects accompany Adena
slate,
20
made
bracelets and rings, blades
ground stone ornaments,
mica.
about 1000
in
c.
800-100
Woodland
bc.
Adena
site,
Ohio. This unique miniature
bottom end and smoke drawn through
a
mouthpiece located
on the top of the head. Two other smoking pipes without carving, both elegant hollowed cylinders of the
effigy
same pink stone
sculpture functions as a tubular
smoking pipe for tobacco. The
with narrowed beveled mouthpieces, had been placed
ornaments and garments worn by
other tombs at the
in
two
site.
the sculpted figure resemble those
found
at
other Adena
Tobacco
lies at
the center of religious practice
in
Eastern
sites.
North America. The tradition
how
so that they, beings
in
in
it
origin stories for
tobacco
recall in oral
had been given to human beings by the Creator
turn,
would have something to
thanks for their blessings.
Its ritual
offer back to spirit
use addresses core
values of giving, of offering, to spirits, ancestors, or any of the unseen world
whose
influence or attitudes
may
members
affect the
men and women. Carbonized remains of Nicotiana most commonly used Native American tobacco, have
destinies of rustica,
been
the
identified at
North American
sites dating
from ad
smoking pipes evidencing smoking technology enter
100. but
into the
archaeological record hundreds of years earlier, during the Late
Archaic period. Nicotiana as
3000
bc
rustica
somewhere on
had been domesticated as early
the eastern slope of the Andes,
present-day Peru. The technology of
its
in
cultivation had spread
subsequently through Mesoamerica and entered North America,
perhaps through the Southeast
via
Adena who possessed smoking
pipes,
the
ability
pipes,
to cultivate
it,
the Caribbean. For those
knowledge of tobacco,
the artistry required to fashion smoking
and the performance of smoking
their social distinction
and very
likely
rituals
all
contributed to
represented great power.
33
The many during
Adena
different kinds of objects placed with the burial rituals
dead
undoubtedly possessed other kinds
of socially constituted significance, as gifts or possessions,
representing wealth, knowledge, special
ground and polished banded
copper ornaments,
testify to
extraordinary
slate, distinctive
artistic
knowledge and
only guess at the social roles of those distinctions they enjoyed.
woven Wilmington engraved
sandstone.
Adena
Woodland
period,
Wilmington
site,
500
textiles hint at
Bone awls
who
weights of
skill.
But
we
can
created them and the
for leather-working and
more ephemeral
arts. Palette
stones for
tablet of
culture, Early c.
or statuses.
atlatl
all
21
abilities
Oversized ceremonial blades, ornaments and
carefully
bc.
Ohio. This
grinding pigment suggest graphic art forms. Sandstone tablets
is
one
engraved with images of birds and composite human and
animal figures
may have been used
for printing
on
textiles
or hide
of several remarkable sandstone tablets recovered sites,
from Adena
garments
engraved with strange images
of animals and other creatures.
Here, two bird heads with long,
curved beaks face one another on the left-hand side.
They
also read
If
[21],
tobacco and smoking pipes were only one of several such
bodies of specialized knowledge and
and they were highly regarded
as smiling faces with beard-like
appendages curling beneath their chins.
skill,
they were not shared
with everyone. Only a few of the Adena possessed smoking pipes,
offers a clue.
How was
person to another?
vl
if
their treatment during burial
such knowledge and
What were
skill
passed from one
the benefits of exchanging such
knowledge? Did the power and
knew art
social prestige for
of pipes and tobacco, or the
forms for that matter, derive
resulted
when
their
many other
those
who Adena
specialized
part from the social ties that
in
knowledge was exchanged with others? Did
who sought out such specialized their own communities once they
the social fortunes of those
knowledge possessed
rise within it
and
network exchanges of their own?
initiated
Knowledge of Adena
art forms, and
themselves, spread east by instruction,
many Adena
objects
some such mechanism
of exchange,
and emulation. Adena-style objects including tubular
smoking pipes appear, Peninsula people
in
albeit rarely, in the burials of the Point
penetrated as far east as the
Chesapeake Bay
New York State. Some
present-day
Lawrence
St.
river region
even
and the
area.
Hopewell
The term Hopewell
refers to a site in southern
Ohio and
is
also
used to describe the expansion of mortuary ceremonialism, inter-regional exchange,
across the
Woodlands
and
cultural activity within the
the period
known
startling artistic
developments
all
region. This episode of distinctive inter-
"Hopewell Interaction Sphere" defines
Woodland (200
as Middle
Ohio Hopewell people
way
led the
in
bc to ad 400).
The
terms of the broad extent
of their far-flung contacts and sources for materials and the
energy invested
in
the creation of elaborate objects.
Adena
the successors to the
upon
They were
southern Ohio and evidently
in
built
their ritual accomplishments.
Over
a period of
some
six
hundred years, the Ohio Hopewell
erected hundreds of large ceremonial structures along the terraces of the Scioto
some
in
carefully call
log
valley. Inside,
tombs or on
they gathered the dead, laying
raised platforms, and cremating others
prepared basins excavated into the
floor.
in
Archaeologists
these buildings "charnel houses" or "great houses." They were
made with support
posts of
wood
and walls of bark or wattle and
daub. Interior partitions created separate
rooms and passageways.
Once
were complete, or
the appropriate rituals for the dead
triggered by
some other unknown event or
house was burned and
Some Ohio Hopewell
a
mound
sites include
and their subsequent mounds
occasion, the great
of earth piled over the remains.
dozens of such structures
built sequentially
over time.
Monumental enclosures made of earth embankments marked the locations of the circles, squares,
sites.
Some
of these earthworks include giant
octagons, and avenues that spread across the
3S
22 Circle and octagon earthworks at the
Newark
site,
Newark, Ohio.
Ohio Hopewell culture, Middle Woodland period, ad 1-200. Monumental earthworks marked
landscape over thousands of acres
rituals for
ad 1070. Recent carbon
dates
14
from Serpent Mound indicate
As had been customary within the region
for the previous
artistic objects
before so many,
made with such
culture, a people
who
built other,
serpent
effigies
of stone cobbles elsewhere
in
Ohio. These earth sculptures may have been inspired
in
a
broad variety of materials
gathered from so many distant locations across the continent
a
the dates of the Fort Ancient
far less impressive
accompanied the dead. But never
thousand years,
construction date consistent with
earlier
perform
the dead, host visitors, feast, trade, build, repair or add
Ohio Hopewell.
23 Great Serpent Mound, Ohio, c.
Here people gathered
additions to the great houses, and expand the earthen constructions.
the locations of charnel house sites of the
[22].
regularly to reconnect with related families or clans,
part by
Ohio Hopewell earthworks.
•',,
24
Effigy
platform pipe of
pipestone.
Middle
Ohio Hopewell
Woodland
period,
culture.
200
bc-ad 200. Tremper
site,
This smoking pipe
designed so
that
is
Ohio.
tobacco can be inserted
bowl within the
bird's
smoke drawn from
a
in
the
back and the
hole drilled
through to the front edge of the platform.
The
rear of the platform
provides a handle that remains cool to the touch.
and fashioned with such artistry and and effort that
led to their creation,
ownership bestowed, culminated and
its
significant
from active
social
in
skill.
The knowledge
and the distinctions that the mortuary ceremony
moment of ritual consumption and life.
But
it
would be
a mistake to
separation
assume that
the ultimate purpose of these objects was simply to be buried
with the dead. Like the Adena,
members
communities used objects and
ritual
of
Ohio Hopewell
knowledge to create and
sustain social relationships with others and to build social
recognition for themselves and their kin.
ceremonies held
at locations
The great mortuary
marked by massive earthworks
[23]
attracted guests from far and wide, to participate, to exchange objects and ritual knowledge, and to offer support and recognition
to their socially aspirant hosts.
A mound
community, meaning the
defined by their burial within a single
social
mound,
group or groups evidently possessed
mastery over certain kinds of art forms and their attendant significance.
were burned and buried together with the at the
ritual
For example, hundreds of distinctive smoking pipes
Tremper
site
located
in
individuals
the southern Scioto
cremated
valley.
These
diminutive "platform pipes" represent a startling innovation
smoking pipe design. Instead of the Adena hollowed
in
cylinder,
these have an upright bowl perched on a thin, squared, horizontal platform with a draw hole drilled into one end.
bowls
at
Tremper were carved with
birds, frogs, detail [24]. visible
mammals -
The hands
among
all
Many
of the pipe
sculptural images of animals -
finished with remarkable descriptive
of a small
number
of individual artists are
the set and the ensemble includes four or
different kinds of
raw material for manufacture.
It is
more
plausible to
^
ownership of one of these pipes was part of the
believe that
bond
that resulted
social
membership within the mound community.
in
Their bodies and ceremonial possessions were eventually
gathered together for cremation
in
all
the Tremper charnel house.
Large collections of hundreds of closely related effigy platform pipes characterized the
of the at
Mound
Tremper.
far
more
City
Effigy
mound communities
platform pipes also
at
Mounds
close ties to the
site, signaling their
came
8 and
13
community
into the possession of
distant partners. Individual examples, rather than large
were included
collections,
in
the burial ceremonies of
prominent members of Havana communities resident Illinois valley,
Crab Orchard communities
of southern
some the lower
in
Illinois [25],
and elsewhere more sporadically throughout the Southeast. The regional distribution of this unique art 25 Conglomerate pipe.
effigy
Crab Orchard
Woodland Rutherford
of social relationships
form can be read
as a
among and between communities
map
that
culture. Middle
200 bc-ad 400.
period,
site, Illinois.
smoking tobacco
platform
participated
in this small,
in effigy
platform pipe ritualism.
Ohio Hopewell mound communities developed many
When
additional specializations of ritual arts. Making objects of
copper
intimately scaled pipe, the effigy
carved on the bowl would have
was one of the most
confronted the smoker face-to-
Mound
face.
An almost
identical pipe,
carved by the same maker from a
brown pipestone, was buried with a
prominent man of the Havana
culture,
who
lived in
river valley to the
Orchard
the
Illinois
north of Crab
territory.
significant.
25, the largest of the
manner of copper
objects.
The charnel house beneath
Hopewell group, was
A vast collection - 23
filled
with
copper plates and 66 copper "celt" axes, including one 23
cm)
in
length and weighing 37
lb
two men on the charnel house
more than
)8
120
copper
(
17 kg)
floor.
all
oblong-shaped in.
(58
- had been arranged near
Nearby
lay a
collection of
stencils cut into the shapes offish,
W*
Ns
26 Falcon
Woodland
Mound
culture, Middle
period.
City
of several
cut-out of copper.
effigy
Ohio Hopewell
site,
Ohio. This
is
one
copper cut-outs placed
Mound
7,
had been sewn to two elaborate ensembles of regalia that had
200 bc-ad 400.
around the edges of basin in
serpents, crosses, and other enigmatic patterns. Evidently these
a
crematory
been displayed on scaffolding inside the great house. Dozens of individuals, their
bodies placed on low platforms,
plates placed beneath their heads
lay
with copper
and hips and distinctive
"bi-
including
another falcon
effigy, a
ornament, and
a
mask-like
headdress with
cymbal" copper ear spools near their heads or hands.
wore
elegant copper headdresses.
Ornaments
Some
of copper, mica,
copper horns.
bears' teeth, and beads of shell and freshwater pearl
to garments such as shirts, sashes, and belts.
mound communities possessed ornaments
Mound
Mound
Other Ohio Hopewell
significant collections of
copper
between them. At
as well, hinting at relationships
7 of the
were sewn
City group, a smaller
number
of individuals
had been interred with copper headdresses, some fashioned with animal horns, ornaments, and copper plates cut into the silhouettes of falcons
[26],
patterns of eagles' heads and strange
animal-like forms.
Copper
itself,
oral traditions inform us, possesses great
spiritual significance. Its
underworld beneath of the dead.
Some
it,
power stems from
of the headdresses and
Hopewell allude to the
the earth and the
the location for the ultimate destination
ritual
ornaments of the Ohio
treatment of corpses: images of
torsos without heads, hands, or feet, and detached hands and heads. Mica appears important of
some
in this
charnel houses had been
laid
regard as well.
The
floors
with broad mosaics of cut
39
mi
mica, or burial platforms covered with
Ohio
of the
Some
it.
of the
most
artful
Hopewell creations are graceful forms cut from thin
delicate sheets of mica.
They
parallel the
imagery of animals,
human body fragments
animal parts, and ritually prepared
that
predominate among copper objects. Mica cut-outs representing a
human hand
Mound
[27]
and a headless torso came from Hopewell
25.
While copper headdresses and
stencil cut-outs
Ohio Hopewell mound
exclusive to
sites,
were almost
bi-cymbal ear spools
and copper panpipes, both sometimes combined with
beyond the Scioto
circulated well
valley.
silver,
They were included
in
dozens of Middle Woodland period mortuary ceremonies dispersed from Florida to Ontario and as far west as Missouri.
The forms
originated
among the Ohio Hopewell, but knowledge
of
them and the desire to possess them spread outward. Preliminary
some from
tests suggest that locally
quarried copper.
In
made
the Southeast are imitations
some manner, they
all
tie
of
back to those
powerful individuals with their hordes of copper and copper-
decorated
mound
regalia belonging to the
The flow street,
Hopewell and Mound City
groups.
was not
of objects and ritual knowledge
a
one-way
however. The diffusion of distinctive categories of
objects during the Middle
Woodland period
different conduits of cultural exchange. Finely
pottery incised with stylized images of birds culture of the
Illinois valley
Mississippi. Small figurines
relations
ritual
reveals several
made earthenware
links
the Havana
with the Marksville culture of the lower
modeled of terracotta evidence close
between Middle Woodland
societies of the Southeast
with the Allison and Crab Orchard cultures of southern Indiana
and
Illinois.
And marine
shell
from the Atlantic coast of the
southeast and the Gulf region continued to circulate throughout the
Woodlands
region, as
Woodland period
is
it
had for centuries. The Middle
best characterized as an extended episode
of great inter-regional interaction, during which the exchange of exotic raw materials, finished objects, and ritual knowledge established social ties 27 Hand
effigy
culture. Middle
Woodland
200 bc ad 400 Hopewell
period,
how
art
works
communities. Within these societies,
and
ritual specialists, characteristics
artists,
entrepreneurs,
perhaps combined
in
many
site.
Ohio. This and other Ohio
Hopewell
between geographically disparate
cut-out of
muscovite mica Ohio Hopewell
allude to
the heads and hands of the
socially
ascendant individuals, enjoyed great prestige and social
recognition. It
would be
a
mistake to think of the Hopewell Interaction
dead were sometimes privileged for special
treatment during
mortuary ceremonies.
Sphere as
a
comprehensive network of trade or the
of a unified religious
movement. More
accurately,
it
diffusion
can be
41
many
characterized by the interplay between of inter-regional interaction. Even sites
show
It is
emphasis over time, although the
shifts of
historical
between
sites
and the
complex mound
sites
themselves are not well understood.
relationships large,
different episodes
Ohio Hopewell mortuary
development within
historical
however, that by ad 400 inter-regional
clear,
The
diminished.
large
earthwork
river terraces
had become inactive, with the exceptions of "Intrusive burials resulting
from sporadic
had
activity
on the Scioto
sites
Mound"
to these sacred sites by later
visits
peoples to bury their dead. The flow of exotic materials from distant locations also declined.
A similar insularity
is
visible in the
cultures descendant from other Hopewell Interaction Sphere
Mound
participants.
continued
burial
in
the
Illinois valley,
but
without evidence of strong contacts with outsiders. The decline of the Hopewell Interaction Sphere and the circulation of the distinctive objects linked to
Woodland period and
it
marked the end of the Middle
the onset of the Late
Woodland
(ad
400-900). It is
a
good bet
societies derived
that leadership
regional partners, and the
made by
skills
individuals
communities resulted
in
ties
to extra-
The
and their families to excel among their
the achieved status of leadership. Artistic
were the palpable evidence
the powers the leadership controlled.
among
the far
A similar
more
the Mississippian chiefdoms that arose after
knowledge,
of artistic manufacture.
objects and the ideas they evoked
objects developed
ritual
mortuary ceremonialism, strong
particularly tied to
efforts
among Middle Woodland
from control and mastery of
of
role for artistic
hierarchical societies of in
Woodlands
the
region
ad 900.
Mississippian arts of leadership
The technologies
of agriculture
became the
principal engine of
culture change leading to the development of
complex chiefdoms
during the Mississippian period (ad 900-1600). Knowledge of corn,
first
America
domesticated
via
in
Mesoamerica, entered into North
the Southwest during the
first
millennium bc and had
been introduced to the Woodlands region by the second century ad. But corn agriculture played practically
of the Hopewell Interaction Sphere.
dependence upon corn cultivation of beans
Woodland
period.
agriculture,
no
role
Knowledge
in
the societies
of and
supplemented by the
and squash, expanded during the Late
The growing populations
that agriculture
supported, and the increasing need for effective social
42
organization necessary to cultivate and defend prime agricultural lands, created opportunities for the
emergence of
Mississippian
chiefdoms. Centralized sanction
its
power required monumental symbols to
authority.
These appeared with
at Cahokia, indigenous is
located
in
North America's
one of North America's most
American Bottom, where the Missouri, rivers
come
together to deposit rich
abruptness
startling
largest
town
[28].
fertile regions,
llllinois,
Cahokia the
and Mississippi
alluvial soil.
Agricultural
communities had farmed the region since ad 600, but the resident population coalesced into powerful 1050.
The town
became 28
Artist's
rendering of the town
of Cahokia, East
St.
Louis,
Mississippian culture,
Surrounded by
a
Illinois.
town was the
stockade,
central plaza,
dominated by Monks Mound,
a
game
located as
A court for
playing chunkey,
linked to divination, in
about ad
present-day East
St.
Louis,
established as a capital that dominated a hierarchy of
surrounding settlements scattered over a region, according to
some
estimations, of
some 60
to 90 square miles (95-145 km).
leaders of Cahokia directed the construction of
platform
mounds made
enormous
of earth that raised their chiefly
residences and temples high over the surrounding countryside.
The platform mounds flanked the performance of public
a large
ritual.
An
open
plaza designed for
encircling stockade built of
was
the middle of the plaza,
marked by two striped
The
a
monumental, four-tiered platform
mound.
in
ad 1200.
wood
the political and religious center of the
political unity in
of Cahokia, located
poles.
upright logs defended this administrative and sacred core of the
extended Cahokia community.
43
The platform mound became the Mississippian chieftaincy.
The
principal
chiefs of
Monks Mound
enlarged the town's central mound, called
between the years ad 1050 and 1200,
several times
over 100
(30 m)
ft
resembles
part
in
who
high.
The pattern
until
today,
it
rose
of renewal and growth
Ohio Hopewell great house ceremonies. Some
were
of the temples priests,
symbol of
Cahokia renewed and
houses for the
fact charnel
in
elite
where
themselves were members of high-ranking lineages,
cared for the remains of Mississippian chiefs and their relations.
Marking an interval of renewal, temples were customarily burned and their contents interred under
renewing the chiefs
were
a fresh
mantle of earth which
A new structure was then
enlarged the mound.
on
built
mounds supporting
cycle. Platform
top,
residences of
also periodically destroyed and renewed.
As the
pattern of Mississippian chieftaincy established at Cahokia and
elsewhere
in
the Mississippi valley spread throughout the
broader Southeast over subsequent centuries, platform architecture spread with built
one
two mounds, one for the temple
after death. political
it.
mound
Often, smaller Mississippian towns
for the residence of the ruling lineage and
where
their physical remains
were cared
for
These mounds represented simultaneously the
and religious center of the community.
The structure of
Mississippian chieftaincy did not
much by conquest and succumbed to
internal dissention (the site
was
Southeast.
mound
The
architecture
emerged
all
in fact
but abandoned
all
town centers
during the fourteenth century). Meanwhile other
with platform
expand so
migration as by emulation. Cahokia
across the
Mississippian pattern offered a kind of template
for social organization, with a core ideology and symbols of
that could be adapted
in slightly
power
variant forms by ethnically diverse
groups throughout the Woodlands region.
The sacred
origins of the ruling lineage lay at the center of
Mississippian thought. According to the
Natchez of the lower
Mississippi valley, Mississippian chiefs traced their descent
the sun. Each
living chief
was
from
a personification of this originating
power. The remains of sacred ancestors cared for
houses and subsequently interred within
a
in
platform
charnel
mound
traced back ultimately to the lineage's sacred point of origin. Living Mississippian chiefs reinforced this notion with large-scale
sculptures installed origin ancestors.
in
their temples thought
Some
of the
created for the temple of
town located
44
in
now
most impressive
Mound C
at
Etowah,
to represent
of these
were
a Mississippian
northwest Georgia. Several massive stone
figurines have
housed
were
in
ritually
episodes of
Etowah, 29 Seated male and female
effigies
a
been excavated from the mound. They had been
the temples on top of the mound, but when the temples
destroyed, their contents had been buried during
mound
expansion.
The
largest
temple figures from
male and female couple carved from white marble and
painted, exhibit a stolid monumentality
[29].
They
sit in
poses
of marble. Mississippian culture. c.
ad 1400. Etowah
site.
This impressive couple
Georgia.
were
carved and painted to resemble the
appearance of Mississippian
that emphasize gender, the
and the
woman
man with
seated on her calves.
cap, while her tresses, gathered
his legs
crossed
He wears
in
front
a close-fitting
and loosely wrapped,
fall
between
chiefs,
but they are also intended to evoke the sacred origins of Mississippian
her shoulders. The faces of both are painted with broad bands of
dark indigo pigment ranging across the eyes. Similarly conceived
leadership by representing the
primordial couple
the ruling lineage.
who
originated
temple figures have been excavated from several other Mississippian sites.
«5
30 Rogan plate of copper. Mississippian culture, 1450.
Etowah
site,
ad 1200—
Georgia.
This copper plate, probably
intended to represents
fit
a
on
a headdress,
member
of the
Mississippian elite dancing
costume with the falcon.
The
falcon
in
a
attributes of a
was revered by
Mississippian warriors
due to
its
aggressive attacks on flying prey
while hunting.
The
necessity of defense and the advantages of conquest
reinforced strong military values
Some
Mississippian
among
Mississippian towns.
ornaments show warriors with
their faces
decorated with the distinctive forked-eye markings of the peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus), one of the most aggressive raptors of of eagles.
North America. Other warriors possess the
One
such image of
mask and wings upon
a thin
of a raptor
copper
plate
a
was worked with repousse technique
from Etowah where
functioned as part of a headdress aloft in
one hand and
almost every figure
is
[30].
a decapitated
While the image suggests
a kind of
replicated by artifacts and
Mound
it
probably
The warrior holds
human head
in
mace
worn by
the dancing
ornaments recovered during
C, including
a cloak-like
armature to
support costume wings. The image evidently represents
46
a
the other.
mythic half-man, half-bird,
detail of the elaborate regalia
the excavation of
attributes
dancing warrior dressed with the
a ritual
performance
in
which the intimidating powers of predatory birds
were evoked through costume and dance
as a prerogative of
Mississippian leadership.
Disk-shaped marine
shell
worn on the
gorgets
distinguished social roles and status
in
many
breast
Mississippian
communities. Etowah evidently supported a particularly
accomplished
artist
or workshop that produced marine
shell
gorgets for use there but also for trade, since several closely related examples found their
Many
eastern Tennessee.
way to
Mississippian
of the Etowah gorgets
with variants of the bird-warrior theme crafted with delicate engraving
The production and shell gorgets,
[3l].
in
were carved
Their designs are
combined with
filigree-like carving.
distribution of prestige goods, like marine
supported the legitimization and expansion of
Mississippian social hierarchies. Local aspirants to links
towns
power sought
to established leaders and access to the powerful symbols of
authority they controlled.
It is
plausible to believe that the artists,
with their mastery over sacred materials and imagery, were drawn
from the ranks of elite lineages
or,
perhaps
in
some
cases,
were
the chiefs themselves. At Moundville, an important Mississippian
ceremonial center that
31
Marine
in
Alabama, waste from
mound-top temples
also functioned as
shell carving suggests
workshops.
shell gorget.
Mississippian culture, c ad 1400
Hixon
site.
carved on
Tennessee. The image
this circular
seems to represent warriors locked This
ornament
gorget
a pair of falcon
in ritual
combat
of the elite
worn suspended on the
was
breast.
47
The Craig Mound
32 "Craig-style" design from an engraved
shell cup.
Caddoan
of the Spiro
site,
located
in
northeastern
Oklahoma, contained the "Great Mortuary," an enormous
culture, Mississippian period,
ad 1100-1350. Spiro
Oklahoma. This
is
assemblage of ancestral
site,
a design
from
one of hundreds of cups made from conch
shells interred in
"Great Mortuary"
relics
for ultimate deposition there.
the
at the Spiro site.
and
artistic prestige
goods that had
been gathered from temples throughout the Caddoan territories
The
objects included hundreds of
marine-shell cups engraved with images, shell gorgets, copper plates (probably for headdresses),
smoking pipes and
figurines,
wooden temple
figures,
stone
and a vast array of ornaments and
ceremonial weapons. Many of these items had been imported from
other distant Mississippian centers. shell
Two
very distinct styles of
engraving have been identified, the "Craig style"
local,
and the "Braden style"
[33],
with clear
[32],
perhaps
links to objects
from
the vicinity of Cahokia well to the north. Artists engraved large
cups made from entire conch shells (Busycon mythic beings and virtual
with images of
performances. The corpus represents
encyclopedia of Mississippian iconography, or what
archaeologists In
ritual
sp.)
call
the "Southeastern Ceremonial Complex."
addition to Braden-style engraving, the Spiro assemblage
suggests other links to Cahokia.
Some
of the
most remarkable
sculpture assembled at Spiro had been created by a
workshop
or near Cahokia. These are figurines and large-scale smoking
48
a
some
at
made with
pipes
33 "Braden-style" design from an engraved shell cup. Cahokia
is
locally
quarried soft fine-grained red stone that
perfectly adaptable to carving.
One
found
figurine
in
the greater
culture, Mississippian period,
ad 1000-1250. Spiro
Oklahoma. Braden
vicinity of Spiro (not included in
site,
style relates
to engraved designs
produced
in
shows
a
man
playing the
game
the Great Mortuary assemblage)
of chunkey
involved rolling a small stone disk on end
the vicinity of Cahokia, well to the
north of Spiro where
this shell
was found. Note the otter turban
worn by
skin
his
field,
Chunkey
down
a
play
prepared playing
and then casting darts to land where the players predicted
the chunkey stone would stop.
In
Mississippian thought, the
game
the figure and the
bird-head designs painted or
tattooed on
cup
[34].
body.
was
linked to the arts of divination and
was considered another
important attribute of chiefly power. The open plazas situated
between Mississippian platform mounds often included chunkey courts. Several shell engravings and gorgets also
show chunkey
players or include images of the distinctive barber-stripe poles that
mark chunkey
courts.
A
large collection of exquisitely crafted
chunkey stones (archaeologists
call
them
discoidals)
accompanied
the burial of a powerful chief at Cahokia, testifying to the chiefly significance of the
the Cahokia chiefs
wearing impressive
to agricultural
throughout in
game. Other red stone figurines and pipes from
workshop represent
fertility.
Illinois, at
regalia,
Mississippian warriors, seated
and mythic characters linked
They have been found Spiro
in
at sites scattered
Oklahoma, and even
at Moundville.
south-central Alabama.
49
34 Bauxite chunkey
player,
from the Arkansas River
valley,
Oklahoma. Mississippian period, ad 1200-1350. This
is
one of
several red stone figures and pipes
made
by an artist or group of
artists
near Cahokia, but circulated
out to several distant communities, including Spiro
Moundville
in
in
Oklahoma and
Alabama.
Trade
in
Mississippian prestige
goods continued up and down
the Mississippi valley long after the decline of Cahokia and the end of activity at Spiro (approximately ad 1400).
35 Ceramic bottle (Avenue
The
fertile territories
towns and
polychrome), from Arkansas.
flanking the river supported several Mississippian
Late Mississippian period,
tributary settlements, each characterized by platform
their
mound
ad 1400-1600. The images of the sun painted on this bottle refer to
architecture and protected by encircling stockades.
the celestial origins of Mississippian
produced
chiefs,
who
back to
traced their lineages
this
most powerful
highly
Many towns
decorated or sculptural pottery vessels and
traded them with other communities. Their designs often employ
spirit-
cosmological symbols: a cross within a circle as a reference to the
being of the sky world.
four cardinal directions and the circular horizon of the terrestrial 36 Ceramic head red on
buff),
effigy jar
(Carson
from Missouri. Late
Mississippian period, ad 1400-1550.
This jar probably represents an ancestral Mississippian chief
leg bones,
would have been
kept preserved
in a
mythic creatures, or strange
on
a
human
figures with hunchbacks,
features as signs of a certain variety of tuberculosis). Rare jars
temple placed
platform mound.
Archaeologists have found head effigy vessels like this
spirals that suggest the vortices of
bloated torsos and withered limbs (some archaeologists see these
skillfully high
[35];
the watery underworld. Sculptural vessels represent animals,
whose
remains, principally the head, hands,
and
earth; images of the sun
one among
modeled
as
images of human heads represent preserved
relics of ancestral chiefs,
community temple
[36].
whose
actual remains resided within the
These evocative ceramic wares ultimately
the contents of such temples after they
had been buried
mounds during
a ritual
in
the
of renewal.
accompanied the
burials of the elite, either
nearby community cemeteries.
SO
in
temple mounds or
51
Despite the fact that Mississippian cultures had evolved the most complex and populous societies of indigenous
North America, few seem to know
that fact today.
And
yet
the earliest European visitors to the Southeast contended with the Mississippians.
Southeast
Hernando de
Soto's expedition across the
1540 to 1542 encountered many of the dominant
in
Mississippian chiefdoms of the time.
Coosa,
a
De
army traversed
Soto's
complex chiefdom that had eclipsed and absorbed
Etowah, by kidnapping the paramount chief and of the
heir.
Later
De
Soto's
town
a large Mississippian
The Powhatan chiefdom was organized pattern.
army fought
the vicinity of Moundville
in
Alabama.
that faced English settlement
in
Virginia
in
of the lower Mississippi
enduring Mississippian chiefdom
war
of 1730. But the
Mississippian social organization
epidemics decimated
its
all
until
it
most devastating enemy of was European
initial
in
disease. Terrible
contact with Europeans.
of the towns encountered by
Mississippi River
was the longest
succumbed to the French
chiefdoms and large nucleated
settlements for a century after
Nearly
mother
essentially along the lines of the Mississippian
The Natchez
during their
his sister,
a terrible battle at Mabila,
De Soto
along the
1542 had been abandoned by the time
French fur trader Louis
Jolliet
and Jesuit missionary Father
Jacques Marquette descended the great river from the Upper
Great Lakes
in
re-organized.
1673.
The descendants
of the Mississippians
They include Muskogeans (Creek, Seminole),
Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Caddos, Chiwere Sioux
(Winnebago, Oto, Iowa), Degiha Sioux (Iowa, Osage, Ponca,
Quapaw), and others. Although the structures of Mississippian societies faded
from the practice of community organization,
Mississippian art and ideology
stamped an
indelible impression
on subsequent traditions of the woodlands,
52
prairies
and
plains.
Chapter
3
Eastern Woodlands
Visitors
The
from another world
first
encounters between Native people of the northeast
and European visitors began slowly and cautiously. The Norse
attempted
a short-lived
settlement
in
Newfoundland
aux Meadows (the "Vineland" referred to after
ad 1000 but
it
proved too
in
Norse
at L'Anse
sagas) just
to support logistically
difficult
and was quickly abandoned. Norse parties from the
far
more
successful Greenland settlements occasionally ventured
to
North America
ivory but
thereafter, searching for timber and walrus
wary of aggressive
Basque whalers and French
Inuit.
cod fishermen worked the waters 1500.
When
off
Newfoundland
in
Virginia
and
New
ad
St.
Lawrence,
England, followed later during the
sixteenth century. While European interests
were varied and complex, Native early visitors
after
they put to shore to process their catches, Native
people approached to trade. Settlements up the
and
westward
was motivated
in
North America
willingness to engage their
largely by opportunities to acquire
the marvelous things they brought with them: metal tools and
implements, glass and
silver
ornaments, and
American standpoint, the opportunities principal motivation for tolerating the
that the threat of
From
newcomers. The
European force of arms required
accommodating diplomacy came afterward,
more
cloth.
a
North
for trade represented the realization
careful
quickly for
and
some,
slowly for others.
The trade
in
animal pelts for products of European
manufacture dominated the
first
few centuries of relations
between indigenous North Americans and Europeans. The trade had profound effects upon the organization of Native social inter-tribal relations, and, certainly, the
life,
complexion of Native
arts.
53
In
the previous chapter,
procurement and
we saw how,
for thousands of years, the
circulation of precious materials
and highly
crafted and symbolic objects had been intertwined thoroughly
with indigenous values of wealth, influence, leadership, and access to spiritual power. Trade with Europeans offered these
same
opportunities, but with novel and invaluable materials and things.
During the
centuries of encounter, Native communities
first
absorbed the new offerings of the trade into longstanding systems of indigenous aesthetics and understandings of the world.
Most immediately, the
potentialities of
provoked profound changes. Over tribes of the
European technologies
a period of centuries,
many
Northeast abandoned the production of pottery
favor of brass kettles.
The gun
in
revolutionized hunting and warfare.
Iron and steel tools altered the practice of basic tasks. Consider,
for example, Iroquois hair
combs carved
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. (or
of
moose
The nations
antler
in
the
of the Iroquois
Haudenosaunee) confederacy, Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga,
Onondaga, and Seneca, had grown
in
prominence and population
for centuries prior to European contact. Spread
west across what
now
is
from east to
New York State,
central
their access to
European trade had been indirect during the sixteenth century,
from the French
The founding
in
the
St.
Lawrence region to the northeast.
of Dutch settlements during the early seventeenth
century on the upper Hudson near present-day Albany changed all
that.
When moose antler combs
made with sharpened beaver
incisors, they
three or four tines and rudimentary the crest. Steel blades
can be seen on a
made
village of
extended row of narrow
had no more than
any decorative carving on
by archaeologists from the
the mid-seventeenth century.
parallel tines
carver's mastery of metal tools.
rendering of two
if
possible such elaborate carvings as
comb recovered
remains of a Cayuga
had been carved with blades
and
The
fine carving reflect the
Most remarkable
is
the intricate
men on horseback wearing brimmed
hats,
images of Dutch, French or English neighbors (the English seized
New
Netherlands
image commemorates
Greenhalgh
in
possess
in
1664)
[37].
Some propose that this Wentworth
1677, but the several images of riders
that grace Iroquois
generally to
in
a visit by English dignitary
combs during
this
on horseback
period may refer
more
powers and wealth which the outsiders seemed to
such great abundance.
The notion
that Native peoples
were
irresistibly
drawn to
trade goods due to their technical superiority conceals the fact that only
54
some
of the objects sought by Native trade partners
-
iron axes, steel knives, brass kettles, and guns
any increased productivity or security.
became saturated with these
Over
- contributed to
time, as the market
kinds of goods, the far larger
proportion of trade supplied raw materials of dress and ornament
- wool and cotton
cloth, silk ribbon, glass beads, silver
ornaments.
Native traders evaluated these things from within a frame of reference that recognized
in
them
familiar symbolic
and
spiritual
properties. For example, the white, red, and blue glass beads that
dominated early trade corresponded to of white
shell,
earlier Native
ornaments
red catlinite (stone), and blue-green copper.
The
possession, circulation, and display of these materials played to
longstanding indigenous values that extolled
them
as expressions
of success, wealth, and leadership. Artists, principally
women,
began to innovate techniques that transformed trade materials into
37
Comb
carved by
of a
regalia.
antler,
Cayuga man.
17th century. this
moose
ensembles of formal dress and
The carving on
comb shows two European
riders wearing their characteristic hats.
These images are among the
earliest
Native representations
of European visitors.
55
Artificial curiosities
The bygone world
of early European and Native relations
revealed to us today through a
filter
governed by the
is
historical
events of collecting and preservation. Excavations of old village sites
recover only the most durable of objects and materials but,
on occasion, European
came from the hands
visitors
took things home with them that
of Native people they encountered.
value these earliest, precious few objects preserved
but
would be
it
a mistake to think of
them
We
museums,
in
unmediated by the
as
circumstances of their collection. Within encounters where the character of relations would be managed, to a large degree,
through the exchange of things (trade), one must look
critically at
the objects selected by Native peoples for Europeans to collect.
Consider, for example, the object
"Powhatan's mantle," preserved
Oxford, England
in
known today
the Ashmolean
.2
m). Finely
worked
shell
some
7 by 4
ft (2.
by
1
beads are sewn to one side of the
deerskins to create a design that shows a full-length flanked by
in
four deerskins stitched together
[38]. It is, in fact,
with sinew to create a large oblong mat of 1
as
Museum
human
two long-eared animals and surrounded by
figure
thirty-four
John Tradescant (1570-1638), gardener to the King of
disks.
England, assembled the collection that would
become
the present-
day Ashmolean Museum. As a student of botany, he collected plants well.
from
The
German in
all
over the world and many other exotic things as
earliest description of the collection
named Georg Christoph
traveler
comes from
Stirn,
who
1638 such exotica as "a bat as large as a pigeon, a
bone weighing 42 executioners Africa, the
in
lbs,
the
Indian
West
all
.
.
some very
robe of the King of Virginia..."
embroidered with
reported
human
arrows such as are used by the
Indies.
A
1656 refers to this latter object as "Pohatan habit
a
shells,
light
wood from
later catalogue of [sic],
King of Virginia's
or Roanoke." There
is
no
record of when the object entered the collection, although John Tradescant the Younger 1637.
One hundred
(
1608-1662) had traveled to Virginia
permanent North American settlement in
1607, right in the
paramount
chief
in
Jamestown,
Virginia,
middle of an extensive chiefdom ruled by
named Powhatan. By
1637,
when Tradescant
Younger arrived, the Powhatan chiefdom was after disease
in
and warfare with the English had decimated the
marked by
strategies that alternated belligerence with diplomacy as first
56
his
a
the
a state of collapse
population. But the thirty years previous had been
Powhatan, and then
in
English settlers had established England's first
successors, struggled to incorporate
38 Large mat
made
of deerskin
and ornamented with
shell beads.
The object was collected before 1638
when
it
appears
in
an
inventory of John Tradescant's collection
in
England as the "robe
of the King of Virginia."
Through
some unknown circumstances
it
had been acquired by colonists of
Jamestown (established 1607) from the highest-ranking leaders of the
Powhatan chiefdom. Powhatan chiefs
had the exclusive power to
distribute shell
peers,
allies,
ornaments to
and
rivals.
Jamestown within the as a tributary In
his
one
social organization of the
town, then alternately as
ally
chiefdom, at
first
and enemy.
effort to establish formal relations,
Powhatan directed
daughter, the famous Pocahontas, to "rescue" John Smith from
execution as a precursor to formal adoption. for chiefs to shore up alliances by
members through adoption or also established social bonds.
It
was customary
means of the exchange
marriage.
The exchange
Powhatan and
his
of family
of
gifts
successors
controlled the distribution of sumptuary goods, particularly
copper and
shell beads.
They received them
tributary villages or presented
them
so-called "Powhatan's mantle"
is
mat, very a
likely
not
as
payment from
as gifts to forge alliances. a "habit"
or
a
The
garment, but
a
of the type that observers reported functioned as
kind of throne for chiefs.
Covered with precious
represents the highest level of
gift
shell beads,
between peers of
it
leadership.
57
and thus acts as
dynamic vehicle of diplomatic
a
only speculate that
represented a
presentation to an
its
a political
was
failed.
some wealthy
also the habit of
of European descent,
like
animals
like
- sea
aristocrats and merchants
John Tradescant, to assemble "cabinets
of curiosities" both natural and
to things of nature
shells,
artificial.
"Natural" refers here
exotic minerals, and stuffed
the "bat as large as a pigeon" listed
collection. "Artificial"
but unfamiliar) things
of Jamestown
strategem of alliance and accommodation,
gambit that ultimately It
We can
potential.
official
in
the Tradescant
means man-made - "curious"
made by human
beings.
(interesting
As learned
Europeans broadened their horizons to survey their world during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, collections
demonstrated knowledge of and implied mastery over that world.
The
"artificial curiosities"
they brought
home and
preserved
in
their collections provide us today with invaluable material
documents, but
it is
important to keep
in
mind that they do not
offer an impartial view. Their collection and preservation
met the
purposes of those involved with these transactions, not ours.
Mementos of service and
travel
39 Pouch customarily worn
The
suspended against the chest with
fourteenth century by Henri IV of France became the repository
a
royal cabinet of curiosities originally established
in
the
cord around the neck, made of
painted deerskin and decorated
with porcupine
quills.
The
pendants hanging from the bottom
edge are cut from deer hooves.
of
many
things brought back by French explorers and traders and
presented to the king, including "pouches, leggings, and belts
made
the fashion of Barbary" obtained by Jacques Cartier
in
(voyages
in
wampum
1534, 1535 and 1541), and
belts
- sashes
of shell beads customarily exchanged to seal agreements and alliances 161
of
New
1
- presented to Samuel Champlain by Huron emissaries
By the 1770s, through additional contributions by
in
.
France and other
considerably.
In
visitors, the collection
officials
had grown
1796, the post-revolution republic
combined the
royal collection with the collections of other aristocrats at the
Bibliotheque Nationale for the education of the people of France. This
is
the origin of the present-day
Today, sorting out collected
them
is
where these
in
a
decorative panel
58
made
wrapped with dyed porcupine
Musee de I'Homme
still
some
of a fine net
quills
from
has a precious hand-written label
attached: "hide tobacco bag for the Indians of
The
in Paris.
the collection.
pouch with
of deerskin thongs
the
THomme
came from and who
an almost impossible task. But there are
remarkable objects
A deerskin
Musee de
things
soft deerskin portion of the bag
is
Canada 721 " 1
painted with designs
[39].
in
red
and black, including two
circles with
equal-armed crosses
These ancient symbols are also found p.
50).
The
circle
Mississippian art (see
in
and cross motif refers
inside.
in a
very broad way to
the terrestrial earth: a circular horizon and the four cardinal directions.
The
directional
symbolism plots the
course of the
daily
sun from east to west while the axis of north and south charts the
slower ebb and flow of the seasons - the sun's journey southward, with winter on
its
heels,
and
its
return
in
the spring. These general
observations serve as the foundations for a complex series of spiritual reflections pertaining to
the course of
rebirth, in short, an understanding of the
life,
death, and
way the world works.
The netted quillwork panel suspended below the bag
is
worked
with a pattern that represents a stylized bird with an hourglass-
shaped body, triangular wings, and a small pointed head. This
is
an image of the Thunderbird, a widespread concept across
North America
that conceives of powerful thunderstorms as a
monstrous, eagle-like bird whose flapping wings create thunder and whose flashing eyes produce
lightning.
cultural traditions of the Eastern
Woodlands and
While several of the Plains
recognized the possibility that individuals may form powerful relations with
the design
is
thunder
far
more
spirits
likely a
through visions and dreams, here
more
general reference to powerful
cosmological forces.
Images of the Thunderbird, the equal-armed cross, and the
Underwater Panther art
40 Bag of nettle
fiber
Village. Michigan, c
The design on
this side of
bag represents
side,
are often found
a kind of
in
Eastern
Woodlands
cosmological diagram. The
of 1830.
the
two Underwater
Panthers (see also
The other
[40]
ways that suggest
and wool,
made by an Odawa woman Cross
in
figs
not
50 and
175).
visible here,
features a Thunderbird
59
Underwater Panther
is
the Thunderbird's nemesis yet
compliment. They are enemies
Underwater Panther dwells
where
its
thrashing, serpent-like
dreaded by canoe
constant conflict. The
in
bottom of
at the
tail
and
rivers,
creates dangerous storms
symbols together describe
travelers. All three
basic structures of the larger
lakes
cosmos, the
terrestrial earth
bracketed by the sacred and powerful realms of sky and water
above and below.
Human
powerful forces, strive to
beings, live
suspended amidst these
within their precarious yet
potentially rewarding state of balance.
The Musee de THomme bag resembles what "fire-bags,"
are later called
sometimes worn around the neck of Ojibwa and
Cree men of the Upper Great Plains people.
The
a soft, flexible, sleeve-like
versions), with a
Lakes, or the tobacco bags of
both instances are
distinctive features in
stiff
pouch
was used
(cloth
in
later
Successive generations of women artists continued to
new
variations of this form, incorporating designs, for very
many
began to appear
in
years after
Shoulder bag,
pouch worn
in
the form of a
against the hip with a
strap around the shoulder,
deerskin stained dark
dye from black walnut
made
of
brown with hulls,
decorated with porcupine
and
quills.
The pendants suspended from the bottom are made of around
tufts of
tin
wrapped
deer hair dyed
bright red.
Two Thunderbirds
featured
the design.
in
reportedly presented
are
The bag was in
1760 by
"Iroquois" to Lord Jeffrey
Amherst, commander of the British
army
in
North America
between 1758 and
1763.
60
1
72
1
.
make
materials and
A new style
new
of pouch
European collections drawn from the Great
Lakes region after 1750 or so, and
41
Cree
decorative panel suspended below.
its
design stems from the
powder and ammunition belonging
military bandolier bags for
to European soldiers. These pouches are almost square
and are worn suspended against the hip by means of shoulder strap
brown
[41].
(resulting in
in
shape
broad
Their well-prepared deerskins are dyed dark
what
is
often called "black buckskin") and they
ornamented with porcupine
are heavily
a
applique.
quill
Many
of the
designs employ images of Thunderbirds, equal-armed crosses, or
Underwater Panthers. These
highly embellished objects represent
artistic skill
Clearly,
and mastery of
European
presented as
visitors
difficult
sought them out and some had been
to important
gifts
tremendous
quill-working techniques.
Closely related examples
officials.
were brought back to Europe by Lord Jeffrey Amherst,
commander
in
1758 to 1763,
chief of the British forces Sir
Frederick Haldimand
from 1760 to 1784, and
Sir
North America from
in
who
served
John Caldwell, posted
in
in
Canada
Detroit and
Mackinac between 1768 and 1785, and there are many others.
Other categories of objects, moccasins and example,
all
returned to Europe as
mementos
American colonies. Although
much debate about the
more
it
of service
in
the North
has been tempting to view these
examples of a broadly based material culture (and there
as early is
knife cases for
decorated with closely related techniques, similarly
likely
number
"tribal styles"
they represent),
that they are the products of a relatively
of skilled artists
whose work was
it is
far
modest
accessible for purchase
near the major centers of Native and European interaction, such as Niagara, Detroit, and Mackinac. This
Europeans were the exclusive
Mohawk
leader,
clients.
is
not to say that
Joseph Brant, the royalist
founder of the Six Nations Reserve
in
southeastern Ontario, and namesake of Brantford, Ontario,
wears
buckskin shoulder bag
a black
in his
portrait of 1807 by
Canadian painter William Berczy.
There are
tantalizing hints in
travel literature as to
Huron
where such
of Lorette, Catholics
1697 after the
contemporary memoirs and
Huron and
who
things could be found.
The
resettled outside Montreal
in
Iroquois wars of the earlier seventeenth
century, are the well-documented creators of black buckskin bags
and moccasins decorated with elaborate moose hair applique. Visitors purchased objects
Niagara
Falls
where Huron
from
their settlement at Lorette. or at
artists traveled to sell their creations.
Memoirist John Long also reported moccasins of "superior taste"
made
Nations Reserve for
sale at
workmanship and Six
by
Mohawk women from
Niagara
Falls just after
the
the
61
Revolutionary War. Decades
on the
skills
and "their
of
later,
Samuel Keating remarked
Menominee women
mode
of
Green
Bay,
Wisconsin,
of preparing belts, garters, sheaths for knives,
moccasins, &c. and of ornamenting them with beads, and with the coloured quills of porcupines," while he was accompanying the exploratory expedition of Major Stephen Long
Menominee
lived
between Lake Michigan and the
Mississippi,
[42].
A
1823.
The
and several of their
creations of black buckskin and porcupine quills
museums
in
along the major portage route for travelers
now
reside
in
rare glimpse of the domestic circumstances
of artistic production
is
provided
in
the 1855 travel
memoir
of
Johann Georg Kohl. At Sault Sainte Marie, the conduit of travel
between Lakes Huron and Superior, Kohl mixed-blood pipe carver and
42 Knife case of darkened deerskin and porcupine
made by
a
Wisconsin,
c.
creations of like this
quills,
Menominee woman, 1820. Several
Menominee women
one were acquired by
travelers.
62
his
home of a who worked with
visited the
Ojibwa wife
porcupine
quills.
"The whole house was an
atelier.
Red and
...
black pipe-stones, half or quite unfinished pipe-bowls, with
engraving tools,
lay in
one corner of the room, and
little
the other
in
portion. .were clean birch bark and elegantly carved miniature .
canoes and children's pouches. .or that fantastic and gay .
embroidery which Indian porcupine
women
prepare so cleverly out of
quills."
New materials, new techniques
When
European
and travelers sought out objects
officials, visitors,
from Native people to purchase and own, they tended to
privilege
those things that seemed, to them, untainted by the circumstances of their encounter and authentic to their perception of what distinctive
was
and different about Native Americans, things made of
natural materials like deerskin and porcupine quills, or distinctive
weapons and implements such smoking
as ball
pipes. Certainly, artists like
Lorette, strived to
head clubs (see
those
among
p.
the
72) and
Huron of
meet these expectations. At the same
time,
however, the fashions of dress, design, and decorative technique
throughout the Eastern Woodlands altered,
as
makers responded
with vigor and creativity to the opportunities of offered by trade. Glass beads,
cotton cloth,
silver
ribbon,
silk
new media
wool and printed
ornaments, and other materials required new
techniques and working methods, and offered
new
possibilities for
design and ornament.
Watercolor portraits of a Mohawk man and
anonymous
illustrate distinctive styles of
dress
[43].
The woman wears
fits
wool
applique. She also
of
cloth edged with
more
silk
edging under one silk
wears
arm and over the other
applique, probably
a
loosely over a wrap-around skirt of
printed cotton blouse that
silk
by an
made and decorated almost
exclusively with imported materials
with
woman
English or French artist of the late eighteenth century
woolen robe
a
shoulder. Strips
supplemented with
glass beads,
descend down either side of her wool leggings and edge the hem just
above her moccasins. Only the moccasins are made of
deerskin, very likely with porcupine
She supports
pack or
a
a
quill
and glass bead ornament.
baby carrier on her back by means of
a
tumpline or burden strap across her forehead. Burden straps of this type,
made
of twined nettle fiber and decorated with
exquisite geometric designs of colorfully dyed
moose
found among collections today. Textile garments
woman wears Few
in
like
the painting, however, survived far
hair,
can be
those the
more
rarely.
collected them.
63
43 Watercolor of an Iroquois
woman,
painted during the late
eighteenth century by an English or French artist.
woman's wool
fabric
unknown
The
wearing
blanket, skirt, and leggings are
sumptuously decorated with
silk
ribbon applique.
A similarly constructed
skirt with
ribbon applique was preserved
in
extremely complex
a trunk of
heirlooms that had
descended through several generations of a Miami family of Peoria, Indiana, until 1915 [44].
The
it
was sold to
skirt itself
is
a simple
a collector
sometime around
garment, an oblong length of
dark wool cloth that would have been wrapped around the waist
and
tied with a belt.
broad band of
silk
The bottom
of the cloth
is
decorated with
a
ribbons of yellow, white, red, green, and blue,
meticulously cut with scissors, folded, and stitched
down
along
the edges of every detail of the pattern with cotton thread to create an intricate design of interlocking diamonds. Another panel of similarly fabricated "ribbonwork" decorates of the oblong cloth so that skirt
when
circular
it is
it
descends
wrapped around the
brooches of
silver
arranged
down
waist. in a
a long, loose-fitting
similar lavish use of silver
1
i
side
Hundreds of small
broad pattern above the
ribbonwork hem complete the decoration. The been worn with
one
the front of the
cotton or
skirt
silk
would have
blouse, with
brooches for ornament. Indiana
artist
George Winter painted images of Miami women wearing such garments decorated
The wealth the fur trade,
in this
that such a
in
fashion during the 1830s.
garment represented stemmed from
which Native
women
played a central role.
As
they converted animal hides into highly valued commodities (the quality of Native
processed furs and deerskin had no
parallel in
Europe), they also transformed manufactured trade goods into
Native expressions of wealth, success, and social prominence as formal dress or
regalia.
The
vital
role of their artistic
skills
and
industriousness recast the raw materials of trade into items of social value for
both parties of the transaction. While Native and
European men worked the
assembling materials
logistical side,
and arranging for their transport, the transformative powers of
women and
artists
made trade
provided the alchemy that
lucrative. Little
desirable
wonder that both Native and European men,
ambitious for the wealth and prestige that trade brought, sought
out such
women
as marriage
and business partners.
While the decoration of formal clothing often involved stitching silk ribbon, glass beads,
upon cloth garments,
women
and
silver
brooches directly
also adapted a
number
of weaving
techniques to make sashes, garters (wrapped around the leg just
under the knee), pouches, and shoulder
worsted wool yarns, often strung with
woven
bags.
They used
fine
glass beads, for finger-
(braided) and twined textiles. Simple tension looms,
sometimes employing possible.
a
wooden
heddle,
When women wove sashes
made "woven beadwork"
and shoulder bag panels
with wefts strung with varied color glass beads, they invented startlingly
new and
intricate patterns [46].
geometric designs are organized by
And
yet,
many
of the
a principle of quadrilateral
symmetry, meaning that they are composed of four equivalent quadrants. variations
No
matter
how complex,
they can be read as
on the theme of the equal-armed cross with
its
reference to the terrestrial earth and the four cardinal directions.
Color asymmetry, often developed by alternating color or design from one side of a pattern to the other, restates the polar
contrasts of Sky and Underworld. There
is
not
much evidence
that such design conventions represent a consciously narrative
symbolism. Rather, these basic cosmological notions seem to inform aesthetic perceptions of what constituted proper and appropriate design. The
women
of each generation built
upon
the aesthetic traditions of the past, but with vigorous freedom of expression.
65
44 (above) silk
Skirt of
wool
fabric,
ribbon, and silver brooches,
made by Indiana,
a c.
pattern of
Miami
woman
1830.
Note the
of intricate
ribbon applique,
silk
referred to as "ribbonwork."
45 (above
right)
wool and cotton beads, and
silk
Shoulder bag of fabric, glass
ribbon,
made by
a
Creek woman during the 1830s or 1840s. in
The
circle
and cross pattern
the center of the design
is
an
ancient Mississippian symbol.
Note
the printed cotton lining visible on the back-side of the strap.
patterns on the bag
Other
may have been
inspired by printed cotton cloth.
46
(right)
Sash of glass beads,
cotton twine, and wool yarn, made by an Ojibwa
woman,
c.
1850.
This sash illustrates a technique of
woven beadwork
that
made
extremely intricate patterning possible.
47 Man's shirt of elaborately patterned printed cotton calico.
made by
woman
a
Seminole or Creek
during the 1830s
^
Floral design
Decorative patterns of flowers
appeared within the
first
vocabulary of Native dress as printed cotton fabrics used for
and blouses. Few of these garments survive, unfortunately,
shirts
imported
as the close study of
fabrics
might have offered some
fine-grained detail about the dynamics of the trade.
twenty-first-century globalism,
of
In light
interesting to note that the
it is
plethora of inexpensive printed floral textiles (often called "calicoes"
in
trade documents) brought to North America
resulted
more or
interests
in India,
from English and French colonial
less directly
both as a direct source of textiles but also as
inspiration for competitive textile industries
of the Southeast
seem to have been
in
Europe.
Women
particularly attuned to the
decorative possibilities of their printed patterns, as attested by a spectacular Seminole or Creek shirt obtained
by the
1846 [47].
German
valet to the French
when he presented
it
Seminoles derives directly from
more modern-day
This kind of florid sensibility
this tradition. is
visible
of the shoulder bag, created during the
nineteenth century.
Made with wool
designs that
A
equally
paisley-like forms,
In
and sun
visible
from
trimmed with
disks,
floral
in
calico patterns
and
blossoms and
leaves,
one with an equal-armed
Andrew Jackson
cross, [45].
signed into law the Indian
Removal Act and over the next twenty years the
federal
uprooted tens of thousands of
state militias
Native people from their homelands
them to reservations west
the
free-form
on examples of Mississippian pottery
1830, President
government and
silk,
such bags are
flaps of
undocumented example
particularly fine
combines elements that suggest
those
fabric
versions
decades of the
bead applique applied
glass
seem to draw
indigenous imagery.
just like
among Creek
first
and distinctive triangular
decorated with colorful
Washington, D.C.
to the Royal Kunstkammer of Prussia
So-called "patchwork" clothing of
straps, pouches,
in
ambassador sometime before
in
the east and
of the Mississippi River
in
removed Kansas,
Nebraska, and Oklahoma. Here they joined tribes already resident on the prairies.
Some
remote
locations, fleeing to
up their
tribal status.
avoided removal by hiding
Canada
or,
The Eastern Band
more of
in
rarely, by giving
Cherokee and the
Seminole of Florida are two such nations that avoided removal, but most had to go.
Many
died en route.
of these displaced peoples, a
new
emerged, one that combined abstract the
68
Among
the reservations
style of clothing floral
decoration
forms brought by
Cherokee and Creek to Oklahoma with Great Lakes and
Midwestern traditions of organizing designs with quadrilateral
symmetry and color asymmetry. Broad and ribbonwork and
glass
colorful patterns of
bead applique, often contrasted against
heavy dark cloth, reasserted cultural values of Native identity
through the traditions of
production,
artistic
gift
exchange, and
the display of regalia. This late nineteenth-century, pan-tribal style of clothing decoration
due to the
is
sometimes referred to
prairie locations of
as "Prairie style"
post-Removal reservations.
Mission schools were another source of floral imagery, and their effect
the
moose
the productions of Catholic converts:
first visible in
is
embroidery of the Huron of Lorette, for example,
hair
or the Catholic
Odawa
patterns
done
porcupine
in
who
of Michigan
boxes they made to package and quill
sell
decorated the birch-bark
maple sugar with
during the
nineteenth century. Several accomplished
floral
decades of the
first
woman
artists of
Michigan and southeastern Ontario carry on this tradition today [48],
but
now
collectors desire the boxes, not the maple sugar. By
the 1880s, pictorial floral designs with tulips, roses, peonies, and
other recognizable blossoms dominated the decorated regalia of Northern Minnesota Ojibwa
anthropologist Sister Bernard
[49].
Ojibwa beadworkers told the
Coleman
that the floral designs
they used to decorate formal clothing and beaded shoulder bags derived from the embroidery, cross-stitch, and lace patterns they
had learned
The regalia
government schools.
in
tradition of using floral images for the decoration of
resonated
far to the
Families descendant fur traders floral
north and west during the 1800s.
from the unions of French, Scots, and
English
and Ojibwa and Cree women, called Metis, brought
decoration out to the farthest reaches of the trade
in
northern Canada and the American Rockies. By the 1880s,
Ojibwa
families
used the Northern
west and market
The
floral
"floral style"
Pacific Railroad to travel
shoulder bags and other beaded items.
developed many regional variations as
beadworkers incorporated images
pick up the thread of the floral style
Telling stories: objects
Agawa Rock
is
a
local
into the repertoire. We will in
Chapter
8.
and pictographs
sheer
cliff
of granite that descends directly into
the water on the treacherous eastern shore of Lake Superior
north of Agawa
narrow ledge
Bay.
just
An Ojibwa
artist
or
artists
of evocative and seemingly mysterious images cliff.
Among
stood upon
above the splashing waves and painted
the several painted sections there
a
a series
upon the raw stone is
an impressively
69
48 Box of
birch bark and
porcupine
quill,
made
by
Yvonne
M. Walker Keshick (Odawa). Michigan. 1990s. Keshick
the greatest
living
is
one of
makers of
quilled
boxes, a tradition that stems back
hundreds of years
in
Michigan.
49 Family of Minnesota Ojibwa,
photographed by D.
F.
Barry of
Minnesota, print dated 1890s. this
staged photograph, the
men wear leggings
In
two
shoulder bags and
beaded with
floral
patterns.
70
large
image of an Underwater Panther with long arched horns
accompanied by two serpents swimming below
[50].
Henry Rowe
containing five figures follows behind.
A canoe
Schoolcraft,
the Indian agent for northern Michigan stationed at Sault Sainte
Marie between 1822 and 1841, learned about Sault Sainte Marie
this
image from
band chief whose name he recorded
a
as
Chingwauk. The chief told Schoolcraft that the painting
commemorated led a party of
of
the occasion
when
man named Myeengun had
a
war canoes across Lake Superior to
Agawa Bay and
fight the Iroquois.
and threat of fierce storms make
The wind,
this
join the
Ojibwa
rocks, currents,
an especially perilous
passage under any circumstances, but Myeengun had successfully propitiated the dangerous spirits of the lake, the
Panther and horned serpents, and brought safely.
a
Agawa Rock,
50 Painted figures at
Lake Superior, Ontario. This
is
one
Chingwauk had seen the story,
red mineral pigment at the
water's edge at
Agawa Rock.
This composition
shows
a great
Chingwauk
said,
painting
Underwater
warriors across
because Myeengun was
religion
Ojibwa and several other Great Lakes
of several series of figures painted in
This was possible,
noted priest of the Midewiwin, a
his
widespread among the
tribes.
We can assume that
on the rock and been told the
and now, with the help of a drawing he made from memory,
he told the story to Schoolcraft. The story of Myeengun's
accomplishment was worth remembering and
retelling.
The
Underwater Panther accompanied by
two serpents and
conveying
a
five figures
canoe behind.
painting,
in
mnemonic
bold red mineral pigment, served both as the device to
prompt the story
and, located at the water's
71
edge, a humble and grateful acknowledgment of the lake's
power
to spare or destroy.
Men
Woodlands
of the Eastern
frequently employed a pictorial
language of images as a means of recording and remembering significant events.
War
parties might leave a pictorial account of
their experiences along
episode:
number
how many killed
information
in this
way
kind of publication of the
number
of the enemy, the
are called "pictographs" and their artful
in
a
a variety of
in
trails as a
or captured. Pictures employed to convey
creation has resulted
preserved
major
their party, the
in
number
of powerful graphic images
media today.
Warriors sometimes engraved images tabulating war records experiences upon their
or describing
spiritual
some shaped
like a lightning bolt, called
club, others
and a heavy
ball
on the
of
it
striking end, called a "ball
[his club] his divinity.
men he
has
killed,
added, "For their
.
.the
symbol of
Ball
head club of maple,
recovered near the
site
where
1755 the army led by Major
General Edward Braddock was
Odawa
defeated at the hands of
and Potawatomi. Western Iroquois, Delaware, and
Shawnee
also joined the fight, and the club
may have belonged
his
name.
club.
"A man
1705, .
.the
puts
number
own
glory he
[a
warrior] leaves such war clubs
killed their
in
order that
his
enemies
people and what nation he was."
It is
of the
"Battle of the Wilderness," in
may know who
in
curved handle
a
head"
and the prisoners he has taken." Raudot
where he has been on some expedition 51
clubs,
descriptively a "gunstock"
carved of a single piece of wood with
Antoine Denis Raudot wrote from Quebec
on
wooden
to a warrior of
any one of these nations.
interesting to be
reminded of this custom when considering
a
particularly beautiful ball
head club carved of maple with what
appears to be a head of
bear worked upon the end of the handle,
a
preserved today at the Denver Art found, perhaps
left
Museum
[51 ]. It
had been
as a reminder, at the site of Britain's
most
notorious defeat at the hands of warriors from the combined tribes of the central
n
Great Lakes when the army
led by
Major
52 Gunstock club of metal, of a
observed
in
wood and
the possession
young Ojibwa man
Michigan,
in
the 1840s.
at L'Anse,
He
said
it
was engraved with an image inspired by a vision spirit
guardian had
in
which
his
showed him the
Thunderbird seated
in its
nest.
General Edward Braddock was ambushed and routed Fort Duquesne
in
just outside
1755, near present-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
There are several such clubs preserved
collections both
in
North America and Europe, many engraved with images of accomplishments
in battle.
them and they appear
in
Many
collectors
that
in
tell
were eager to have under the
early cabinets of curiosities
popular category of arms and armor. For those
who
sold them,
perhaps the honor of broadcasting one's accomplishments
outweighed the trouble of making another.
Georg
Kohl, the travel memoirist
the
In
mentioned
opportunity to discuss designs engraved upon with a young Ojibwa
man he met
1
840s Johann
earlier,
a
had the
gunstock club
at L'Anse, the site of a mission
on Keweenaw Bay on the south shore of Lake Superior figures, the
[52].
young man explained, represented himself and
guardian
spirit
image of
a bird
who
had
come
to him
in a
dream. Pointing to the
contained within a crescent, the young
that the guardian spirit had instructed him to look
there he saw a giant eagle sitting stars above. Kohl asked
in its
Two
his
man
said
upward and
nest with the
moon
and
about the figures and crosshatched bands
73
on the handle. These represented war expeditions against the Sioux but the young elderly
man
man who knew
he had no knowledge of them.
said
of these events had
the weapon. Kohl evidently did not purchase the club. in
Michigan
more
than one hundred years
man made
testimony, perhaps the elder
it
An
made these marks on surfaced
It
Considering the
later.
(he used a cut piece of
an eighteenth-century mason's square for the blade) or at least
engraved the pictographs. Perhaps elderly
weapons
attention to making
were
was customary
it
men, past their active years
some
for
as warriors, to turn their
what they
for others, interpreting
told with the pictorial language of pictographs and,
noteworthy
case, recounting old and
become
Clearly, objects could
in this
battles for posterity.
vessels of
memory. Knowledge
power
are preserved not by
of history and the sources of spiritual
oral tradition alone, but by objects with their attendant rituals
prompt memories and
that
knowledge along to others. catlinite
is all
stage occasions for passing that
A small
provided power and protection warriors 53 Catlinite pipe bowl, once part of a
war bundle
that had
descended through the family of
packets
[53].
filled
smoking pipe bowl carved of
that remains of an assemblage of objects that
The
objects,
in
battle for generations of
which included
a
with spiritually charged substances,
pipe and stem, customarily kept
when not used
wrapped
in
Miami
necklace with small rattles,
and the
a piece of deerskin
"war
for rituals, can be referred to collectively as a
Camilius Bundy, a Miami of Peru, Indiana.
suggests
The it
style of the pipe
was carved during
bundle." led
The owner brought the bundle along on war
and performed
the 1700s.
his party's safety
rituals
with the contents that contributed to
and success. The sacred knowledge of
use these things for such a purpose was a
experienced as a dream or a
how
bundle also recalled
it
gift
from
destroyed by accidental
fire
periodically It is
The
to
beings
But the oral tradition of the
vision.
sometime around
had been
it
1900.
stone pipe bowl and the story survived, although the lost.
how
spirit
had been passed from one owner to
the next, from elder to promising youngster, until
knowledge was
parties he
Only the ritual
objects themselves might have been
renewed or replaced during the
life
of the bundle.
thought that the pipe was carved sometime during the
eighteenth century, but date for the bundle
it is
itself.
impossible to determine the origin
When
the
man experienced
the vision
and sought to assemble the objects necessary for the bundle,
who
did he approach to
make
the pipe?
There are many scattered references to quarries of pipestone in
the Lake Superior region, and attendant pipe carvers.
source of red catlinite used for the well
'•I
known and
will
be discussed
in
The
Miami war bundle pipe
Chapter
5.
The
quality
is
and
54 Pipe bowl of stone and shell inlay,
carved by an
Ojibwa man
who
Odawa
Island.
workmanship of many
Kane
as
of Manitoulin
match
Paul visit
a pipe to a particular
maker.
skills,
but
Kane
in
1
845. Kane
An exception
it is
is
a
rare to
man
of
Aubonwaishkum by Canadian
Manitoulin Island identified as
Kane sketched the pipe
during his
exquisitely carved pipe bowls testifies to
specialized and highly developed artistic
has been
identified by artist Paul
Aubonwaishkum
or
drew
a picture of a pipe of black
artist
stone he
of 1845.
had purchased, inlaid
with
the shank
its
shell, [54].
upright bowl carved as a
and the figure of
Kane asked the
sculpted images, but
had
made
a
woman
artist
replied that his forefathers
same shaped head
testifying to the continuity of his training
The
pipe
is
preserved today
Museum
in
Toronto.
in
seated on a chair on
about the meaning of the
Aubonwaishkum
similar pipes with the
human head with eyes
for the bowl,
through the generations.
the collection of the Royal Ontario
The carver's art
Arthur C. Parker, an Iroquois
who became
a
notable
anthropologist and folklorist, wrote, "Food tastes
eaten from an atog'washa [wooden
ladle]."
It
much
better
was customary
throughout the Eastern Woodlands to use carved wooden bowls and
ladles for meals. Families
travelers
took
a
might possess a small collection and
bowl and spoon with them. The handles of
Indies
and the edges of bowls were sometimes delicately carved with
^5
human figures [55]. Prior to the accessibility of steel men hollowed out wooden burls with hot coals, scraping charred wood out with blades made of beaver incisors. Later,
animal or tools,
the
the farrier knife used by blacksmiths to shoe horses was adapted into a
what
is
now known
as a
"crooked
knife," a carving tool
with
curved blade useful for hollowing out the concave interiors of
bowls and spoons. The wooden handles of crooked knives were
sometimes imaginatively carved published a history of Carolina
not particularly
skillful in
as well [56].
in
1715,
John Lawson,
who men
reported that Native
hunting for the deerskin trade fashioned
spoons and bowls of tulipwood
instead, trading
them to hunters
for deerskins.
One 1883 after
in
such master woodcarver, John Young Bear, was born
in
Tama, Iowa, the settlement purchased by the Mesquakie
Removal.
He was
well
known
in
the
community
as a carver
of bowls, spoons, heddles used by Mesquakie beadworkers, and
other kinds of wooden objects. His father was
and
at least
one massive
feast bowl,
a
carver as well
hollowed from
a
maple burl
with the head of an eagle rearing up from one end, has been
documented to him family
were and are
[57].
The descendants
artists, historians,
Young Bears exemplify the
of the
Young Bear
and writers. The Mesquakie
lineage descent of Native artists, the
roles they play within their communities, and how, with the
products of their hands and their nurture
55
Wooden
atog'washa, or spoon,
carved by an Iroquois man, perhaps during the 1800s.
The image on
the handle shows a waterfowl sleeping with its
its
head tucked under
wing.
56 "Crooked knife" of wood, steel,
and
leather,
made
by an
Ojibwa or Odawa man during the 1800s.
A
"crooked knife"
is
an
round carving and fabricating
all-
tool.
57 Maple feast bowl, identified by
Mesquakie carver John Young Bear (b.
1883) as having been
his father.
The head
made
rising
one edge represents an
by
up from
eagle,
or
the Thunderbird.
76
ties
between themselves,
intellects,
they create and
their communities, and others.
Chapter 4
Southwest
A visitor to Santa
Fe today encounters perplexing combinations
of an ancient past and a topical present. outline
when
1610, flocks
dine
in
The
Plaza, established in
the Spaniard Pedro de Peralta founded the city
with teenagers
a walled courtyard
T-shirts
in
in
on skateboards. Tourists
where, during the
late
1
770s, refugees
from the outlying towns camped to escape the sustained campaign of raids organized by
May and June,
giant
bring brief drenching
have done
in
Comanche war
thunderheads
downpours
answer to the
agriculturalists for as
many
chief
Cuerno Verde.
build in the in
In late
western skies and
the late afternoon, as they
and prayers of Pueblo
rituals
as fifteen
hundred years. History and
culture are the stock-in-trade of Santa Fe.
And
it
makes perfect
sense that works of art are the widely traded tender of these
more
On
elusive concepts.
American
Indian art, or
the streets,
what passes
for
in it
the gallery windows,
among
the uninitiated,
appears at every turn. From the galleries on Canyon Road to the
phenomenon
of the Santa Fe Art Market that takes place every
August, people deal of
it
come and go
made by
artists
or reservations home.
In
to Santa Fe to buy or
who
call
sell art, a
good
one of the Southwest's pueblos
the context of the greater Southwest,
Santa Fe has been around for a relatively short period of time. But the notion of a place 58 Pictograph
in
Wash Rock Art
District.
Pima
County. Arizona, near the Tucson.
Some
where strangers come together to trade and
the Sutherland
city of
of the abundant
pictographs at this
site
exchange objects
is
an ancient one here, long predating the arrival
of the Spanish and their town.
The
Spanish, however, quickly
understood the value of the great trade
fairs
of Taos and Pecos
are affiliated
where
from the
brought buffalo hides and
to pre-pottery Archaic cultures
pueblos,
and can be dated as early as
other valuables to trade. The Great Houses of Chaco Canyon,
visitors
Plains
500 bc Others can be linked stylistically
culture
to the
Hohokam
such as Pueblo Bonito in
built
during the tenth century, functioned
part as great centers of ritual and exchange. Geographically, the
79
Southwest seems isolated from the continent,
North American
bounded by formidable mountain ranges and
inhospitable deserts.
peoples
rest of the
who spoke
And
yet, within this
different languages,
topographical setting,
stemming from many
different cultural origins, knit together relations of mutual
dependence
that
made coexistence
cultural mix, the production
possible.
Within
this
great
and circulation of art has long played
an important role.
Beyond Santa
Fe, outside the city, the
surrounding landscape
of pinon-covered mountains, dramatic canyons, rolling
hard-edged mesas air,
is
quickly traversed by automobile.
or looking at a map,
it is
hills,
and
From the
easy to parse the Southwest into
broad regions defined by expansive river drainages and intervening mountain ranges. But on the ground, on foot, the land reveals a ridges,
fine-grained diversity of washes, arroyos,
wooded
parklands, and verdant box-
The observant can see
canyons. of
more
parched basins,
human
traces of the countless
number
beings that have walked this land before. Flakes of chert
emerging from the sandy
soil
on the edge of a ridge overlooking
the bend of a seasonal stream locate a
camp where
hunters,
thousands of years ago, watched for game seeking water.
mounds covered with
cholla cactus hide the collapsed
walls of an Anasazi pueblo. Earth eroding
Low
masonry
from the mounds
spreads carpets of colorful pottery shards underfoot. Hikers
today
who
try to pick their
topography inadvertently
way through
find
this
complicated
themselves walking ancient
trails
marked by pictographs pecked
into rocky outcrops [58]: images
of undulating horned serpents,
masked dancers, or the mythic
humpback
flute player, Kokopelli (see
p.
ruggedness and "natural" beauty, there this
84). is
For
all its
open
probably not one inch of
country that was not familiar to someone at one time. Today's Pueblo communities trace their origins to ancestors
who
left
their
Underworld homes and emerged upon
terrestrial earth to settle
it.
this
Archaeologists believe they can trace
the origins of local cultural sequences back nearly nine thousand
years (7000 bc), to slightly variant pre-ceramic traditions to the
north and south. These early hunting and gathering peoples were
few
in
number but covered
a great deal of territory, seeking
out
seasonally available resources during cyclical rounds of purposeful
wandering. Knowledge of corn, beans, and squash, cultigens that
had been domesticated
in
the Mexican highlands by
reached these early peoples sometime during the bc.
80
5000
first
But they adapted cautiously, mixing these more
bc,
millennium
risky, labor-
intensive foods with the wild resources of the land. Archaeologists
can identify the roots of what would, by ad 200,
become three
the great agricultural traditions of the Southwest: the
of
Hohokam
to the southwest, the Mogollon to the southeast, and the Anasazi to the north. are
The descendants
what are referred to here
sometimes
called the
of the Mogollon and Anasazi today
as
"Pueblo peoples." The O'odam,
Pima and Papago, of southern Arizona claim
descent from the Hohokam.
Painted pottery In
addition to agriculture, knowledge of pottery-making
techniques also migrated up from Mexico.
sites of
When
brown pottery appear among the
distinctive
southern
New
broken
bits of
early agriculturalist
Mexico and southeast Arizona,
archaeologists identify the Mogollon culture,
in
contrast to
Some archaeologists same people, some of whom made
nearly identical sites without pottery.
suspect they are actually the pottery,
some
of
whom
did not.
In fact,
two
different traditions of
pottery making entered into the southern Southwest during the third century ad: the
Mogollon brown wares
built
with coils of
pinched together with fingers and scraping tools, and the
clay
Hohokam
tradition of southern Arizona
where potters thinned
coils of clay into vessel walls using a
paddle-shaped tool, a
technique called "paddle and
By ad 600, knowledge of
anvil."
pottery making had traveled northward and been embraced by early farmers of the
Colorado Plateau and the San Juan
Basin.
Archaeologists privilege pottery as an archaeological artifact
because of that
its
its
durability
in
the ground, but also due to the fact
techniques of manufacture are passed hand-to-hand,
generation after generation, and therefore tend to change slowly
over time. Abrupt
shifts in
manufacturing techniques or styles of
decoration hint at population movements or other significant cultural events.
Modern
component minerals the clay to give
it
scientific analysis
of clay and
temper
can identify the
(material
mixed
into
body and strength) so archaeologists can often
trace the origins of raw materials to local sources or distant ones,
the latter often indicating trade societies of the
in
finished pots.
The
agricultural
Southwest depended upon pottery. These
fragile
yet indispensable utensils lasted but a few years before breaking,
so there was always a need to
make or procure new
ones. This
more-than-fifteen-hundred-year tradition holds up a mirror to
Pueblo societies, reflecting day-to-day and
movements from
ritual activities,
place to place, patterns of trade, and
many
81
other details of cultural history. Furthermore, today as yesterday, the creation of pottery remains one of the pre-eminent forms of
expression
artistic
When
among Pueblo
looking at the wares
potters, working
peoples.
made by
the earliest Anasazi
between ad 600 and 800,
most
clear that
it is
pottery was intended for the chores of cooking and storage.
These vessels tend to be
plain
undecorated wares
fired a dull
gray color. Rare but widespread throughout the range of the early Anasazi, archaeologists find serving bowls with designs painted black mineral paint.
The sparse geometric patterns
their interior walls are clearly
Anasazi coiled baskets. Other,
show simple
course,
is
The
bowl
when
new
if
dancing
in
a circle [59].
when people
early
encountered designs around the
A meal, of
gather together to share
between undecorated culinary pottery and
differences
After ad of
as
a social occasion
painted vessels would
occasions
rarely
figures standing hand-to-hand, arranged
interior wall of the
food.
drawn from those found on
more
in
that spiral up
seem to
lie in
painted pottery
the public, perhaps
ritual
was used.
800 painted pottery expanded to
number
include a
forms: dippers, pitchers or mugs with handles, canteens,
and variously shaped (large storage jars)
jars.
Two
large
were preserved
and spectacularly painted in
beneath the floor of a residential room
in a late
pueblo near present-day Red Rock, Arizona prepared paste, creamy white
slip,
ollas
a stone-lined storage recess
ninth-century
Their carefully
[60].
and expansive decoration
painted with organic vegetal pigments contrast sharply with
contemporary gray wares used 59 (opposite top) Painted bowl
on the
for domestic chores.
Loops low
sides and the vessels' constricted necks suggest that they
(La Plata black-on-white). Anasazi
culture, Basket c.
Maker
III
period,
ad 600-700. This exceptionally
early
example of Anasazi painted
pottery was
made
in
were suspended
The appearance
in
a
way to
facilitate
pouring their heavy contents.
of highly decorated storage jars
among
the Cibola
region, just north of present-day
communal storage
facilities,
Zuni Pueblo.
rooms attached to
individual households, reinforcing an
60 (opposite centre and below)
Two
large storage jars (Kana-a
I
recovered from an early Anasazi settlement during the period just after the shift
from
structures to
rooms with shared
walls built jars
pit
house
on the ground
had been placed
lined storage
floor of
village,
to storage
display, hospitality,
ritual.
During subsequent centuries, Anasazi potters perfected the
period, ad 700-900.
These and two other vessels were
The
shared by the
impression that painted pottery was linked to
and
black-on-white). Anasazi culture,
Pueblo
the
inventories of Anasazi households corresponds with a shift from
surface.
complicated processes and techniques required for large-scale
production of exquisitely decorated black-on-white wares. By the twelfth century, potters used large firing fuel yet distant
kiln sites
near sources of
from residences. Specialized
artists,
perhaps
extended kinship groups or dedicated communities, made the
in a slab-
room beneath
one of the rooms.
the
pots and supervised these massive and technically challenging firings.
82
Decorated pottery circulated widely through trade, and
61
Painted bowl (Mimbres black-
on-white), from the Mimbres valley,
southwestern
Mimbres
culture,
The humpback with
a
cane
(perhaps
a
in
New
figure
long flute)
who
traditions.
on the
one hand and
resembles Kokopelli, figure
Mexico.
ad 1000-1150.
appears
in
in
left,
a rod
the other,
a mythical
Pueblo oral
He and another
figure
with the hindquarters of a hoofed animal confront an
horned
fish
enormous
draped across
a conical
burden basket.
local potters
emulated popular
own
with their
local variations.
and techniques but
styles
When
communities, they introduced their
they
skills
moved with
their
and wares to new
regions. Anasazi decorated pottery that survives today reveals a highly
organized
artistic tradition in
which knowledge and
were passed from one generation to the technique while innovating
next, each refining
new and dynamic
styles.
To the south, Mogollon peoples developed tradition,
no doubt
in
skills
a parallel
ceramic
dynamic interaction with their Anasazi
neighbors. Early Mogollon potters produced reddish-brown wares
painted with red geometric designs. By ad 1000, Mogollon artists
had perfected a black-on-white technique closely related to Anasazi black-on-whites to the north. Potters slipped deep
snow white and used
hemispherical bowls
a black mineral paint to
create tightly constructed geometric patterns executed with great
Most remarkable, however, are Mimbres black-on-white
precision.
bowls with
pictorial
exclusively
in
[6l].
Fish,
engaged
images painted
in
the interiors, found almost
the Mimbres valley of southwestern
horned toads, aquatic birds and in
human and
seemingly
ritual activities,
animal forms
composed
insects,
New
Mexico
human
figures
or strange admixtures of in
what may represent mythic
narratives, grace the interiors of these frankly astonishing vessels.
Most
of the bowls have been recovered from burials beneath the
floors of large
B4
Mimbres
Valley
apartment complexes. Many bowls
exhibit signs of use, however, and a few others have been found
other kinds of settings, hinting at
in
uses prior to funerary
ritual
interment. Unlike other highly decorated wares of the ancient
Southwest, Mimbres pictorial bowls were never traded outside the Mimbres
valley,
suggesting a ritual significance maintained with
a purposeful exclusiveness
The Cibola
among
the Mimbres people.
region, comprising the
upper reaches of the
Colorado and Zuni rivers with their sources terrain of the central Arizona and
New
in
Little
the mountainous
Mexico borderlands, had
always been frontier zone between Mogollon and Anasazi culture.
Here, beginning
in
the eleventh century, potters created an
enormously popular
series of red-slipped wares, mostly serving
bowls, which were traded widely to Anasazi and Mogollon
communities to the north and south. Called White Mountain
Red Ware,
this
pottery tradition was enriched considerably by
Anasazi potters emigrating southward after 1300 and establishing
pueblos and closely linked pottery traditions called
in
the area of the so-
Mogollon Rim, west of present-day Phoenix. The dramatic
designs of the Pinedale and Fourmile polychromes,
red and white fugitive
white
slips,
paint,
made with
black mineral paints, iron oxide glazes, and a
combine the precise geometric vocabulary of
the black-on-white tradition with dramatic curvilinear scrolls and pictorial
62 Painted
|ar
forms
[62].
To the northwest, newly established pueblos
(Fourmile
polychrome), from the Mogollon
Rim region of Arizona and
New
Mexico Anasazi culture, ad 1325
1400 The stepped designs
in
black suggest rising thunderclouds
with white forks of lightning.
The
dotted spirals attached to the
thunderclouds hint at
life-giving
water within the clouds Butterflies grace the neck of the
|ar.
B5
among
the Hopi mesas created widely traded Jeddito and Sikyatki
black-on-orange, black-on-yellow, and polychrome wares. The innovative designs and techniques of fifteenth-century potters,
and the broad dissemination of their styles through trade,
laid
the foundation for the Pueblo pottery traditions practiced today.
Architecture
Up
until
villages
and
ritual
the eighth century, the earliest Anasazi lived
composed
structures.
Some
small
in
of "pit houses" with separate storage
villages included
one or more good-sized
pit
houses that were not intended as homes. Their stone benches
and
a feature resembling a "sipapu," a ritual hole in the floor
opening to the Underworld, suggest that these non-domestic constructions are ancestral to the semi-subterranean
chambers of the
Pueblo
later
ritual
villages called "kivas." Kiva-like
structures proliferated at larger villages after ad 800, suggesting that each represented a
bound together There are
six kivas at
Here the word the
ritual
network of
social relationships that
several households with ritual obligations.
present-day Zuni Pueblo, for example.
refers both to the architectural structure and to
members from many
organization that draws together
different Zuni families.
The
six kiva organizations of
cooperate with each other to complete
the Zuni
round of annual
a cyclical
ceremonies that ensure the continued success and well-being of the community.
By ad 800, most of the Anasazi had
built
masonry and adobe
houses on the surface of the ground that included both residential spaces and storage rooms. But villagers continued to use
houses
as kivas
and positioned them out
room-complexes
as separate
in
pit
front of the small
ceremonial structures. The
scattered villages of the early Anasazi
moved
searched for choice locations to settle for
a
often. Villagers
few decades or more
and then abandoned them to move elsewhere
in
response to
challenges or opportunities. Settlements did not exist
in
new
isolation,
but depended upon similarly shifting networks of neighboring villages to
which residents looked for trade, assistance, marriage
partners, and overall support.
communal
rituals played a
relationships,
when
It
seems
strong role
hosting visitors,
reinforcing the solidarity of shared
Chaco Canyon, northwestern
New
located
among
clear that the kiva and
in
when
sharing food,
when
spiritual belief.
the arid table-lands of
Mexico, consists of about 10 miles
of broad bottomlands sheltered within low sandstone
86
its
maintaining these
(
16
cliffs
km) to the
<&&M
Chaco Canyon,
63 Pueblo Bonito,
New built
to
Mexico, Anasazi culture,
Pueblo Bonito
largest of the
large ritual
number goods
architectural
is
had always been the in
the
size,
home
of Anasazi farmers
number, and complexity of
Anasazi settlements during the tenth and eleventh centuries.
the
Great Houses of
Chaco Canyon and and
It
but saw a sharp increase
and expanded from ad 850
1115.
The
north and south.
its
Here, Anasazi architects
environs.
planned communities of several cliffs
of the canyon,
of kivas, burials,
at this
perplexing
complex has
some archaeologists
led
sheltered from the wind and
grew to be the
Bonito, which
warmed largest,
by the southern sun. Pueblo
was expanded seven times
to believe that
Pueblo Bonito functioned less as a
domestic residence and more as ceremonial center.
built
hundred rooms nestled against the northern
a
during the tenth and eleventh centuries of
its
[63].
The
fullest
extent
crescent-shaped plan accommodated as many as forty
circular kivas
and eight hundred rooms stepped back
in
multi-
storied tiers around a central plaza. During the eleventh century,
Chaco Canyon accommodated archaeologists
call
nine such "Great Houses," as
them, as well as several lesser communities and
hundreds of smaller homesteads. Spillways and canals directed precious water from the surrounding
Some 245
miles (405
cliffs
to well-planned fields.
km) of roads, or rather
carefully
prepared
paths with steps and ramps to tame the rugged terrain, connected
Chaco
to distant outlying communities,
some
Houses themselves. The function of some
of
them Great
of the "roads."
however, remains unclear, since they do not seem to lead
anywhere
at
all.
The developments
of
to Anasazi history, but part of a larger
Chaco Canyon
phenomenon
are unique
of regional
8^
64 Casa Rinconada,
New
Mexico,
Anasazi culture, built during the height of cultural activity at
cohesion fueled,
and
is
one of a few
built within
were
Kivas
free-
standing and isolated Great Kivas;
others were
part, by opportunities to participate in trade
Chaco
Canyon, ad 1020-1100. Casa Rinconada
in
ritual.
Great
activities
on
a
a fixture of
many Anasazi
much more massive
Great Kivas of Chaco Canyon and
House complexes. People
The
assembled
from any of the Great Houses
inside, seated
on the
settlements. Ritual
scale are suggested by the its
outlying communities.
Great Kivas, Casa Rinconada, stands separately
largest of the
[64]. It is
a huge circular chamber,
benches around the circumference, and participated performances.
in
elaborate
ritual
63
ft
over
6
in.
fine
(
19.4
m)
in
diameter, faced on the interior with plaster
masonry veneer. Four
upon sunken sandstone
disks,
thick
columns of
pine, footed
once supported the
roof. Stairways
descend from ground-level antechambers on both the north and south sides of the
kiva,
and a low stone shelf or bench encircles
the voluminous interior space. Hundreds assembled here to
witness and participate
in
impressive theatrical ceremonies
illuminated by a fire burning
the middle of the floor.
A
in
an elevated masonry firebox near
low masonry
wall,
or
fire
screen, to the
south of the firebox hid a small sub-floor chamber where specialists a
ceremony.
A
hidden passageway allowed performers to emerge
into the center of the kiva
from beneath the
had been designed, to use art historian "ritual theater" of
monumental
scale.
J. J.
At
floor.
others are located
from 40 to 60
ft
(
among
12
to 18
the
m)
Chaco in
Casa Rinconada
Brody's words, as a
least
found at each of the nine larger Great Houses outliers.
one Great Kiva at
is
Chaco, and
They range
in
size
diameter, each oriented north
and south, with four interior support posts arranged
HH
ritual
might seclude themselves during different episodes of
in
a perfect
square, a
masonry firebox
around the
in
the center, and stone benches
sides.
Archaeologists found great quantities of worked turquoise in
Chaco Canyon,
particularly at Pueblo Bonito
and other
Great Houses. The Anasazi used turquoise beads and pendants extensively for offerings and other ritual purposes. Archaeological
evidence suggests that the Chaco communities procured turquoise mined from distant locations and controlled
its
dispersal
as finished ritual objects (beads, inlays, pendants) during the tenth
and eleventh centuries. Archaeologist W.James Judge sees a strong link between the growth of Great Houses, Great Kiva ritualism,
and Chaco control of turquoise as a
The Great Kiva ceremonies and
ritual
substance.
lure of sacred turquoise
brought
Anasazi, and perhaps others, from the surrounding regions to
Chaco Canyon to
participate and contribute
archaeologists today
call
"the
the potential for trade
ritual,
and knowledge of Chaco
Marine
shell
artists
ornaments and
and
trafficked
Chaco
of the Phoenix basin to the south in
marine
shell
depended upon the
all
ritual specialists.
ritual objects,
necklaces and shell trumpets, confirm
Hohokam
such as beaded
relations with the
[65].
also passed through
Hohokam hands
bells
Hohokam imported
made
as they
way by trade to Chaco Canyon and the Mimbres the
Hohokam
harvested from the Gulf of California
and worked into beads and bracelets. Copper
Mexico
in
and the demanding requirements of
Great House and Great Kiva architecture skills
what
Chaco phenomenon." The
performative nature of Anasazi highly crafted ritual objects,
in
in
made
their
valley. In turn,
both Anasazi and Mogollon decorated
65 Shell pendant, from the
Martinez
Hill site,
south of Tucson.
Hohokam culture, ad 900 1100 Hohokam traders
Arizona.
acquired marine shell from the Gulf of California, supplying
themselves, the Anasazi, and the
Mogollon peoples. This bivalve shell
is
carved as
half of a a frog
or toad.
B9
66 Casa Grande. Arizona.
Hohokam culture, c. ad 1300. Hohokam structure,
This late
shown here
as
it
appeared more
than one hundred years ago, evidently elite
combined some kind of
residence and temple atop
a
blocky platform mound.
pottery.
The Hohokam
flourished during the tenth century with
more
civic institutions related
Mexico. Instead of
kivas,
closely to those to the south
Hohokam communities
The Mesoamerican ballgame was not simply a
a
sport contest, but
complex expression of community-held cosmological
Larger
Hohokam
in
built ballcourts.
beliefs.
communities, such as Snaketown with a
population of approximately 1000 residents, were organized
around central plazas flanked by platform mounds and It is
fair
ballcourts.
to say that the eleventh century saw tremendous growth
and innovation among the cultural institutions of the Southwest, and greater complexity among the relationships between distant and yet not so isolated regional systems of the Anasazi, Hohokam,
and Mogollon peoples. By ad
1
150, the great
experiment
at
Chaco was
largely over.
The precarious canyon environment could no longer support the Great Houses, despite their far-ranging contacts. They
were abandoned and population growth temporarily, to the shifts, resulting in
Mesa Verde
shifted north, at least
region. By
ad 1300, subtle climatic
sequential droughts, forced the Anasazi to
abandon the Colorado Plateau altogether and move south to the present homeland of Pueblo peoples: the Hopi mesas, the Cibola region of the Little Colorado drainage, and the Rio
(Anasazi also settled
in
the Mogollon
Grande
valley.
Rim region but abandoned
by 1500.) There they merged with Mogollon peoples migrating
northward.
90
Among
the
Hohokam.
regional conflict
may have
it
resulted
and the
in
the collapse of inter-regional ballgame ceremonialism
abandonment
following the
more
of Snaketown.
characteristically
control under leading families
The Hohokam
re-organized,
Mesoamerican pattern of
whose power could be expressed
through monumental public works. The massive, four-story adobe
"compound"
of Casa Grande, with
its
4
ft
during the late thirteenth century by the
(
.2
1
m)-thick walls, built
Hohokam
near present-
day Florence, Arizona, combines a chiefly residence on a platform
mound
with the astronomical function of charting the seasons
[66].
Kachinas
Many
of the late Anasazi
towns established during the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries were quite large and plan
from their predecessors to the north
Plateau.
They included
large
open
of the older style of round ones
excavated the square kivas of a
built
in
with a different
the Colorado
plazas and square kivas instead
[67].
When
archaeologists
village site called
on the west bank of the Rio Grande
just
Kuaua, located
north of present-day
Albuquerque, they found murals painted on the interior walls that depict mysterious
masked
kiva murals of the fifteenth
the abandoned Hopi
figures. Similar figures
appear
and sixteenth centuries,
town of Awatovi
[68],
like
in
other
those
at
but also as images
pecked or painted upon rocky outcrops or incorporated into the imagery of Fourmile and Jeddito pottery of the fifteenth century. Archaeologist
masked
E.
Charles
figures evidence
Adams new
thinks that these images of
ritual
practices of the fifteenth-
century pueblos, and that the innovative square kiva architecture
67 Plaza of Old Oraibi. Third Mesa, northern Arizona. Hopi culture
The
vicinity of
Old Oraibi
has been inhabited by ancestors of
the present
community
1150 In this
photograph of the old
town,
entrance
a kiva
is
since
ad
visible in
the center of the plaza
91
68 Mural fragment from Awatovi,
Hopi culture. The Hopi community of Awatovi
and plazas were constructed as the settings could be performed.
When
in
which such
rites
the Spanish observed masked
was established during
the 1330s. Excavations sponsored
performers after their
by Harvard University recovered
told that the
arrival in
the sixteenth century, they were
masked dancers were
Cacinas, or Kachinas as
we
spell
over 200 individual mural paintings
from 20
different kivas.
Many
it
recognized
among
today.
of the
Most of the present-day Pueblos perform Kachina ceremonies.
figures painted in the murals can be
the Hopi
The Spanish
aggressively suppressed these practices
in
the
Kachinas of today. The diving figure
wearing of the
a conical
War
Twins
cap
may be one
who
appear
during ceremonies at Winter
interests of subjugating the Pueblos and converting
them
to
Catholicism, so their survival depended upon secrecy and resistance to the outsiders' scrutiny.
Only the western Pueblos,
Solstice.
the Hopi of northern Arizona, and the Zuni of the Cibola region of western
New
Mexico, could afford to maintain their Kachina
practices openly, since they
Spanish administration
in
were
the Rio
distant
from the core of the
Grande
valley.
Hence, today,
the Hopi and Zuni Kachina ceremonies are the best-known to outsiders.
The Kachinas
are ancestral spirit beings
who
visit
the pueblos
during regularly scheduled intervals of the year to bring
92
rain,
and the
agricultural fertility, blessings of continued well-being,
pleasure of their
company
to the living generations of Pueblo
people. According to Zuni tradition, the Kachinas had agreed to stop visiting
in
person because they posed
people, but they asked the
members
a
danger to
of the Zuni
living
community to
impersonate them, replicating their appearance with masks and
member of the Zuni community participates agreement after they come of age. Each owns a mask made
costume. Every male in this
of leather that
over
fits
his
head
like a
helmet.
It
can be painted
and ornamented to represent many different Kachinas. The owner scrapes the mask clean
when
the
ritual
is
over.
The
six kiva
organizations of the Zuni collaborate to determine each year
which of the several different Kachinas should appear and they organize the logistics of performance
among the
kiva
members.
There are hundreds of different Kachinas among the Hopi and Zuni; 69 Fred Kabotie (Hopi), Zuni Shalako, c.
gouache on paper,
1928-32. Kabotie shows three
and
some appear
ritual
regularly,
others
rarely,
but their appearances
performances are closely tied to the
cyclical
round of
seasons.
The Kachina ceremonies
of the Pueblos mobilize sacred
of the six giant Shalako Kachinas that arrive at Zuni Pueblo every
year
in
early
December. They are
accompanied by
ritual
community and
performance, and
its
artistic skills in service of
broader exterior (including
the
spiritual) relations.
a pair of guardians,
the Salimopia Kachinas, carrying
whips.
knowledge,
Shalako, the arrival of the "couriers of the rain bringers," for
example,
is
an enormously elaborate public festival at Zuni Pueblo
93
that requires the sustained efforts of families for the entire year.
year
New
in
early
December,
It
its
before Winter Solstice
just
Year begins. The dramatic arrival
six Shalakos,
9
ft
(2.7
m)
tall
principal actors
and their
marks the conclusion of the
late in
when
ritual
the
the afternoon of the
horned birds with
halo-like crests of
macaw
feathers and eagle plumes, begins the night-long event
Within
six
[69].
houses, newly built or refurbished for this purpose,
Zuni residents and visitors gather to intonation of long,
memorized
feast, listen to
prayers, and
the chanted
watch while the giant
Shalako dance throughout the night.
Among
both the Hopi and Zuni,
men
carve small dolls of
cottonwood root painted or dressed to represent one or another of the Kachinas. Traditionally, these are given to
One
rewards for exemplary behavior.
such
doll,
young
girls as
purchased by
ethnobotanist Francis Elmore at Zuni Pueblo during the 1930s, represents Saiyataca, also
known
as
important of the Kachina
priests,
who
"Long Horn," one of the most also dances
all
night during
Shalako and ascends to a rooftop at dawn to intone prayers loud, declarative tones
doll, made by a Zuni man during the 1920s or 1930s. The doll represents Saiyataca,
70 Kachina
the Rain Priest of the North,
who
arrives at Zuni just before the
large Shalako Kachinas during the
Shalako ceremonies.
He
leads a
group of followers by shaking deer scapula
rattle
his
during each
heavy step.
94
[70].
The
doll
is
in
dressed and ornamented
71
Kachina
man during
doll,
made
by a Hopi
the 1930s. This doll
represents one of several Hemis
Kachinas
who dance
together
a long line during the
"home
coming" ceremonies
at the
the Kachina cycle
Pueblos.
They
among
in
end of
the Hopi
distribute fruits of
the harvest and other
gifts.
with
all
the details of Saiyataca's appearance: the
characteristic single horn
on the
mask with
its
figure's right side, "for long
life,"
fringed with black wool; a full-cut cotton shirt; valuable sea shells
draped around scapula rattle
Another Francis
its
in
neck; a
bow and arrows
doll
one hand, and
a
deer
from one of the Hopi pueblos collected by
Elmore represents
identically
in
the other.
a
Hemis Kachina, one of several
costumed dancers who perform
Niman, the Hopi ceremony that celebrates end of the Kachina season
in July [7i].
in
a line
first
The dance
dance during
harvest and the takes place
outside and proceeds from one plaza to the next throughout the
pueblo where residents and visitors can watch. The Kachinas distribute gifts
- freshly harvested melons and squash to everyone,
bows and arrows dress and
to boys, and Kachina dolls to
ornament are painted on the Hopi
girls.
Details of
dolls instead of
using cloth, yarn, and other materials as with the Zuni dolls.
stepped headdress, or
tablita,
of the
The
Hemis Kachina emulates the
terraced formations of rain clouds.
95
72 Hemis Kachina. carved by Alvin James,
Jr.
(Hopi) during the 1970s.
James and other Hopi
artists
innovated the "action" Kachina carving, a sculpture that
than being
represents
a a
- rather
Kachina doll Kachina dancer. These
carvings are intended for galleries, collectors, and the art market.
The two Kachina
made around
dolls collected by Francis
the 1930s,
when
dolls
were
Prior to that time, both Hopi and Zuni people
to
do
More
this.
specialized
in
James,
in a far
Hemis Kachina artists in
96
who
their
some Hopi
were
reluctant
artists, in particular,
have
creating Kachina figures for sale at art fairs or
galleries. Alvin
rendered
recently,
Elmore were
sold to outsiders.
Jr.'s
figure,
carved
more animated,
doll.
James
is
in
the 1970s
[72], is
dance-like pose than the earlier
one of a recent generation of Hopi
stress lifelike realism and accuracy of descriptive detail
work.
The weavers
When
the Spanish arrived
in
century, looking to expand
Mexico, they found
the Southwest during the sixteenth
upon
fields of
their lucrative
the Rio
conquest of
Grande Pueblos planted with
cotton. Little cotton fabric has survived
in
the archaeological
record of the Anasazi, but the few recovered textiles display a
number
of sophisticated techniques of manufacture: finger
weaving (braiding) and the use of back-strap or upright looms
Cotton had been cultivated north of the Mogollon Rim since least
ad 1000, and cotton blankets and other woven
been traded widely, requisitioned large as part of the
like
articles
[73].
at
had
pottery and other valuables. The Spanish
numbers of cotton blankets on an annual
basis
encomiendas system of tribute imposed upon the
Pueblos during the seventeenth century, one blanket per
household according to the order of 1635, labor,
European treadle looms for use Fe,
in
addition to food,
and other resources. Although the Spanish brought in
workshops established
in
Santa
Pueblo weavers preferred the traditional upright loom for use
within their
own communities. More
importantly, the Spanish
brought domesticated animals such as horses, sheep. Pueblo weavers began to spin addition to cotton, early
in
The Navajo, or Dineh
cattle,
wool yarn
and Churro
for blankets,
in
the seventeenth century.
as they call themselves, also learned to
weave blankets and other types of garments using an upright loom
*V»OTT*^1^^^T 73 Painted cotton blanket. Anasazi culture,
Hidden House
c
ad 1250.
site,
central
Arizona The Anasazi clearly had developed elaborate textile arts of
but
loom-woven cotton
little
has survived
in
fiber,
the
archaeological record.
97
and yarn spun from cotton and the wool of Churro sheep during the seventeenth century.
themselves
in
The Navajo and Apache had
the Southwest by ad 1500, perhaps
speak an Athapascan language and "Dineh" their closest relations well to the north
in
is
the same
They
name
as
western Canada.
Originally a hunting-and-gathering people, the as the Spanish called
established
earlier.
Apache de Nabajo,
them, did some farming as
well. Early Spanish
records describe the Navajo as fierce raiders, running off horses
and Churro sheep, and taking captives as
But they also
slaves.
traded extensively with the Pueblos and the Spanish. They
harbored refugees of the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 when,
in
a
campaign of organized and armed resistance, the Pueblos expelled the newcomers. After the Spanish had returned to the Rio
Grande
valley with sufficient force in 1693,
many Pueblo
residents
retreated to the northwest, around and beyond the Hopi mesas,
where they
settled,
and
in
some
cases merged, with Navajo.
The
Navajo synthesized many of the cultural influences offered through these episodes of their history, but the husbandry of
Churro sheep
as a
source for meat and wool and the craft of
weaving suited them
among to
in
particular.
the Pueblos was, and
women among the
While the creation of textiles
still is,
Navajo
in
a man's activity,
weaving
fell
keeping with their notions about
the proper division of labor by gender. During the subsequent centuries and up to the present day, Navajo
women
have excelled
at the arts of weaving. In
the
addition to providing blankets, dresses, horse blankets and
like
for themselves, the Navajo have always created textiles to
trade with outsiders. They supplied fine
woven wearing
blankets
(mantas) and serapes to the Pueblos and Spanish with thin striped patterns based upon Spanish models dyed with imported indigo blue dyes. Black-and-white banded "chief's blankets," 74 Wearing blanket, woven by a Navajo woman, Arizona,
c.
This kind of striped blanket, as a "first
was
phase
among
known
popular trade
the tribes to the
north, particularly the Ute.
75 Serape, woven by a Navajo woman, Arizona, c. I860. With the
slit
cut
were favored by neighboring Ute,
Cheyenne, and other
Plains tribes to the
north
down
the center, this
garment was worn
as a
poncho
serape-style patterns of the mid-nineteenth century
drew from
Rio Grande Hispanic and Satillo (northern Mexican) blankets
These could be wrapped around the shoulders blanket or
slit
with a neck hole
in
as a
the center and
worn
as a
poncho. But Navajo weavers were not mere copyists. Their patterns acknowledge the preferences of fashion while offering
executed with great intricacy and dexterity.
startling innovations
Mexican descent
Navajo weavers improvised. They supplemented their
the Southwest,
[75].
wearing
or serape. Favored by those of in
with
Elaborate
[74].
chief's blanket,"
a particularly
item
1850.
some
stripes of indigo blue,
tight
the design borrows features of
Mexican
textiles,
but remains
distinctively Navajo.
homespun yarn with yarns unraveled from trade
cloth and, later,
commercially prepared and dyed yarns. By the 1860s, some
98
99
76 Hubbell trading post
in
Ganado. Arizona, photographed by
Ben Wittick.
c.
1900. Juan
Hubbell's trading post
center of
Lorenzo
became the
a regional style
of Navajo
weaving after 1900 due to Hubbell's direct involvement with
weavers.
He
established high
standards and encouraged weavers to imitate earlier blanket designs, albeit in
rugs.
heavy wools suitable for
By 1902 Hubbell had
established a national mail-order
business by catalogue.
-
' *".
i'-f^-
--1^-"
blankets included a confusing array of raveled yarns, raveled and
respun yarns, and multiple-ply trade yarns,
all
combined
in
dazzling
and colorful patterns. By 1880, the best quality blankets were
woven
entirely of
the Pennsylvania available in an
imported "Germantown" yarns (named
after
town where the yarn was manufactured),
unprecedented variety of colors. Navajo weavers
responded to these new yarns with intense "eye-dazzler" patterns displaying
shimmering
The exemplary
effects of inter-penetrating color contrasts.
quality of
Navajo textiles should be
understood within the context of the multi-cultural environment of textile production
The
in
the Southwest after Spanish settlement.
woven
desirability of finely
textiles created a
market for
Navajo weavers, offering opportunities beyond the confines of their
own communities
traditions
borrowed
[76].
freely
Hispanic, Pueblo, and Navajo
from one another, weavers motivated
by the sheer necessity of supplying blankets, garments, and other categories of textile that cultural terrain of the
independence of Mexico
Mexico and Arizona
new
were fundamental to
social
And
life.
the
Southwest kept changing, too. After the in
1821
and the incorporation of
as territories of the United States
in
New 1848,
opportunities for the creators of textiles emerged. Navajo
weavers kept abreast of these events, despite the great hardships their people endured. Theirs
was an adaptable
art, built
generations of tradition but simultaneously with the
upon
flexibility
understand what was required from the changeable nature of their social environment.
100
to
Artists, traders,
and
tourists
much
For centuries the Rio Grande Pueblos had produced pottery used throughout pottery to
sell at
jars,
own domestic
use, they
made
and smaller wide-mouthed water
fundamental to the
daily
and
its
among
others,
curio shops,
bowls, large
jars.
The
last
were
chore of collecting water for household
use. By the 1880s, Tesuque, Cochiti, San Juan,
pueblos,
of the
Mexico, and they had brought
the Santa Fe market since the seventeenth
century. For their
storage
New
within a day's
all
made
and San lldefonso
wagon
ride of Santa Fe
special varieties of figurines, miniatures,
and innovative and eccentric vessels designed to appeal to the curious visitor and consumer
[77].
Enterprising traders also offered
these items by mail-order catalogue. trains
made
travelers purchased
The
railroad
When
the Santa Fe railroad
their regularly scheduled stops at Laguna Pueblo,
water
jars directly
from
encouraged tourism and, to
local potters [78].
this end, its
food
concessionaire and eventual hotelier, Fred Harvey, heavily promoted
Southwest Native
arts,
opening galleries at hotels
in
Albuquerque
77 Indian pottery, photographed by Ben W.ttick.
c
1880. This
assortment of figurines made by potters of Cochiti and Tesuque
pueblos were probably assembled for this
photograph by Santa Fe
curio dealer
Aaron Gold. The
lively
and imaginative figures were made to appeal to Santa Fes tourists.
101
78 Water
made by
jar,
Laguna Pueblo,
c.
1890.
a
woman
of
The Santa
Pueblo.
The
train
—*P^r^7;
^
Fe railroad ran right by Laguna
stopped and
travelers could get out and take
pictures and buy painted jars, like this
one, from Laguna
came out to meet the 79 Painted
jar,
(Tewa-Hopi), artist
women who train.
made by Nampeyo
c.
Nampeyo
1900.
Ceramic
studied excavated
pottery from ancient Hopi sites
and helped create what became
known as For many
Sikyatki-revival pottery.
years
Nampeyo was
a
featured artist-in-residence at Hopi
House, an Indian art and gallery at the
El
craft
Tovar hotel on the
south rim of the Grand Canyon.
and at the Grand Canyon, and employing
The expanded market
artists as
demonstrators.
for Pueblo pottery and other
Southwest
Native arts encouraged artists and increased their ranks.
Many exceptional Nampeyo,
with trader style of
Jesse
artists
rose to these opportunities.
Tewa-Hopi potter born
a
Thomas Keam
in
Hano
obsolete.
Its
success
were recruited on all
102
1859,
worked
pottery based upon pieces excavated by archaeologist
Fewkes from nearby
ruins
[79].
Called Sikyatki-revival, the
archaizing sensibility of this pottery quickly
of
in
to create an innovative, high-quality
Hopi
all
in
made other
the marketplace meant that
three mesas, so that by 1891
women made
painted pottery, and
all
,
of
new
styles
potters
nearly half it
for trade.
Nampeyo's creations stand
out, and she
is
the matriarch of a
long line of descendants who, to this day, excel as innovative
ceramic
artists.
At San lldefonso Pueblo,
several female potters and their
women
husbands collaborated, the
making the pots and the men
painting the designs. Probably the best
known
of such couples
were Maria and Julian Martinez who experimented with different styles of decoration (black-on-red painting) until they arrived just after
World War
I.
upon
their
landmark "signature style"
Archaeologist Edgar Hewett,
employed several residents of San lldefonso during at
reproduce Jar (black-on-black design),
made by Maria and Julian c.
1930. This
is
this
ceramic
built
jars
largest
made by
artist couple.
and burnished the
Maria
Julian to
see
if
they could
a variety of black pottery he had discovered at the site.
Their experiments resulted style of
in
the invention of a "black-on-black"
pottery decoration that contrasts highly polished
backgrounds with matte black designs enjoyed
some
[80]. Julian,
who
also
success as a painter of watercolors and murals,
jars to
their lustrous finish, while Julian
was responsible for the painted design, here an undulating
drew from
New
his
knowledge of the collections
at the
Museum
Mexico, where he was employed from 1909 to
1915.
of
The
horned
serpent with lightning bolts and thunderclouds.
excavations
Martinez,
one of the
and most ambitious
who
his
nearby Frijoles Canyon (now part of Bandelier National
Monument), encouraged Maria and 80
several
and polychrome
generation of Maria and Julian Martinez, including Maximiliana
Montoya and her husband Crescendo Martinez, Tonita Martinez
103
Roybal and her husband Juan Cruz Roybal,
among
others,
transformed San lldefonso as their success became widely recognized and their descendants and others became noted San lldefonso
artists as well.
who
live
renowned today
is
for the artists
and work there.
Navajo weavers, ever responsive to the potential for innovative directions, also
worked with traders during the 1880s
women
and 1890s. As the demand for blankets declined, Navajo
made
rugs
woven from
more durable
heavier,
discouraged the use of commercial yarns
Germantown interested
in
the colorful
yarns popular during the 1870s and 1880s, thinking
homespun
that
like
yarns. Traders
in
more
natural colors appealed
Indian handicrafts.
On
to buyers
the other hand,
J.
Moore
B.
of
Crystal Trading Post encouraged weavers to emulate the patterns of Oriental carpets with their borders and designs organized
around
a central escutcheon.
Weavers
also found success with
designs that included pictorial forms drawn from Navajo sand
which healers would create
paintings, in
pictorial
images on the
ground, using sand mixed with pigment as part of a disease.
The
designs illustrate salient
moments
ritual
to cure
of a chanted
narrative that recalls the origins of the Navajo world and the activities of
hero twins and other
some Navajo weavers made people represented dancers
who
in
spirit beings.
rugs with images of
sand paintings, or
participate
in
some
During the 1850s, Navajo
early as 1900,
ye/,
yeibichai,
the holy
rows of Navajo
curing ceremonies.
men added
silverwork to their
inventories of art production. Perhaps the
named
As
first, a
blacksmith
Atsidi Sani evidently learned the basic skills required to
transform
silver coins into
jewelry from a Mexican blacksmith.
By the time the Navajo had returned to their homeland after
imprisonment
at
Bosque Redondo, the ornaments of
bracelets, pendants, and other
established
among them. One
in
1869,
art of
making
silver
had been
suspects that the experience of
being uprooted and required to abandon land and possessions
may have contributed
to the desire to convert wealth into
portable ornaments. Early Navajo smiths
worked
silver
with
simple casting and annealing techniques, adding decorative
markings with silverworker
files
and straight
named
silver headstall for a
ornaments for
Astadi
chisels.
A
talented and influential
Chon produced
horse and the
the
first thick,
first
documented
disk-shaped
belts called "conchas." Later generations
introduced the techniques of soldering, mounting stones of turquoise, and the use of decorative stamps inspired by the tools
104
of Mexican leatherworkers. Like weavers, Navajo silversmiths of the late nineteenth century
who
provided
formed
alliances with traders
and stone for the production of jewelry and
silver
other categories of objects for sale to tourists. Throughout the twentieth century, styles changed and workmanship became increasingly sophisticated, using large cut or irregular pieces of
polished turquoise set
concha
belts,
in
massive bracelets, necklace pendants,
brooches, and bolo
ties [8i].
The contemporary
jewelry traditions of the Hopi and Zuni Pueblos originated from
men and women make
the instruction of Navajos. Today, Navajo
fine jewelry that may, on one hand, build from the techniques
and
styles of the past
or may, on the other, look to modern and
contemporary jewelry design for
The
artists
working
in
inspiration.
the Southwest during the
of the nineteenth century blazed the
American
art
media with ancient roots
among the buyers
watercolor painting,
will
was directed outward, ritual arts
last
decades
what Native
in
in
individual
the
the Southwest to
New media, last chapter,
some
like
which
of this creativity
communities also strived to
from the commercial concerns of outsiders.
The popular appeal fueled interest
in
of their time.
be discussed
focuses on the twentieth century. While
protect
for
would become during the subsequent century.
Artists updated find success
way
of authentic Native American culture, which
pots and rugs, resulted as well
in
the trafficking
of sacred objects and artifacts looted from archaeological
sites.
Native artists of the Southwest today continue to balance
ritual
and
artistic
concerns relevant only to
local
communities against
the opportunities and advantages offered by the outside world.
81
Group
silver
by
of bracelets
with turquoise
made of made
inlays,
Navap men between 1900 and men started making
1930 Navajo silver
|ewelry as early as the 1850s
105
Chapter
5
Plains
The
prairie grasslands stretch
from the arboreal forests of
northern Canada to the mesquite shrub savannahs of the Rio
Grande. They represent the largest of the indigenous North
American vegetation zones, although recent of
modern
grassy core of the
imagine
it
as
it
North American continent
that
is
The
difficult
to
wildlife,
thought to have supported as many as two
people - more than ten per cent of the
of indigenous
it is
once was. Teeming with native plants and
this fertile region
million
form
history, in the
agriculture and ranching, has so transformed this vast
total population
North America.
central interior of
North America was one of the
regions surveyed by Europe-based outsiders, but
last
what they saw
had already been transformed by the deadly epidemics that
preceded them. The prosperous agricultural communities that
once crowded major
river valleys had declined
very few that were visited by early explorers
and Meriwether Lewis
Mandan
in
in
like
number
William Clark
1803. Lewis and Clark found
villages of earth lodges, for
side of the Missouri River
in
what
is
to the
two
example, located on either
now North Dakota. The who had gathered there
survivors of a recent smallpox epidemic said that only forty years earlier there 82 Ghost Dance dress, one of a small
Mandan
villages.
had been
a total
of nine
Smallpox had been only the most recent of the
group of painted Ghost
Dance garments made by Arapaho
many pandemics
women
later sixteenth
(and perhaps male
collaborators) of
Oklahoma
after
1889 The painted designs combine traditional images of
Arapaho
cosmology, such as the cedar tree
on the lower
left,
that afflicted the
century and that
American heartland during the
hit agricultural villages particularly
hard. Archaeologists count hundreds of agricultural village sites
stretching from Iowa to
North Dakota along the Missouri
of the so-called Middle Missouri tradition dating
River,
all
between ad 800
with Ghost
Dance symbols, such
as the
crow
and white-tailed Western magpie.
and 1600. These had been After another scourge
in
built
by the ancestors of the Mandan.
the 1830s. only one village would remain.
107
The descendants
of Spanish horses brought to the Southwest
also greeted early white visitors to the plains.
Horses had come
to the Plains tribes via trade with the Navajo, Apache, and Ute.
By 1750, the tribes of the Plains kept large herds and they had
«r-
become
part of the very fabric of Plains Indian culture.
The image
of the equestrian Plains Indians roaming freely over the sparsely inhabited grasslands, as witnessed and
documented by the
testimony of explorers, fur trappers, military men, and Native
iff
elders interviewed by anthropologists, tends to dominate
consideration of Plains Indian culture and
art.
As
significant as
horses had become, the traditions of Plains culture had grown
from the land
itself
and
its
unique environment. The horse had
simply been pressed into service to benefit life-ways that had
evolved over thousands of years.
Pictures
on stone
At Head-Smashed-ln
Buffalo
after generation of hunters
concealed
cliff
to their deaths.
does not refer to the site that
name
Jump
in
southern Alberta, generation
drove herds of buffalo over
fate of the buffalo.
to recall a tragic incident
The
Blackfeet gave the
when
a curious child
attempted to watch the dramatic hunt by standing on along the face of the
He misjudged
cliff
a well-
The name "Head-Smashed-ln"
as the buffalo
fell
a ledge
over from above.
however, and when the dead and
his position,
dying buffalo piled up, their bodies eventually crushed him.
Archaeologists have excavated through
some 30
butchered buffalo remains at the base of the over
five
ft
(9
m) of
representing
cliff,
thousand years of hunting. Early Archaic "Bitterroot"
points found at the earliest levels date to 3500 bc and correspond
to those found at the
people later used the
Mummy site,
Cave
beginning
site in in
Wyoming.
about 900
bc.
Pelican Lake
They were
followed by the Avonlea tradition (perhaps Athapascan speakers),
and they used the jump sometime after ad 100. People of the Old
Woman
tradition followed,
in
about ad 850, and
we know
that
they were the ancestors of the present-day Blackfeet. As this site-based scenario suggests, the history of the plains in
movement and
is
rich
migration, but the traditions defined by
archaeological study did not simply disappear. Research linked
with
linguistic studies
and accounting for oral traditions can
probe the deep roots of Ancient rock
in
artists left
many
historically
known
now
Plains cultures.
images pecked or painted on exposed
different locations
throughout the northwest
plains.
Pictographic art can be linked to specific traditions and ethnic
108
r*"*
* 84 Pictographs Stone
site,
at the
Writing-On-
southern Alberta.
Men
groups only tenuously. Pictographs of the "Early Hunting Tradition," as described by
James Keyser, feature elaborate
of the Blackfeet and other tribes
have visited this
site for
hundreds
of years, leaving pictographic
records of their battle honors inscribed
on the rocks. This scene
shows warriors, shields,
engaged
several with large in
combat.
representations of big-game hunting,
in
help of dogs drive elk and other large
which hunters with the
game
into traps.
these are located within the narrow canyons used for
among the southern and others
in
Some game
of
drives
Black Hills of South Dakota. These sites
Wyoming correspond
Pelican Lake tradition
to the territories of the
mentioned above and believed by
archaeologist Karl Schlesier to be ancestral to the present-day
Kiowa. But any relationship between the Pelican Lake peoples
and Early Hunting Tradition pictographs must remain very tentative for the time being.
Another
series of widely dispersed rock images
shows
warriors holding large shields that cover most of their bodies
A painting on
rock within the Valley of the Shields
Montana shows three standing warriors with painted evocatively of the shields
is
in
83 Shield-Bearing Warrior pictographs (from Keyser and
from the
Klassen).
from various
sites in
Montana and Wyoming. The three figures together, fourth
from the
bottom, are from the Valley of the Shields site, also
known
variously
as Valley of the Chiefs or
Weatherman Draw,
in
Montana
site
[83].
southeastern
circular shields
white, purple, red, green, and orange. Each
painted with a different design. Schlesier links early
shield-bearing figures to Athapascan peoples
become known
in
as the
Kiowa Apache.
A
who would
has produced a date of about ad
The rugged sandstone
bluffs
later
radiocarbon sample 1
100.
north of the Milk River
in
southern Alberta are scribed with thousands of pictographic images, a location known today as Writing-On-Stone [84]. Some show shield-bearing figures locked in combat. These commemorate battle honors.
109
down
Characteristically, the artists pared
the imagery to the
essentials of identity (portrayed through individualistic shield
weaponry, and action - who struck whom and with what. Combat images showing mounted warriors date sometime after designs),
1730 or
so,
when
the local Blackfeet and Shoshone began to In
some
instances,
warriors with small shields ride
down
warriors on foot with large
acquire horses
abundance.
in
shields and strike
them with
most of the pictographs
at
lances. Archaeologists estimate that
Writing-On-Stone date within the
hundred years, but some could even be over
five
mounted
a
last
thousand years
old, like the shield-bearing figures at the Valley of the Shields.
Clearly, artists frequented the site to
the
Many
last millennia.
add pictographs throughout
of the older pictographs have simply
eroded away.
Gifts
of spirit beings
The enormous obsolete smaller,
shields carried by warriors
relics of
more maneuverable
for the Hudson's Bay
combat from an
whom
in
shields.
became
pictographs
David Thompson,
Company, heard
elderly
a story of
trader
1787-88. Saukamappee had
in
an expedition with his Blackfeet
tribe he called the
a
pre-horse
Cree man named Saukamappee with
he spent the winter
participated
in
warfare on foot. Warriors on horseback carried
allies
against a
Snake (perhaps the Shoshone). Hundreds of
warriors faced each other, but after chanting their war songs, they sat
down on
Some were
the ground with their large shields covering them.
so large they covered two men. Then both sides
let
loose arrows, but after a day of such fighting, both sides retired 85 Shield belonging to a distinguished
Little
Cheyenne
Rock,
warrior,
mid- 1800s. The painted design
with no one
killed.
flintlock guns.
shows the Thunderbird hovering in
the center of the sky, flanked
by the crescent
moon above
and
Years
later,
the
two
sides faced each other
Snake with horses and the Blackfeet and Cree with
again, the
The guns
prevailed
in this
instance (although the
Snake evidently dismounted their horses and faced their enemies
on
foot).
New weapons
required
new
tactics,
but the shield
the constellation Pleiades below,
accompanied by four additional birds,
and encompassed by the
persisted.
Its
protective
powers were not dependent upon
size
or physical strength alone.
horizon of the earth painted
Shields and their designs
were
gifts
from powerful
spirit
beings
around the outer edge of the
intended to aid and protect worthy
circular shield.
the rights to 86 Shield painted by
Horns (Hunkpapa 1
No Two
well-known warrior and
shows
its
Horns,
through isolated
fasting.
combat.
Men
acquired
shields as a result of visions sought
When
prayers were successful, spirit
beings
came
as shields,
to fasting
men and showed them
sacred objects, such
and instructed them about their powers.
Bull
Lodge,
artist,
wings extended and
radiating power.
make and use
in
Lakota), later
800s. This rendering of the
Thunderbird, by a
No Two
men
for example, a leader,
110
well-known Gros Ventre warrior and
experienced
a vision in
spiritual
which an old man showed him
*V
7, '
>'i
and then pointed to
a shield
a party of
enemy
warriors.
"He
advanced on the charging warriors, holding the shield before him, and he began to sway back and forth,
left
and
right."
As
Lodge
Bull
observed, "This [old] man's party was not losing any warriors, and they were spiritual
killing
many
of the opposing party."A shield provided
protection well beyond
vision, Bull
the spent bullets of his enemies
ground
its
fell
owner's
design painted on a shield
half
from
it
and
and rattled on the
the Thunderers
first
red and half dark blue. In
showed the
spiritual protector. Bull Lodge's gifts
Thunder Beings or Thunderbird.
edge.
another
his shield after battle
like rain.
The
when
physical properties. In
Lodge saw himself shaking
identity of the
came from the
Lodge had been
Bull
showed him
A painted
his shield.
It
rainbow went
a
young boy
was "painted all
around the
the center, a black bird was painted and from each side of
the bird's head, green streaks of lightning ending at the rainbow's inside rim."
The
of two circles of
shield Bull stiff
Lodge made
after this vision consisted
buffalo hide glued together.
image he saw on a supple deerskin cover that core.
The cover
is
now
had also received such
lost but several
gifts
men
fit
He
painted the
over the rawhide
of different tribes
from Thunder Beings,
as evidenced
by the designs on their shield covers. The shield that belonged to Little
dome
Rock, a Cheyenne, shows the Thunderbird hovering of the sky, flanked by the crescent
constellation Pleiades below,
encompassed by the
moon above
in
the
and the
accompanied by four smaller
No Two
birds,
Horns,
a
prominent and accomplished Hunkpapa Lakota, also possessed
a
all
shield painted with the
encircling horizon
[85].
image of the Thunderbird,
wings radiating waves of thunder
[86].
its
outstretched
Depending upon the source
of the vision, other shields might be painted with images of buffalo, grizzly bears,
or a variety of other powerful creatures.
The powers of the cosmos
also found expression
on painted
garments worn by adherents of the Ghost Dance during the
late
1880s and 1890s. Inspired by the visions of Paiute prophet
Wovoka, the Ghost Dance promised with plenty of buffalo and no whites. dress
is
who were Wovoka's
guardian
and the turtle and cedar tree drawn from the Arapaho
stories of origin
[82].
Similar
garments made by the Lakota were
believed to have had the ability to stop bullets.
112
life
painted with crows which acted as messengers from the
ancestors, white-tailed magpies spirits,
a return to traditional
An Arapaho Ghost Dance
Histories on hide
and paper
The accomplishments pictographs
in
of successful
on items of clothing such
combine episodes from
as shirts
seems to
tell
shields and
1700s by an
unknown
artist.
This
buffalo
robe
crowding their in
the
Musee de
the story of a series of encounters, or perhaps a single,
between warriors on horseback with painted
enemies predominantly on
red shot pouches
buffalo hide, painted during the late
A
collection, dating perhaps to the eighteenth century,
long, running fight,
87 Pictographic robe made of
as
and robes. Garments might
several different events,
surfaces with biographical detail.
1'Homme
combat found expression
places like Writing-On-Stone, but also as drawings
[87].
Dotted
lines
foot,
show
many with guns and
the paths of the
mounted
warriors, past seven enemies on the upper right, for example, until
the warrior with a red and green shield dismounts his black
horse to
kill
an eighth.
A sword
drawn on the top of the enemy's
exceptionally early depiction of Plains
combat shows mounted
warriors attacking enemies on
head indicates the blow, or coup, struck against him. Individual
encounters of shield-bearing horsemen against groups of enemies
foot. Several individual actions
are indicated, perhaps different
episodes of a single large
fight.
are similarly indicated throughout the composition. Generally speaking, friends are
shown on the
right,
enemies to the
left.
113
men
By the mid-nineteenth century,
bound
They procured notebooks,
ledgers, or other kinds of
either through trade or by seizing
One
also used paper, often
books, with pens or pencils to notate their war honors.
in
bound paper
them during armed
conflict.
such book, inscribed with an introductory note by the
commanding
officer of Fort
Dodge, Kansas,
belonged to an Arapaho chief named
1868, evidently
in
Little Shield,
who was
same year
signatory of the Fort Laramie Treaty later that
a
[88].
Art historian Janet Berlo speculates that the inscription was intended to introduce
Little Shield
to
members
Commission sent by President Ulysses his
S.
peace policy after years of warfare on the
pages of the book are exploits
filled
with images of
plains.
Pawnee on foot armed with
The
Little Shield's
accompanied by penciled annotations.
victory over a
of the Peace
Grant to implement
a
ruled
personal
One shows
rifle. Little
shot him while galloping on horseback, as indicated by the that touches the Pawnee's 88 Page from by
made
rifle.
of drawings
(Arapaho), probably
during the 1860s. This
drawing shows of a
book
a
Little Shield
Little Shield's
that the artist
rifle
head. Although drawn with
on paper, the
pictorial language
used by
the artist to portray the event relates closely to similar scenes on the older media of painted garments and pictographic inscriptions.
defeat
Pawnee warrior armed with
Note
pencil and colored ink
bowed
his
Shield
No Two
a
shows
eventful
life,
Horns, the Hunkpapa mentioned as reflected
in
the
number
of art
earlier, also led
an
works he produced
the result of the encounter by
drawing
his rifle
enemy's head.
so
it
touches the
late in his
life
while
living
North Dakota before
•
I
14
his
on the Standing Rock reservation death
in
1942.
He had
in
participated
in
89 Drawing by
No Two
Horns,
showing an event during the Battle of the Little Big his
Horn when
beloved blue roan was shot
from beneath him.
No Two Horns
identifies himself
with
portrayed above
his
(see
fig.
his shield
head
86).
90 Horse
stick,
No Two Horns
carved by
and carried by
him during the Grass Dance to
honor (see
his
fig.
seven
horse
89).
killed in battle
The horse sustained
wounds before
it fell.
several successful encounters against the
horse was
fight, his
drawings
now
fatally
in
agony as
distinctive shield poised
recalling
No Two
over
wooden dance wands
mortal wounds
At the Custer
of several of his
when
[90].
heroic death
The
[89].
No Two Horns also
stick"
his
carved
its
was intended to honor
carried during the Grass Dance, a popular ritual
clubs from Standing
their traditional
its
representing this horse and
plains during the 1880,
celebrated men's accomplishments
wands or
and distinguished
876.
Horns tumbles forward,
head.
his
The "horse
performance throughout the
"V*
1
preserved at the State Historical Society of North
blue roan twists
the horse
in
wounded and one
Dakota honors the horse by
several
Crow
Horn
himself at the Battle of the Little Big
Crow
in
battles past.
which
Other dance
Rock are carved with images of
enemies, distinguished by their heavily
greased, upright bangs and red face paint, and are intended to recall victorious actions against
The owners
of
tipis,
them.
the buffalo skin and later canvas lodges
of Plains peoples, sometimes painted their visionary experiences, or
year the
The
1
845, the
Cheyenne
Kiowa leader gift
more
them with expressions
of
scenes of battle.
In
rarely,
chief Sleeping Bear gave a painted
Little Bluff as a
token of friendship and
consisted of the right to reproduce the
tipi.
of the
tipi is
Little Bluff
divided into
to this day.
two equal
the to
alliance.
painted with
images of war honors, and subsequent copies descend
through the lineage of
tipi
down
The painted
parts. Diagonal black
design
and
yellow stripes on one side refer to war expeditions led by Sleeping Bear and Little
Bluff.
One
of Little Bluff's contemporaries.
115
a
fiercesome warrior named Heart Eater, added the twelve war
axes stacked vertically battle scenes
on the
down
left
the center of the design.
The
changed with every version of the
commemorating the accomplishments
tipi,
of each generation of
owners. Notable events so recorded include the occasion when the
Comanche Head
handedly held Big
Bow and
off
Pendant, hidden behind breastworks, single-
Mexican troops, or when the Kiowa war chief
his wife
Black Bear escaped Mexican soldiers after
being wounded. Ohettoint, the grandson of
Little Bluff
and one of
the Fort Marion prisoners (see below) painted a model of the This lineage of
Kiowa warriors and
Silverhorn and Stephen
The 91
Drawing by Zotom,
a
Kiowa
and one of seventy-one southern Plains
men
imprisoned St.
(and one at Fort
woman)
Augustine, Florida,
in
1875.
arrived prisoners gathered
p. 197).
pictographs, paintings, and drawings produced by
men
of the plains provided visual testimony to the notable events their lives.
in
As the broader outside world closed around them
during the later nineteenth century, this documentary practice
sometimes reflected new and unfamiliar experiences. seventy-two Cheyenne, Kiowa, and
Comanche
In
1875,
(and one Caddo)
on the
parapet of the fort looking out bay.
(see
tipi.
produced James
Marion,
Here Zotom shows the newly
toward the
Mopope
artists also
were rounded up by
military authorities and sent east to be
imprisoned at Fort Marion
I
16
in St.
Augustine, Florida. All were well-
known warriors
selected for incarceration because of their
accomplishments participated
in
a
Kiowa born
in
1853, had
raids throughout Texas and Mexico, and had been
upon
identified at an attack
Walls
Zotom,
in battle.
Adobe
a party of buffalo hunters at
the Texas panhandle during the spring of 1874. At Fort
in
Marion, he was one of several
men who produced drawings
for
Most of the drawings avoid overt references to
sale to visitors.
more
incidents of combat, perhaps at the behest of the jailors or, simply,
because potential buyers might have found such images Fort Marion drawings tend to generalize,
distasteful. Instead, the
with images of the hunt, dances, and ceremonies. Notable
among Zotom's
drawings, however, are those that catalogue his
experiences after capture: the long journey to prison by
hunt for and
thrown himself
Cheyenne
of the
killing
off the
moving
chief
train in an
Grey Beard
train;
the
after he had
attempt to escape; the
prisoners gathered on the parapet of the imposing stone fort the
day of their arrival
the last-named picture, the perspectival
[9i]. In
rendering of Fort Marion's architecture, the topographical setting of the bay with
its
headlands and lighthouses, ships receding
distance, and the vantage point, distant
compositional order,
remain no
less authentic
Pipes
on the
the
seem derived from study of photographs.
all
The novel experiences and means
inscribed images
in
from the scene to impose
of Zotom's expression, however,
than those of the
cliffs
at
many
artists
who
Writing-On-Stone centuries before.
and carvers
Pipestone National located
in
Monument
protects a shallow stone quarry
present-day southwestern Minnesota where pipe
carvers have been extracting a red pipestone called catlinite for
over (
1
.2
five
hundred
years.
Quarrying through as much
as
4 to
12 ft
to 3.6 m) of hard quartzite exposes a layer of red catlinite
suitable for carving but
nowadays
rarely
more
than a few inches
thick (nineteenth-century accounts describe strata as thick as 18
or 46 cm). Carvers of the Oneota archaeological tradition,
in.,
ancestral to the Iowa and site for
pipes and pendants.
whose trade time,
Winnebago, removed stone from the
interests
The sixteenth-century
were great consumers of catlinite.
Andre,
a Jesuit
Green
Bay,
Iroquois,
expanded across the Great Lakes
missionary
visiting the
Wisconsin, witnessed the
In
at that
1676. Father Louis
Winnebago
villages of
arrival of a party of
with buffalo hides and red stone pipes to trade.
Iowa
The Dakota, or
Eastern Sioux, expanding westward from the Minnesota forests, controlled the territory around the site by the eighteenth century,
117
although quarrying parties from throughout the region apparently
found access without much fasted, and prayed
in
Arriving parties camped,
difficulty.
preparation before removing stone. The
admonishment, current today, to remove only
may account
as
much
raw material.
produced
Instead, pipes
in a
needed
as
for the lack of evidence of any broad trade
the
in
plethora of tribally
based styles - Pawnee, Dakota, Ojibwa - seem to have been carved by individuals or small parties
own
of procuring their visited the site in
with
some
1
who went
to the trouble
who
stone. Joseph Nicollet, a geologist
838, avoided a party of Sauk and Fox,
Eastern Sioux, and was told to beware of
from "the nations of the Missouri"
who
camped
more
parties
visited regularly during
that time of year.
Pipes skill
made
of red catlinite preserved today testify to the great
and artistry of individual pipe carvers. Three can be attributed
to an unusually gifted Dakota master
know
but
who was
whose name we do not
active during the 1830s and 1840s.
The most
elaborate of the three pipes has a drum-shaped bowl perched the back of a small dog
[92].
The
artist
used
inlaid lead
in
to create
the radial pattern on the bowl and the buffalo leg design on the horizontal shank.
remarkable.
around
his
A
The
band
tableau carved on top of the shank
chief, identified
is
most
by the peace medal he wears
neck, offers a glass of brandy across a table to a
diminutive man, perhaps a
member
of his band. All three pipes
attributed to this carver include related imagery: chiefs with cups
who condemned
or casks of brandy. Although there were many the use of alcohol
in
the fur trade, and
and parcel of the business
in
still
do
today,
it
was part
Minnesota during the 1830s.
In fact
the distribution of alcohol maintained a formal structure. Trade
92 Pipe bowl, carved by an
unknown
Eastern Sioux
man
during the 1830s or 1840s. This is
one of three very elaborate pipe
bowls attributed to
this artist's
hand. All three include the signature-like pattern representing a buffalo leg.
complete with hoof,
inlaid in lead
on the shank of
the pipe.
118
"captains," the
band
met with the trader furs.
The band
chiefs first,
a
his
followers to drink
The image
of their allegiance. is
led fur-hunting parties, customarily
chief received the alcohol, often
he then distributed to
alcohol
who
before a general exchange of goods for
differential scale of
who
of the band chief
symbol referring to
made
his authority,
the chief and
his
barrels,
in
which
acknowledgment
in
controls trade
clear by the
follower as carved on the
pipe bowl.
Smoking pipes and tobacco dimension of
Plains social
play a role in
and religious
thousands of pipes owned and used by rituals
required
almost every
life. In
addition to the
many
religious
ritualized
tobacco
individuals,
them and included episodes of
smoking. Smoking tobacco as part of a ceremony acknowledges
and cosmological context of all
and animates the greater
spiritual
human endeavors.
some people of Native ancestry express
Today,
discomfort with the fact that smoking pipes are sometimes
museums
displayed
in
Porcupine
quills
and
works of art or
as
sculpture.
glass beads
While working among the Cheyenne, conservationist and
member of the Cheyenne Quilling Society named Picking Bones Woman. The origin of quillwork, she told him, came from a young man who had discovered that his wife and son were really buffalo. Out of ethnographer George Bird Grinnell met an elderly
love, the
When
young man had followed
he had learned during
his
time
knowledge of how to prepare
them with porcupine Plains skills
his family
he returned, he gave to the
women
among
to their buffalo home.
of his
community what
his buffalo family:
the
buffalo hide robes and decorate
quills.
communities placed high value upon the industry and
required of
women
to prepare hides for clothing, lodging,
and other necessary items. The techniques of decoration, with porcupine
quill
and
later glass
aesthetic value of such necessity.
The creation
those intended for
bead applique, emphasize the
work above and beyond
utilitarian
of finely decorated items, particularly
ritual use,
represented the highest status of
feminine achievement. Cheyenne
women
recognized successive
grades within their Quilling Society linked to the production and
decoration of different categories of objects:
baby cradles;
3) circular
)
moccasins; 2) tipis;
among
women honored
and backrests.
Similarly,
by the puberty
ceremony known
thereafter called Buffalo
I
ornaments (rosettes) for the Lakota, young
Women
as Isnati
4)
robes
Awicalowampi were
and accepted an honored role
119
among
their
communities which included the expectation that
they would produce fine quillwork and beadwork. These young
Lakota
women underwent
lengthy training under the guidance of
elders until they had mastered the techniques of arts production
prior to marriage.
Cedar Woman, an Arapaho elder who spoke to anthropologist Alfred Kroeber during his fieldwork a century ago, was the keeper of
one of seven sacred workbags that held incense,
and
paint,
implements for sewing. These had been passed down from
women
generation to generation. Only
with exemplary
and proven industriousness might be considered for
As another woman explained to Kroeber,
if
to
failure.
quills,
is
she
is
Excellence can be accomplished only through
prayer, instruction by example,
preparation through elders. the collective knowledge, of Arapaho
honor.
someone who
inexperienced attempts to embroider robes with
doomed
skills
this
and the appropriate
ritual
The seven sacred workbags represented
skill,
and experience of untold generations
women. Their keepers ensured
the continuity of practice
through example and instruction. They worked with the other
women on
collective projects and at least
required for the creation of a decorated
A group of exquisite 93 Cradle decorated with 1880, very likely
quillwork,
c.
made by
woman whose name
a
was recorded of the
as Fire
Northern Arapaho sacred
workbag keepers
Wind
Wood, one
active at the
River reservation,
Wyoming.
quills (at least fifteen
are
one workbag keeper was
tipi
or buffalo robe.
baby carriers decorated with porcupine
known
were produced under the
today)
supervision of sacred workbag keepers of the Northern Arapaho
who
now on the Wind River reservation in Wyoming. Cleaver Warden, who worked as an ethnographic informant at Wind River, live
recorded
named
in his
Fire
notebook of 1904-5
Wood
that an elderly
Her workbag had come from her mother,
Bird
Woman.
surviving baby carriers are remarkably consistent
the high quality of their workmanship
all
the
group of experienced
component
parts.
The
sister,
women
to
baby
a tipi
carrier, stretched
the
design and
in
assembled and hosted
work with her
to
make
circular porcupine quill rosette placed
on the top of the baby carrier represents the be reused later as
in
lifetime.
All
Customarily, the sponsor
[93].
of the baby carrier, often the mother's a feast for a
workbag keeper
had made sixty baby carriers during her
baby's head, but
may
ornament. The design and decoration of the
upon
a frame,
is
said to
resemble that of
a tipi
and symbolizes the wish that the baby should grow into adulthood and
own The
one. fastidious
ornament their
and exacting quality of Cheyenne and Arapaho
(the peoples are closely related)
more
collective
tradition-bound objects.
120
may
in fact
stem from
approach to the production of certain
On
the other hand, the traditions of
women's
A single
art
on the
permitted inspired creativity as well.
plains
master quillworker, or
for a small but spectacular
at best a close circle,
during the mid-nineteenth century. Best shirt
presented to 2nd
Chief Spotted
Tail at
in
known among them
Wyoming,
in
1
maker was Brule
shoulder and sleeve strips and the neck
innovation
responsible
is
a
Charles G. Sawtail by Brule Lakota
Lt.
Fort Laramie,
art historians speculate that the
a technique that
is
group of quill-decorated objects made
flap are
hence
855
[94]:
too.
The broad
embroidered with
resembles checkerwork weaving, a startling
Plains quillwork that
found nowhere
is
else.
By the time early European visitors began to acquire the decorated hides and garments that are found collections today, Plains hide-workers their
work with
porcupine style that
quills
glass
beads made
in
Venice,
and other materials.
combines many
in
museum
were already decorating combined with
A dress tailored
different kinds of trade
in
an early
goods was
brought back to Washington by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark after their expedition of 803 —4 and presented to future 1
First
Lady Dolly Madison. The dress illustrated here may be that
one,
or, alternatively,
Willson Peale's
94 Shirt presented by Lakota Chief Spotted
G
to 2nd
Tail
Lt.
Charles
Sawtail at Fort Laramie.
Wyoming,
made
employed
1855 The shirt was unknown woman who
in
by an
a rare
and distinctive
technique of quillwork embroidery to decorate the large shoulder and
sleeve strips of the shirt.
it
may have been deposited
Museum
in
in
Charles
Philadelphia by a different source
in
95 Side-fold dress collected during the early decades of the nineteenth
century
employs
Upper Missouri
the
in
river region.
decoration
Its
number
a
of exotic trade
wool
materials: glass beads,
cowrie
shells,
and
tin
cloth,
pendants.
1828.
It is
a "side-fold dress"
made from
a single large elk hide
cut to wrap around the body and sewn with a single seam on the left
side
[95].
The body
of the dress
is
delicately
with horizontal bands of dyed porcupine
embroidered pattern that
quills, a
resembles the treatment of buffalo robes. Bands of large blue and white glass beads frame the ornament on the dress with heavy 96 (opposite above) Knife
made
collected
work
case,
Cheyenne woman and
by a
in
party
horizontal borders along the lower In
built
shells
Fort C.
below the neck.
imported from the South China Sea, "tinkler" pendants
F.
cut from imported
Trail,
connecting Fort Laramie to
cloth milled
parallel
rows, of bead
applique that result from the
technique of "parallel
Knife
wool yarn unraveled from
in a
known
restricted range of colors,
made
living
on the Crow reservation,
and yellow. The use of pony beads characterizes
ornament on the
Crow woman
case,
by a
tufts of red
large glass beads are a type
predominantly blue and white as here, but also more rarely red,
stitch."
right)
and
The
today as "pony beads." They came
black, 97 (opposite centre
tin,
in Britain.
Montana. Note the distinctive or
just
1866 by one of the
who
Smith on the Bozeman
"lanes,"
hem and
addition, the decoration incorporates brass buttons, cowrie
By the
1
plains until
860s, Plains
glass
bead
about 1850.
women
had
a
broad range of different
Montana, during the 1890s. The
colored, smaller sized "seed-beads" to choose from. Color
geometric designs relate to those
preferences, traditions of technique for application, and choices
used by
women
parfleches (see
for painted fig.
about design, form, and structure among
communities developed into 98 (opposite below
left)
styles" during the 1860s
Parfleche. a buffalo rawhide
container,
made and
Crow woman
women
of different
98)
painted by a
of Montana, c
1880
Cheyenne women, lanes, derived
122
far
more
and 1870s.
strongly articulated "tribal
Parallel stitch favored
by
for example, with beads applied within parallel
from the techniques of porcupine
quill
applique but
enlivened by patterns of alternating colors within the lanes
Crow women
developed their
which was better suited to the
tightly
nested triangles and oblong
shapes that characterize "parfleche" painting
was
[96].
Wyoming and Montana, on the other hand, own particular "Crow stitch" technique [97],
of
a storage container
made
colorful geometric patterns.
[98].
The
parfleche
of folded rawhide and painted with
Women
applied color to the rawhide
123
surfaces with cut sections of buffalo
rib,
their ends
ground to
expose the absorbent, sponge-like marrow that could be dipped pigment and used
in
applique after the 1860s painting,
modern-day
like a is
ink marker.
Crow beadwork
clearly related to the designs of parfleche
not quillwork. Throughout the Plains region, the
geometric design traditions of both quillwork and parfleche painting informed the emergent art of glass bead applique as popularity during the later nineteenth century.
to
become
the dominant
medium
it
grew
in
Beadwork grew
for the decoration of Plains
garments, bags, pouches, horse and
tipi
ornaments, and several
other categories of objects. Plains cultures extolled the virtues of
care, and
skill in
making
things, partly
represented such great value, spiritually. title
women's industriousness,
because the things themselves
and
culturally, economically,
For example, the Oglala band of Lakota conferred the
Ongloge Un, or "shirt-wearer," upon four able
men who were
delegated to oversee the general welfare of the people.
newly elected Ongloge Un received
his
When
resplendent garment,
a
made
with considerable care and ceremony, he was told, "Though you
now wear the
shirt,
be a big-hearted man.... This shirt here means
you have been chosen
as a big heart;
you are always to help your
friends...."
Generosity
worked hard
to
lies at
the center of Lakota cultural values.
make many
different kinds of
"give-aways," events at which social relations
Women
decorated items for
were acknowledged
and reinforced through the formal distribution of gifts. Give-aways
became an extremely important
feature of reservation
the Lakota. Prominent families, designated as sponsors tribe presented
them with
a
symbolic penny (maza'ala,
life
among
when
the
literally
"red iron"), spent the entire year assembling, commissioning, and
manufacturing goods for give-aways scheduled for the Fourth of July.
Government
policy discouraged
ceremonies
at
any other time of
the year. Lakota give-aways of the reservation period, particularly
the period between 1880 and of
enormous
quantities of
World War
I,
inspired the production
beaded items, many decorated with
images of Fourth of July American
flags.
The Fourth
of July
celebrations, their attendant ceremonies and give-aways, and
the material and performance arts required for their success
contributed to the support of Lakota ethnic identity at a time it
was under Clearly,
prominent
artists of their
own
when
from the outside world.
mothers, aunts, and grandmothers
women who 124
a great deal of coercive threat
all
who
had been
generations had nurtured talented
led the proliferation of Lakota
beadwork
at the
beginning of the
new
century.
The requirements
give-aways, and opportunities to
shows which employed
sell
several generations of Lakota
even sales through mail-order catalogues,
demand
for the
skills
of dances and
or at Wild
at fairs
all
West
men, and
produced great
and talents of bead-workers
[99].
Today,
most beadwork produced on the Lakota reservations goes to
powwow dancers, whose
elaborate and meticulously
provides a real advantage
in
proliferation of
"Indian
(a
1950s throughout
perceptual space that encompasses
communities) reaffirm the importance of decorated
symbol of Native
cultural identity
and
vitality,
occasion and a performative structure for perhaps,
in
Edith
Claymore
contemporary
(Lakota), both of
Standing Rock reservation. North
and South Dakota,
c.
arts in
its
all
Native
regalia as a
providing the display.
Less obvious,
the highly structured spectacle of contemporary
powwow dancing, are the 99 Beadwork display of Joseph and
regalia
competitive dancing. The growth and
powwow dancing after the
Country"
made
regalia,
efforts of artists
who, by creating
reshape the traditional roles of Native
ways that can flourish
in
the world today.
1900-1910.
photographed by Frank
Fiske.
The
elaborately beaded suitcases and satchels
were created by
Edith.
125
'
.*
""
ri
>>*£«*.
I
rV-
r>
Chapter 6
Far
The
West
varied topographies of the Pacific edge of central
now the
America,
North
state of California, offered a variety of
opportunities for Native societies. To the north, communities settled along
salmon
rivers.
The Great Central
Valley, sheltered
by the Cascade and Sierra Nevada ranges to the east and the
Klamath and Coastal ranges to the west, fed
its
residents with
seed grasses, acorns from several species of oak, and a nurturing habitat for
game
coast nurtured
animals.
Pacific cordillera,
more
The abundant marine
communities.
littoral
On
of the southern
the environment transitions abruptly to the
challengingly arid ecology of the
geared to these
life
the eastern side of the
local habitats
three thousand years ago.
Great
Basin. Life-ways
were already established
Where
as long as
possible, large language groups
sprawled across several environmental zones, coastal, inland, and riverine,
and established networks of exchange, trade, and mutual
dependency during times of need. feasts, trade, funerals,
Social rituals of gathering for
or for periodic ceremonies to "renew the
world," knit dispersed communities together
in
far-flung
networks
of multi-faceted relationships.
The West Coast history, as
there.
Over
spoken
in
is
the site of a long and complex ethnic
evidenced by the great diversity of languages found sixty different, mutually unintelligible languages are
the region. Evidently, however, as different language
groups joined together within the West's distinctive topography, 100 Pictographs representing big
horn sheep from the
Little
Petroglyph Canyon.
Coso mountains, California.
Inyo County.
traditions of cultural and artistic practice tended to merge.
The northern Klamath
Valley provides a
good example. Most
archaeologists and linguists agree that the Karuk, the original
The images were
created by hunters between
550 bc and ad 950
inhabitants of the valley,
and then
later by the
were joined by the Wiyot around ad 900
Yurok
after
ad
1300. By the time of
European
127
grown so
contact, these three linguistic groups had
virtually impossible to distinguish the differences
close that
it is
between Karuk,
Wiyot, and Yurok twined baskets.
Paint
and stone
Artistic traces of ancient
spectacular rock art
pictograph
Tecolate Cave
7300
Few
bc.
in
more than two thousand
in
years ago,
we
traditions for consideration.
fairly distinctive
Coso mountains
the
in
date to
of a broad range of diverse images and sites,
can select three
Up
the oldest well-dated
herringbone pattern painted
a
the Mojave Desert radiocarbon-dated about
sites
Out
however.
sites, including
North America,
in
California include dozens of
life in
of Inyo County, hunters of big horn
sheep pecked their images into prominently exposed rocks
The hunters emphasized the broad, meaty bodies
[100].
of the animals,
rendering them as bulky crescent shapes with spindly
legs, small
heads, and gracefully curved horns. Pictographs of hunters with
bows and arrows and stocky figures with squared bodies
also
appear, but the images of the big horns predominate. Obsidian
hydration dates taken from projectile points and butchering tools
provide dates for the pictographs that range between 550 bc and
ad 950. Evidently the hunting
in
horn population collapsed due to over-
big
around ad 950, providing
a logical terminal date for the
images. Archaeologists speculate that the larger part of the big
horn pictographs date from the centuries
just before, as the big
horns became more scarce and hunters sought to increase their
numbers through the
ritualistic
creation of pictographic
game
racing along the canyon walls of their habitat.
Well to the south, River, ancient ritualists
in
the arid lands adjacent to the Colorado
scraped the desert floor to create
monumental geoglyphs, or ground drawings. The Blythe geoglyphs, discovered by an aviator [lOl]. in
in
A giant figure, arms
length and
resembles drawings another.
a
in
is
the 1930s, are probably the best
outstretched, measures over 60
mountain
lion. In
three groups,
all
all,
(18
m)
Blythe includes ten different
within
1
,000
ft
(300 m) of one
Hundreds of additional drawings dot the broad desert
region on both sides of the Colorado, from
impressions of
human
feet.
origin stories at these sites
pilgrimages to pay
128
known
accompanied by a four-legged creature that
California, in addition to trails
geoglyph
ft
sites
homage
and dance
The
local
Nevada to the Gulf of
circles
and oral traditions to the
pounded hard by
Yuman people locate their
powers of
tell
of rituals of
creation. Dates for
range from as old as 900 bc to ad 1200.
I
1
Blythe geoglyphs, or ground
1
drawings, near Blythe, California, just
above the Colorado
The human
figure in the
ft
(
18
m)
in
Oral traditions of the
Yuman
tribes claim these
ground drawings
in
away under overhanging ledges and rock shelters found along the length of interior California stems
from practices that evidently
persisted into the nineteenth century.
length.
large
loose-knit tradition of painted and pecked imagery hidden
River.
upper
portion of the photograph
measures over 60
A
were made by Chumash people
and other
mountain ranges of southern
their
example,
now
Some
of the
most elaborate
at sites located within coastal
California. Painted Cave, for
preserved as a state park,
is
located
the canyon
in
vicinity as pilgrimage sites.
country
just
above present-day Santa Barbara.
Inside,
spread over
the walls and the ceiling, artists applied a bold palette of mineral
pigments to create
a dizzying array of overlapping shapes: serrated
pinwheels, boldly striped figures, and segmented bands of color [102].
At Painted Rock, an
isolated,
horseshoe-shaped rock on the
Carrizo Plain across the Sierra Madres at the southern end of California's
Great Central
Valley,
Chumash
paintings range across
the interior walls.
There are dozens of
Chumash and
similarly painted sites attributed to the
the southern Yokuts
oral traditions of the
Chumash
created by religious specialists
in
southern California. The
recall that
known
customary to speak of such people
these sites had been
as 'alchuklash.
as "shamans."
It
has
become
The word
129
"shaman" comes from the Evenk language of northeastern There,
a
shaman
a kind of spiritual practitioner
is
between society and the
invisible
world of
spirits.
who
Siberia.
mediates
Divination of
the future, travel to the spirit world, and alliances with spirit helpers characterize the supernatural
abilities
described by the
broad use of the term when discussing religious practices of Native North Americans. Through close observation of the
movement
sky and the
of the sun,
moon,
planets,
and
stars,
the 'alchuklash divined whether the coming year would bring
abundance or hunger. He gathered power from these bodies and enlisted the aid of
secluded spirit
sites,
in
The
paintings
paintings he
Chumash shamans over
Some
1
of the images
a
rituals
The
are simultaneously renderings of visionary
The
his spirit helpers,
and part of
his
dots, concentric circles, and pinwheels found
period
many Chumash
,000 years.
in
may represent
human and
complete solar eclipse of 24 1677.
power there and performing
for the benefit of his community.
experiences, acknowledgments of ritual practice.
astronomical events, such as the
November
cosmos
made
are the result of repeated visits by
perhaps as long as
celestial
also sought out
Painted Cave
State Historical Park, near Santa
Barbara, California.
He
rock shelters, and enclosures as portals to the
world, accumulating
to influence the 102 Painted Cave,
spirit helpers.
paintings represent celestial bodies.
animal combinations
shaman when immersed
in
show
The strange
the transformation of the
the spirit world. Rattlesnakes, frogs,
and other creatures portray
his spirit helpers.
103 Tubular pipe,
made
and decorated with inlaid in asphalt,
shell
beads
culture,
in
stone, notably
a fine gray steatite quarried by the Gabrielino inhabitants of Santa
found on San
Nicholas Island, off-shore southern California,
People of the southern coast also worked
of steatite
home
of the Gabrielino
ad 1400-1600.
Catalina Island off the coast of present-day Los Angeles.
on the mainland and
living
carved
islands of the Santa Barbara
bowls of
large, nearly globular
steatite, thin-walled
often decorated with tiny marine shell beads set asphalt applied to the surface.
When
Chumash
Channel
in
and
gummy
black
broken, fragments of these
functioned as fry pans. Similar techniques of stone carving and
ornament with
beads are
shell
whales and other creatures. a Gabrielino site is
enigmatic
visible in
A tubular stone
on San Nicholas
Island,
effigies
of
pipe recovered from
west of Santa Catalina,
carved with the head of a seal-like creature, with inset
shell
for eyes and a collar of shell beads clustered at the center of the
tube
[103].
As
is
the case for rock paintings, religious practitioners
or shamans very
likely
used such
effigy pipes,
but
little is
known
today about tobacco ritualism on the pre-contact southern California coast.
Baskets
Nowhere
else in
North America
integral role in Native
life
as
in
did basket
making
the Far West.
Some
play such an
students of
material culture attribute the importance of baskets to the
techniques required to process acorns into palatable food. Such practices are shared
among almost
collecting, milling, leaching
acorn
all
the California peoples:
flour, storing,
cooking. Baskets
are also used for collecting grass seeds, for trapping birds and
of the baskets
were designed and made
use, but others
technique. For their
were
fish,
Some
and as conveyances for everything from infants to firewood.
principally for utilitarian
crafted with fine design and meticulous
women, making
fine baskets
was an extension of
gendered tasks of wild food gathering and preparation.
While weaving required great
technical
skill
and meticulous
labor,
basket makers also had to possess essential knowledge of the
surrounding environment
in
order to establish where weaving
materials could be found and
Once
when
it
was best to
collect them.
assembled, plant materials required lengthy and careful
131
woven by Miwok woman during the late 1800s. Miwok village chiefs might own several baskets like this one and use them to serve food while 104 Large feast basket,
a
hosting feasts.
105 Large baskets
filled
mush, photographed
Maidu
feast
with acorn
at a
Southern
conducted sometime
between 1900 and
1910.
preparation before they were ready for use. Such
skills
and
technical virtuosity created considerable social value for baskets,
which could be expressed
in
many
Large coiled basketry bowls
were used
for cooking. Liquid
different ways.
made
with small, tight stitches
expanded the
coils to
make them
watertight and heated rocks placed inside boiled the contents.
Samuel A. Barrett, an anthropologist
Museum,
bowl of a type, he was chiefs for use
inhabited the
where
132
at the
Milwaukee Public
collected a particularly large and fine basketry cooking
chiefs
when hills
told,
which customarily belonged to Miwok
hosting feasts
[104].
The Southern Miwok
and mountains of the Sierra Nevada range
and their families presided over communities with
modestly sized territories
[106].
A chief's
responsibilities included
managing relations with neighbors. Hosting
was one of the most
The
chief's
cooking baskets
accompanied by serve, several
heavy
effective
inter-village feasts
means of maintaining goodwill.
filled
with steaming acorn mush,
displays of gifts, greeted the guests [lOS].
men were
required to carry the baskets
by means of a rope tied around the middle.
liquid
To
filled
with
Women
used smaller baskets to dole out generous servings. The host might offer a large cooking basket as a
gift
to a chiefly guest,
acknowledging their mutual status and binding their communities together a large
in
friendship.
On
cooking basket to
another occasion, a chief might present
his
successor at the time of
his
marriage.
Customarily, a chief's baskets were cremated with him at the time of his death. Gifts of fine baskets
events of social
life
accompanied nearly
among
all
the significant
the Porno of central California. Parents
suspended miniature baskets on their baby carriers to delight their infants.
A family presented their daughter with
"washing" basket on the occasion of her confinement. While
it
had no
ornament of quail's plumes,
it
utilitarian
first
a beautiful
menstrual
purpose, with
resembled
in
its
fine
miniature the kind of
basket used for bathing infants, and thus expressed the hope for grandchildren. The family of a prospective as gifts
from the betrothed
industriousness,
106 Callipene and Lena
skill,
bride's family.
groom They
received baskets
signified the
and wealth the bride brought to the match.
Brown
(Southern Miwok), photographed by
D H Wulzen
June 1901 1813.
was
among Valley
a
the
and
in
Yosemite
Valley.
Callipene. born around
.
prominent leader
Miwok a highly
weaver. Lena
of Yosemite
regarded basket
Brown may have been
her granddaughter
133
"Treasure" basket,
107
Pomo woman, red
made
by a
and decorated with
woodpecker
feathers and shell
beads. Customarily presented as
honored
gifts,
or consumed by
fire
during funerals, this basket was collected
1837 and taken to
in
Berlin.
Friends and relations exchanged small "treasure" baskets,
ornamented with the
colorful feathers of birds or cut shell beads
representing wealth, as [107].
during
gifts
ritual
their ostentatious display. glittering
shell
could dangle
Jump Dance
(see
fig.
110).
in
the
shell
money.
109
Horn
made
of antler,
and carved and engraved by
Yurok man. These
a
as "shell
sometimes referred to
a thin strip of antler (missing here)
bound over the narrow opening.
was purchased
Museum
Brooklyn
110
Mourners suspended such
jewel-like
of love and respect for the dead. In
perhaps the most overt instance of using baskets as an
women
made twined basket "purses"
[108],
of the Klamath Valley region
resembling,
in
enlarged form,
cylindrical
money." They closed with
This one
quails.
the carved antler "wallets" used to store valuable marine shell
containers kept safe long strings of shell beads,
the
baskets from scaffolds erected over funeral pyres as expressions
expression of wealth, Hupa
purse,
freely,
covered with a
mosaic of red woodpecker feathers supplemented with black
topknot plumes from
109) stuffed with
fig.
entirely
They are
intended to represent large horn "purses" (see
is
a
carried these baskets and other valuables while performing
social occasions
Designed for suspension so that their
pendants of marine
underside of a tapica or "red basket" 108 Jump Dance basket, made by Hupa woman, 19th century. Men
and
Small shallow "feather" baskets had no other purpose than
for the
beads (sometimes called
"shell
money")
[109].
These served no
other purpose than to symbolize wealth when carried by
performing the ostentatious "Jump Dance" shell
[no].
men
Draped with
necklaces and wearing broad headbands decorated with
bright red
woodpecker
scalps, these
men competed
against
one
1905.
in
another with song, dance, and the display of sumptuous valuables.
Photograph of Hupa
participants
in a
"Jump Dance"
conducted
in
the 1890s.
The Jump Dance
Baskets and the marketplace
Klamath Valley during
opportunity for
men
is
an
to display
wealth, as represented by their
headdresses decorated with red
woodpecker
scalps, their
heavy
necklaces of shell beads, and the
Native communities of California supported the refined
skills
and artistry of basket makers by converting their creations into objects of profound social value. This their use
exchange
and display during as a
social
was accomplished through
and religious
means of creating and
rituals, their
reinforcing binding
baskets that represent enlarged purses, as (see
figs
if
filled
with shell
108 and 109)
money
relationships,
and ultimately, their consumption by
fire
during
funerary ceremonies as expressions of mourning for the dead.
134
*fV«
After the arrival of European intruders their
Mexican descendants, and
finally
first
the Spanish, then
Anglo-Americans from
the east- basket makers found their talents increasingly redirected to the
more sumptuary and commodity-based
systems of the outsiders.
makers
into the
Initially,
sumptuary trade, commissioning presentation
pieces and sewing baskets for use by the Spanish later,
value
Spanish missions pressed basket
elite.
A century
white Americans sought out California baskets as unique
American
"collectibles."
Many
California basket weavers,
communities suffered depredations on every
whose
responded to
front,
these challenges and opportunities with remarkable energy and creativity.
Although Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez
visited Santa
Catalina and the Santa Barbara Channel Islands during his cruise
up the California coast
was postponed established an
1542, Spanish colonization of California
in
the "sacred expedition" of 1769, which
until
mission at the site of present-day San Diego.
initial
San Diego de Alcala and the twenty additional missions established
subsequently through 1823, forcibly gathered together the inhabitants of surrounding communities to
labor at the reduction, or mission histories of
site.
live in captivity
and
There are few more
brutal
European subjugation of Native peoples than the
events that followed the creation of the Spanish missions (including the administration of the colony by
Mexico and the
subsequent Anglos). The Chumash, the most populous southern
group
California language
at the
time of contact, suffered a
precipitous decline. The Spanish established five missions
them and by 1804
all
the
The missions pressed
Chumash had been forced
among
into residency.
into service the traditional artistic skills of
their neophytes, including the production of precious coiled
baskets. Like
many
weavers produced
of the peoples of the west coast, a variety of basket types,
coiled, for storage, transport, processing food,
and other
"Treasure" baskets, fastidiously sewn with minute subtle decoration, had been exchanged as valuables.
Chumash
Chumash
both twined and
gifts
coils
tasks.
and
and used to store
basket weavers converted these into sewing
baskets for the Spanish, sometimes including inscriptions or
dedications
worked
into the design.
the collection of the British
from the
traditional
Spanish Fathers
[Ml].
A
broad-brimmed
Museum, seems
Chumash
now
in
hemispherical cap for use by
Perhaps most remarkable are
coiled basketry bowls and trays that incorporate
Spanish coins into their designs. One,
136
hat,
to have been adapted
now
at the
a set of broad,
emblems from Phoebe A.
^^ww^f^
-
Hearst
Museum
of Anthropology,
is
"Ana Maria Marta,
inscribed
neophyte of the Mission of the Seraphic Doctor San Buenaventura
made me..."
[112]. Lillian
thinks that this
111
a
made for Chumash
Coiled basketry hat
Catholic priest by a
Smith,
who
Ana Maria Marta,
looked into mission records,
known
also
as Lapulimeu,
had
been baptized with that name on
5 June 1788. Evidently, the basket
had been sent to Mexico as
from the Mission Fathers
a gift
at San
Buenaventura. Small collections of "treasure" baskets assembled
neophyte, perhaps of the Spanish Mission of Santa Barbara, where the explorer collected
it
George Vancouver
during the winter of
by visitors to California ports hint at a mission-based cottage industry of luxury
Chumash
baskets. Such collections include
the assortment brought back to Spain by explorer Alejandro
1792/1793
Malaspina after 112
Basket decorated with the
18th-century coat of arms of the kings of Spain, derived
from
his
expedition of 1791 as well as ,
tabaqueras, small globular baskets with
lids
brought to Boston by trader William Alden Gale between 1810
Mexican-minted Spanish coins.
and 1835. Even today. Chumash baskets of
The baptism
the most highly prized and valued
old
of a twenty-one-year-
Chumash woman
Marta was recorded she very
likely
made
as
in
a collection of
for pipe tobacco,
among
this
period are
among
collectors.
Ana Maria 1788. and
the basket.
Mid-nineteenth-century California became hostile
a difficult,
often
environment for Native peoples. After decades of disease,
37
land loss, and slavery, families found
income from basket making
most welcome. By-and-large, mid-century Anglo immigrants bought baskets
locally for practical
and decorative purposes.
But by the 1880s, as art historian Marvin Cohodas observes, collecting Indian baskets had
become
by tourism and an increasing interest crafts as a distinctively
American
Traders, collectors,
museum
enthusiast writers, and a growing
the natural,
homemade, and
of American Indian art
a in
consumer "craze"
fueled
Native American arts and
interior decor.
curators, amateur ethnologists,
consumerism that
distinctive
privileged
American character
combined together to create an
unprecedented market demand for Western Native-made baskets. Several individual artists stood out
Louisa Keyser 1
13
Degikup, or spherical basket,
decorated with
a pattern
known
(c.
1855-1925),
in this
most accomplished and widely known basketry West, had worked
environment.
who would become one
as a laundress for
artists
of the
from the
Carson City storeowners
made by Louisa Keyser (Washo), also known as
Abe and Amy Cohn
"Dat so
developed an ambitious and innovative variety of basket, a large
as
"beacon
lights,"
la lee."
She started
working on the basket on 1904 and completed
September
it
I
July
form the Cohns
called a degikup,
on 6
1905, according to
records kept by trader
spherical
before they discovered her talent. Keyser
Amy Cohn.
in
part, by the popularity of
collectors
138
[113].
The
which was inspired,
Porno and Maidu baskets among
tightly coiled baskets are masterfully
114 "Trinket" basket,
Elizabeth Hickox
Hickox's
made
around
by
1914.
mother was Wiyot and
her husband's mother was Hupa. but the couple were raised
Karuk
territories of the
Klamath river
valley,
in
the
Lower
where they
remained. The trinket basket. a
form
at
which Hickox excelled,
was developed for the curio
trade.
conceived with understated designs carefully modulated to their swelling, rotund shapes.
The Cohns invented
a fictitious
persona for Keyser. They gave her the name "Dat so
Washo
proclaimed she was a sold by the
than
Cohns
room and
princess. Keyser
made
for thirty years (1895-1925) for
lee,"
little
board, although the baskets sold for
sums compared to
la
and
baskets
more
enormous
contemporary basket
prices earned by other
weavers. Elizabeth Hickox
(
1
872-1947) was the
single greatest
practitioner of Klamath Valley basket weaving, and her is
noted for
its
daughter of Polly Conrad Steve,
and Charles Conrad, Polly
when she was
a
eighteen
Wiyot born around
1848,
who abducted common for white
(it
was quite
women
as
"country wives" and
at this time). Elizabeth herself
blood man, Luther Hickox, a
a
miner from Kentucky
immigrants to abduct Native
housekeepers
work
innovations and distinction. Elizabeth was the
who
with
his
married
a
mixed-
brothers had inherited
modest goldmine operation near the Karuk settlement
Ossipuk. Elizabeth, her mother, and her daughter Louise
of all
contributed to their family's relative affluence by weaving baskets. Elizabeth and Louise specialized
with knob-shaped
lids
114
meticulous care resulted
.
in
in finely
woven
"trinket" baskets
Their refinement of materials and
unprecedented
quality.
Some
of
139
Elizabeth's baskets boast as
many
as eight
hundred stitches per
square inch. Her baskets achieved broader recognition through
who museum
the efforts of Grace Nicholson of Pasadena, a dealer
procured baskets for the most prominent collectors and collections of her day.
Louisa Keyser and Elizabeth Hickox are just of
Western basket weavers who
plied their
skill
two
of hundreds
and received
modest cash reward during the basket "craze" of the
first
decades
of the twentieth century.
Women
supplemented
traditional designs
with innovative animal or
human
figures, labored
on massive over-
sized baskets
[115]
or more quickly produced miniatures. They sold
their creations through traders and dealers, or at local fairs and
"Indian days." Local patrons established standards and prizes. Eventually the
market dwindled, but many
continued to nurture basket-weaving
skills
knowledge to succeeding generations. to 115
Large coiled basket,
Western basket weaving today
(Mono Lake
1930s. Bethel
worked on
this
basket for four years and
it is
Paiute),
the
elaborately decorated baskets finely
made
of the biggest threats
the environmental
threatens the habitat of traditional materials.
biggest she ever made. Large,
were
and imparted their
One
made by
Carrie Bethel
that
is
attracted
purchasers and big prices.
140
awarded
families
crisis that
Chapter
7
Northwest Coast
Every year, as they have for thousands of years, hundreds of millions of
salmon traverse some thousand miles of the Fraser
River, juveniles
swimming seaward to the
the end of their
winding
its
lives
swimming
mature
Pacific,
inland to spawn.
way from the Eastern Canadian Rockies
Coast near modern-day Vancouver, ecological ferment of the
North
is
just
fish
The massive
near river,
to the Pacific
one aspect of the great
Pacific coast.
The rugged
sea-
shore, dense old-growth forests, and rivers that descend from
the formidable approaches to the Canadian Rockies
abundant
wildlife.
all
support
But for the coast- and river-dwelling people of
the region, the ebb and flow of the salmon's
resembled great breaths and exhalations of
cycle
life
life-giving
must have oxygen. For
many, the annual predictability of salmon runs provided
and security;
its
failure
meant famine. Even
Coast Native communities measure salmon
fishery. In addition to
today,
their vitality
stability
many Northwest in
terms of the
salmon, Northwest Coast societies
diversified with off-shore fishing, whaling, foraging for mollusks,
and pursuit of other resources.
Some
archaeologists theorize that
the environmental setting of the North Pacific Coast,
where
natural
abundance supported community expansion but always under the threat of over-extension and collapse, contributed to growth of the
complex and of
closely intertwining social relations so characteristic
Northwest Coast Native
inter-related villages
cultures. Societies
under lineage
chiefs
banded together
in
and nurtured relations
with neighbors while ensuring the security of their (or the success of any necessary aggression
on
own
defense
their part).
Architecture, sculpture, regalia, and their creation, display, and
exchange, play
a pivotal role in
the complex and competitive
mechanizations of Northwest Coast chiefdoms.
141
The
roots of Northwest Coast art
Many
of the distinctive aspects of recent
and culture emerged of time
in
Northwest Coast
between 500 bc and ad 500. Innovative
of this period that
seem
cultural attributes
to presage the characteristic aspects of
more recent Northwest Coast Native Marpole
art
the archaeological record during a span
site, a large village
societies appear at the
nestled on the mainland side of the
Fraser river delta's north arm, sheltered from Georgia Sound by
Sea Island (now the location of Vancouver International Airport).
Marpole can be linked to British
Columbia
southern
coast,
Straits of
similar village sites along the southern
from the lower Fraser through the
Georgia inhabited during the same period.
Archaeologists group these sites together as belonging to the
Marpole phase (400 bc-ad 400), inhabited by ancestors of the
modern Coast
Salish.
The Marpole
site includes
the remains of
several large houses built of upright support posts of cedar and
covered with
split planking,
some
of the earliest of such houses
detected by archaeologists on the Northwest Coast. They
1
16
Miniature pestle, carved of
antler
heron, site.
in
the form of a great blue
400 bc-ad 400. Marpole
Fraser river delta region,
southern British Columbia. This
one of the more elaborate
is
antler
carvings recovered from the
Marpole
site
142
resemble
many ways the
in
hammers, wedges
houses
large winter
Northwest Coast peoples centuries
later.
built
by historic
Stone mauls, hand-
for splitting off the massive cedar planks
necessary for house construction, and other tools found at the site testify
to the
woodworking
Among the many number
artifacts
skills
bone and
of effigies carved of
of Marpole village residents.
recovered from the
site
were
a
elk antler: "pins," clasps
or toggles carved as bird heads, fragments of human figurines,
and a remarkable pestle of antler with a handle carved as delicately effigy
and
rendered heron
[ll6].
bowls" of stone also came from the
fifty
on the southern coast and
if
in
Over one hundred
site.
of these bowls, each slightly different, have been found
Thompson as
a
Three so-called "seated human
river valleys.
song,
sit
the interior within the Fraser and
in
The
with a bowl
figures, their
in
their
lap.
mouths often parted
This bowl
carved with the faces of animals or monsters, and
frequently
is
in
some
examples rattlesnakes hang down the backs of the seated figures or are draped across their foreheads. Wilson Duff,
Northwest Coast
a
pioneer of
art scholarship, reasoned plausibly that since
the most elaborate of these had been found upriver, the form
and the cultural practices associated with the seated figure
bowls had most
likely
originated there.
The Fraser
effigy
valley has
always been a conduit for trade and cultural exchange between riverine and coastal people.
agreement about the
Although there
is
no general
significance of the seated
human
effigy
bowls, they hint at sacred technologies and use by religious practitioners, individuals
whose
social value
and power was
enhanced by the ownership of such objects and the knowledge of
how
to use them.
To the north, excavations
in
the vicinity of Prince Rupert
near the mouth of the Skeena River (the homeland of the
modern
Tsimshian people) reveal a great deal about the foundations of the cultural traditions of the
northern coast.
In
wooden
the
carving
of a bird that evidently functioned as a bucket handle from the
Lachane
(520 bc-ad 320), art historians recognize features of
site
the "form-line tradition," a style of painting and carving developed
with great sophistication by the
Haida peoples. 117 c
Club,
500
BC.
made
of whale bone,
Boardwalk
site,
in
small animal head visible
the figure's headdress
was buried with
a
The
modern
most
Tlingit,
intriguing
Tsimshian, and
and perplexing among
the Prince Rupert artifacts, however, evidently functioned as
weapons of war. site
included
a
A
warrior's cache of
weapons
at the
Boardwalk
paddle-shaped hand club made of whale bone,
a
club
cache of
weapons and copper
of the
near
Prince Rupert. British Columbia.
Note the
Some
bracelets.
human head wearing handle
!
117^.
an animal crest headdress carved on
This style of club
is
a
widely dispersed type.
A
its
very
143
closely related in
Washington
Boardwalk
example was found State,
site.
the vicinity of Puget Sound
in
hundreds of miles to the south of the
The Nuu-chah-nulth
of Vancouver's west coast
and Washington
State's
clubs, the handle
carved with the head of
One
of these
which
will
was found
Olympic Peninsula employed
bird.
Ozette
be discussed shortly, and another was brought
by botanist Archibald Menzies
who accompanied his
Georgian Sound between 1792 and 1794
weapon had
Some
similar
hooked beak
at the eighteenth-century
Vancouver aboard the Discovery during
of
a
retained
its
high
site,
home
Captain George
explorations of the
[lis].
Clearly, this type
esteem over thousands of years.
traditions of imagery and their associated ideas did
not survive to recent times. The strange and complex forms visible
among
the thirty-five stone clubs of the Hagwilget
cache discovered on the Skeena River
counterpart among the myriad recent Northwest Coast
in
1898 have no
rendered by more
effigy figures
artists.
Their ribbed
shafts, phallic
handles, and strange animal shapes are each unique creations
but clearly related as a set
appeared elsewhere a datable context.
in
On
[ll9].
Others of the general type
the Skeena River area, but only one from that basis,
type can be dated to about 500
it is
bc.
plausible to believe that the
But there
is little
their esoteric imagery or stylistic conventions
Northwest Coast
The 118
Chitoolth,
or
club,
made
in
trace of
more recent
art.
scant archaeological discoveries of these few artfully
created objects testify to continuities of tradition thousands of
of
whale bone, collected among the
years old.
One
can only imagine, however, the artistic richness of
Nuu-chah-nulth, or Nootka, of
Vancouver
Island by a
member
of
the 1792-94 expedition led by
George Vancouver.
objects that have not survived
made
A
broader picture
tragic
in
archaeological contexts, those
of ephemeral materials such as is
wood,
mudslide which suddenly buried
and basketry.
a
Makah
village
now known
on the Olympic Peninsula sometime around
as the
Ozette
1750.
The encasing mud
site
hide,
revealed as the result of a catastrophic and
sealed the portion of the village
it
had
destroyed and preserved the ruins without substantial decay. Archaeological excavations beginning
119
One
of thirty-five stone clubs
found together, known as the Hagwilget cache, at an old site
on the Skeena River
in
village
1898
Other, similar clubs have been
found
one
in
in a
the area since, but only datable archaeological
context. 500 bc-ad
I.
144
in
1970 recovered 55,000
1
120 Oil dish, carved of
wood
recovered from the Ozette a
Makah
village
on the
tip
Olympic Peninsula (Cape
site,
of the Flattery),
buried by a mudslide sometime
around 1750. Archaeologists have recovered more than 55,000 individual artifacts
from the
site.
artifacts
and 40,000 fragments of at
least four houses, thus
providing a nearly all-encompassing view of the community's material culture.
wood came from in
Many astounding the
site,
sculptural objects of carved
including a well-preserved serving bowl
the form of a reclining figure
[
20]
.
The
style
and concept of the
Ozette bowl closely resemble that of a similar vessel collected by Captain James
Cook at Yuquat,
a
Nuu-chah-nulth community on
the west coast of Vancouver Island. nulth are essentially the
The Makah and Nuu-chah-
same people, speaking the same
Makah elders helped archaeologists
identify
many
language.
artifacts
recovered during the excavations at Ozette.
Crests
On
and
the
their display
Northwest Coast, images created by
artists stand in
testimony to claims of ancestry and to the material and social rights of family groups. a "crest,"
Anthropologists
call this
kind of image
and the concept pertains equally to the
Tlingit,
Tsimshian, and Haida peoples of the northern coast. But a crest is
more than
just an image.
A crest is composed
essentially of
three things: a proper name, usually referring to an animal or spirit creature; a
story or history that explains a family's
relationship to that creature; and an object, such as a crest hat, a
decorated robe, or
a
house post, which
displays an
image of
the animal or spirit being and by doing so evokes the story.
Crests belong to families, but the concept of family
people of the northern Northwest Coast
most
basic family
group
is
is
among
the
very broad. The
the household, an extended matrilineal
family that takes residence collectively
in a
large winter house.
Households that trace back ancestral relations between each
145
other (biological or
bound together
are
fictive)
as clans.
And
every clan belongs to a particular exogamous grouping (Raven
or Wolf
among
among
the Tlingit, Raven or Eagle
Whale among
Raven, Wolf, Eagle or Killer
the Haida, and
the Tsimshian, although
customarily only two are operative within any one community).
Exogamous means simply
that marriage partners always
from the opposite group. Crests and the stories they belong to the household, the groupings.
The
stories
come may
tell
or these larger exogamous
clan,
of strange encounters between spirit
tell
animals and ancestral family
members
back further to culture heroes,
like
of the ancient past or refer
Raven,
who
helped shape the
world. Crests, however, must be understood
how they are
in
the context of
presented and seen. Each generation must claim
the stories and names from the past, by family public
acknowledgment. This
potlatch, a feast,
is
done
where others are
right,
ceremony
at a
but also by called a
invited to witness the
claiming of names, the telling of stories, and the display of
objects with images of animals and spirit beings recalled from
the ancestral past.
A potlatch
organized
is
wishes to claim a name, after the death of
when
a family
example, when a maternal nephew takes the name by the passing of
his uncle,
member
a senior chief, for
the senior chief.
One
left
of the
vacant
most
impressive displays of crests for such an occasion would be the
commissioning and
totem
raising of a
that utilizes a substantial portion of a cedar.
The word "totem"
is
a
pole, a vertical sculpture
whole monumental red
misnomer
here.
from the Algonquian word "dodem" meaning creatures are not "totems" even of the word. These
in
The term comes spirit.
Crest
the anthropological sense
monumental carvings are more accurately
referred to as "memorial poles," since a memorial potlatch to
commemorate
a
deceased chief
most common reason
the
is
for
their creation. In
1888, the senior chief of the
clan in the village of a
Wixha household
Gitanyow (formerly known
Wolf
Gitksan Tsimshian community located on the Upper Skeena
River, raised a pair of
memorial poles
cedar plank house
honor of
in
as a
young man by the
had
in
fact
his
a
shifted
of the beloved nephew.
The
a
146
monstrous
bird
known
front of his impressive
[121
].
who
in
had been
killed
The memorial poles
deceased senior
chief,
but the
response to the tragic death
principal
as
in
nephew,
colonial police
been intended for
purpose of the potlatch
is
of the
as Kitwancool),
image of the pole on the
Mountain
Eagle.
Long
ago, so the
left
121
Two memorial
poles at the
Gitksan Tsimshian village of
Gitanyow (formerly known as Kitwancool), Upper Skeena River, British
Columbia, carved by an
artist identified
by ethnographer
Marius Barbeau as Haesemhliyawn.
The poles were
commissioned and erected
in
1888
Wixha Wolf clan. The
by the senior chief of the
household of the
major crest displayed on the pole
on the
left
large bird
the right
is
Mountain Eagle (the
toward the top) and on
is
Split
Person (the figure
standing at the top).
ancestral stories say, Mountain Eagle had kidnapped a
woman
of
Wixha ancestry and made her
monster craved human
human family,
children.
flesh,
and
it
ate
by the display of crests.
Mountain Eagle on the memorial pole nose
Wolf clan
split
human
killed him.
significant crest
small figures
on
his
mate. But the
their half-bird, half-
The woman escaped and returned
and her story became part of the
commemorated
like
all
is
is
On
The
who
below
Sharp Nose, whose blade-
young hero of the
stands at the top with
most
two
the crest stories. Split Person has
two
one stomach.
The massive winter houses, made of cedar posts and cedar planks, can also bear crests of the resident interior of the
be
figure standing
the second pole, to the right, the
Person,
his head. In
heads, one trunk, and
to her
family's history to
victims like salmon, until a
Split
young
Whale House
family.
of Klukwan. a Tlingit
split
The
community
of
southern Alaska, whose residents belonged to the Ganaxteidi clan of the Ravens,
was
installed with an elaborate interior screen,
or
147
122 Interior of the
Whale House
at the Chilkat Tlingit village of
partition,
which separated the quarters of the resident chief from
the rest of the house
Known
[122].
as the Rain Screen,
it is
linked
how
Raven
Klukwan, Alaska. Several crests of the Ganaxteidi clan of the Ravens are
visible:
the Rain Screen that
serves as a partition visible back, the
Woodworm
house post on the
in
the
brought
rain to the earth.
The image shows the massive head
of Raven, flanked by feathers and
left,
and the
outstretched hands. The
crouching figures that range across the border at the top and sides represent splashing raindrops.
The house posts were carved
by Kadjis-du-axtc, according to
ethnographer Louis Shotridge,
sometime before
its
interior
Raven interior house post on the right.
by art historian Aldona Jonaitis to the origin story of
1834.
frames the screen to the
or grub, recognized by a
left
its
again, but
episode
now
in a
in
killed.
woodworm
woodworm,
that
consumed
refers to
entire
The opposite house post shows Raven
human form.
In this
house post that
holding a
This carving refers to another
do with the
particular story, Raven catches a
origins
salmon and
other animals that have gathered and asked Raven to share.
Promising
a
barbecue, Raven sends them away on
so he can eat the
48
was
interior
cycle of Raven stories having to
of the world. tricks
it
The
a figure
segmented body. The carving
story about a monstrous
houses before
shows
fish himself.
fool's
errands
At potlatches, hats
worn by
crests can also be displayed
chiefs.
The Sea Lion House
community
of the Tlingit
with the image of Raven it
recalls the
on
large conical
of the L'uknax adi Ravens
of Sitka possessed a crest hat carved
[
123].
Called the "Raven Barbecuing Hat"
same story of Raven and the salmon and how he
tricked the other animals. During the mid-nineteenth century, 123
Raven Barbecuing Hat, Sea
the Ganaxteidi Ravens of Klukwan disputed the right of the Sea
Lion
House
Lion
of the L'uknax adi
Ravens of the
House Ravens
Tlingit village of
theirs.
to display the hat, claiming the story
was
They took the hat and, by so doing, provoked war. Peace
Sitka, Alaska, early 19th century.
The
hat references an episode of
the Raven cycle of crest stories
which Raven organized
a
in
illustrates
eventually,
and the hat returned, but
this incident
the dynamic nature of crests and their deployment
in
barbecue
to fool the other animals and keep a
was restored
salmon he had caught to himself.
potlatches. Family ancestry, and the importance attached to
must be claimed and defended. Monumental works
in
it,
cedar,
149
memorial poles, interior screens and house posts, and the
owned
treasures palpable
reality.
by the family, such as crest hats, give claims
Their display at large public feasts establishes
their legitimacy. By accepting the
abundant food and
distributed at potlatches, the guests
acknowledge
gifts
their hosts'
ancestral greatness.
The name
of the
man who carved
best-known carvers of master
his
Wixha house memorial
the
poles at Gitanyow was Haesem-hliyawn,
who was one
generation (active
c.
1
commissioned to make the
Tlingit carver
of the
840- 880). The
1
Woodworm
and Raven posts of the Whale house at Klukwan some time before 1834 was recorded by Tlingit ethnologist Louis Shotridge as Kadjis-du-axtc
We
know
(c.
1760-1850) from the
pertinent aspects of their identities are
very
village of
more about these two men, but
little
likely chiefs
a
Wrangell.
couple of
fairly certain.
themselves, or at least high-ranking
They were in
their clans,
who
and they belonged to the marriage group opposite to those
commissioned the work. By custom, these commissioned crest carvings from
words from the same group
The
children.
matrilineal
households
their in-law 's families,
other
in
as the fathers of the household's
exogamy locked northern Northwest Coast
rules of
societies together through intermarriage, and the respective roles
of families linked this
way were
strictly defined.
pole was to be erected, or a house
When
a
memorial
the household would not
built,
perform the labor of creating the crests themselves. They paid their in-laws to
do
it,
as they
performed the same chores for them
on the occasion of their potlatches. The
in-laws
were often
the principal guests at the event and were "paid"
in gifts
also
to witness
and acknowledge the household's claims.
Once
crest objects have been created, households never
relinquish their rights over them. In 1958, the
Wixha
at
title
holder of Chief
Gitanyow signed an agreement with the Museum of
Anthropology
at the University of British
Columbia. The
museum
would remove and care for the Wixha memorial poles and,
in
return,
would supply modern reproductions, which remain on
display
in
the
community
today.
The Klukwan
villagers
had
difficult
time retaining their rights over the contents of the
House.
A
landmark court decision
in
1974 returned the
house posts and Rain Screen to the community
a
more
Whale
interior-
after they had
been improperly sold (so the court ruled) to an art
dealer. Today,
they are on display for visitors to the community house at Chilkat.
Not
all
objects carved and painted with images of animals
bear crests, however. Crests are most
150
commonly deployed on
124
Bentwood
chest, attributed to
a carver of the Nisga'a Tsimshian,
Nass
and
(interior posts, partition screens,
on the exterior
facade),
wooden
serving dishes used at
river region, British
Columbia, active
Many
memorial poles, houses paintings
in
the 1800s.
of the chests thought to have
been produced by carvers of
this
region traveled through trade to
potlatches, crest hats, and other kinds of regalia, such as formal
garments. The images that appear on large storage chests and smaller boxes are not crests, but abstract images of
other communities. This chest was
animals that are often
among the Haida Queen Charlotte Islands.
employed
collected
of the
a series of
difficult
to identify
[124].
The
more
generic
artists
conventions to create the images,
a tradition
of artistic practice that stems back at least to the time of the
Lachane
site
where the
bucket handle (500
bc),
the earliest
tradition can be recognized.
historian, calls
Bill
object
artist
and art
the "form-line tradition." Designs begin with a
it
strong organizing "form-line" which outlines the of the image.
known
Holm, an
On
component
parts
the rain screen described above, or on the
conventional design of
a
wooden
storage chest, the form-line
inscribes the broad dimensions of the animal's head and
its
diminutive body. Spaces within the form-line are
with
filled in
a
series of standard elements: "ovoids" that serve as eyes or locate
the shoulder and hip joints; "U"s that often suggest feathers or fins;
and anatomical
details like
provide clues to the creature's painted, carved tradition
is
a
in
shallow
hands and claws that sometimes identity.
relief,
Form-line designs can be
or often both. The form-line
conservative discipline and master artists rarely
transgressed the rules. Within the system, however, they found
151
great opportunities for their
125 Chief's seat, carved by
Captain Richard Carpenter, or Du'klwayella, of the Heiltsuk of Bella Bella
in
British
carefully
how form-line
and
skills
designs
creativity.
were created,
By observing
art historians
town
Columbia,
before 1900. Carpenter's distinctive style of "form-line"
have been able to recognize the hands of individual masters
even
when
a design
their
names are no longer known. The
attributes of
carved and painted on an elaborate settee, or
chief's
carving has permitted the attribution of several additional
seat, signed by a Heiltsuk
works to
(Du'klwayella 1841-1931)
his
hand.
boxes that can
now
master [125],
artist
named
Richard Carpenter
helped identify several chests and
be attributed to
his
hand: narrow, calligraphic
form-lines leave large open spaces for secondary and tertiary design elements. Boxes and chests
Heiltsuk artists
Haida
who
were traded
artists of the
made by Carpenter and other
widely.
Many boxes
Queen Charlotte
Islands,
also
come from
or the Tsimshian
neighbor the Heiltsuk to the north. Chiefs acquired them
to store household treasures or to give away at potlatches. Tlingit
women
from the Chilkat River region wove form-line
designs into the patterns of mountain goat
warps of cedar bark
[126].
The images
wool blankets with
are not crests.
Women
copied the designs from pattern boards painted by male [127].
Like boxes,
mountain goat horn spoons, and food
artists
vessels,
Chilkat blankets, as they are called, traveled far from the
community of their manufacture through
trade. Chiefs of the
southern communities coveted them particularly for the dance," a demonstration of
power
in
which
"chief's
a chief hosting a
potlatch danced with a Chilkat blanket, a frontlet headdress, and a raven rattle to spirit
152
summon masked
dancers representing powerful
beings into the dance house (see below).
126 Robe, Tlingit
woven by
woman
a Chilkat
of southern Alaska
around 1890. The techniques and of weaving robes of mountain
skills
goat wool and cedar bark were
once
far
more widespread
in
southern Alaska and British
Columbia, but due to epidemics and population decline,
women
became the
the Chilkat Tlingit
of
sole
carriers of the tradition during the later 19th century.
127 Pattern board, a
hand-hewn
cedar plank with a design for Chilkat robe painted Chilkat Tlingit
man
on
it
a
by a
of southern
Alaska around 1890 Chilkat
women
derived their designs for
woven robes from painted pattern boards
like this
one. which appears
to have been the
robe
illustrated
model
above
for the
(fig.
126).
153
The art oftheTlingit shaman
As mentioned
word "shaman" comes from
the
earlier,
language of northeastern Siberia. There, a shaman spiritual practitioner
who
mediates between society and the
world of spirits. He or she does so by
invisible
leaving the body,
the Evenk
a kind of
is
and journeying to the
spirit
trance,
falling into a
world. Shamanistic
practice crossed the Bering Straits, and this very special category
of mostly
and
men and some women
among
can be found
Inuit (Eskimo), and, to varying degrees, the
of the
Northwest Coast. The shaman played and the objects required for
Tlingit society
the Yupik
Native peoples
powerful role
a
in
Tlingit shamanistic
practice provided a particularly rich opportunity for the sculptural skills
of Tlingit artists.
In
many
but the
cases the role of the Tlingit shaman was hereditary,
spirit
helpers of a deceased shaman selected the initiate
from descendants within the same identified as a child
if
family.
A shaman was
he or she resembled a shaman
past or had
some other
upon these
spirit helpers,
physical particularity.
known
often
the family's
in
The shaman
relied
as yek, to locate lost items,
identify thieves, exorcise disease-causing spells
among
the
sick,
expose the malevolent practices of witches, spy upon the enemy's camp, and combat the powers of shaman adversaries. possess
possible to assist him. But
The
All
animals
and a shaman hoped to accumulate as many as
spirits
land otter
some were more powerful
was most important. Mountain
than others.
goats, frogs,
octopuses, mice (the master thieves to detect thieves) also figured prominently. Aldona Jonaitis, yek,
who
studied the identities of Tlingit
proposed that the most powerful were able to transgress
realms of habitat - the amphibious freedom of frogs and land otters for example
-
as a
metaphor of the
ability
of a
shaman
to pass freely from this world to the next. Others confounded
conventional categories of identity, such as the exotic and to-classify
difficult-
octopus and mountain goat.
A shaman
required a collection of objects
- among the most important,
in
order to practice
a set of at least four masks.
A more
powerful shaman might have eight or nine. These represented
summoned them to participate during a shaman's A mask owned by Kowee, a shaman and also a Raven hereditary chief of the Auk Tlingit, is carved with a human-
his yek
and
performance.
like
face
surmounted by the head of a
three mountain goats on either side the
mouth
like a
tongue.
tongues of powerful
154
A shaman
spirit
[
land otter and flanked by 128
j.
A frog emerges
from
collected and preserved the
animals as attributes of their power, so
images of tongues figure prominently Reputedly, this
Kowee, who died around
prior to Chief
A shaman
in
Tlingit shamanistic art.
mask had belonged to two generations of shamans 1850.
also possessed a rattle customarily
in
the form of
an oystercatcher, a shore bird that inhabited the liminal ground
between
land and sea.
A shaman's
rattle
from Hoonah
is
carved
with an image of a reclining shaman on an oystercatcher's back, positioned between a pair of octopus tentacles,
head of 128 Mask, chief
owned by
an
Auk
Tlingit
and shaman of southern
tongue
a land otter, [
129].
When
and
on
a frog
his
breast
performing, the shaman
headdress (some consisted of
a
his feet
who
on the
offers his
wore
a special
crown of goat horns),
a painted
known as Kowee, who died around 1850. The large land otter
hide apron, and a necklace of bone, walrus ivory, or whale tooth
poised over the forehead, the
charms carved
Alaska,
mountain goats framing the
face,
in a
and the frog emerging from the
mouth
are
guardian
all
the shaman's
spirits.
as spirit helpers.
These objects were never kept
house but were secluded away
the roof but
more
structures, or
in
in a
box. sometimes kept on
often outside the village on isolated platforms,
caves.
When
a
shaman
died, his
body and
155
129 Shaman's rattle Tlingit
town
of
from the
Hoonah, southern
Alaska, carved during the early
to mid- 1800s.
130 Guardian figure erected at a
shaman's grave
town
site
near the Tlingit
of Yakutat, southern Alaska,
estimated to have been carved
between 1820 and 1840.
131
(opposite) Dagger or fighting
knife called Ixti'ku gwal'aa, or
"emaciated shaman dagger," made, according to oral tradition, by
woman named
a
Saayeina'aat, of the
L'uknax adi Ravens of the Chilkat Tlingit
town of Yandeist'akyee
during the 1700s.
156
equipment were
similarly isolated in a grave
house distant from
the community.
Wooden
powerful
were arranged around the grave house to guard
spirits
against intruders
A shaman to
do
The
so.
figures representing
shamans and
[130].
could make
his
own equipment
quality of the carving
on many
or could ask others
Tlingit
shaman masks
suggests that they had been commissioned from the best carvers,
but
some shaman among
from
his
own
in
fine carvers
shaman approached carvers or
matrilineal relations, preferably a brother
matrilineal cousin. artists,
may have been
the Tlingit
too. Unlike with crest objects, the
Other categories of objects made by
Tlingit
but not used by a shaman, employed images of yek, clearly
an effort to improve their spiritual efficacy. As Aldona Jonaitis
has pointed out, for example, hooks for catching halibut, a risky
offshore enterprise
in
a small canoe,
were sometimes carved
with images of the octopus, land otter, and mountain goat. Shamanistic images also improved weapons of war, such as
massive protective helmets, bone-crushing clubs, and stabbing daggers.
An
extraordinary dagger forged of iron, once a treasure
of the Tluqwaxadi clan of Klukwan,
is
named
Ixti'ku gwal'aa,
"emaciated shaman dagger" or "shaman's thrust"
The
[l3l].
hilt
of
the dagger shows the shaman's face, the details of eyes, mouth,
and ears fashioned of separate pieces of iron and copper and riveted to the underlying hand-forged iron. According to family tradition, this dagger
from
a
meteor
was made by
female ancestress of the clan
a
that had fallen upriver
from the
village.
There are
several accounts of pre-contact ironworking along the northern
West Coast, most
washed
often referring to logs (possibly masts)
up on-shore studded with iron spikes and
nails.
The ways of the mask In
1884 the Canadian Indian Act was amended to read,
"Every Indian or other person celebrating the Indian festival guilty of a
misdemeanor and
The law was addressed
who
engages
known
shall
be
in
or
as the 'Potlatch' liable for
in
part,
assists in ...
is
imprisonment...."
principally to the Kwakiutl (or
Kwakwaka'wakw, meaning those who speak the Kwak'wala language)
who
lived
along the north end of Vancouver Island
and the adjacent mainland.
Ironically,
Franz Boas, the
first
anthropologist to study potlatch practices carefully, arrived to
work among
who
the Kwakiutl
two years
later.
The Kwakiutl
greeted him on 6 October 1886 warned.
chief
"We want
whether you have come to stop our dances and
feasts, as
to
know
the
157
missionaries and agents If
who
among our neighbors
live
you come to forbid us dance, be gone.
welcome among until authorities
us."
The Kwakiutl
began to enforce
If
you
not,
try to do.
be
will
largely ignored the prohibition
aggressively after 1920.
it
In
one
notorious instance, the participants of a 1922 potlatch were prosecuted, but
some were
given suspended sentences
if
they
agreed to give up their masks and potlatch goods. The agent then sold
them to eastern museums. The potlatch amendment was
deleted from the Indian Act
worked hard
1951
in
,
and the Kwakiutl have
to get the masks they surrendered
in
1922 back.
Despite the government's efforts, the Kwakiutl potlatch had
never disappeared.
The government
prohibition against potlatches and Franz
Boas's anthropological interest
in
them stemmed from
confluence of events that resulted
in
a
an unprecedented expansion
of potlatch ceremonies during the late nineteenth century.
beginnings of white settlement
in
The
Kwakiutl territory, marked
by the founding of the town of Fort Rupert
in
1849, resulted
in
increased wealth for the Kwakiutl from trade and labor though in
addition to a drastic decline
the size of their communities
in
due to devastating diseases. Colonial conflict,
rule repressed intra-village
expanding the potential for potlatch partners. Potlatches
of the past had been comparatively few, but
now
socially aspirant
Kwakiutl families gathered new-found wealth to give away as potlatch
gifts
and aggressively claimed vacant
inflationary spiral of increasingly extravagant
titles in
an
and frequent
ceremonies. Government agents and frustrated missionaries reacted against such behavior as profligate and un-Christian,
and politicked for regulation. Local
officials
remained steadfastly
unimpressed with the performative aspects of Kwakiutl
ritual.
During potlatches, Kwakiutl chiefs staged elaborate dramatic narratives
in
which masked dancers impersonated powerful
supernatural beings.
The masks created by Kwakiutl carvers
for
these performances are astounding creations, showing fantastic creatures
whose
features
movable eyes, or which all
come
split in
to
life
two to
with hinged jaws and reveal another face inside,
controlled by strings and other mechanical contrivances.
growth of potlatch ceremonialism during the second nineteenth century ushered arts.
It
was
after the
in a
golden age of Kwakiutl sculptural
young Boas had encountered
of Kwakiutl masks assembled
in
The
half of the
Berlin
in
a collection
1885 by ethnographic
impresario Adrian Jacobsen, that he arranged to travel to British
Columbia to undertake fieldwork the next
158
year.
The Kwakiutl conducted potlatches
to memorialize the dead,
to
mark the union of families through marriage, to bestow names
or
titles
upon
members, or to wipe away the shame of a
family
from several
humiliating event. Large potlatches involving guests villages often
combined
most prominent
a
number
Among the
of these functions.
masked performances that might
of the several
be staged, high-ranking families initiated their youth into the hamatsa, or Cannibal Society, a privilege that
stemmed from an
ancestral encounter with deadly cannibal spirits. Customarily, a chief gave the Cannibal
Dance to
son-in-law for the benefit of
his
future grandsons, so rights to the dance
Hamatsa
initiations, like
was when cannibal
since that
were disseminated
most masked dances, took spirits
place
widely.
winter,
in
journeyed south from the
North End of the World and frequented Kwakiutl called these seasonal ritual events "the
Boas
villages.
Winter Ceremonial." The
dramatic performance enacts the kidnapping of the
initiate
by
cannibal spirits and his return transformed into a cannibal himself,
crazed by hunger for
human
flesh.
Chiefs of the family cure the
dancer, purging the cannibal spirit from his body.
culminates
in
The performance
the appearance of cannibal spirits represented by
dancers wearing masks of enormous cannibal birds, their beaks snapping voraciously as they dance.
Born is
in
the village of Tigwaxsti, Willie Seaweed (1873-1967)
probably the best-known Kwakiutl carver of dramatic masks for
the Cannibal Dance:
Gwaxaml
"Seaweed"
actually
meaning "paddled
comes from
to,"
Crooked Beak. The name
Strait. Willie
Hilamas from
Willie's chiefly title, Siwidi,
the highest-ranking position of the
Nakwaxda'xw Kwakiutl who Charlotte
Huxwhukw
the Cannibal Raven;
the Cannibal Crane; Galukwaml the
his father,
live in
the vicinity of the
inherited the
who
title
Queen
and also the name
himself was a well-known carver.
Hilamas the elder had fathered another carver from marriage named Johnny Davis (Lalakanxid). Artists
a
previous
among
the
Kwakiutl often came from high-ranking families but customarily did not
make masks
for their
own
potlatches.
They provided
this
service to other chiefly families for payment, and hired out the
work necessary
A Crooked
for the display of their
own
chiefly privileges.
Beak mask carved by Willie Seaweed during
of prolific activity
in
a
the 1940s exemplifies the hyperbolic
of the Cannibal performance
upper beak arches high above
1
132].
The
prerequisite
flaring red nostrils,
hook
period
drama of the
balanced by
the hyper-extended scroll of the lower jaw. These exaggerated
appendixes maximize the hinged
movement
of the broad jaws, as
159
132 (opposite)
Hamatsa mask,
carved by Willie Seaweed,
a
Nakwaxda'xw Kwakiutl
of
Queen
Charlotte
Columbia,
Strait, British
during the 1940s.
appeared
in
the dancer
lifts
his
head
vertically upright
and audibly snaps the
lower jaw open and shut while emitting the piercing cry of this
human-devouring and
The mask
potlatches up through
it
was used
in
bird.
Seaweed made the mask
Cannibal Dances up
until
for
Sam Weber
the 1970s.
Before assembled guests at Kwakiutl potlatches, chiefs
the 1970s.
paraded their ancestral bonds to countless mythic beings depicted by masked dancers. Each dance acquisition: an ancestral
is
tied to the narrative of
hero or heroine
home and encountered marvelous
who
its
traveled far from
or perhaps potentially deadly
creatures, but returned with their treasures
in
the form of masks
and dances. For the most powerful and prestigious dances, Cannibal Dance, the ancient
spirits
return and kidnap
like
the
members
of
the family, but they are restored to the community by the powers of the chiefs. For others, the chief dances with a raven rattle and frontlet headdress calls spirit
guests.
in
a
manner
that impersonates a
Some
presentations,
like
Kumugwe' (Chief of the
Bak'was (Chief of the Animals), or Atlakam (forest
dozens of masks and distinctive identity
133 (right)
shaman and
beings into the dance house before the assembled
spirit characterizations,
and appearance
Sea),
spirits),
each with
its
employ
own
[133].
Bullhead mask, carved
before 1901 for the Dance of the
Undersea Kingdom, prerogative of
dance
a
Gwawaenuxw
Kwakiutl of Hopetown, British
Columbia. Here the mechanical transformation mask revealing the last of
is
its
fully
open,
three faces.
161
The
chiefs of the
Nuu-chah-nulth also conducted Winter
Ceremonial dances, but here kidnapped the high-born
spirit
initiates.
wolves instead of cannibals
During the ceremonies of
their cure and restoration to society, the chiefly sponsors staged
masked dances with representations of powerful
To the
spirits.
north, Tsimshian chiefs hosting potlatches demonstrated their
control over halait or "spirit power" by putting on masked
performances. Haida chiefs claimed to have acquired the rights to present masked dances from their mainland neighbors. The masks created for these events represent the height of the Northwest
Coast carver's
much upon 134
Two
sailors of argillite with
art.
The
prestige of their sponsors
even death, followed should they
fail.
made by a Haida carver of the Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, some time, it is
family's future
estimated, around 1845. Haida
obtained. There are few other places
ivory
inlay,
carvers began making
argillite
depended so
the success of the artists' creations that humiliation,
depended upon
The
social aspirations of a
plausible and forceful ties to the
ancestral past and the spiritual
powers that ancestors had in
the world
where the
productivity of artists has played such an integral role
in
the
(black slate) carvings for
"otherworldly"
American or 1830.
visitors, like
British sailors,
Here the
artist has
these
conduct of
society.
around
captured
Northwest Coast
artists
and the outside world
the clothing and quizzical body
language of the potential
purchasers of
his
work.
The precious late
objects procured by early explorers during the
eighteenth century - masks, heirloom weapons, and other
treasures
- may have been
offered as diplomatic exchanges to
these peculiar strangers with their awe-inspiring ships. But soon
Northwest
artists
outlet for their
home
began to see the outsiders as a lucrative
skills
and
creativity.
The Queen Charlotte
new
Islands,
to the Haida people, was heavily harvested of sea otters
between 1805 and 1830 and became
a
prime provisioning spot
for the northern Pacific whaling fleet. Visitors to the
Queen
Charlottes soon began to acquire small elaborate smoking pipes
made
of
argillite, a
jet-black clay stone
as Slatechuck Mountain.
These are
from
a
quarry
site
really effigies of pipes,
known because
they cannot be used for smoking. Early pipes offer fantastic
menageries of crest-like animals, although
artists
avoided specific
crest images. Argillite carvers soon began to incorporate into their carvings images of sailing captains, fragments of sailing ships,
and other motifs familiar to their ship-bound visitors
[
134].
Miniature memorial poles, house models, and boxes followed,
along with small, free-standing sculptures, typically representing a
shaman or favorite).
illustrating a
Haida
common
artists clearly
story (the "bear mother" was a
looked to the market for inspiration,
experimenting with different subjects and focusing on those they
found to be most popular among buyers.
162
would
It
not, however, be accurate to describe argillite
carvings as simply tourist-art curios. There
the best Haida
is
good evidence
approached for major crest commissions, also carved for sale.
argillite
Art historian Robin Wright recognizes the hand of
Squiltcange, an early nineteenth-century artist
mentioned by
Charles Edenshaw, on a set of mortuary posts at the Haida site
of Kiusta and also on
some
Wright
Haida, carved
Edenshaw
also thinks that Albert
one of the most prominent argillite as a
village
extraordinarily refined argillite
carvings. (Excavations at Kiusta confirm that argillite
there.)
that
carvers, those high-born individuals customarily
(c.
was carved
1812-1894),
chiefs of the nineteenth-century
young man while
Without question, Charles Edenshaw maternal nephew, and heir to
his
(c.
living in Kiusta.
1829-1920), Albert's
name and
recognized
title, is
today as one of the most accomplished masters of argillite carving
on the Northwest Coast. One of impressive miniature chest of diminutive frog feet
[135].
his
argillite
perched on the
lid.
a
clam
shell
and dressed as the
first
a
humans
its
first
human
a masterful
at
lid
illustrates a
beings, brought forth
Haida chief stands on the clam
up
an
sides with a free-standing
by Raven into the world. Raven
at his feet, peering
is
upon four
The composition on the
well-known Haida story of the
from
that stands
Edenshaw combines
interpretation of form-line relief on figure
more elaborate works
in
human form
shell,
the faces of
him from the edge of the
giant clam.
Model chest of argillite. carved
135
by Charles Edenshaw (Haida),
1900
c
10.
This masterful carving
combines the form and design of I traditional
bentwood chest
(see
fig
124) with a figural rendering
the
lid
cycle of stories. Raven, of
|
first
a
Haida
chief,
human
clam
on
of an episode of the Raven in
the form
looks on as the
beings
emerge from
shell.
163
136 Mask, carved by sdiihldaa (Haida)
Masset,
Queen Charlotte
British
Columbia, active
before
his
is
death
Simeon
Simeon
from the town of
in
1889. This
mask
his facial hair
and
Whale
box made by 1971
.
Trained as a jeweler, Reid
enjoyed great success and recognition late
in his life
work based upon
human
particularly for his
Bill
face
masks
man's
Holm and Robin Wright name
have been used
[
136].
is
known today
Their distinctive round has
it
considerable effort to restore
to his body of work. His masks of white in
humorous performances
outsiders' rude habits.
Some masks were
that
made
men may
fun of the
evidently sold directly
to collectors.
for his
More modern Haida
the study of the
old Haida masters.
is
poles,
Leaping," a gold
Reid (Haida),
Bill
1799-1889), an Eagle chief at Masset,
faces and clear-eyed expressions are unmistakable, although
this 'Killer
(c.
maker of canoes and carver of memorial
frontlet headdresses, and argillite models, but
taken
narrow nose.
137
as a
Islands,
until just
clearly intended to represent a
white man, with
sdiihldaa
remembered
Bill
Reid
for the
(
artists pay
most part
late in his
from the tradition of Haida
A vibrant killer whale if
in
to these past masters.
Toronto and worked
and gold, but he completed
in silver
monumental commissions
top as
homage
1920-1998) trained as a jeweler
life.
of
feast dishes, but here
in
miniature
[
137].
leaps up over the mirror-like finish of the
corpus of work, prints on paper
bronze sculpture, through line structure.
participate
in
his
[138],
Although contemporary Northwest Coast
exhibitions and
of traditional social
community
masks, and
meditative introspections of form-
sell
works through
galleries,
large they remain deeply involved with potlatches
164
number
suspended weightlessly. Robert Davidson has also created
a substantial
of
a
His gold box of 1971 builds
life.
life
as
it
artists
by and
and other aspects
has persisted to this day as a vibrant part
138 Raven Stealing the
Moon,
Robert Davidson (Haida), silkscreen print In
on paper, 1977
addition to making prints,
Davidson
is
also an accomplished
carver of masks.
165
Chapter
8
Arctic and Subarctic
North of the Arctic
Circle the cycle of night and day slows from
pace not governed by the quick
a planetary to a solar rhythm, a
spinning of the earth
on
axis but by the
its
more
leisurely
journey
of the earth around the sun. Along the northern Alaskan and
Canadian coast, the sun dips below the horizon for the early
in
again
in
November, beginning the long Arctic a
new dawn
until
February.
night,
move
to a
rise
As the winter approaches,
"freeze-up" locks open water into impermeable that have not fled south
time
last
not to
ice. Living
things
more somnambulant tempo,
awaiting spring. Seabirds begin to reappear
in
April, ushering in a
parade of returning migratory animals throughout the succeeding
months: nesting Straits to the
their calving
birds,
spawning
west and into
fish,
whales through the Bering
Bay
Baffin
in
the east, and caribou to
grounds across the tundra to the north.
Four thousand years ago, human societies rose to the challenges of this unique environment by evolving life-ways
and technologies suited to the grand ebb and flow of Arctic Archaeologists have found earlier a
sites,
life.
but sustained evidence of
purposeful colonization of the Arctic coast seems to have begun
by approximately
settlements that
make
2500
human
bc.
It is
life
clear
from these
here depended upon the
things, carefully crafted tools that helped
peculiarities of
first,
environment into
earliest ability
to
transform the
useful resources. Peoples of the
Arctic Small Tool Tradition (2200-1000 bc) depended upon their skills
to locate local sources of suitable stone and create small
and delicate stone tools: chipped blades, burins, micro-blades, and scrapers. These fundamental processing and fabricating tools hint at inventories of additional tools,
of
wood, bone,
66
antler,
and
ivory.
weapons, and conveyances
Art of hunting In
the central Arctic of Canada's northern
Territories,
Quebec and Northwest
Dorset culture emerged from the "Pre-Dorset"
800
variant of the Arctic Small Tool Tradition by
people
built sizeable
Dorset
bc.
semi-subterranean houses excavated into
the tundra, with upper walls of piled earth and roofs of animal hide. Oil
mammal
rendered from sea
soapstone lamps made
living
houses possible. Compared with
Dorset possessed
blubber and burned
task of creating images.
a great deal of
They carved
skill
legs,
and
lives
of Dorset people, these a spiritual technology,
most fearsome predatory competitor
the central Arctic. Often the animal rendered
seems unbound by
gravity, legs trailing
hanging limply, as
the creature
space
[139].
dolls
influence the world around them. Several pendants
depict the polar bear, man's in
human
startlingly lifelike miniature
pendants and amulets may have represented
means to
On the
small pendants and figures
masks. For the challenging, risk-laden
a
such
and craft to the
of wood, antler, and walrus ivory: images of animals,
with articulated arms and
in
later residents of this region, the
a rather limited hunting technology.
other hand, they committed
in
throughout the Arctic winter
if
Are such images
is
spirit
in
these amulets
behind and forepaws
flying
or floating through
polar bears that act as hunters'
helpers? Did the amulets offer protection against these dangerous
animals? 139 Figure of polar bear carved
from walrus a
ivory,
Dorset culture
recovered from
site in
the Igloolik
area, just south of Baffin Island,
Or do
they recognize those
who
had
killed
Such questions remain with
its
difficult
to answer. Dorset
art,
perceived few boundaries between the activities of
Middle Dorset period, ad
and of other creatures of the environment.
100-1000. This
is
if
human
beings
one of many
Dorset charms that show
polar bears as
however,
keen observations of animals, suggests an ideology that
Nunavut Province, dating to the
small
polar bears,
at considerable risk, by representing their flaccid, lifeless bodies?
flying
or
floating.
To the west,
after
1000
bc,
life in
the Bering Straits region
focused increasingly on the ample maritime resources - walrus,
167
whales, and seals - with a growing inventory of tools, utensils,
and hunting technologies. Distinctively decorated implements and hunting weapons characterize the Okvik and Old Bering Sea traditions (ad 1-700) rooted
in
the Chukchi peninsula of Siberia
but spread across the Bering Strait to
some
isolated locations
St.
Lawrence
and
Island
on mainland Alaska. Okvik and Old
Bering Sea hunters employed a specialized and well-crafted variety
mammals.
of heavy harpoon for hunting large sea fitted
through the heavy hide of a walrus.
head dragged an until
A toggle
with a stone blade detached from the harpoon
it
could be
A
line
thrust
bound to the toggle
inflated bladder float to tire the killed
head
when
wounded
animal
with lances. Hunters carved the toggle head
and a heavy foreshaft for their harpoons from walrus ivory and engraved them with fine web-works of linear design. They also
bound an ivory counter weight, or "winged
object," to the butt
end of the harpoon for balance. An Okvik winged object excavated from
140
Winged
object, a
counterweight for
a
in
the Okvik
St.
Lawrence
engraved with designs
recovered from
Island,
Bering Straits, dating to
300-1
bc.
This
is
one of several
different functioning parts of an
innovative harpoon design that
made
Lawrence
Island
is
stained nearly black from local
Characteristic Okvik patterns enliven
its
groundwater
[i40].
surfaces: fine lines,
harpoon,
carved of walrus ivory and
style,
St.
dark graphite that percolates through
colonization of the Bering
Straits region possible.
stippled dashes, and concentric circles.
Okvik and three variants
of Old Bering Sea styles of engraving (Old Bering
I,
II,
and
III)
can
be distinguished, their subtle differences representing regional styles
or gradual changes over time. Although
discern broad
made by or
stylistic
patterns, each object
is
it is
possible to
unique, a product
for the hand of an individual hunter. Such careful
attention to the creation and decoration of hunting
168
weapons
141
Box
to store slate lance
points for whaling,
probably
made
or whaling
owned and
His "kit" of
Island, just
Norton Sound,
and deference for the hunter's dangerous yet
magnanimous
quarry.
The hunting
rituals of later Arctic
by an Inuit umialik,
chief.
whaling paraphernalia was found
on Sledge
reflects respect
potentially
offshore
Alaska,
in
peoples are replete with gestures of respect and gratitude toward
hunted animals, offered with the hope that the the quarry, would continue to give up
its
inua,
body and
or
spirit of
flesh for the
1912.
use and nourishment of
The receding pack
human
ice of
springtime provided opportunities
to hunt whales with techniques culture of
Cape Krusenstern,
Old Bering
tip
first
explored by the Old Whaling
Alaska, as early as 1400 bc. Okvik,
Sea, and especially later
of the Bering Straits region (ad collective,
beings.
Punuk and Birnirk peoples
300- 000) 1
refined whaling as a
community endeavor. Point Barrow, on the northern
of Alaska, supported a large Birnirk whaling community. Thule
culture,
growing out of Birnirk and Punuk roots, brought whaling
traditions with far as
as
it
Thule peoples expanded their range east as
western Greenland by ad 1000. The descendants of these
traditions, such as the Inuit-lnupiaq (Central
Eskimo) residents of
Point Barrow, continue to hunt whales today. Hunters pursued
migratory whales
in
the leads or channels that developed during
the spring between firm shore ice and slushy young offshore
ice.
Success depended upon highly regarded senior men, whaling captains, or umialik,
powerful
who
possessed experience, knowledge, and
spiritual abilities.
The
umialik presided over a close
of kinsmen who, after lengthy ritual preparation,
edge of the pack to
come
by. In
ice close to the
group
camped on the
opening leads waiting for whales
such close quarters, skin boats could be launched
169
142
Whale plaque intended
hang on the skin boat,
bow
when
to
of an umiak, or
whaling. This
is
part of an elaborate whaler's kit
found on Sledge 1912 (see also
fig.
Island, Alaska, in 141).
and a whale harpooned lived in
An unknown
quickly.
whaling chief
the vicinity of Sledge Island, on Norton Sound,
who
owned
an
elaborate assortment of weapons and charms to ensure success while whaling.
He
kept sharp yet delicate slate blades for harpoons
and lances inside a wooden box carved
There the blades became
and their deadliness improved. head, the
A box
most precious part of the
the sharpening blades.
The
carved with the image of
like a
bowhead whale
[l4l].
familiar with the locations of vital organs
a
in
the shape of a whale's
animal, stored whetstones for
umialik also
owned
a
whale to hang on the
or skin boat, while hunting
[
The underside
142].
wooden
bow
plaque
of his umiak,
of the plaque
is
encrusted with glistening chunks of iron pyrite and polished, brightly colored stones.
Such charms honored the whale so
might swim close and allow
found on Sledge
whale
spirits,
Hunters
powers to
itself
to be caught. This whaler's
Island, also included floats
it
kit,
carved as human-like
stone-tipped lances, and additional charms.
all
depended upon
find animals,
spiritual assistance: the spiritual
draw them
close,
and convince them to
give their bodies. Neglect or carelessness of spiritual requisites for
successful hunting
170
meant
failure,
hunger, and eventually starvation.
When
hunters created their inventory of weapons and implements,
they did not focus just upon their functional objects to evoke
utility.
beneficial spirits, identify with
They created
other powerful
predators, flatter their quarries with intimate knowledge of their
anatomies, and rehearse successful
kills
by demonstrations of
control over the bodies of their prey. For example, hunters
sought seals and walrus using kayaks
in
the waters of
who
Norton
Sound, Alaska, wore hunting hats of wood, with an extended visor in
front to shade the eyes and charms carved of walrus ivory
attached to
its
surface.
The
ivory wings and heads of seagulls
attached to the hat aided the hunter's
waves the
in his
gull
kayak and locate prey.
On
ability
to soar over the
the hat illustrated here,
wings and heads attached to either side of the hat crowd
together three walrus heads their heads carved as
if
in a
vertical
row down the
emerging from the water
[143].
center,
Hunters
kayaks customarily hunted these large and dangerous animals
groups, surrounding
them and herding them together so
hunters could collaborate during the
143
Hunter's hat
man
of
owned
Norton Sound,
in
in
that the
kill.
by an Inuit
Alaska,
before 1886. Wearing this hat while hunting walrus from a kayak assisted the hunter, not only by
shading
his
eyes from the sun, but
also by encouraging
him to emulate
the seagulls, represented by ivory
charms on the
hat.
which herd
walrus together where they can
be harpooned.
171
Masks and shamanism
At the
Ipiutak site, located
on the beach ridges of Point Hope
in
northern Alaska, 125 miles (200 km) north of the Arctic Circle,
were interred with the
collections of engraved walrus ivory objects
two masks pieced together from
dead, including at least
bound by
of engraved walrus ivory village site of
same time) like
144 Funerary mask,
made
of
Ipiutak site, near Point
hundred houses (not to 800.
I
were discovered
during excavations at the
site,
all
sections is
a large
inhabited at the
The masks and other charm-
objects found accompanying burials at Ipiutak hint at the ritual
humans with
in
game
shamanism
[
Arctic shamans interceded for
145].
the world of animal spirits to ensure good relations animals.
They
also cured the sick by retrieving their
Hope,
Alaska. Several remarkable walrus
ivory carvings
six
dating from ad
practices of
walrus ivory and found at the
some
lashings [144]. Ipiutak
straying souls and they restored fertility to
shaman's burial at the Ekven
site,
women. An
elaborate
an Old Bering Sea village and
cemetery on the Siberian mainland, included
a large collection of
which has been dated ad 1-800, including at least like this
one other mask
shamanistic objects: a
mask and drum,
would have been attached to
one.
weapons and women's
number
of
utensils.
amidst tools and weapons associated with both
genders, the shaman buried at Ekven was a
Masks and their lives
ornaments that
special garments, plus a
elaborately decorated hunting Interestingly,
ivory
woman.
collective rituals derived
from the interior
of Arctic peoples, both intellectually and physically, as the
long, less active rituals
months of winter took people
and enjoy
social events.
Throughout the
inside to
perform
Arctic, late
fall
and
the early months of winter are devoted to festivals and feasting. Supplies have been
and
life
laid in,
game
has retreated to winter ranges,
turns inward toward family and the community. Stories -
told, sung, festivals,
and dramatically enacted -
fill
the long hours of winter
recounting the adventures of animal heroes, the mystic
journeys of shamans, and notable events of the past.
performances use masks. and
145 Carving of a baby walrus,
made
of walrus ivory and found at
the Ipiutak
site,
near Point Hope,
Alaska. This and other small
carvings found at the
site,
dated
ad 1-800, may have been attached to a shaman's garment, functioning as a
charm.
172
a variety of small
A set of wooden
Some
masks with broad faces
attachments accompanied carefully prepared
bodies of men.
women, and
part of the Aleutian chain
[
children
146].
in a
cave on
Unga
Island,
Archaeologists have not
determined their age, but these masks may have been featured during winter festivals
like
those observed
among
the Aleuts by
Russian traders during the eighteenth century. Extended Aleut 146 Fragment of a
found Island,
Alaska
in
wooden mask
families
hosted neighbors
in
their large
communal houses,
offering
Delarof Harbor, Unga
one of the Aleutian
Islands.
feasts, songs, dancing,
shamans'
and masked performances that represented
spirits.
173
147
Masked dancers performing
the Cu'pik
Hooper
town
in
of Qissunaq, near
Bay. Alaska. 1946.
Note
the kneeling posture of the main
dancer
in front,
women who
and the two
are dancing
in
unison.
The men on the
right are singing,
accompanied by
a large
hand drum.
Among the
who
Yupik
along the central and southern
live
Alaskan coast and the Kuskokwim River, a shaman angalkuq, and he or she (usually he) directs
is
called an
most masked
performances. The angalkuq possesses far-reaching powers to influence the attitudes of
game
animals. Falling into a trance and
leaving his body, the angalkuq can travel to the
moon
to seek out
the master of land animals or journey to the bottom of the ocean to find the
mother of sea creatures
intercessor between
human
performances he orchestrates are relations
carvers
[147]. In
the
game
is
scarce.
like
in pairs,
He
is
the
masked
prayers for ongoing good
communal men's house, or
made masks under
often appeared
if
beings and animals, and the
qasgiq, the best
the shaman's instruction. They most
worn
by
two energetic dancers selected
who stood by and offered his audience detailed commentary. One mask of a pair collected from the village of by the angalkuq,
Napaskiak represents "the hole through which the muskrat
emerges from
his
den"
[148].
The
circular
framework
muskrat den and the face with welcoming arms
is
is
the
the hole.
The
white disks are bubbles from the breath of the muskrat which signal its
presence inside the den. The
mask provides plenty of muskrats pull 148
them out
in
spirit
represented by the
the spring
when hunters
can
of their dens and use their skins for clothing.
Dance mask from the town
of Napaskiak
on the Kuskokwim
River, Alaska,
carved by a Yupik
The carvers 1983, 73-year-old Yupik carver
man, perhaps around 1900 The
In
mask represents
had grown up sleeping
a
muskrat's den
in
Nick Charles recalled that he
the qasgiq with his father, uncles,
with the muskrat inside. The white disks are bubbles that reveal to a
hunter the presence of
a
muskrat.
brothers, and cousins. There he learned to carve by watching the
older men.
174
"I
learned from
my
dad.
The only way the men worked
M saw
was on the wood. Making
wood, making
fishtraps, splitting
making kayaks." The long winters of qasgiq
life,
sleds,
drowsy sweat
of
baths, stories, and constant, patient whittling and carving while
seated on a floor strewn with woodchips, have characterized the lives
of Arctic
men
more
for
than a thousand years.
Men
collected
driftwood (particularly roots), whale bone, and walrus ivory anticipation of the long winter
to
make and
repair the
in
months when there would be time
equipment needed for the coming seasons.
The angalkuq might ask those who worked with wood best to
make masks it:
the other
for
upcoming
festivals.
men watched
There was no secrecy about
progress with interest. Carvers
responded to the instructions of the angalkuq but
felt
free to
combine longstanding representational conventions with
own imaginative interpretations. Men also carved for pleasure. Edward was sent to Alaska by the Smithsonian appeared to delight carvings" and that children."
game
"many
1877, noted that
"men
making
in
images are made as toys for
dolls,
miniature kayaks, sleds, dogs,
animals, bears, and other things that children used to
snow with
one another, young
"story knives"
fathers and uncles
own implements
[149].
girls
drew
pictures
in
of ivory and carved by their
Men themselves engraved many
their sailing ships
in
White
made
illustrate
of their
with narrative tableaux of stick figures engaged
hunting walrus, paddling
whites
Images told stories. To
lives in play.
stories told to entertain
in
little
The men carved
rehearse grown-up
the
in
who
William Nelson,
occupying their leisure time
in
their
visitors
in
kayaks, and even trading with the
[(50].
became more common on the Alaskan
Arctic
coast during the late nineteenth century, mostly whalers and missionaries at
first.
Arctic
men
discovered they could earn cash
by selling ivory carvings. Images of walrus, caribou, and polar bear
made good
souvenirs, as did categories of objects
more
familiar
to whites: cribbage boards, paper knives, and ship models. of the 149 "Story knife," carved of walrus
ivory by a Yupik in
the
town
Kuskokwim
man who
lived
when
Bay, Alaska,
before
it
was collected by
Edward William Nelson
for the
Smithsonian Institution.
Men
carved story knives for children,
who in
engravers of ivory for sale was
named Angokwazhuk.
known
1870,
as
Happy Jack. Born
a
snow
in
better
Angokwazhuk was
community on the coast of Cape Nome. He
frostbite
when stranded on
but shortly thereafter
to illustrate tales told
to their friends.
in
whaling vessel. There he
raised
lost his toes
in
1892 he managed to secure
made
his first
work on
a
cribbage boards and
When
the gold rush
community of
Nome
Angokwazhuk
settled there to peddle his carvings as
176
from
the ice while hunting as a young man,
learned scrimshaw techniques from sailors.
used them to draw pictures
the
One
successful and accomplished of the carvers and
of Kongiganak,
the period between 1877 and 1881
most
erupted during the winter of 1898 to 1899,
Happy Jack.
His engraving technique surpassed any of the circle of carvers Walrus
tusk,
engraved
by a Yupik or Inuit
man
during the
150 (top)
1890s.
The
narrative quality of
Alaskan Native art
here with
this
is
151
crowded scene
in
Nome
specialized
during the in
first
decades of the twentieth
reproducing portraits from photographs
juxtaposed on walrus tusks with slumbering walrus, herds of caribou, and dog-sled teams
Carvers on
Little
and adjacent areas
engraved by Happy Jack, or
Angokwazhuk
Nome.
He
[l5l].
Diomede,
King, and
St.
Lawrence
Islands
ivory.
(centre and below) Walrus
tusk,
century.
illustrated
of trade and transport engraved
on the
that gathered
(Inuit),
while
still
carve walrus ivory for sale today, although
there are concerns about dwindling opportunities. Recognizing the limitations for economic development
in
the north, Canada
in
Alaska, during the early
decades of the 20th century.
launched an
Canadian
initiative
Inuit
to establish artist cooperatives
among
the
during the 1950s. Canadian Inuit artists specialized
177
.
152
"Migration." a carving of
soapstone and other materials, created by Joe
an Inuit
Talirunili,
on
resident of Povungnituk,
Hudson Talirunili
who
Bay, is
Quebec, around
one of many
1975.
Inuit artists
began to produce soapstone
sculpture through Native-run
cooperatives established
in
the
1950s.
in
carving local stone and making lithographic prints from
drawings. Their subjects stem from the narrative tradition: stories of
and the humans and
life
Joe
spirit
beings that animate
(1899-1976), for example, grew up
Talirunili
in
it.
Sculptor
the region of
Povungnituk Bay (Puvirnituq), near the northeast shore of Hudson Bay
in
Arctic Quebec. James Houston, the principal organizer of
the government's cooperative program,
the area
first visited
in
1949 under the auspices of the Canadian Crafts Guild to collect
and
Inuit arts Inuit
crafts there.
The present community
was established around
a
Hudson Bay post
in
of
the Povungnituk artists' cooperative soon followed
Making stone sculpture attracted Joe disabled by a hunting accident
of
c.
1975
is
a story of
accident
in
Talirunili since
a
1
,200
I960.
he had been
young man. His Migration
one of many carvings he made representing an umiak
crowded with paddlers from
when
some
the 1950s and
in a
life
[
152].
The
subject stems characteristically
experience. As a child,
similarly
crowded boat when
Talirunili it
survived an
capsized and forty
people drowned.
Women working hides "We used it all," explained Inuit woman "I don't think we ever used to leave any
Lucie
Kownak
in
1981
part of the caribou
behind." Arctic peoples hunted caribou for food, but also for their hides, tendons, antler,
78
and bone.
Life
would not be possible
in
the
harsh Arctic climate without
warm
of caribou, seal, and other animals.
made
caribou hides
many
The
hollow, insulating hairs of
parts of Alaska and the Canadian Arctic,
summer and
during late
Skins taken during this season
were best
fall
Women
insect bites.
same
stretch the skin at the
use a scraper to soften and
Hall: "I
Then use another scraper to
time.
I
take off the inner surface of the skin....
make
to
of holes from
As Emily Nipishna Alerk of Baker
Lake explained to curator Judy
it
full
the
in
spring, the
performed the tasks of hide preparation,
pattern cutting, and sewing.
chew on
for
to hunt caribou.
fur. In
caribou molted and their hides tended to be
In
was possible
it
for clothing. Later
became too heavy with winter
the hides
the hides
these skins best for parkas and trousers.
Inuit to travel inland
fall
made from
clothing
it
softer....
If
the skin
would take
It
five
is
too hard,
I
caribou skins for
the coat, mitts, pants, and boots. You would use two caribou skins for the outer coat and
if
you had
a shirt inside
you would use
another one. So you would catch about four caribou to do the inner and outer coat."
Winter wear required an inner parka (Emily with the hair
worn
outside so
would shed snow and
to be
it
inside
calls
it
a shirt)
and an outer parka with the hair worn
remade every season
ice.
Caribou hide clothing had
since the insulating hairs
grew
off after a year of wear. In the west,
the water
wore waterproof garments sewn together from
made
brittle
men who hunted on
and broke
of walrus and seal intestine. Along the Alaskan coast
also used fish, bird, and
muskrat
skins.
The
strips
women
survival of the family
depended upon well-made and durable protective clothing and the task of making and remaking garments never ended. learned the necessary often
skills
worked together
to
and techniques
their responsibilities.
fulfill
Women
at an early age
proper clothing, the community could not hunt or
and
Without
travel.
Everything depended upon them.
Garments
also functioned as an expressive
communicating
a
medium,
great deal about identity and worldview.
Subtle differences
in
tailored features distinguished fashions of
different communities: the size
and shape of
a
woman's hood
(amaut), for example, or the length and breadth of the extended
and fringed
"tail"
on the back of the parka. Different kinds of
parkas distinguished gender and age: details of cut, for example, identified
women
as unmarried,
married with children, or past
child-bearing age. Men's garments
among
emphasized their roles
and their close relations with
as hunters
the caribou. As well as the long broad
the Canadian Inuit
tail in
the back, close-fitting
•-
hunting parkas included caribou ears on the hood. Stooped over,
with the
swinging between the
tail
legs,
hunters could approach
caribou herds by imitating their movements. To the west, Alaska,
women sewed
in
insets of white belly fur
on the shoulders of their parkas to imitate walrus every individual highly
owned everyday
traders began to
visit
eighteenth century,
the west coast of
women
tusks. Ideally,
more
wear, but also special,
decorated parkas for dances and other
in
from the caribou
social events.
When
Hudson Bay during the
gained access to glass beads for the
decoration of clothing. Formal parkas decorated with glass beads
became
far
more common
after I860
or so
[
153].
Women
cloth panels decorated with beads to chest, cuffs, and
The
added
hood
[154].
cloth and beads themselves represented wealth, and,
combined with the
artistry of
women's needlework, made
powerful statement about the prestige,
skills,
a
and industriousness
of the family.
Garments and ornament of the Subarctic hunters
Alexander Mackenzie, the fur trader and explorer, when writing of his journeys throughout northern 1793,
commented
r---
153
A
named
Caribou Attirak.
photographed
Inuit
1
no people more
,
woman
%M-J^m
from Baker Lake,
c.
Canada between 789 and
of the Chipewyan, "There are
1920 wearing a
parka decorated with glass beads.
180
attentive to the comforts of their dress, or less anxious respecting its
exterior appearance."
call
who 154 Inuit
A parka made by a Caribou woman living in the vicinity
Churchill. Manitoba, Bay. in 1938 This
on Hudson
parka
is
a
inhabit the forest-tundra fringe of the
western Subarctic.
Collectively, they speak of themselves as the of
as they
"the people." Like the
necessary for
Inuit,
living in this
"Dene," meaning
Dene women made
the clothing
demanding environment: winter and
dress
garment, intended for social events.
The Chipewyan, or Denesuline.
themselves, are one of several Athapascan-speaking groups
summer garments demanded
of caribou skins and
moose
long hours of physical labor and
hide. Tanning hides
Dene women
within a
181
155
Summer
outfit
made by
Gwich'in Athapascan lived
a
woman who
near the Arctic Red River
region.
Northwest
Since this garment of wear,
it
Territories.
shows no
sign
may have been intended
as a kind of
model of early
nineteenth-century style clothing
made
in
the 1880s for visitors
and traders.
family
group often worked together to prepare the several hides
necessary for even a single set of garments. by a
woman
A summer
outfit
of the Gwich'in Athapascans, or the Arctic
band near the mouth of the Mackenzie River
work and
reveals something of the quality of
that Alexander Mackenzie referred to
[155].
made
Red River
at the Arctic Sea,
fineness of detail
Made
of caribou skin,
the distinctive cut of the tunic, long with pointed lower edges at front and back, offered snug-fitting protection from the wind with
great freedom of
movement. Porcupine
quills
decorate the chest
and shoulders. The soft-soled boots are combined with trousers. These, together with the hood and mittens, protected the wearer
from
biting insects.
The garments, so well-made and
decorated, expressed the strong industriousness, for the family
To the
women 182
consummate
Dene
skill,
member for whom
east, across the
full
lavishly
values attached to
aesthetic sensibility, and love
the outfit was intended.
span of the continent, Naskapi
also fashioned winter and
summer
hunting coats from the
skins of caribou
of the
[
156].
The Naskapi
many Cree-speaking groups
Subarctic, the
"Woods Cree"
of Labrador are the easternmost that range across Canada's
being the Dene's
most immediate
neighbors to the east and south. Like the Dene, Cree-speakers harvested the resources of the land, with an emphasis on big
game,
small mobile groups.
in
technology (the had changed
bow and
little
With the exceptions
of changes
in
arrow, and later the gun), this way of
over thousands of years.
When
Columbia-trained anthropologist, was working
in
living
Frank Speck, the the northern
Quebec-Labrador Peninsula between 1909 and the
early 1920s,
he learned that the designs painted on Naskapi hunting coats were intended to honor the caribou. As he explained, "Animals prefer to be killed by hunters
whose
clothing
is
decorated with designs."
The double
curves, lozenge, and myriad other curvilinear forms are
arranged
repetitive patterns across the back, skirt, sleeves,
in
collar. Like
and
the engravings on Okvik and Old Bering Sea hunting
equipment, their thoughtful, aesthetically refined patterning intended to honor the
Dene, and Naskapi,
we
spirits of
hunted animals. With the
is
Inuit,
how the garments fashioned from the home by hunters are closely intertwined
see
skins of animals brought
with the delicate spiritual relationships between hunter and prey. It is
curious, then, to discover that the cut of Naskapi hunting
coats had adapted to European conventions of fashion by the
eighteenth century. Particularly noteworthy
both Dene and
156 Hunter's coat,
Naskapi Cree
made by
woman
Inuit patterns are "pullovers"
is
the fact that, while
which eliminate any
a
of the
Labrador Peninsula. Quebec, before 1825 The designs painted
on the coat were intended to help
men
with the task of
hunting moose.
183
irii u n^\ ij'"wtun muiinuumi/i" iigut 1 ? j
^^wz/fiif/iiii in/ irni irif irrii'ii n
'* 157 (right) Pouch,
made
Swampy Cree woman Bay.
Hudson
Manitoba, before 1840.
158 (below
so
of
by a
named
left)
the bottom,
woman
made by
of the
Manitoba,
"Octopus pouch,"
for the pendant tabs
c.
Red River
region,
1840.
159 (below right) "Fire-bag,"
by a Cree or Metis-Cree of the Lake
on
a Metis
Winnipeg
made
woman
region,
Manitoba, during the 1850s.
B4
t/f
hi tO/t/O"",
t/ ', i
i
i,
/
fl^
160 Man's jacket,
made very
by a Gwich'in Athapascan of the Arctic
Northwest 1911
,
when
Red River
region,
Territories, before a
young man was
photographed wearing
161
Pair of mukluks,
it.
made
Mary Agnes Bonnetrouge, Athapascan
likely
woman
woman
by a Slavey
living in
Fort
Providence, Northwest Territories, in 1985
185
drafty fastenings, the Naskapi coat
is
cut so
Lawrence before 1656
St. p.
A single tunic-like garment,
56),
The patterns
the fronts of winter
collected from the Gulf of
the collection of John Tradescant (see
in
may represent the pre-European
Subarctic.
the front.
in
arrangement
this
women sewed
during certain seasons, Naskapi coats shut.
opens
it
Responding, perhaps, to the impracticality of
fashion
in
the eastern
of the Naskapi coats from the eighteenth
century derived from French capotes, short woolen overcoats with hoods
worn by
traders, fur trade engages and, to an increasing
degree, northern Native peoples after the seventeenth century.
The
fur trade played a powerful role
in
transforming the
life
and arts
of Subarctic peoples.
Many
of the workers
forts of the fur trade
who
circulated through the posts and
network were
Metis, a
term used to describe
men
the descendants from the unions of European English)
and Native
ethnic identity
was
women
(Ojibwa and Cree).
reflected
(French, Scots,
A strong sense
of
distinctive items of Metis dress:
in
capotes or, alternatively, knee-length coats and shorter jackets of hide with collars, cuffs, and other details
drawn from
made
military
uniforms; half leggings pulled up just over the knee; finger-woven garters; sashes; and lavish use of floral style decoration quills
and glass beads
[159].
porcupine
in
Images of flowers for decoration
contrasted with the curvilinear patterns of Naskapi painting and the geometric patterns customarily employed for porcupine
ornament among the Woods Cree naturalistic style of floral
[
157].
A distinctive,
embroidery developed
region, south of Lake Winnipeg,
where Metis
hunting communities after 1800
[158].
in
quill
quite
the Red River
settled
in
buffalo-
Many spoke French
patois
and had been raised as Catholics. The Order of the Grey Nuns, established
in
Montreal during the 1750s but extremely active
in
the Winnipeg and Red River region after 1840, played a significant role
in
the refinement of floral style image and technique for the
decoration of clothing. The Grey Nuns taught
embroidery with
floral
images
in
silk
thread
mission schools. Red River
Metis families dispersed throughout the northwest after their unsuccessful rebellions of 1870 and 1885.
Red River Metis and the expansion of
The dispossession
of the
residential mission schools
throughout the Canadian northwest after the 1860s had
a
profound
impact on the decorative arts of the Woodlands Cree and Dene.
During the nineteenth century, fur traders established of posts along the Mackenzie River through the heart of territory.
At
first
the
Dene had
little
a series
Dene
use for European clothing,
although they admired the qualities and convenience of wool (of
186
1
only the best quality, traders complained), and reportedly extolled
beads over almost any other trade item. But the flashy
glass
appearance of Metis fur-trade workers and training
embroidery
Dene
aesthetic sensibilities. Contrast the
Red
at Arctic
summer (he
at residential schools
River,
jacket
a
Dene man
was photographed wearing
hide
is
summer
near the polar sea, discussed
worn by
it)
at Arctic
[160].
in
the arts of
worked to transform
floral
outfit collected
earlier,
Red River
The short
with
a
in 191
jacket of
moose
decorated with panels of black wool cloth on the front,
shoulders, and
cuffs,
edged with ermine fur and embroidered with
images of flower blossoms, leaves, and stems using colorful glass beads.
Dene women continue
and sewing today.
In
1985
to ply their
skills in
hide working
Mary Agnes Bonnetrouge
(a
revealing Metis connections), living at Fort Providence,
Great Slavey Lake, created
Dene she
values of design and
made
workmanship
in
the mukluks (footwear)
Duncan and museum curator
Barbara Hail for the collection of the Haffenreffer in
Rhode
west of
a strong expression of contemporary
for art historian Kate
Anthropology
name
Island
Museum
of
[l6l].
187
Chapter 9
Artists of the
Modern
and Contemporary World
The
and
historical events of contact, conquest, resistance,
"survivance," to return to
some
themes that opened
of the
this
book, brought together from opposite sides of the Atlantic very
making things - the
different cultural values linked to
the sake of convenience,
we
will call art.
things, for
There are the very
different aesthetic values linked to objects themselves
and then
the different aesthetic values laden within the cultural activities in
which objects played
conquest values
in
some
a role. In
instances, the culture of
actively repressed local artistic practices, seeing in
conflict with their
own
"civilizing"
them
agenda. Missionary
repression of Yupik masked dances, the patronizing Canadian potlatch law of 1884, and the
US
to eliminating "Indian Dances"
administrative policies
in
the United States are
point. In each instance, however, after long struggle,
committed cases
all
in
many
communities successfully reconfigured such practices for the present while also changing the outsiders' perceptions. Consider the revival of Yupik masked dancing
in
Alaska, for example, the
open expression of Kwakiutl potlatching
phenomenal growth of the other instances, as
made 162 Photograph of Zacharie
ivory carvings, to
value
last
Wendat (Huron)
full-blood
and painted self-portraits (see 163).
which he sold
community
at his
fig.
among
name
few - into objects that had commodity
a
the outsiders.
In
so doing, the artists engaged
one hand, to the values of the other hand, to the
in a
their craft, and adapting themselves,
demands
kind
on the on
of the marketplace.
home
of Jeune Lorette. |ust
outside Montreal.
In
have seen, artists converted the things they
of dialogue with the outside consumers, educating them,
Vincent referred to himself as the
since the 1950s.
within their local communities - pottery, baskets, and walrus
Vincent painting a self-portrait during the 1870s or 1880s
we
today, and the
modern powwow
But there adaptation,
is
another
history. In addition to resistance
what of those
artists
who
actively
and
engaged the
artistic
ft
values of the outsiders challenging them, and,
and art making
American lie
is
conceive
it,
some
defines
activity within
definitions, philosophies,
Its
how
terms, appropriating them,
A
modern Euroand practices
Euro-American societies
civilization, as
itself.
them? Art
cases, transforming
charged
a highly
societies.
at the heart of
own
their
in in
cultivated aesthetic sensibility
represents a peak cultural value
among Euro-Americans,
among those who command wealth and
social
especially
power. At the same
time, Euro-American traditions of art also value transgressive qualities, artists
power
who
break barriers, those whose expressive
derives from their individuality, vision, and "genius," and,
within limits, those
who
wield art as social critique.
yet sufficiently addressed those of Native
seized the identity of artist
examined
when
We have
not
American ancestry who
these Euro-American terms, nor
in
their reasons for doing so and their
accomplishments
they were successful.
Painted images and auto-ethnography
Prior to the twentieth century, few Native
worked
painting and sculpture.
Wendat or Huron his family
men or women
the conventionally understood fine arts media of
in
with
oils
One, Zacharie Vincent (1815-1896),
a
of Lorette, painted portraits of himself and
on canvas
[162].
His ancestors descended
from Huron converted to Catholicism by Jesuits during the early seventeenth century.
the face of Iroquois aggression, they
In
had fled from their homeland east of Georgian Bay and
(New
established the settlement of Jeune Lorette
8 miles (see
(
p. 61 ),
because many
in
by making and selling things:
1697
We encountered them earlier
km) from Montreal.
13
in
Lorette)
the
community supported themselves
snow
shoes, canoes, and bags and
moccasins decorated with moose hair embroidery. The picturesque village with falls
its
wooden church
of the Saint Charles River
became
situated near the
a tourist destination in
the nineteenth century, with excursions bringing visitors from
The
visual
charm of the town and the exotic appearance
residents
when
they appeared
Montreal. of
its
several Canadian artists. prints,
in full
There are many
and photographs of the
were marketed presumably to
village
and
formal dress inspired paintings, lithographic its
inhabitants,
and these
tourist visitors as well as a larger
audience receptive to sentimental images of American Indians. Vincent himself,
when twenty-three
years old. sat for one of
Canada's foremost nineteenth-century portraitists, Antoine Sebastien
190
Plamondon
(
1
804-
1
895). Titled Le dernier des Hurons
163 Self-portrait of Zacharie
Vincent,
oil
on canvas, mid- 19th
century. Vincent appropriated for
himself the iconic image of the
"Vanishing Indian," as developed earlier in the nineteenth
century
by non-Indian painters such as
George
Catlin.
himself draped
Vincent shows in
trade
silver,
wearing a feather headdress with a silver
head band, and holding
a
smoking pipe and pipe tomahawk, all
symbols of
his Indian identity.
(The Last of the Hurons) the picture Societe litteraire et historique
won
1838.
in
a
medal from Quebec's
Plamondon was
a resident
of Ancienne Lorette, the older settlement adjacent to Jeune Lorette, and
it is
tempting to think that perhaps Vincent learned
some technique from evidence
The trace his
some
older neighbor. His paintings certainly
his
training.
several self-portraits Vincent
produced throughout
likeness through advancing years
presented himself draped
in
163
trade silver and
.
He
his
life
customarily
wampum,
holding
smoking pipes or tomahawks (sometimes both), and often wearing
a silver
that Vincent
Plamondon's
Wendat
headdress with three feather plumes. The notion
was the
"last of the
idea, since
Huron" was
full-blood. His self-portraits join a
includes paintings by Charles Bird King and
more broadly disseminated color Hall,
and even the much
evidently not
Vincent himself claimed he was the
later
last
genre of images that
George
lithographs of
Catlin. the
McKenney and
photographs of Edward Curtis.
In all
191
these images, a nostalgic portrayal of Indians wearing and holding iconic symbols of their identities
- feather headdresses,
pipes,
and beads - combines with the sentimental implication that such identities will is
soon pass into
history.
The
difference here, however,
that Vincent re-claims this much-conventionalized image of the
"vanishing Indian" for himself, as both
Although
most arts
fine arts training
American
early
its
Indian education,
media was enough. Harriet
Shawnee boarding school
at
image and author.
was not part of the curriculum of sometimes access to
Gilstrap,
who
fine
taught at the
Tecumseh, Oklahoma, during the
last
decade of the nineteenth century, remembered Earnest Spybuck as a student
because he was always drawing pictures. Spybuck
(Shawnee, 1883-1949) had been born on the Potawatomi and
Absentee Shawnee reservation near present-day Oklahoma
He
later told anthropologist
M.
R.
Harrington
he had drawn pictures with a stick Earth taught
produce Indian,
me
in
dances and ceremonies of the
Indian), illustrating the
Shawnee and other Oklahoma one of three that show
is
event
[164].
tribes. His
War Dance and Gathering
different episodes of the
Spybuck's snapshot captures a single
powers of observation congested image.
1910 to
in
Museum of the American National Museum of the
watercolors for the
Heye Foundation (now the
Scene
a child,
the mud, saying, "Mother
to draw." Harrington hired Spybuck
a series of
American
when
that,
City.
same
moment,
his
piling detail after detail into this busy,
He shows
the wagons, carriages, tents, and pets
of the visitors and participants strewn throughout the
wooded
camping areas surrounding the dance ground. Some spectators chat and exchange handshakes. Others
watch the performance the upper
left
attentively.
sit
together
The dance
itself
in
clumps and
takes place
of the picture, the singers and dancers
in
crowded
beneath a leaf-covered arbor. The three singers are seated on the left,
his
the figure with a red shirt playing a water
knees.
A group
drum
held
between
of shirtless men, the principal warriors, wearing
roaches and eagle feathers, dance
More men dance behind them and
in
a
place
in
front of the singers.
group of well-dressed
women
stand to the right of the arbor watching. It is
instructive to
compare Spybuck's image with an
ethnographic description of a anthropologist James
observed
in
August
War Dance
prepared by
Howard documenting
1970.
One
is
struck
first
a
ceremony he
by
how
image and the description correspond, despite the years separated the
two
Spybuck engaged their
192
events. Furthermore, both
full
closely the
fact that sixty
Howard and
powers of description, one
literary,
the
164 Earnest Spybuck (Shawnee),
War Dance and
Gathering Scene,
watercolor on paper, is
c.
1910.
commissioned from Spybuck by
Raymond
Museum of the now the National
Harrington for the
American
Museum
Indian,
of the
American
pictorial.
Of the episode
Howard
depicted by Spybuck,
"The singers faced east and the dancers arranged
This
one of several watercolors
anthropologist Mark
other
writes:
Indian.
themselves
in
a
rough crescent formation facing them. Each
warrior danced as an individual
improvising to the music.
unit,
...
Rapid alternations of toe and heel served to ring the knee and ankle
bells.
Now and
quickly rise to in
full
then a dancer would
height."
Howard even
swoop low and then
tells
us the
women
visible
Spybuck's picture standing to the right are "bouncing on their
heels." This
is
to record and
ethnography, the deployment of descriptive media
document
cultural practices.
Howard,
good
like a
reporter, places himself at the scene. His text describes his arrival,
where he camped, and to
whom
he spoke. Spybuck may have
similarly located himself within his picture as participant-observer.
There
is
a
good chance
that the
picture, shaking hands with the
(perhaps Harrington),
is
man
in
the lower right of the
man wearing
a
red bandana
a self-portrait.
The term "auto-ethnography,"
as
used by professor of
comparative literature Mary Louise
Pratt, applies to
Vincent's and Spybuck's paintings.
her discussions of colonial
In
both
auto-ethnography to "refer to instances
in
which colonized subjects undertake to represent themselves
in
literature. Pratt uses
ways that engage
with [emphasis hers] the colonizer's
own
terms''
193
She was referring to visual arts.
The
literature, but the
same notion can apply to
sentimentalizing image of the vanishing Indian and
ethnographic description are both strategies Euro-Americans
used to shape, for their
own
purposes, the identities of Native
Americans. Vincent and Spybuck engaged these
visual strategies
self-consciously and by doing so reclaimed the ability to re-cast
representations of identity for purposes best suited to them.
The ways
in
which people thought about Indians and
representations of such thought
had
real
in
speech, literature, and images
consequences for Native people and
still
do
today.
Patronizing attitudes toward Native Americans at the beginning of the twentieth century informed public policy.
The Allotment
Act of 1887 seriously compromised any remaining Native land holdings, thus destroying traditional
resources of the land.
Some
economies based upon ceremonies were banned
religious
outright while others faced serious opposition from reservation administrators. American Indian education used boarding schools
to separate Native children from their language, families, and
communities. Many of those Native societies as
progress and saw no value
or language the
last
in
the
in
positions of
living fossils of
power thought of
an obsolete stage of social
or
in local
tribal traditions, practices,
modern world. Their goal was
chapter of conquest, couched
in
"raising" Indians to the level of white people. this
total assimilation,
language that described
On
the other hand,
era also marks the appearance of growing ranks of Native
writers, ethnographic informants, and visual artists
who worked
to construct an alternative view using the language, media, and rhetorical strategies of the outsiders to 165 Fred Kabotie (Hopi).
When
they were
York City this
in
c.
shown
of their own, also questioned the
Their message
wisdom
of effacing
American
1919. in
Indian culture altogether.
New
1920, paintings like
one reminded
art critics of
Egyptian reliefs or friezes on
ancient
so.
resonated with a growing number of Americans who, for reasons
Mixed
Kachina Dance, pencil and
watercolor on paper,
do
Greek
pottery.
Artists,
patronage, and teaching American Indian art
On
March
14
1920, "Art
Notes"
in
the Sunday NewYorkTimes
included a brief notice that the annual exhibition of the Society 166 Crescencio Martinez (San
of Independent Artists at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel featured an
lldefonso), Buffalo Dancers,
watercolor on paper,
c.
exhibition of watercolors painted by
1916.
Martinez was one of the earliest
Pueblo
artists
who
the Southwest pueblos.
painted
watercolor images of dances, and
The
pictures
American in
colorful Kachina dances and animal dances.
The
generation older than most of the others, but he died
arranged across the expanse of
in
1918 before
more widespread
recognition
enjoyed by the younger Pueblo watercolorists.
from
artists painted
a
detailed portrayals of single dancers or densely
the
Indian artists
the exhibition portrayed
the art
critic for
the Times,
background. Walter Pach,
compared the compositions to those
of ancient Egyptian reliefs and
194
a blank
grouped processions
Greek vase
painting.
Fred Kabotie (Hopi, 1900-1986), then only twenty years old,
was among the
several artists of roughly the
the Waldorf-Astoria exhibition. Raised
in
same age included
the Hopi
in
community
of
Shungopovi on Second Mesa, Kabotie had been sent to the Santa Fe Indian School
among them Herrera
There, he and a small group of young men,
1915.
in
Otis Polelonema (Hopi, 1902-1981
(Zia,
)
and Velino Shije
1902-1973), had received instruction
in
watercolor
technique from Elizabeth DeHuff, the wife of the school superintendent. Kabotie painted images of Hopi dances, he said later,
1
home [165]. Awa Tsireh, San
because they reminded him of
Alfonso Roybal (also 898-1955), another
known
artist
as
shown
at the
lldefonso,
Waldorf-Astoria
exhibition, had learned basic drawing and watercolor techniques
Day School under the
at the San lldefonso
Esther
B.
Hoyt and her successor
Alfonso, however,
came from
instruction of teacher
1909, Elizabeth Richards.
a family of artists. His relations
Crescendo Martinez and
included maternal uncle his uncle's in-laws Julian
in
and Maria Martinez (see
wife Maximiliana,
p.
103),
maternal aunt, Tonita Martinez (later Roybal) and her Alfredo Montoya. Santa Fe market.
by
1910,
three couples
All
The men painted
made and
husband
sold pottery for the
designs on pottery and, at least
they also painted watercolors on paper. Edgar Lee Hewett,
an anthropologist and the Director of the
had employed the three
men
Museum
of ceremonies and dances. Here, too,
Harrington and
artist
artistically talented
of
New
Mexico,
during archaeological excavations on
the nearby Pajarito Plateau and encouraged
visual
and
first
like
them to
paint images
anthropologist M. R.
Earnest Spybuck, Hewett sponsored the
San lldefonso residents to engage
in
a kind of
auto-ethnography.
Hewett credited Crescendo Martinez 1918) as "the first artist of
(San lldefonso,
style
younger painters. His
with
in
Buffalo Dancers of
stately
c.
1916,
motion, exemplifies the
and extraordinary emphasis of texture and painting, textiles,
figures
1
879—
record" of the San lldefonso group and
presumably the originator of the technique and
figures portrayed
c.
and headdresses
become mere armatures
[166].
emulated by its
flat
three coloring
detail visible in the
body
The simply rendered
for the distinctive regalia of these
animal spirit impersonations. Unlike Spybuck, Martinez effaces
all
references to specific time, place, and incident, creating instead
an image of idealized
American
ritual.
As more
artists joined the ranks of
Indian painters during the 1920s and 1930s, they too
would tend to frame
their images of
American
Indian
life in
terms
of the ideal and timeless, rather than the specific and historic.
196
Patronage shaped the formative years of these
and writers, the wealthy and the
influential,
Fe and Taos during the years after
World War
disenchantment with modern urban
artists. Artists
had gathered I,
too influenced
life
Santa
in
driven by their
(in
view) by the rancid and decaying culture of Europe. They saw
in
Pueblo culture something uniquely American that could stand as foundation for an independent American culture and like
who
John Sloan, Robert Henri, and John Marin
their careers
New York City joined
in
a
art. Artists
had begun
the artist colony
Santa
in
Fe and shifted their attention to American Indian subjects and the distinctive
New
commonplace
administrative policies that
Indian
Mexican landscape. Alarmed by the then-
condemned American
ceremonies and plotted to undermine land
rights, this
expatriate intelligentsia organized to "save the Indians," as artist
Maurice Stearne urged (later
his wife, heiress
Mabel Dodge Luhan),
Mabel Dodge Stearne
a letter of 1916. She,
in
John Sloan,
Amelia Elizabeth White, Edgar Lee Hewett, and others became powerful patrons and promoters of the Pueblo paintings, in
artists.
The
"rhythm of movement and color summoned to express
the utmost
brilliancy,
the vibrant
of anthropologist Hewett,
made
a
faith of a
people,"
the
in
words
powerful argument about the
value of preserving American Indian culture by revealing the
beauty of
its
cultural practices.
Another group of artists traditional dances
beginning
The
in
1916 at the
so-called
painting watercolor images of
emerged from
"Kiowa
classes taught by Susan Peters
Kiowa Agency
in
Anadarko, Oklahoma.
Five" included Stephen
Mopope
(Kiowa,
1898-1974) and Monroe Tsatoke (Kiowa, 1904-1937), whose subjects ranged from
contemporary
illustrations of esoteric ritual, but
but colorful style of figures
Between 1926 and full
like
in
all
powwow
dancing to
rendered
in a flat,
movement
1929, the five
Kiowa
artists
were supported by
scholarships and stipends at the University of
the Pueblo artists, their
stark,
set against a blank page.
work was shown
Oklahoma
and,
domestically and
abroad. These artists saw their style growing out of "ledgerbook" paintings of earlier generations of
Oklahoma
artists
such as James
Silverhorn (Kiowa, 1861 -1941), Mopope's uncle. Silverhorn's father
was one of the keepers of the Kiowa Winter Count
pictorial calendar,
and
1852-1934) had been
Marion (see
p.
1
16).
his a
older brother, Ohettoint (Kiowa.
very active artist
when imprisoned
Ohettoint returned to Oklahoma
in
at
Fort
1880 and
both he and Silverhorn worked as informants and produced pictures for ethnologist James Mooney.
A group
of drawings
197
168 Stephen
Mopope
(Kiowa),
The Procession, watercolor on board, undated. artists of his
such as
Silverhorn (see
his uncle, fig.
James
patterning. Expedition,
The
first
shows
West (Cheyenne),
Day, watercolor on paper, 1949.
at
his
work and
Bacone College,
Richard
Dr.
West brought
American
a
of the series, titled Preparing for
warrior with
aWar
a trailing eagle feather
headdress
167).
golden-maned mount
Mopope's undated watercolor
Cheyenne Sun DanceJheThird
Through
1887 exemplify
later than
emphasis on graceful outline, strong localized color, and rhythmic
astride a 169 Dick
no
a local military officer
Silverhorn's distinctive stylizations of "ledgerbook art" with his
Mopope and other
generation were
inspired by the older "ledgerbook" artists,
purchased by
teaching
similar interest
in
[
167].
nephew Stephen
painting, The Procession,
shows
the panoply of Plains regalia, as riders parade
before rows of standing spectators
Walter
Silverhorn's
The Oklahoma and Southwest
[168].
painters of the 1920s created
"traditional
Indian painting" into
the mid-twentieth century.
the foundation of what would
become
institutionalized
in
the
1930s as "traditional" American Indian painting. Their success
and promising indications of expanding tourist markets for
working
some of a
in
traditional media, particularly
James Silverhorn (Kiowa),
Preparing for a pencil c.
War
modern American
Indian in
economy. Ideas
become
like
a mainstay
these led
1932 of a formal program of arts
instruction at the Santa Fe Indian School
known
as the Studio
Expedition,
and crayon on paper,
1887. This early
the Southwest, led
to believe that American Indian art could
directly to the creation 167
in
artists
work
of
1935 by the Indian arts program at Bacone
School, followed
in
Junior College
Muskogee, and also
in
in
1935, the creation of the
Silverhorn illustrates his strong
draftsmanship and vibrant sense of color.
Indian Arts and Crafts
Indian Affairs
198
Board as part of a reformed Bureau of
under the Roosevelt administration.
Dorothy Dunn, who established the Studio program
in
conducted between 1932 and 1937, imposed upon
classes she
her students the styles developed by the Pueblo and Oklahoma watercolorists. little
Opaque watercolor
or no shading,
technique,
flat
colors with
a descriptive, illustrator's style of drawing,
and
subject matter that rarely strayed from idealized and romanticizing
scenes of ceremony, dance, and mythology characterize the Studio style.
Despite what seems
became
the Studio
a
in
magnet
retrospect a very narrow curriculum,
generation.
Oklahoma, Acee Blue
In
who
for talent, attracting students
would become the foremost Native American
artists of their
Eagle (Creek, Pawnee,
1907-1959), one of the most outgoing and charismatic of the
Oklahoma
was appointed the
artists,
program
at
Crumbo
(Potawatomi, 1912-1989),
director of the arts
first
Woody
Bacone Junior College, followed capably by
who
had attended Dorothy
Dunn's Studio classes, and Walter Richard (Dick) West
(Cheyenne, 1912-1996),
program
a
Bacone graduate who directed the
until 1972.
West's Cheyenne Sun DanceJheThird Day, executed during
in its
1949
tenure at Bacone, exemplifies the core aspects of
his
traditional [169]. It
in
American
builds
Indian painting of the mid-twentieth century
upon the mandate of scrupulous auto-ethnography
almost diagrammatic portrayal of one of the most sacred
moments
of the Sun
Dance when devout
The dancer
ordeal of piercing.
in
supplicants endure the
the center
in his
back. Sun
piercing had been outlawed for decades before
and yet
summons up
his picture
memory
in
the
this
his
Dance lodge while
pectorals from the central pole of the Sun
heavy buffalo skulls hang from piercings
suspended by
is
Cheyenne
most solemn, sentimental, and
Dance
West was born ritual
from
tribal
idealized terms.
Perhaps the most prominent and successful of the Studio School students, Allan Houser
(Warm
Springs Chiricahua Apache,
1914-1994), through a long and productive himself an artistic identity that at once
life,
negotiated for
accommodated
the Studio
School agenda while at the same time embracing twentiethcentury modernity. Although trained as
a Studio-style
watercolorist, he turned increasingly to sculpture after the 1940s.
He looked
to
inspiration, but his
traditionalism.
Henry Moore,
Brancusi, and Jean
imagery often remained rooted
in
The monumental bronzes and marbles
Arp
for
Studio of his later
years vacillate between idealized Native figures, timeless and
immemorial, and abstractions with
more 200
figural
references that look
to Formalist and Surrealist sculpture
[
170].
The American
Indian Fine Arts
called, fitted within a
Movement,
as
it
came
narrow pocket of the American
to be
art scene
for artists and patrons alike. Institutional support, the schools and
museums, reinforced the value of style,
which
American
at the
isolate
and marginalize
from the many other trends
Indian painters
art at mid-century.
"traditional" subject matter and
same time tended to
The Annual
Philbrook Institute of Art
in
in
American
Indian art exhibitions at the
Tulsa,
Oklahoma,
initiated in 1947
and continued through 1972, featured most of the best
artists
of the day and also provided a sounding board for deeply
felt
controversies about traditional versus progressive styles
among
the participating
The
artists.
juried exhibition and
purchase competition reinforced
museum
a rather limit'ng artistic
intended to "document the records of Indian
life
agenda
and culture
through traditional expression of the Indians, and to stimulate the renaissance of this unique expression by the encouragement of Indian artists." But even with this kind of institutional support it
was
a struggle
making
a living.
Fred Kabotie supported himself
by teaching art classes at Oraibi High School from 1937 to 1959.
The most
successful artists taught rather than making art full-time.
Allan Houser, reflected
on
"How can
who
his
retired
from art making
personal experience
the Indian
live
in
briefly after the war,
1959
when he lamented.
by art?" During the 1950s, with the
170 Allan Houser (Warm Springs Chmcahua Apache). Drama on the Plam%. alabaster. 1977 Trained
watercolonng
in
at the Studio in
Santa Fe. Houser later turned his
attention to
sculpture
He
is
monumental probably the most
widely recognized and celebrated artist of
Native ancestry of the
twentieth century
201
172 (opposite above)
United States government pursuing
George
Morrison (Grand Portage Opbwa),
Red Rock
"termination,"
seemed
as
if
few
in
a policy
of reservation
America cared much about
Crevices. Soft Light. Lake
Superior Landscape, acrylic and ink
on canvas board,
American Indians or American
Indian art 173 (opposite
below
c.
and the
artist individual
Fritz
left)
I've
on canvas,
Indian art.
1987.
Scholder (Luiseno), Santana, Kiowa, oil
it
always been an individual and have done exactly what
I
wanted
1968
to do. I've 174 (opposite below right)
Cannon (Caddo/Kiowa), Portrait in the Studio, oil
T.
C.
the only
painted only for myself and never for others.
way one can approach what
is
I
think this
is
a very strange role of being
Self-
a painter. Fritz Scholder
on canvas,
1975.
Being any kind of artist
in
the United States up through the 1940s
and 1950s was not particularly
museum
easy. Critics, patrons, collectors,
curators, and other elements of the visual arts
establishment waffled
in
their enthusiasm for
European
modernism, American regionalism, urban-based
social realism,
or nostalgia for conservative academicism of the
past.
Modernism
and abstraction were controversial issues even within the most 171
Oscar
Howe
(Yanktonai
Sioux), Ghost Dance, casein paper, I960.
on
advanced
artistic circles. In this light,
the bold
George Morrison (Ojibwa, 1919-2000) seems
202
initiative of
young
particularly
remarkable (see
Having grown up
24).
p.
the small and remote
in
Ojibwa community of Grand Portage, Morrison
left
Minnesota
in
1946 to pursue and master cutting-edge Abstract Expressionism in
New York Oscar
artist
City
[
The now legendary
172].
Howe
Philbrook Annual -
abstract pictures
his
1958 jury - was fueled by entry could not
tell
supposed to look
rebellion of
Yankton
(1915-1983) against the strictures of the
his fierce
were rejected by the
conviction that the rules of
him what traditional American Indian art was
He
like.
insisted that his abstractions of
traditional subjects, such as Ghost
Dance of I960, were not based
on study of European Cubism. His means of expression drew from a very personal visual vocabulary,
understanding of Sioux
he claimed, and
his
own
spirituality [I7l].
This kind of path to artistic self-expression while maintaining a
sense of cultural tradition can be seen (San lldefonso,
b.
the career of Joe Herrera
in
son of Tonita Pena, the potter and
1923),
first
generation San lldefonso watercolorist. Herrera studied at the Studio School beginning
in
1940 and mastered the
Studio style, but returned to the of
New
students, he result
MFA program
Mexico between 1950 and
illustrative
at the University
1953. There, like non-Indian
was drawn to Cubism, Kandinsky, and
was works such
as Eagles
Paul Klee.
The
and Rabbit of 1953 where abstract
forms drawn from Anasazi pictographs, kiva murals, and pottery designs are
combined
in
a kind of synthetic
Cubism. Herrera's
conscious appropriation of modernist pictorial language with
own
his
sense of traditional form and content paralleled the thinking
of several artists at the end of the 1950s
what
self-
felt like
who wished
to break
constraints over the practices of American Indian
artists.
This, precisely,
New
(
became the
1916-2002), an
agenda of Lloyd Kiva
lifelong
Oklahoma Cherokee with
education and a strong entrepreneurial teacher, and successful businessman,
the Rockefeller-funded
conference held
in
New
Tucson
a
As
New played
Directions
in
spirit.
1959 and
in
wide-ranging
a textile artist, a pivotal role in
Southwest Indian Art
drew together Joe Herrera,
jeweler Charles Loloma (Hopi, 1921-1991), and painter Fritz
Scholder (Luiseno,
b.
1937),
among
others, as faculty
subsequent Southwestern Indian Art Project of Arizona from I960 to 1962.
The
in
the
at the University
arts education curricula
developed there over two subsequent summers would be
moved
pretty
much wholesale
(with
many
of the faculty) to
the reorganized Santa Fe Indian School which opened as the Institute of
204
American
Indian
Art (IAIA)
in
1962.
News
vision for
contemporary throughout
from 1967 to Indian art
the
Indian art
his career,
1972.
lies in
remained remarkably consistent
which included the directorship of IAIA
"The
demands of the
assumes that the future of
Institute
the Indian's
ability
to evolve, adjust, and adapt to
present, and not on the ability to remanipulate
the past."
who
Painter Fritz Scholder,
served on the IAIA faculty from
1964 to 1969, had studied with Oscar
College and pop artist
College before completing in
1964.
his
Bill
at
MFA at the
He and precocious IAIA
Kiowa, 1946-1978) and in
Howe
Wayne Thiebaud
at
Wisconsin State
Sacramento City University of Arizona
students
T.
C.
Cannon (Caddo,
Soza (Cahuilla Apache,
1949) began
b.
1965 to deconstruct the generations of "Indian painting" that
had preceded them. Scholder's portrait of
Set-t'ainte,
Bear, reconfigures the iconic bust portrait of the
(compare with Zacharie Vincent's
new terms
or White
American
Indian
self-portrait [163]) in startling
with bright Pop colors and broad Expressionistic
brushwork
[
173].
The image
no
is
idealized
American
Indian,
but drawn directly from the Will Soule photograph of the great
Kiowa leader who threw himself out of a prison window to death on
The
II
October
1878, rather than face
historic specificity of the
tragic
resonance of
its
life
his
imprisonment.
image together with the heroic and
subject,
when combined
with the aggressive
edginess of Scholder's technique, establish a stance of ironic confrontation. Scholder's images are an abrupt departure from
the safe and distant nostalgia of earlier generations of pictures. Irony, always
present
in
the historic relations between Native
Americans and the culture of conquest, steps to the foreground in
the art of the 1960s, paralleling the rise of Native political
activism. T.
C. Cannon, a student at IAIA from 1964 to 1966 and
possessing an abundance of raw talent,
Anadarko
and colorist
sensibilities of his
Portrait in Studio of 1975,
Oklahoma
Cannon
sits
gazing at the viewer with brushes historic
Navajo blanket beneath
hanging on the wall to the visible
skillfully built
upon
his
roots, his images often paying deference to the subjects
left,
in
forebears.
In his Self-
relaxed within his
hand ready to
his feet, a
own
mask from West
and an expansive Santa Fe
through the windows behind him
[
174].
He
space,
paint, an
Africa
vista
claims for
himself the standpoint of observer of the world and
consumer
of
American Indians
its
cultural riches, reversing the habitual role of
as
observed and consumed. This powerful definition of
self
cannot
be confined within any conventional identity of American Indian.
205
Toward the new century For the
first
time, a generation of articulate
and well-educated
may
Indian artists have a positive Indian identity to which they relate. Their
a whole
in
new
new
on
solidarity focuses
way.
their art,
an art that
Indian
is
Lloyd Oxendine
These optimistic words come from
a special issue of Art in
devoted to "The American Indian" published
in
1972.
America
With
hindsight, the statement accurately reflected the situation
in
two
ways, although this was perhaps only partially understood by the author. First, "an art that
is
Indian
in
a
whole new way" stems from
the fact that Native artists of 1972 and thereafter determined their
own
artistic identities as
the schools, the
number
critics,
Native people, not the government,
the patrons, or anyone else. Secondly, the
of Native American artists was growing, and they
indeed "articulate and well-educated" and often worldly.
were
And
they
established a sense of solidarity, by and large, but not tied to any specific artistic
identity lay
in
program of content or
style.
Any
to paraphrase critic Charlotte Townsend-Gault. of
American
offered an
collective
the "situation" of being an American Indian
The
artist,
eclecticism
art of the 1970s and thereafter, generally speaking,
open
field for
strategies. Artists
exploring
explored their
many
own
different artistic
voices based upon their
own unique outlook and experiences. Some became committed to the ways
in
which their art
reflected the values and experiences of their communities. Norval
Morriseau (Ojibwa,
community within religion of
b.
1931) had
been raised
in a
small Ontario
a family that practiced the traditional
Ojibwa
Midewiwin. His decision to reinterpret Midewiwin
images as drawings on paper was
initially
considered controversial
within the larger Ojibwa community, but not by Toronto artist/
dealer Jack Pollock, acrylic paint
who
converted Morriseau to the use of
and organized an extremely successful
exhibition for him at his Toronto gallery pictures
drew from the Ojibwa
in
initial
1962. Morriseau's
pictorial tradition representing
animal spirits and manidos, such as his Mishapihsoo
[
175],
which
presents the fearsome image of a twisting Underwater Panther (see
p.
60). Critics
marveled
at Morriseau's ability to
combine
such evocative imagery with a broad modernist palette that suggested a kind of naive surrealism. Morriseau's
was indeed unique and Morriseau inspired as the
206
a
visionary.
More
style.
style
importantly, however,
broad movement of painting
Woodlands or Anishnabe
in a
work
now known
Dozens of artists
living in
small
175 Mishapihsoo, Norval
Morriseau (Ojibwa), acrylic on
brown
Bay,
communities clustered around Manitoulin
Island,
Georgian
and the northern Great Lakes country of Ontario and
paper, 1976. This powerful
image of the Underwater Panther (see also
figs
40 and 50) was based
Michigan developed Morriseau's basic approach and style into
community-based expressions of renewed
upon Morriseau's study of Ojibwa
As painter Leland
spirituality. pictographs. Morriseau inspiration for the
is
cultural identity
and
explained to art historian
the
"Woodland"
or "Anishnabe" school of
Bell
Mary Southcott
in
1979,
"The
land, the language, the culture,
and spiritualism, these four things are interrelated. They are
in
Native painting.
balance.
They are the foundation of our
art."
Arts revivals proved to be powerful vehicles for community revitalization during the
1960s and 1970s. While the
Inuit arts
cooperatives and contemporary art on the Northwest Coast
were mentioned
briefly in previous chapters,
it is
important to
understand their broad historic context and to note from the standpoint of today the enduring multi-generational potency of
these community-based movements. As artist Marianne
Nicholson (Kwakiutl,
Kingcome of
Inlet, said
b.
1969), a resident of the village of
community constantly pops up
lived
Gwayi or
during an interview recently, "The question in
my work because
here
it is
day to day."
The
great success
their fields of
among contemporary
endeavor has
artists in
led to reappraisals
of artists active and yet relatively
Poolaw (Kiowa, 1906 1984)
unknown
lived in
in
broadening
and rediscoveries
the past. Horace
Anadarko, Oklahoma, the
great hotbed of mid-twentieth-century Indian painting of his
generation, but his artistic accomplishments never appeared at the exhibitions of the Philbrook Annual. Poolaw
"of the
first
rank," claimed
was
a
photographer
Kiowa author N. Scott Momaday. but
207
1
76
Lela
Ware, Paul Zumwo/t,
Horace Poolaw (Kiowa),
c.
*
*
and Treat Poolaw. photograph by
.
1928.
#$
Poolaw's photographs chronicled the experiences of a little
^
W'Jf<
»
5RI-V
•
community
seen by the outside world
during the early twentieth century,
showing images that often contrasted with
more common
stereotypes of Native
life.
,i -.
j
..
r*
r^
1
1
mastery of non-traditional media kept him
his
view outside
his local circle
family, friends,
and
up
local events,
and gentle warmth
For some
their b.
work.
Indian
life, filled
with
own
personal histories and those of
communities are inexorably intertwined
Artist, critic,
and
activist Jolene
(Flathead/Cree/Shoshone), Celebrate. Jack rabbit "tricksters"
here stand for succeeding
in
Rickard (Tuscarora,
1956) descends from a family that includes Clinton Rickard, her
grandfather and organizer of the Indian Defense League 177 Jaune Quick-to-See Smith
insight,
[176].
artists, their
their families and
hidden from
however, are powerfully authentic
documents of mid-century American irony,
largely
His photographs of
until recently.
in
1926,
great-grandmother and beadworker Florence Nellie Jones Chew, and other family members
who
stand at the forefront of a
longstanding Tuscarora community-based
movement
to sustain
generations of resilient Native
Americans, certainly worthy of
the cultivation of indigenous corn. All of these relations have
celebration.
appeared
in
Rickard's
photomontages, and
artwork and writing installations recall
[179].
Her photographs,
and bring into the present
her community's ongoing battles for survival and they remind us that, to
quote Rickard,
"in
my community
the
last battle
was
last
week." Rickard's imagery draws upon "thoughts, symbols, and visual ideas" "I
more
have to learn
move
all
familiar to Native
people than to outsiders.
of the specifics of
other cultures
freely in the world," she explains.
take the responsibility of learning
"I
in
order to
want other people to
my symbols and
Truman Lowe (Ho-Chunk or Winnebago,
b.
thoughts."
1944) fabricates
symbolic sculpture and structures, largely from wood, drawing
upon experiences growing up of his
in
Black
connection the joy of working with
208
Falls,
Wisconsin.
Some
family were basket makers and Lowe derives from that his
hands.
Emmi Whitehorse
(Navajo,
1956) brings a very personal inventory of cultural
b.
images to her abstract paintings: designs from woven baskets and textiles, tools,
markings, plants, the shapes of
impressed on her kin [180].
memory from
a
life
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith
creates canvasses
filled
things indelibly
all
growing up among Navajo
(Salish,
Cree Shoshone,
1940)
b.
with free-association juxtapositions of
ready-made images drawn from personal history and popular culture,
combined with her own
visual
symbols
[
177].
brought up with horses owned and traded by her
Having been
father,
often uses the image of a horse to represent herself
in
Smith
her
compositions. The many complex paintings and drawings created by Kay WalkingStick (Cherokee, land, place,
body and
and a
b.
1935) range
spiritual regard for
sexuality
[178].
in
concern from
the earth to issues of the
WalkingStick feels equally comfortable
drawing inspiration from the rugged mesas of Arizona or the verdant valleys of
Italy.
George Longfish (Seneca, Tuscarora, cosmopolitan training to
1942), like WalkingStick, brings a
painting
in
which he explores issues of Native identity and
representation
b.
his
cultural
[i8l].
Several artists have engaged with the ways
in
which popular
media and academic discourse fabricate representations of
American
Indians and
American
Indian culture, and the
consequences of these kinds of [misrepresentations. The
Columbus Quincentennial
moment for
(
1992)
was
a particularly fertile
these kinds of concerns, with the organization of
several artist-driven critical projects. Artist and curator Jaune
Quick-to-See Smith organized the traveling exhibition The
Submuloc Show/ColumbusWohs, "a
visual
commentary on the
Columbus Quincentennial from the Perspective
of America's
178 Kay WalkingStick (Cherokee).
Dancing
to
Rome
III,
charcoal on
paper. 2000. For the past twenty
years WalkingStick has within
a
worked
diptych format, combining
broadly conceived landscapes with
more personal symbolism. Her work
has recently been occupied
with the |oyful "dance" theme
shown
here.
209
§
tftlJfiS&feS*.
179 Jolene Rickard (Tuscarora),
Corn Blue Room, installation at the
Museum of Civilization Museum of the
Canadian
and the National
American writes,
Indian, 1998. Rickard
"The corn
literally
feeds us.
At the same time, we can center ourselves around
it
to feed us on
the spiritual and cultural
180
Emmi Whitehorse
Meadow,
oil,
level."
(Navajo).
chalk and paper
on
canvas. 1996. Whitehorse's
gossamer symbols derive from the environment of her Navajo
homeland.
181
George Longfish (Seneca/
Tuscarora).
Spirit Guide/Spirit
Healer, acrylic and pencil
on
paper. 1983. In this important transitional a
work
of Longfish*s.
vague figure with
shield
a
feathered
emerges within
a largely
non-representational composition.
211
First People," as the exhibition in
(Plains
Cree,
b.
was
subtitled. Shortly thereafter,
and curator Gerald McMaster
1994, artist, art historian,
1953) collaborated with the University of British
Columbia Museum of Anthropology and curated Savage
own
an exhibition of his artifacts (ranging
paintings and
from arrowheads to
as a powerful critique of the
ways
in
ready-made
Graces,
cultural
kitsch Indian postcards)
which museums customarily
represent American Indian culture. The project prompted the
museum's
director, Michael
Ames, to ponder
for us,
happens to museums when their object becomes subject and 'asserts savage?
And when
its
presence?'
Who
is
"What
a speaking
then revealed as the
the object regains a voice, what
is
left
for the
former subject to say?" Native artists active at the beginning of the twenty-first century, working
a
in
broad range of practices, have seized the
apparatus of larger cultural discourse, the studio, the university, the gallery, the
museum, and the
support them. But they are
museums
specializing
histories of
American
excludes them. The
in
still
verbal and written media that
represented primarily by
Native American
art and
larger,
art.
The
larger
American culture for the most part
far-from-resolved issues of cultural
representation, sovereignty, land, and treaty rights persist with palpable consequences for Native people every day, yet they
remain on the margins of a larger American consciousness at best.
Of key importance
to the reader of this
book
is
an understanding
that these issues and the art of Native
America yesterday,
and tomorrow, are inextricably
Whether
cultural expression,
Native artists
linked.
or both, whether
vitalize their
in
the past or
in
the future,
thought and our perception through
their ability to create powerful objects and images.
212
today,
personal or
Maps
1500
km
Ancient cultures of North America
213
Sites of
North America
MINNESOTA
COTA
J
)
•
• Pipestone
>akota
(
MICHIGAN!
Mound ## Mound
IOWA
-
INDIANA
•
Springfield
Hopewell
^#
Cahokia MtssounR.
City
fik &#£
°
Tremper
Illinois
NE
PENNSYLVANIA
£_/ Adena ohio
USKA
KANSAS
/"
Kentucky Jt • Indian „Knoll ,
N CAROLINA
.,
.
v.rg.nia
£
•
MISSOURI
TENNESSEE
S
CAROLINA.
ARKANSAS
OKLAHOMA ^
•A
.
•
#EtOwah c
SP r0 '
Anadarko
GEORGIA
^ 3 I
Poverty Point
$
• Moundville
^
ALABAMA
TEXAS
• St.
Augustine
LOUISIA*.
Gulf of Mexico
215
Tribes of
North America
c.AD 200 Mogollon
Chronology
southern
13,000-8000 BC
Paleo-lndian period,
the period of the
first
cultures.
are hinted at
in
(The
the archaeological
11,500-1000 bc Clovis culture, the earliest well documented cultural pattern in North America 8000-6000 bc Early Archaic period 6000-3000 bc Middle Archaic period of the Eastern Woodlands region c. 5000 BC Earliest evidence of grinding and polishing technology atlatl
3500 bc
Earliest pottery
made
Poverty Point
site,
in
modern
plank houses of the Marpole phase built in
southern British Columbia
300 bc Hohokam
migrants from
Mexico begin to colonize southern Arizona Residents of
communities located within the Bering Straits region develop Okvik and Old Bering Straits styles of walrus ivory engraving
200 bc-ad 400 Ohio Hopewell construct charnel houses and their
subsequent
earlier Birnirk
and Punuk
Inuit,
begin to expand to the
northern Arctic
burial
mounds
in
southern Ohio. Several regional traditions participate
in
the exchange
translator and guide from the
Pueblo
in
army to them as
New
Mexico conspire to
Coronado and
his
"Quivira," characterized by a
kingdom with abundant hope that Coronado's become lost on the
army
will
southern Plains
1607 Paramount chief Powhatan captures Jamestown colonist John Smith and attempts to forge a relationship by establishing Smith as a subordinate chief
adoption ceremony
through an
in
which
his
daughter, Pocahontas, pretends to save Smith's
life
town
houses and many additional smaller communities. Pueblo Bonito, the
Mexico 1621 The Pokanoket of eastern New England, encouraged by prospects for
largest structure,
expands to 800
1150 High point of population at the
town of Cahokia, East Illinois. Monks Mound,
Mississippian St.
Louis,
North America's largest indigenous man-made structure, expanded to its final
dimensions.
1150
New
of Santa Fe,
trade, sign a treaty of alliance with the
rooms.
AD
"Turk" and the leaders of Pecos
1610 Pedro de Peralta founds the
Earliest signs of settlement at
fledgling
Plymouth colony
1622 Powhatan Confederacy chief Opechancanough, exasperated with the British, goes to war and destroys a third of the Virginia colony
1623 The Dutch establish Fort Orange on the Hudson River, near present-
New York,
and conduct
the Hopi community of Oraibi, on the
day Albany,
Third Mesa
trade directly with the Iroquois
in
northern Arizona
c.AD 1300 Construction at the
Etowah
site,
Mound C
of
Cartersville,
Georgia
c.AD 1300 Anasazi abandon the Colorado
Plateau, gradually
south to the ranges of modern Re-burial rituals
performed
Mound, Spiro site, in northeastern Oklahoma, which result in the "Great Cache" of engraved shell cups, copper cut-outs, wood and
at the Craig
stone sculpture, and other categories first
voyage to America establish trade relations with
fishermen and whalers from Europe 1534 The Saint Lawrence Iroquois of the village of Stadacona, at the
Quebec, discourage
Jacques Cartier from proceeding further up the
attack
New
Metacom. known
New
and
England settlements
response to
in
a Puritan plan to confine
England Indians to reservations
1680 After 80 years of colonial oppression, Pueblo communities
St.
a
nine-day siege of Santa Fe.
territory
1503 The tribes of Newfoundland
site of
leader
as King Philip to the colonists,
revolt and expel the Spanish after
ad 1492 Christopher Columbus's
present
with furs for trade
1675 Abnaki, Nipmuck, Narragansett, and Wampanoag join forces under the
Wampanoag
Pueblo settlements
ad 1380
1654 Wyandot and Odawa journey from Green Bay to Montreal in an enormous flotilla of birch-bark canoes filled
moving
Lawrence
river,
networks of the Hopewell
wishing to protect their trade
Interaction Sphere.
interests as intermediaries
218
and as many as 2.500
point of population with nine great
of objects
300 bc-ad 700
A
fails
gold, in the
Coast of North America all the way to Greenland ad 1050 Chaco Canyon reaches its high
c.
Villages with large
community
Mississippi valley
east, colonizing the
Northern Northwest
400 bc-ad 400
in
traditions and the ancestors of the
ancestral to the later "form-line
Coast art
evidence of the
Viking explorers based in Greenland reach North America c.AD 1000 Thule peoples, descendant
the
communities represented by the Lachane site, near Fort Rupert in British Columbia, use a carving style
1541
ad 986
Residents of the
tradition" of
Earliest
Mississippian tradition of
AD
communities building houses central Canadian Arctic
south-central Alabama, but the
misdirect Francisco
1000 bc-ad 200 Adena people build burial mounds in Ohio, Kentucky, and
520-320 BC
Anasazi farmers of the
organization
of Dorset
in
manufacture pottery
Louisiana
West Virginia 800 BC Earliest evidence
in
southern Plains known only as the
in
North America, a low-fired, fibertempered ware used in the Southeast 2000-1500 BC Earliest evidence of the use of cultivated corn in the North American Southwest 1600-1300 BC Earthworks built at the
established
Colorado Plateau (northern New Mexico and Arizona and southern Utah and Colorado) begin to
Earliest use of
2000 BC
life
Mississippian warriors are killed
Tradition c.
ambush and destruction Hernando de Soto's army at Mabila
Alaska
Buffalo
by cultures of the Arctic Small Tool
Punuk
Birnirk and
effort
from the
Head-SmashedJump in Alberta, Canada 3000-1000 BC Late Archaic Period of the Eastern Woodlands region 2200-1000 BC Arctic coast colonized In
of
organizes the
cad 900
weights, and other tools
west in the interior Paramount chief Tascaluza
1541
the Bering Straits and northern
cad 600
hypothetical.)
used to create grooved axes,
Mexico and adjacent
patterns of Arctic
earliest dates
and geological record but remain
in
Arizona
ad 300-1000
North
Americans, including Clovis and
Folsom
New
the French and communities further
tradition of
pottery manufacture develops
between
is
re-conquered
The
in
1695
under the leadership of Spaniard Diego de Vargas. 1710 Mohawk leader Theyanoguin,
known
to the British as King
Hendrick. travels to London with three others to meet with
Queen
Anne. Their portraits are painted by John Verelst.
1729 The French destroy Natchez villages in Alabama, putting an end to
the
last
1849 Hudon's Bay Company establishes
operative Mississippian
chiefdom 1
754
a
open
direct trade with the
Hudson's Bay 1
Columbia, among the Kwakiutl
Blackfeet of the northwestern
plains
Over 10,000 Sioux, Crow, Cheyenne, Arapaho. Assmiboine. Gros Ventre, and Arikira assemble
1851
Company
763 Odawa leader Pontiac organizes
a
1887 The General Allotment Act becomes federal law and over the next several decades two-thirds of Indian-owned land in the United States
at
Wyoming
is
A
1889
lost to
Paiute
Fort Laramie
Mackinac
to hear United States officials ask for
ancestors
peace among the tribes
to
falls
and Detroit
San Diego, the
first
of
is
besieged.
a mission at
many
southeast
in
protect settlers
subsequent missions in California 1774 Nuu-chah-nulth and Haida trade
plains.
an effort to
in
transit across the
in
The Fort Laramie Treaty
that
white settlement
man named Wovoka
experiences visions
pan-tribal alliance against the British.
1769 The Spanish establish
1
post at Fort Rupert, British
show him
which world restored
in
a
condition before the arrival of
its
the white man. Delegations from
throughout the west
tribes
follows as a result of the negotiations
Wovoka
furs with Spanish explorer Juan Perez
promises the tribes annuity payments
learn the religious rituals
Hernandez, whose party are probably the first Europeans encountered by these communities
and compensation for
known
795 After the Ohio
nearly a decade of conflict at frontier, allied tribes of the
Great Lakes region
sign the Treaty of
Greenville with the young United
"depredations."
opening what will become the Northwest Territories to settlement 1799 The Tuscarora are given a small
includes the Black
Falls in
thanks for Tuscarora
Americans during the War of the American Revolution. 1804-1806 Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, commissioned by loyalty to the
President
Thomas Jefferson, explore
descend the Columbia river to the Pacific, and return to the east to report on lands purchased from France 1818 Governor Vincente de Sola of the Missouri
river,
California reports
64,000 Indians
baptized, although 41 ,000 of
them
have died
all
Indian tribes of the east to
reservations west of the Mississippi River
1834 Mato-Tope, a war chief of the Mandan, paints images of his exploits with watercolors on paper for artist Karl Bodmer and nobleman Prince Maximilian zu
Wied
to the chief's village
during their
visit
on the upper
Missouri River. Maximilian also brings a buffalo
robe painted by Mato-Tope
1848 Ephraim George Squier and Edwin Hamilton Davis publish Ancient Monuments of the MississipptValley as the first publication of the young Smithsonian Institution (Contributions
The volume topographic survey maps of
Knowledge, volume
includes
1
875 War
life in
and sent to Fort Marion, Florida. During
captivity,
many, such as Zotom,
Wohaw,
Charles Ohettoint, and that are
at
where he
collects
the Smithsonian
Frank Hamilton Cushing.
who accompanied
I
)
Ohio Hopewell earthwork sites and Mississippian platform mounds
Midwest and
American Indians 1897 Over 6.000 Lakota and guests assemble at the Rosebud reservation. six
days of Fourth
government has discouraged traditional ceremonies, local officials
a
year Powell sends James Stevenson
a large scale for
builders of the
of July celebrations. Although the
$20,000 appropriation to establish the Bureau of Ethnology, later named the Bureau of American Ethnology, and appoints John Wesley Powell director. That
on
Thomas
controversial notion that the ancient
South Dakota, for
very
to the southwest,
the 12th Annual Report of
In
the young Bureau of American
mound
leaders of several southern
much prized today. 1879 US Congress approves
1894
Southeast are ancestors of modern
1876.
Cohoe, produce drawings
Wounded
Knee, South Dakota.
offers definitive proof to the then-
Hills to
1874, touching off
plains tribes are arrested
prison at
by federal troops at
killed
Ethnography, Cyrus
Stevenson, remains
Zuni to pioneer the practice of
more permissive when
are
festivities
sham
the
are framed within this
patriotic holiday.
The Lakota
stage
battles (including a reinactment
of the Custer fight), give-aways,
adoption
rituals,
and other
ceremonies.
1900 The Census reports population of American
that the Indians
in
the
United States had diminished to what will
be the all-time low of 237.
196.
Thereafter, the population begins to
participant ethnography.
1880 Trader Thomas Keam commissions from local potters,
increase.
1902 Students of teacher Esther Hoyt's
very
likely including Hano potter Nampeyo, reproductions of Sikyatki
classes at the San lldefonso Mission
and San Bernardo polychrome ceramics excavated from
Tonita Pena, Alfredo Montoya. and
Awa
the Hopi pueblos
behest of the newly founded Franz Boas,
in
prominent and foundational figure American anthropology, will be
inspired by these collections to
pursue fieldwork among the Kwakiutl
fair"
organize the
grows to be one of the
largest
powwows
and
North America today 1905-1910 Hano potter Nampeyo. renowned for her Sikyatki-revival pottery, spends her summers at Hopi House on the south rim of the Grand festivals in
Canyon, offering demonstrations and selling
that
specifies the practice of the potlatch ible offense
officials
Crow Agricultural Fair at the Crow reservation in Montana "Crow
annual inter-tribal
museum in Berlin who will later become
1884 The Indian Act voted into Canadian law includes a provision
Tsireh (Alfonso Roybal)
first
1881-1882 Adrian Jacobsen collects artifacts in British Columbia at the
a
School include future watercolonsts
1904 Reservation
archaeological rums located near
ethnography
back to Europe.
to
Custer's
in
practitioners and their families are
publishes a study that he believes
an
hostilities that will claim
Institution.
1830 President Andrew Jackson signs into law the Indian Removal Act, requiring the forced removal of
renewed
sell
beadwork and other handcrafts to American side of Niagara
search for gold
Falls. Tuscarora artists later
tourists visiting the
George
will lead
expedition into the Black
reservation near Lewiston, adjacent
receive an exclusive concession to
Hills.
Armstrong Custer
inspires,
it
Ghost Dance. The next over 300 Lakota Ghost Dance
as the
winter,
1868 After successfully closing the Bozeman Trail between Fort Laramie and Montana, Lakota leaders sign the second Fort Laramie Treaty, creating the "Great Sioux Reservation" that
States,
to Niagara
settler's
visit
to hear of his vision and to
her creations to visitors
1915 Archaeologist Alfred Vincent
Kidder begins excavations I
at
Pecos.
Tiw.i-Pueblo village site occupied
219
between
c.
pioneering
ad 1300 and 1838. His method of stratigraphic
analysis will result in the first
1946 Acee Blue Eagle. Creek Pawnee painter and former head of the art department at Bacone College, wins
Woodland
1988 The Lubicon Cree of Alberta, Canada, seeking recognition of longstanding land claims, organize a
proposals for understanding
first
chronological sequences of
of the first Annual exhibition and
Sings," a
competition for Native American
Native art installed at the
Anasazi history. 1919
Washo
Keyser
is
basket weaver Louisa
featured at the
Museum
New
Mexico and the Santa Fe Indian School sponsor the first Southwest Indian Fair in of
Santa Fe, a prize-awarding
died
Warm
is
Institute, a
school
fair
conducts
dedicate a
Awa
house
same year are shown
this
at the Society
for Independent Artists exhibition at
the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
in
New
York City. 1922 Agent William M.Halliday confiscates masks and other potlatch
amounting to over 450 objects, from Kwakiutl Dan Cranmer's six-day potlatch at Village Island, British Columbia. Today, the items,
Museum.
Glenbow
Calgary, which opens
in
The Assembly organize
of First Nations and the
Museum
Canadian
a task
Association
force to examine
museum ethics and responsibilities when organizing exhibitions dealing
government-funded Indian
with Native American culture and history.
a three-day potlatch to full-size replica
the chief carver of the totem pole
preservation program to carve replicas of the
many
poles installed
in
original
1989 The National Museum of the American Indian is created, transferring ownership and governance
of the
which he was born. He made the replica in Thunderbird Park, where he was employed as in
totem
Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, to the Smithsonian
of the
Institution
1990 The Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act
is
signed into law, protecting federal lands
from excavation of human remains and
the park.
1953 The United States government initiates
Spirit
broad survey of Canadian
dedicated at Haskell
1953 Kwakiutl carver Mungo Martin
painters including Fred Kabotie,
boycott of the exhibition "The
conjunction with the Winter Olympics.
Lawrence, Kansas
in
shows watercolors by Pueblo
who
Tulsa,
II.
Indian arts that exists today as the
Tsireh, and others
Museum,
World War by Chiricahua Springs Apache sculptor Allan
in
competition and sale of southwest
The
Division
1948 Comrade in Mourning, the marble memorial to Native Americans who
Houser,
Santa Fe Indian Art Market.
the
Oklahoma
Industrial Arts Exposition
1922 The
in
arts at the Philbrook
Louis
St.
prize
the policy of "termination"
with the intent of eliminating
defining categories of cultural artifacts
to be repatriated from tribes
all
federal obligations to Indian tribes.
who
museums
can demonstrate
to
affiliation
1994 The Columbus Quincentennial
marked by
is
Kwakiutl-run U'mista Cultural
By 1962 over 100 communities
Center
have lost their status as federally
exhibitions, and events that
recognized tribes.
and critique the legacy of the European
at Alert
Bay has been able
to reclaim almost
all
of the material
from the several museums that made purchases from Halliday. 1931
Exposition of Indian Tribal Arts,
an exhibition conceived to public interest
in
the
work
promote of living
American Indian artists, opens in New York City and tours for the next two years throughout major American cities and abroad 1932 Julian Martinez and Awa Tsireh join with
others to create murals
in
the cafeteria at the Santa Fe Indian
1962 The Institute of American Indian Art begins classes at the Santa Fe
New
Indian School with Lloyd Kiva
American
Woodland School
Indian painting,
is
of
debuted
at the Pollock Gallery in Toronto,
Ontario.
The show
is
widely reviewed
and attended, and all the paintings sell. 1969 Alcatraz Island, the former federal prison
in
exhibition
San Francisco Bay,
artist
in
1999 The year before his death, Ojibwa painter George Morrison is honored as senior artist at the first Eiteljorg
Fellowship for Native American Fine Art, a
is
Native Arts organization based
Phoenix, Arizona.
program of
biennial exhibitions
by the Eiteljorg
Dorothy Dunn, teacher of fine and
demanding a center for Native American studies, an American Indian spiritual center,
Studio School program run by applied arts
1936 The Indian Arts and Crafts Board
Indians
an ecological center, and a training
created within the Department of
school. This event inspires increased
Indian Affairs as a result of efforts by
American Indian political activism. 1974 Vancouver Art Gallery opens "A Quarter-Century of Bill Reid Work,"
is
Commissioner of
Indian Affairs John
Collier, the reformist
appointed by
Franklin D. Roosevelt to oversee the
"Indian 1941
In a
New
a retrospective of the
Haida jeweler
and sculptor
Deal"
remarkable collaboration of
1977 Curator Ralph
T Coe and
the
the cultural elite and government
Arts Council of Great Britain open
Museum of Modern Art opens the exhibition "Indian Art of
Thousand Years
the United States," organized largely
Indian Art" at
policy, the
the exhibition "Sacred Circles:
Two
North American the Hayward Gallery, of
by Rene d'Harnoncourt as manager
London. Traveling to the Nelson
of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board.
Atkins
The show
Kansas
will
have a profound
impact on the work of artists
Gottlieb, and others.
220
New
York
Jackson Pollock, Adolph
the
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith for
Atlatl, a
and cash awards to
year of
is
"The Submuloc
occupied by over 400 American
first
"New
discovery of the so-called
World." Notable among them
The
School during the
examine
Show/Columbus Wohs" curated by
as director
1962 Norval Morriseau, founder of the so-called
several publications,
Museum
of Fine Arts
in
City, Missouri, in 1978, this
is one of several large surveys of American Indian art organized by major art museums during the 1970s.
Indians and
artists
Museum
Western Art
inaugurated
of
American
in
Indianapolis, Indiana
2004 The
Native-run National
of the American Indian
open in
its
museum on DC.
Washington.
is
Museum
scheduled to
the National Mall
.
Select Bibliography
A Introduction The term "survivance"
pp 262 398 broad study that examines the circulation of objects and
discussed
is
G. Vizenor, Manifest
in
and
The concept
S.
Significant site reports of
of an "aesthetic system"
The use
of
Native terms and stereotypical representations of Native
the thesis of
New
Haven. 1998. The best available overview of
artist
work can be found in D. Bradley, Restless Native, Art Museum, Moorhead, Minnesota, 1991 Lewis Henry Society:
Researches
evolution
his ideas of social
Plains
history of the "Lord's Shirt"
is
New York.
detailed
in
Magazine,
vol. 5. no. 2. fall 1980. pp.
making and
its
and
Hail (ed.), Gifts of Pride
Museum
Heffenreffer Bristol, Rl,
Love: Kiowa
and Comanche
of Anthropology,
2000. The
artistic
Brown
in R.
200
1
.
A
brief
Eiteljorg
Eiteljorg Fellowship for
Museum
of
American
overview
W
Western
J.
Inc.,
Pacheco
(ed.),
Columbus,
A View from
the
Ohio There have been
1996.
Hopewell exchange, both of S.
which looked
Indianapolis, 1979.
I.
Goad, Exchange Networks
in
specifically at
marine
shell
and
Interaction Sphere:The
The
in B.
origins of the Mississippian cultural
in
a collection of essays
and studies found
D. Smith (ed.), The Mississippian Emergence. Smithsonian
Institution Press,
Washington,
DC.
1990.
Among the
abundant
and often confusing literature about Cahokia. the most recent and up-to-date interpretations can be found
T
in
E.
Emerson,
Cahokia and the Archaeology of Power. University of Alabama
Native American Fine Art,
Indians and
P
in
Seeman, The Hopewell
F.
system are addressed
Penney, George Morrison's artistic career is offered in D. "George Morrison," in B. Bernstein (ed.). Contemporary
Masters.The
"A
N. Greber,
in
Historical Society Prehistory Research Series, vol. 5. no. 2.
biographies of Albert Edward
University of Washington Press, Seattle,
charnel houses,
offered
Evidence for Interregional Trade and Structural Complexity. Indiana
Cradles,
University,
of
is
the Contexts and Contents of Large to Small
1978.
copper, and M.
Wright, Northern Haida Master Carvers,
K.
site,
and materials, such as
Ann Arbor, A.
in B.
Edenshaw and Charles Edenshaw are thoroughly researched and presented
rituals in
the Prehistoric Southeastern United States, University Microfilms.
30-35. Kiowa cradle-
associated cultural values are explored
Hopewell
Commentary on
artifacts
"Exploration of
Mills,
423-584. More recent
1922. pp.
,
Ohio Hopewell
several important studies of
M. Raczka,
P.
W C.
City Group," Ohio Archaeological and Historical
Archaeological Council,
"Blackfoot Artists: Rights and Power," American Indian Art
consulted
of Natural History.Anthropological
Core:A Synthesis of Ohio Hopewell Archaeology,
1877.
1989
Moorehead. "The Hopewell Mound
73-184. and
Ohio Hopewell Deposits,"
Ancient
the Lines of Human Progress from Savagery
in
through barbarism to Civilization, Holt,
A
in
Mound
sites
W
D
is
Ann Arbor.
major Ohio Hopewell
K.
Museum
of Ohio." Field
particularly the
.
Morgan developed
W
Series, vol. 6. 1922. pp.
analysis of the
David
Bradley's
include
Society Publicavons, vol. 31
Deloria, Playing Indian, Yale University Press,
P.
Group the
appearance to develop an American sense of national identity is
book
for this
Leuthold, Indigenous Aesthetics: Native Art, Media,
University of Texas Press, Austin. 1998.
Identity,
"Hopewell interaction sphere"
Penney, Hopewell Art, University Microfilms,
Manners: PostindianWarriors of Survivance. Wesleyan University
comes from
Historical Society Publicavons, vol. 25. 1916.
ideas throughout the
1
Press, Hanover, 1994.
"Exploration of the Tremper Mound." Ohio Archaeological
Mills,
and
Art,
Press. Tuscaloosa. 1997.
Indianapolis, 2000.
and C.
J.
Bareis and
American Bottom Archaeology, University of
J.
W Porter
(eds.).
Press.
Illinois
Urbana, 1984. More detailed studies about major Mississippian 2
Ancient Woodlands
sites
A
broad, up-to-date overview of indigenous North American
are collected
found
in B.
M. Fagan, Ancient North America: The Archaeology of a
New York,
Thames & Hudson, London and 2000. The site report for the Titterington Continent,
3rd
focus Airport
ed.,
site
published as D. C. Roper, The Airport Site:A Multicomponent in
Sangamon
the
Series, Papers in
Clarence
B.
Anthropology, no.
Moore
originally
before 1916 and William
Webb's
site
S.
report with an introductory analysis by
D.
S.
Knoll,
as
W
S.
Webb
site
Howard
and
Indians.
W Penney.
Abrams,
New
The Southeastern Ceremonial
J.
Knight and
Washington. Center.
Phillips,
D.
H D
P Steponaitis
V.
(eds.).
Archaeology of the
Moundville Chiefdom. Smithsonian Institution Press.
DC.
Memoirs
Anthropology,
University of Tennessee. Knoxville. 200
Brose.J A. Brown, and D.
American Woodland
Site
revisited the site in the 1940s.
Winters has been reissued recently Winters. Indian
is
4. Springfield. 1978.
excavated the Indian Knoll
Webb
(ed.).
Lincoln. 1989. Moundville and Spiro receive detailed treatment in V.
Museum Research
River Drainage, Illinois State
P Galloway
in
Complex: Artifacts and Analysis. University of Nebraska Press.
be
cultural history as revealed by archaeological research can
and thematic essays about Mississippian art and culture
Spiro.
1998. and
J.
A. Brown. The Spiro Ceremonial
of the University of Michigan
vol. 29,
Ann Arbor.
Pre-Columbian Shell Engravings
Oklahoma,
pts.
I
and
2.
Museum
J.
A.
at
Peabody Museum of Archaeology
and Ethnology, Harvard University. 1978. 1984. provides an exhaustive catalogue of these important ob|ects.
1
of
Brown and P from the Craig Mound
1996.
D H Dye and
C A. Cox (eds), Towns and Temples Along the Mississippi.
Ancient Art of the
University of
York. 1985. offers
Mississippian
Alabama
Press. Tuscaloosa, 1990, focuses
on
towns in the immediate Mississippi valley C M Hudson, Knights of Spam.Wamors of the Sun: Hernando de Soto
good overview of prehistoric Eastern Woodlands art and The site report documenting the discovery of the Adena effigy pipe is C. Mills, "Excavations of the Adena
and the South s Ancient Chiefdoms. University of Georgia Press.
Mound." Ohio Archaeological and
archaeological research with the historic documentation of de
a
archaeology.
W
vol
10,
burial
1902, pp. 452-479.
mound
Historical Society Publicavons.
A good,
evidence for Middle
ceremonies can be found
in
J.
A.
concise summary of the Woodland period mortuary
Brown. "Charnel Houses and
Mortuary Crypts: Disposal of the Dead
Woodland
Period."
in
D.
Hopewell Archaeology: The
S.
effigy
the Middle
Brose and N. Greber (eds).
Chillicothe Conference,
University Press. Ohio. 1979.
Tremper mound
in
is
of
WC
particularly valuable in the
way
it
ties
together
Soto's travels through the Mississippian Southeast
3
Eastern Woodlands
A
broad overview of Iroquois history before and after contact
with Europeans
Kent State
The discovery of the cache is documented in
plarform pipes
Athens. 1997,
is
offered
Publishers. Cambridge.
in
MA.
D
R Snow. The Iroquois. Blackwell More focused essays about
1994
the dynamics and consequences of contact, including detail
some
about the relations between Jamestown and the
221
Powhatan chiefdom, can be found
in
W. W.
Arbor, 1965. Johann Georg Kohl's conversation with
Fitzhugh (ed.).
Opbwa man about
ContactThe Impact of European Contacts on Native American Cultural Institutions, ad. 1000-1800, Smithsonian Cultures
in
Institution Press,
DC.
explores the ways
Kohl's
in
reconsidered and reconfigured
1985.
America, 1859;
and Rabbit
cultural values in "Strawberries. Floating Islands,
Captains: Mythical Realities and European Contact
spoons and
Northeast during the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries," Journal of Canadian Studies, vol. 21
,
history of the royal cabinet of curiosity of France
A. Vitart, History,"
A
no. 4, pp. 72-94.
New
New York,
Press,
1993.
E.
M. Maurer,
"Presenting the American Indian: from Europe to America,"
in
The Changing Presentation of the American Indian: Museums and
Museum
Native Cultures, National
of the American Indian,
1
,
1
summer,
no. 3,
bags,"
surveyed
in T.J.
assembled by
American Indian
1986, pp. 32—43, discusses
British military officers are
Phillips, Patterns of
Museum
of Man, Ottawa, 1976, and R. B.
Power .The Jasper Grant Collection and Great
The McMichael The broader issue
Lakes Indian Art of the Early Nineteenth Century,
Canadian Collection, Kleinburg,
ON,
1985.
of the relationships between collecting practices and the
responses of Native
Lorette, are dealt with Souvenir I
in
in R. B. Phillips,
768-1788, Lakeside Press, Chicago, 1922.
of
Menominee
quillwork
of an Expedition
to the
London, 1825. The Sainte Marie
in
W
visit
The
Travels in theYears
A
brief discussion
H. Keating, Narrative
Source of St. Peter's River,
Cox and
Bayles,
to the Ojibwa "atelier" near Sault
recorded
is
included
is
in
J.
G. Kohl, Kitchi-Gami: Life Among the
Lake Superior Ojibway, I860; Minnesota Historical Society Press,
An overview
1985.
St. Paul,
of early nineteenth-century Great
Lakes formal clothing and the techniques of
be found
in
W
D.
shirt
is
from
decoration can
Penney, Art of the American Indian Frontier:
The Chandler IPohrt Seattle, 1992.
its
The
Collection, University of
specific history of the
Washington
Press,
Seminole or Creek
Bolz and H.-U. Sanner, Native American ArvThe
P.
Collections of the Ethnological
zu Berlin, 1999.
The
with porcupine
quills
Museum
Berlin, Staatliche
Museen
distinctive craft of decorating birch bark is
surveyed
in S.
Graham and
4
15,
Museum
Rochester. 1982.
Southwest
L. S.
Academic most up-to-date thinking about more focused discussion about the
Cordell, Prehistory of the Southwest, Boston,
Press,
2nd
ed., 1997, offers
the
A
southwestern prehistory.
development of pottery
historical
illustrated in this Lister,
Peckham, From
in S.
is
Museum
Pottery,
of
New
This
Mexico
about the provenance of
book, can be found
Anasazi Pottery, Maxwell
University of
New
Mexico
H. Lister and
in R.
Museum
F.
C.
of Anthropology and
Press, Albuquerque, 1978.
There
is
a
great deal to be learned about the significance of pottery both
research in
in B.J. Mills
and
P.
Crown
L.
(eds.).
Ceramic Production
the American Southwest, University of Arizona Press, Tucson,
Hegmon, The
1995, and M.
Early Puebloan Southwest,
in
mentioned
is
C. Prisch, Aspects of Change
in B.
5,
L.
P.
W
Crown and
Dynamics of Pottery
Social
Crow Canyon
Cortez, Colorado, 1995. Chaco
as regional cultural
Judge
J.
C. Feest,
American Research
Style in the
Archaeological Center,
systems are treated
Chaco and Hohokam:
(eds.),
Prehistoric Regional Systems in the American Southwest,
Seattle, 1998.
at Niagara Falls
compiled
Canyon and Hohokam
Native North American Art from the Northeast,
Mohawk moccasins
is
Occasional Paper no. of
Trading ldentities:The
M. M. Quaife (ed.),Jonn Long'sVoyages and
in
Huron
specifically the
700-1900, University of Washington Press,
availability of
I
more
artists,
labels
within Anasazi communities and as a tool for archaeological
Brasser, "Bo'jou, Neejee!" Profiles of Canadian
Indian Art, National
A good
several important early Anasazi ceramics, including those
the historical development of this distinctive form of shoulder bag. Early collections
Indians of North
York, 1996.
Seneca Iroquois Ladles, a.d. 1600-1900. Rochester
Press, Santa Fe, 1990. Discussions
W Whiteford, "The
Great Lakes beaded bandolier
origins of
Art Magazine, vol.
in
EarthJhe Ancient Art of Pueblo
Washington, D.C., 2000, surveys the early practices of
European collecting more broadly. A.
New
Publications.
in
"From Royal Cabinets to Museums: A Composite in W. R. West et al.. Robes of Splendor: Native American
Painted Buffalo Hides,
Kane met the
artist Paul
drawing of the pipe, as related
and Science Center, Research Records no.
brief
offered
is
Dover
young
a
come from
survey of the historical statements about the significance of
the
in
a
memoir. Wanderings of an Artist among the
in his
accordance with Native
in
memoir, cited above. The
Ojibwa pipe carver and made
George Hamell which European material culture was
Washington,
the designs engraved on his club
NM,
Press, Santa Fe,
1991.
A
School of
broader
archaeological and art historical survey of Anasazi culture J. J.
is
Brody, The Anasazi: Ancient Indian People of the American
New York,
Southwest, Rizzoli,
A fairly
1990.
up-to-date
synthesis of the art historical and archaeological research
the Mimbres valley
is
Thames & Hudson,
Pueblo Painters of the American Southwest,
London and
New
on
A. LeBlanc, The Mimbres People: Ancient
S.
York, 1983.
The
images of Kachinas are discussed
early kiva paintings with
in
Brody, Anasazi and
J. J.
Pueblo Painting, School of American Research Press. Santa Fe,
NM,
1991
.
A case for tying together kiva
designs on ceramics, and changes
in E.
paintings, painted
community and
development of Kachina
as evidence for the
developed
in
kiva layout
ritualism
is
C. Adams, The Origin and Development of the
Pueblo Katsina Cult, University of Arizona Press, Tucson. 1991.
An overview offered
in
University of
contemporary Kachina
of historic and
P Schaafsma
New
(ed.),
Mexico
Kachinas
Press,
in
ritual
is
the PuebloWorld,
Albuquerque. 1994.
Ottawa Quillwork on Birchbark, Harbor Springs Historical
Biographies and artistic practices of contemporary Kachina doll
Commission, Harbor
carvers are compiled
Ojibwa
women
Springs, Ml, 1983. Statements
about the sources of their
come from
floral
from
beadwork
are
Washington, 1947. The oral traditions relating to the Agawa
of
Rock
paintings
B.
were collected
in S.
Dewdney and
Indian Paintings of the Great Lakes, University of
K. E. Kidd,
Toronto Press,
Toronto, 1962. Statements about the significance of war clubs are offered
in
A. D. Raudot,
Indian nations of
"Memoir concerning
North America,"
in
W
V.
the different
Kinietz. The Indians
oftheWestern Great Lakes, University of Michigan Press,
222
Ann
H. Teiwes, Kachina Dolls:TheArt ofHopi
The
best
concise sources for the history of Pueblo and Navajo textiles
Coleman, Decorative Designs of the Ojibwa of Northern Minnesota, Catholic University of America Press, designs
in
Carvers, University of Arizona Press, Tucson. 1991.
still
K.
P.
Kent, Pueblo Indian Texliles.A Living Tradition. School
American Research
Press. Santa Fe.
NM.
1983.
and
K.
P
Kent, Navajo Weaving: Three Centuries of Change, School of
American Research
Press, Santa Fe,
explores the early curio trade
in
NM.
1985. Jonathan
the Southwest
in
Batkm
"Tourism
is
Overrated: Pueblo Pottery and the Early Curio Trade,
1880
1910." in R. B. Phillips
Culture: Art
and Commodity
in
and C.
B.
Colonial
Steiner (eds.). Unpacking
and
Postcolonial Worlds,
.
A
University of California Press. Berkeley. 1999.
masterful study
on the Hopi Mesas over Wyckoff. Designs and Factions: Politics.
of the practices of ceramic production
the
150 years
last
L
is
L.
Religion,
and Ceramics on the Hopi Third Mesa, University of
Mexico
Press. Albuquerque. 1985.
The most recent
The Legacy of Maria Poveka Martinez,
Mexico
A
Press, Santa Fe. 2003.
the Southwest
in
Generations, National
Museum
of
Women
in
A. H. Whiteford et
in
Years of Southwest Indian Arts
Mexico
al.,
and
Am
I
Awicalowampi
rite of Isnati
University
Ritual.
Cedar Woman's account
Arapaho sacred workbags appears
"The Northern Arapaho
is
vol. 16, no.
New
of
The Lakota
Walker, Lakota Belief and
R.
J.
L
A.
in
Northern Arapaho cradles were explored by
the Arts.
Museum
in
Kroeber.
TheArapaho. University of Nebraska Press. Lincoln, 1983.
Here:Two Thousand
Culture,
the
a discussion of
G. B Gnnnell. The
in
Haven. 1923. University of Nebraska Press.
discussed
of the
is
Washington. D.C.. 1997. The history of Navajo silverwork discussed
New
of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 1980.
Peterson. Pottery by American IndianWomen.The Legacy of
S.
appears
quilling society
Cheyenne IndiansTheir History andWays ofbfe. Yale University
is
broader view of the pan-
generational nature of pottery-making
51-55. 74 Picking Bones's story and
Lincoln. 1972, 2 vols.
R.
is
pp.
Cheyenne Press.
artistic
L Museum of New
biography of the influential potter Maria Martinez Spivey.
New
carver," American Indian Art Magazine, vol. 3. no. 4. 1978.
1
1990, pp. 64-71
,
More
.
responsible for the cradles appears
workbag keeper
M. C. Bol. "Identity
in
recovered: portrait of a Northern Arapaho quillworker,"
Plains
5
J.
Although somewhat controversial, many of us have
M. Szabo
(ed.). Painters, Patrons,
American Art
a great
Press.
interpretations of Plains history compiled
and discussed
(ed.). Plains Indians, A.D.
Oklahoma
relied
is
upon
Keyser and M. A. Klassen,
Washington
heavily
is
200
recorded
1
.
in
1994.
784-1812,
Glover
R.
his shield
and
powers
its
An
Cheyenne
in
J.
D.
is
G.
is
in
Mexico illustrated
is
collected
discussed
is
C
in
The Lakota
University of Washington Press. Seattle. 2003.
Un or
of Ongloge
title
1912.
P.
found
in
Native
Horse Capture.
P.
may or may not have been
that
during the Lewis and Clark expedition
Wearer"
"Shirt
discussed
is
The importance
C
in
the Oglala
in
American Museum of Natural
History Anthropological Papers,
vol.
1
1
,
part
I
New
.
York.
of Fourth of July celebrations and their
attendant give-aways as a strategy of Lakota cultural survival
interpretation of the shield that belonged
warrior. Little Rock,
New shirt
in
and Tradition.The Legacy of Plains Indian Shirts, of the American Indian, Washington. DC.
The dress
.
D
Division of the Teton-Dakota,
he
Horse Capture Bear Claw Press, Ann in
J.
The Spotted Tail Horse Capture and G. .
Wissler, Societies and Ceremonial Associations
of the Champlain
how
1
Brody, University of 1
Essays
Identity:
Museum
National
200
in
and
McLaughlin. Arts of Diplomacy: Lewis and Clark's Indian Collection,
Western America
account of
The SevenVisions of Bull Lodge,
Arbor, Ml. 1980.
in
Rock Art, University of
(ed.). Publications
Society, Toronto, 1962. Bull Lodge's
acquired
found
is
The story of Saukamappee's D. Thompson, David
Thompson's Narrative of his Explorations
to the
Beauty, Honor,
Past of
Norman,
book,
in this
Plains Indian
Press. Seattle,
battle experiences
(ed.).
Press,
sensible approach to the difficult topic of Plains rock art,
and one that
I
K. H. Schlesier
500-1 500:The Archaeological
Historic Groups, University of
A very
in
Honor J.J.
to
Albuquerque. 200
deal of confidence in the archaeological and linguistic
in
archival detail revealing
the identity of a Northern Arapaho sacred
Press. Santa Fe. 1989.
Gilmore
R.
American Indian Art Magazine.
cradle."
M. Kan and
W
Wierzbowski, "Notes on an Important Southern Cheyenne
given thorough treatment
Celebrations: Displaying Lakota Identity,
Ann Arbor, 200
Microfilms,
is
A. Greci Green, Performances and
in
1880-1915, University
1
Shield," Bulletin of The Detroit Institute ofArts, vol. 57, no. 3. 1979,
No Two
pp. 125-133. Details
about
Maurer
of the People.A
Indian
(ed.). Visions
Horns's shield are Pictorial History
M.
in E.
of Plains
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, 1992. The
Life,
Ghost Dance and Ghost Dance garments are discussed in G. P. Horse Capture et al.. Wounded Knee. Lest We Forget, Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, tipi is
offered
the Kiowa
in
J.
and Kiowa-Apache
discussed
in
J.
DC.
C. Berlo
The
1990.
C. Ewers. Murals
Washington,
Press.
WY.
Indians,
history of Little Bluff's
the Round: Painted Tipis of
in
Smithsonian Institution
book
1978. Little Shield's ledger
(ed.). Plains Indian
Drawings 1865-1935:
Pages from aVisual History, Harry N. Abrams,
and Zotom's drawings are discussed
in E.
is
New
Wade
York. 1996.
and
T
J.
Rand.
Accommodation volume. The seminal study of
"The Subtle Art of Resistance: Encounter and in
the Art of Fort Marion."
drawings
made by
in
that
the Fort Marion prisoners
is
K.
D Petersen.
from Fort Marion, University of Oklahoma Press. The archaeological and early historic use of discussed in M. Mott. "The relations of historic
6 Far West Thorough but
basic overviews of California prehistory
ethnography are available North American Indians:
F.
Heizer
California, vol. 8.
DC.
Washington,
Press,
in R.
1978.
basket
is
Miwok Material
discussed
Chumash
particular
S A. Barrett
"coin" baskets
is
tribes to archaeological manifestations in Iowa." Iowa journal of
History
and
Politics, vol.
36. no. 2. 1938.
Nicollet's eventful trip to the catlinite his
pp 227 314 Joseph quarry is recounted
Indian Art Magazine, vol. 7. no. 3.
between the
relationship
memoir. "Expedition to Pipestone Quarry June 9
1838." Plains
The
in
and
E
C
Bray and
Prairies.
art of the
M C
anonymous
-July 20.
Bray (eds) Joseph Nicollet on the
Minnesota Historical Society. pipe carver
is
St
examined
Paul. 1976 in
J
C
Ewers. "Three effigy pipes by an Eastern Dakota master
West. "
in
J
is
C
W
Gifford.
of the
examined
summer
artist Louisa
Berlo
in
M
1982, pp 62-68 The Keyser and her patrons,
Cahodas. "Louisa Keyser and the
(ed.).
of Elizabeth
Press. Seattle. 1992
Hickox
in
the American
and
A
Collecting. University of
thorough
is
for the California
offered
in
Cuno Trade
M
Cohodas. Bosket
Elizabeth
and Louise
Hickox. University of Arizona Press. Tucson, 1977 regional study of Paiute and
C D
Bates and
M
J
biography
artistic
the larger context of northern
California ethnohistory
Weovers
in
The EariyYears of Native American Art
History The Pohvcs of Scholarship
Washington in
E.
Museum
"Three inscribed Chumash
Cohns: mythmaking and basket making
is
and
baskets with designs from Spanish colonial coins." American
the Cohns.
catlinite
in B.
no. 4, 1933. Lilliam Smith's study of
2.
Norman,
.
found
Lanham. MD. 2003. The Miwok
in
Plains Indian Art
1971
updating of
is
Looks at Our Earliest
Culture. Bulletin of the Public
City of Milwaukee, vol.
the
Smithsonian Institution
California: An Archaeologist
Inhabitants. AltaMira Press. chief's
in
and
Handbook of
A more modern
California prehistory and rock art
M. Fagan, Before
(ed.).
Mono
basket makers
A is
broad offered by
Lee. Tradition and Innovation A basket
History oflhe Indians oftheYosemite-Mono Lake Area,
Association, Yosemite National Park.
CA,
Mathews and
Yosemite
1990.
A
1982.
Northwest Coast
7
The most up-to-date prehistory
is
K. M.
interpretation of
Ames and
New
ethnographic research
Northwest Coast
Thames &
is
York, 1999. Basic archaeological and
reviewed
in
W.
Handbook
Suttles (ed.), 7,
Smithsonian
seated figure effigy bowls are illustrated and discussed
W.
Duff, Images: Stone B.C., University of
Seattle, 1975.
W
D. N.
J.
Abbott
C. H. King, (ed.),
Honour ofWilson
Victoria, 1981
.
are found
"A
examined
TheWorld
is
More focused in R. L.
Provincial
Carlson
First Peoples/First
America, British
poles and their history appear Gitksan,
Upper Skeena
Museum
is
found
in
Reid's
Bill
.
and work
life
is
Douglas and Mclntyre,
8 Arctic and Subarctic
A. Jonaitis, Art of the Northern
in S.
found
in
historic Tlingit artist: the trail of his
basic primer of
(ed.),
Handbook of North American
Smithsonian Institution, Washington,
well-illustrated survey of engraved walrus ivory
A. Kaplan
Straits
in S.
world and
"form
Damas
D.
Arctic, vol. 5,
A
recreation," American Indian Art Magazine, vol.
The
1
Reid.
Area surveys of Arctic prehistory and ethnography can be
15,
3,
in
Hills,
New York,
by the Sledge Island umialik
A. Kaplan and K.
J.
The whaling
Museum,
University of
Barrow whaling expedition can be found gift," in
J.
kit
and discussed
A thrilling account of a
British
C. H. King and H. Lidchi
Museum, London,
1998.
The
and Aleut masks
H. B. Collins et
in
recent
Hess,
Imaging the Arctic.
(eds.),
Ipiutak
in B.
The Far
al.,
Holm, Northwest Coast Indian Art: An Analysis of Form, University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1965. Bill Holm
North: 2000Years ofAmerican Eskimo and Indian Art, National
hinted at the identity of Heiltsuk carver Richard Carpenter
burial
design"
"Form
is
in
B.
Northwest Coast
art," in Indian Art Traditions
in
Gallery of Art, Washington,
WW
of the
is
Carpenter's biography and works appears
Washington,
Bella: A
Season of Heiltsuk Art, University of Washington Press,
Seattle, 1997,
on the
Bella
and additional
basis of their
form
artists are identified
line paintings in B.
and discussed
McLennan and
K.
Duffek, The Transforming Image: Painted Arts of Northwest Coast First
Nations, University of British
Columbia
Press, Vancouver;
University of Washington Press, Seattle, 2000. that the images
My
statement
on Chilkat blankets are not crests stems from
M. Halpin, "The structure of Tsimshian totemism,"
and C. M. Eastman
(eds.).
in
J.
Miller
The Tsimshian and Their Neighbors of
Washington Press, Seattle, The basic source for historic accounts of Tlingit shamanism is G. T Emmons and F de Laguna, The Tlingit Indians. American Museum of Natural History, New York; University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1991 Aldona Jonaitis explores the
1973.
The Ekven
and Alaska, Smithsonian
DC
1988.
Modern and
performances receive thorough treatment
in
S.
Press, Seattle. 1996. See also
WW
Institution Press,
statements and
Riordan et
Museum,
al.,
1982.
Nick Charles's
biography can be found
224
analysis of Tlingit
in
WW
in
Z.
P.
A. Fienup-
Notes on carving appear
Fitzhugh. The Eskimo About Bering
Nome
DC.
1983.
are discussed
in E.
W
Strait.
in
Happy D.
J.
Ray.
of the Tundra and the Sea. University of Washington Press.
Seattle, 1961
discussed
in
.
Recent carving among the Canadian
M. von Finckenstein
Inuit
is
(ed.), Celebrating InuitArt
1948-1970. Canadian Museum of
"Sacred art and
shamans' masks"
Artists
in
The Artists Behind theWork, University of Alaska
Fairbanks, AL, 1986.
Nelson and
DC.
Washington,
artistic
Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington.
power: an
Fitzhugh and
Kaplan, lnua:SpiritWorld of the Bering Sea Eskimo, Smithsonian
Jack and other ivory carvers of
spiritual
masks and
A. Fienup-
Riordan, The Living Tradition ofYup'ik Masks, University of
Washington
1984.
iconography of Tlingit shamans' masks
shaman's
Institution Press,
historic Yupik
the North Pacific Coast, University of
.
site
illustrated in
Fitzhugh and A. Crowell (eds.), Crossroads of Continents:
Cultures of Siberia
M. Black,
DC,
mentioned and many of the objects are
Northwest Coast, cited above. Further discussion of Richard in
A
Barsness, Raven's Journey:TheWorld of
are illustrated and discussed
line
1986.
illustrated
is
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1986.
"The
1984.
from the Bering
A. Wardwell, Ancient Eskimo Ivories of the
Hudson
Strait,
Indians:
DC,
Alaska's Native People, University
Point
its
no.
offered
is
owned
1990, pp. 48-55.
200 8///
Columbia, 1929, National
Museum, University of Pennsylvania, 1986, and with more detail in L. Shotridge,
summer
in
Vancouver; University of Washington Press, Seattle. 1998.
Bering
Herem, "A
Press, Seattle,
the subject of D. Shadbolt,
"War Helmets and Clan Hats of the Tlingit Indians," University Museum Journal, vol. 10, 1919, pp. 43—48. The identity of the artist responsible for the Whale House posts is discussed in B.
be found
sdiihldaa can
Wright, Northern Haida Master Carvers, University of
Washington
C.
People, University
modern
Holm, Smoky-Top: The Art and
and Charles Edenshaw, and Simeon
Barsness, Raven's Journey.TheWorld ofAlaska's Native
Philadelphia,
B.
University of
Willie Seaweed's artistic
.
M. Barbeau, Totem Poles of the
University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1986.
J.
A. Jonaitis
The Wixha memorial
discussion of the Raven Barbecuing Hat appears
and K.
the subject of
1982.
of Man, Ottawa, 1973. Aldonajonaitis's interpretation
of the Rain Screen Tlingit,
in
River, British
1999.
biography
R. K.
J.
in
1983. Masterful discussions of Haida argillite carving, Albert
Contacts: Native Peoples of North
Museum, London,
Press, Seattle, 1991
of the
in
New York;
of Natural History,
Washington is
treated
is
Enduring Kwakiutl Potlatch, American
Times ofWillie Seaweed, University of Washington Press, Seattle,
from the Ozette
Northwest Coast, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, The Archibald Menzies club is illustrated and discussed H. King,
Museum
in
Museum,
(ed.), Indian Art Traditions
WA,
Seattle,
texts provided by the
history of the Kwakiutl potlatch
(ed.), Chiefly Feasts:The
essays addressing the prehistoric
coast, including material
H.Hauberg
Art Museum.
Seattle
The Boas quote comes from
modern
in
as Sharp as a Knife: An Anthology
Columbia
New York;
U'mista Cultural Center, Alert Bay, British Columbia. The
in
Press,
'Hagwilget' club from England,"
Duff, British
Northwest
art of the site,
clubs are
Within: Northwest Coast Native Art from the John
1995.
"Stone clubs from the Skeena River area," and D. N.
Duff,
Abbott and
in
The Hagwilget stone
Washington
of the
illustrated in this
Collection. Rizzoli,
Washington, D.C.. 1990. Many of the Fraser River
shamans' art with a
Tlingit
Museum
American Indian book can be found in A. Wardwell. TangibleVisions: Northwest Coast Indian Shamanism and its Art, Monacelli Press and Corvus Press, New York, 1996. The "emaciated shaman dagger" is discussed in S. Brown. The Spirit
mask
H. D. G. Maschner, Peoples of the
of North American Indians: Northwest Coast, vol. Institution,
Peek Publications. Palo Alto, CA,
thorough overview of
discussion of the National
Northwest Coast: Their Archaeology and Prehistory,
Hudson, London and
A. Jonaitis (eds), Native North American Art
History: Selected Readings.
Civilization, Hull.
QC.
Lucy Kownak's and Emily Nipishna's statements appear
in
1999. a
,
,
thorough study of
Inuit clothing offered in
Museum
Canadian
Traditions.
Judy Hall et
Women's Work. Copper and Caribou
Sanatujut: Pride in
American
al.,
Inuit Clothing
QC, 1994. Thompsons
Judy
in
Morrison's
Museum
QC,
Civilization, Hull, in
D. K.
Burnham,
in R.
is
St.
autobiography
artistic
Society Press,
of
1994. Naskapi hunting coats are analyzed
To Please the Caribou: Painted Caribou Skin
work
later
discussed
is
subjectivity
and Cannon,"
Quebec-Labrador Peninsula. University of Washington Press,
Visions:
1998:
W
Minnesota Historical
significance of Joe Herrera's
Rushing, "Authenticity and
J.
post-war painting: concerning Herrera, Scholder,
in
Coats worn by the Naskapi, Montagnais, and Cree Hunters of the
in
Stjomes Guide
(ed.),
G. Morrison and M. F Gait,
is
in Art,
The
1998.
St. Paul,
Matuz
James Press, Detroit,
from that source. George
Turning the Feather Around: My Life
study of Athapascan clothing traditions, From the Land:Two
HundredYears of Dene Clothing. Canadian
can be found
artists
Native North American Artists.
the Fritz Scholder quote
of Civilization, Hull,
Alexander MacKenzie's quote appears
to
in
M. Archuleta and R. Strickland
Native American Painters and Sculptors
New
New York,
in
A good
(eds.),
Shared
the Twentieth
overview
Seattle, 1992.
The
spiritual associations of their painted designs
Century,
are discussed
in
G. Speck, Naskapi:The Savage Hunters of the
of the larger issue of twentieth-century Native American art
F.
Oklahoma
Labrador Peninsula. University of 1935.
Press,
Norman,
offered
The history of Sub-Arctic floral embroidery, which Mary Agnes Bonnetrouge's mukluks, is thoroughly
Museum
Haffenreffer
Museum of Anthropology Brown University,
of Anthropology,
Bristol, Rl. 1989.
the Modern and Contemporary World
9 Artists of
Plamondon's portrait of Zacharie Vincent
discussed
is
in
in
DW
discussed
contemporary woodlands
Museum
The Journal of Canadian Art History,
Perspectives on Contemporary Art,
68-79. The
life
1989, pp.
,
and art of Earnest Spybuck are the subject of
A. Callander and R. Slivka,
Museum
Earnest Spybuck, 1984.
1
Home
Shawnee
in
American
Tribe
and
lldefonso painters
Penney and
Cultural Background,
Its
Press, Athens, 1981
.
The presentation
Ohio
ON,
the subject of D.
is
Roberts. "America's pueblo
L.
on the borderland,"
in
W.J. Rushing
the Twentieth Century. Routledge,
University
of young Hopi and San
on the national stage
artists:
(ed.), Native
London and
in
1999.
For another revealing look at the Pueblo watercolorist
New York,
A
Kwakwaka'wakw,"
in B.
Bernstein
Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native
Museum
80-83. The best and most detailed history of
"Jolene Rickard:
in
Native American painting
American Research
is
J. J.
from the
L
Museum
New York,
artists are
examined
is
D. M.
Press, Santa Fe, 1995.
the Studio Style,
Museum
detailed
in
L
L.
Wyckoff
The Philbrook movement" are
Art, Tulsa,
OK,
W
1996.
A
Houser
is
Rushing
(ed.). After the
J.
(ed.). Visions andVoices:
Museum
Native American
ofArt, Philbrook
Museum
1
Blue
vol.
I
in
artist Jolene
an interview
in
P.
C. Smith,
Room; unplugging the hologram,"
(ed.), Reservation
X:The Power of Place
Museum
in
Aboriginal
of Civilization, Hull.
Western Art, Indianapolis, IN, 1992. Columbus Quincentennial
The catalogue
for the important
exhibition
Q. Smith
is
J.
(ed.).
The Submuloc Show/Columbus
the Perspective ofAmerica's First People, Atlatl, Phoenix.
AZ.
The catalogue for the Gerald McMaster exhibition is G. McMaster et al., "Savage Graces: 'after images,'" Harbor 1992.
Magazine ofArt and Everyday
of
recent artistic biography of Allan
Life. vol. 3,
no.
I
,
winter
1993-1994.
Rushing, "Allan Houser, American hero,"
American Fine Art, 200
Contemporary Masters:
Wohs:A Visual Commentary on the Columbus Quincentennial from
contributions to the "American Indian fine arts
Painting from the Philbrook
Corn
of American Indians and
of the
W
in
(ed.).
QC: An introduction to the work of Winnebago artist Truman Lowe is offered in Complo, Haga (Third Sonj.Truman Lowe, Eiteljorg Museum J.
The "Studio School" and its Bernstein and Rushing, Modern J.
in B.
Marianne
University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1998.
1982.
by Tradition.Amencan Indian Painting
Mexico
Museum
Mills Press, Erin,
American Fine Art,
Photographer and
Contemporary Art, Canadian
1
of the American Indian,
Indian,
New
G. McMaster
Brody, Pueblo Indian Painting:
in
A. Callander, Native American Painting: Selections
American
of
episode
this early
study of twentieth-century Native American painting
Fawcett and
its
New Mexico, 900-1930, School of Press, Santa Fe, NM, 1997. A pioneering
and Modernism
Tradition
Southcott, The Sound of the
Aperture; Strong Hearts: Native AmericanVisions andVoices, no. 139,
own words appear
H. Cahill, "America has
E.
Western Art, Indianapolis, IN, 1999. A moving essay about Kiowa photographer Horace Poolaw, written by Kiowa author N. Scott Momaday, is "The photography of Horace Poolaw," 1995, pp. 14-19.
E.
of
of American Indians and
Rickard's
see
Sun:
Museum
A. Walsh, "Marianne Nicholson,
summer
in
M.
in
'Primitives,'" International Studio, vol. 75, no. 299, 1922, pp.
exhibition
Canadian
brief discussion of Kwakiutl artist in
Eiteljorg
encounters
New York,
1984.
Canadian
Shadow of the
1993. Interviews with artists of the
Nicholson appears The
W.
American An
the
In
past': oral
art," in
Drum.The Sacred Art oftheAnishnabec, Boston
H. Howard, Shawnee! The Ceremonialism of a Native
J.
QC,
"Woodland School" appear
New York,
James Howard's description of the Shawnee war dance
appears
of Civilization (ed.),
Civilization, Hull,
L.
Life.The Paintings of
of the American Indian,
in
W
J.
Storm: the Eitelprg Fellowship for Native .
Eiteljorg
Museum
and Western Art, Indianapolis, IN, 200
1
.
of
A
American
Indians
thorough
examination of the genesis of the Institute of American Indian Arts and
its
relationship to United States Indian policy
is
J.
L.
Gritton, The Institute ofAmerican Indian Arts: Modernism and U.S. Indian Policy. University of
New
Mexico
is
Penney and G. Longfish,
'"Messages from the
in R. Phillips,
traditions and
F.
Gagnon, "Antoine Plamondon, Le dernier des Hurons (1838)," vol. 12, no.
insider's
Hugh Lauter Levin, New York, 1994. The important work of T. C. Cannon is reviewed in J. Frederick, T C. Cannon: He Stood in the Sun, Northland Press, Flagstaff, AZ, 1995. The Oxendine quote comes from L. E. Oxendine, "23 contemporary Indian artists," Art in America, July-August 1972, pp. 58-69. The sources of Norval Morriseau's painting are
A. Hail and K. C. Duncan, Out of the North:The
in B.
Subarctic Collection of the Haffenreffer
.
G. Longfish, "The twentieth century: 'who's going to
in
your wild horses?'"
ride
1991
Native American Art,
includes
discussed
Press,
Press. Albuquerque,
2000. Good, basic biographies of many important Native
225
1
1
I
14 Clovis projectile points,
List of Illustrations
c.
1
Mound
.000 BC
1
Airport
near Springfield.
site
Illinois
Tittenngton Focus. Late Archaic period,
Measurements are given
centimeters,
in
c
followed by inches, height before width
1000 BC
16 Bannerstone. Indian Knoll culture. Late
before depth, unless otherwise stated.
3000-2000 BC. Ohio County. Kentucky.
Archaic period, Knoll,
1
Powwow dancer.
Photo Kenny Blackbird
Museum
mask carved from red
clothing and a
W.
3
Cranmer
T.
Alert Bay. British
in
Watercolor on paper, 1
1
%).
Andrews
c.
Interpreter,
(
Association, Lafayette, Indiana,
and gray
\6% x
OV3-80
Natural History,
BC.
1910.
c.
of
Denver Art Museum.
Woodard and
c.
1930.
Department Photo
All rights
21
©
Edward Edenshaw
91
.
1
Ohio
(Haida),
1870. 15.9 x
c.
.82.
Photo Paul Macapia
Charles Edenshaw carving 1906. Royal British
in his
Columbia Museum,
Edenshaw,
c.
shell
jasper,
American History and Art.
Adena Mound, Ross 800-100 BC. Stone.
effigy pipe, c.
Columbus Adena culture.
Historical Society, tablet. Late
Woodland
period. Clinton County, 12.8
Historical Society,
Plain of
earthworks,
Woodland
Middle
Marine
{TA x
5).
Columbus.
culture,
Newark
site,
culture,
ad 1-200. Columbus
period,
23 Aerial view of the Great Serpent
Mound, Adams County, Ohio. Probably Hopewell, ad 1070. Ohio Historical
Columbus
shell,
II
Frank H.
.5 (4/.).
Tennessee, Knoxville. Photo Dirk
Bakker
Craig
of engraving
Caddoan
style.
County, Oklahoma
33 Drawing of engraving on Braden
belt (wa-to), Maidu,
1855-70 Native American bead.
Mallard duck leather.
hemp
cordage. 188 x
12.1
Brooklyn Museum.
Museum
Acorn woodpecker
effigy
34 Chunkey
player effigy pipe.
period.
1200-1350. Arkansas River
Museum St.
Louis.
bottle.
(
10 x 7/4).
The Detroit
Collection of the
Expedition
Collection Fund,
08 491.8925. Photo Justin Kerr
Springfield.
Illinois.
Illinois
State
x 4%).
Museum,
Photo Dirk Bakker
Ohio Hopewell Middle Woodland period.
26 Falcon-shaped culture.
of Arts. Detroit 1991
1
1
cut-out.
7.
Institute
Photo Dirk
Bakker
36 Head
effigy
7).
jar,
ad 1400-1550. Pemiscott
The Detroit
clay. 16.2
x 17.8
Institute of Arts.
37 Moose
antler
comb. Cayuga. 1600s.
New York
(74% x 4%). The
Museum
Quapaw
culture, Arkansas. 1400-1600. Fired clay,
Rochester.
12.2 (TA.
Louis
Photo Dirk Bakker
35 Avenue polychrome
200 bc-ad 200. Rutherford
Conglomerate, 6.2 x
St.
of Science and Natural History,
Museum and
mound, Hardin County,
Bauxite,
20.9 x 12.8 x 10.5 (8/. x 5 x 4A).
Rochester
culture, Middle
valley.
Detroit 1986 43. Photo Dirk Bakker
platform pipe. Crab
of jute, cotton
cups of
Caddoan ad
Muskogee County, Oklahoma.
Woodland
Orchard
shell
style
25.5 x 18
platform pipe.
Columbus. Photo Dirk Bakker
25 Raven
cups of
Le Flore
site,
(6% x
Gift
shell
AD 1100-1350.
Mississippian period,
Craig Mound, Spiro
on
culture,
(TA x 3%). Ohio Historical Society,
17 x S'A).
1400.
McClung Museum, University of
County, Missouri. Fired
(
effigy
ad
c.
Hamilton County, Tennessee.
site,
culture, Mississippian period,
Historical Society,
Society,
gorget showing two bird-
Ohio. Pipestone, river pearl, 5.4 x 8.3
Women's ceremonial
226
Engraved
Hixon
Red
ad 1200-1450.
Bartow County, Georgia
1905. 43.2 x 14
whale
Macapia
1908,
site,
Hill,
Gilcrease
Wibanks Phase.
.
by Isabella and Charles
of John H. Hauberg, 83.226. Photo Paul
feather, glass,
Thomas
I
Ohio Hopewell culture, Middle Woodland period. Tremper mound, Scioto County,
Courtesy of the Seattle Art Museum,
c.
2A).
No.
Plate
Mississippian period,
31
Georgia
Photo Dirk Bakker
Atlanta.
32 Drawing
24 Falcon
168
12 Painted spruce root hat with
made
home,
of Natural Resources.
men. Mississippian
Newark, Ohio. Ohio Hopewell
Ohio
Sites Division,
1500-700
Photo Dirk Bakker
22
x
PN5
%x
Etowah Mounds
Department
30 Rogan
Columbus. Photo
Ohio. Sandstone, 9.8 x
child in cradle
5% x TA). Courtesy of the Art Museum, Gift of John H.
14.9 x 5.7 (6/4
I
Wilmington Early
reserved
DC, 42997C
Washington,
design,
Oh.o
x 7.2 (7% x TA).
Bartow County. Georgia.
and Historic
Etowah
County, Ohio,
1890. Smithsonian Institution,
c.
(
20 Human
Ohio
10 Headdress frontlet attributed to Albert
Victoria,
Hardin County, Ohio.
Oklahoma, 6123.2964. Photo Dirk
Tulsa,
Denver Art Museum
61).
acquisition funds, 1938.202.
c.
BC. Glacial
Bakker
Blackfeet artist, shirt,
Xx
Hauberg,
1500-500
period.
Badlow Creek, near Mars
Institute of
New York,
33003
Collection: Native Arts
Seattle
40254. Photo Dirk Bakker
shell, 19.4
3 x 5.7
American
of Natural History,
(Kiowa),
76, 40191,
Lafayette County. Arkansas.
Museum
Leather, beads, native paint, ermine, 81 x
9 Lizzie
61 (24).
Archaeological Area. Cartersville, Parks
1
culture, Late Archaic period,
© David Bradley
60.9 (30 x 24).
155 (31
Marble,
40
19 Locust-shaped bead. Poverty Point
7 North Pacific Hall, American
ad 1200-1450.
Mississippian period,
of
Dirk Bakker
1959,
State Historic
29 Seated female and male figurines. Wibanks phase. Etowah culture.
Ax
I
Museum
Mounds
by William R. Iseminger
Anthropology, Ann Arbor, Michigan,
Historical Society,
Dancers, 1989. Acrylic on canvas, 76.2 x
Unknown
A x 4%;
Site. Painting
site.
Marine
Gift of the
1974.201
neg. no.
I
rendering of Cahokia at AD 1200. Louis, Illinois Mississippian
St.
Etowah
Kame complex,
6 David Bradley, American Indian Gothic: Ghost
Museum
3/«;
University of Michigan
Woodland
The Metropolitan
Hazen Hyde,
Estate of James
A x
(
x 8.2; 3.9 x
slate, 3.7
Artist's
East
period. Cahokia
Bay
18 Sandal sole gorget. Late Archaic/Early
1690-1700. Pen
New York.
of Art,
x 8.8
12.5; 3.3 3/4).
gray wash, over black chalk,
ink,
26.7 x 20.8 (\0'A x 8A).
Museum
c.
site.
Granitic porphyry, slate (limonite stain),
1863-71.
41 x 29.3
BC.
green Huronian
Tippecanoe County Historical
5 Godfried Maes, America,
13
Three birdstones. Late Archaic period,
1500-1000
Nancy Youngblood, ribbed melon jar, c. 1995. 32.4 ( 12/). Photo Tim Thayer
1
Dirk Bakker
County, Michigan, Red Ocher complex.
Jensen
observed 1837. painted
1
28
Centre. Photo
V.
Ross County.
Columbus. Photo
Historical Society.
Bakker 17
City.
National Parks Service. Chillicothe.
Indian,
Columbia. Courtesy of U'mista Cultural
4 George Winter, Rounette-lndian
8
American
of the
Mound
Ohio Photo Dirk Bakker 27 Hand-shaped cut-out. Ohio Hopewell culture. Middle Woodland period. 200 bc-ad 400. Mound 24. Hopewell site. Sheet mica. 29 x 16 ( A x 6 A). Ohio
Smithsonian Institution. Photo Dirk
cedar at a potlatch ceremony, given by Chief
Indian
Chalcedony. 6 x 5.5 {TA x 2A). National
2 Hamatsa dancer wearing cedar bark
7.
Ohio Copper. 20.4 x 30 6 (8 x 12). The Mound City Group National Monument.
chipped stone biface from the
15 Large
Science Center.
38 "Powhatan's mantle." Before 1638 Embroidered skin garment with shells.
Ashmolean Museum. Oxford. 1685 B no.205
39 Painted pouch.
18th century.
Northern
Great Lakes Skin and porcupine
quills.
3
1
51x21 (20/ x
Musee de I'Homme.
8/*).
Paris
40 Odawa
Goodhart. Emmet
bag, 1820-50.
County. Michigan. Vegetal
wool yarn.
54 Pipe bowl carved by Aubonwaishkum (Opbwa). from Manitoulin Island,
fiber,
collected 1920. Black stone,
.39.
Photo Dirk Bakker Collected
©The
4.5 (5/ x
porcupine
28.9 x
quills,
The Manoogian
13
1
Ax
McClung Museum, University of
3
I6 /).
Bakker
brooches,
silk
Institute of Science,
Bloomfield
Hills.
Michigan.
45 Creek shoulder
600-700. La 19.
bag, 1830s
Georgia or Alabama.
Wool
cotton fabric and thread,
x
TA x TA x
4).
silk
wool
41
A).
I
yarn, 72.4
61
39).
48
(
s
9448 Mimbresbowl, ad 1000-1150. clay.
1325-1400.
New
The Detroit
x 23.4 (9/ x 9/).
Museum,
Arts. Detroit, 1999.1394.
Odawa
B 247
Yvonne Walker Keshick
Indians, 1990s.
Walker and
49 0|ibwa Lansing.
Bay Band of
50 Pictographs
at
D.
F.
Museum,
64
Agawa Rock, Lake
(
Collection: Gift of
Museum.
Photo
All rights
52 0|ibwa gunstock century.
Mrs
reserved
Upper Michigan. Wood, iron The Detroit Institute
blade. 63.5 (25)
Arts. Detroit. 2000.2.
Photo Dirk
Bakker
53 Miami pipe bowl,
c.
1700s. Peru. Indiana.
The
49.9
Casa
81
Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit.
265 Photo Dirk Bakker
Museum, University of Museum, Philadelphia.
(
15
Museum
I5JS).
(
fur
jar,
The Manoogian
s
x 19 /).
Navajo bracelets, 1900-30. turquoise
inlay.
Silver with
Courtesy Toby Herbst.
Santa Fe
The great kiva at Casa Rinconada, Chaco Canyon. National Park Service, right
82 Ghost Dance
dress,
1890. Southern
c.
Arapaho. Tanned elkhide, pigment, eagle feathers. 137.2 x 137.2 (54 x 54). Buffalo
65 Hohokam
shell frog,
Arizona. Marine
Martinez
shell.
Hill site,
Mexico, Santa Test
Bill
J.
of
figures with large shields.
Valley of the Shields.
84 Pictograph of warriors fighting. WritingOn-Stone site, southern Alberta
New
Museum
Photo Ben Wittick
Provincial
14,
room
Edmonton, Canada
6. Illustration
two. right wall
Louie Ewing c.
85
.
Cheyenne.
Little
Rock. Arkansas,
Arts. Detroit. 76 144
x 9)
Indian Arts Research Center. School for
Shield.
of Alberta.
mid- 1880s. The Detroit Institute of
1928 32
x 23 (5
Drawing courtesy
James D. Keyser
1890.
Fe.
69 Fred Kabotie. Zuni Shalako. Gouache on tan paper, 14.8
Cody. Wyoming,
and James RJundt. NA.204.4
83 Pictographs of
DC.
Museum
Historical Center.
Chandler-Pohrt Collection. Gift of Mary
Arizona State
Washington.
Collection of the
design
Photo Ben Wittick
Laguna Pueblo, 1880-1900.
Foundation. Taylor. Michigan
Plan of the great kiva at
68 Awatovi.
Catlmite. 7 9 x 6 7 (3/ x TA).
81
New
67 Oraibi Pueblo. Hopi. Arizona, c. School for American Research, of
1880.
Fe, neg.
1930s. San lldefonso. Fired clay. 38.1 x
Institution,
club, early 19th
c.
80 Maria and Julian Martinez, storage
Photo Dirk
Museum, University of Arizona.Tucson 66 Casa Grande, Hohokam. Smithsonian
Effie Parkhill,
© by Denver Art
figurines,
Mexico. Santa
Volkerkunde, Vienna
USA
Unknown Iroquois artist, ball head club. Wood. 49.5 19/). Denver Art Museum
New
20th century. 39.5
23.4
Ferguson and Rohn
East
Barry
Mexico,
45-15-103
Rinconada, Chaco Canyon. After
Superior, Ontario
1951 300.
left
New
79 Painted pottery jar, black-on-orange. Attributed to Nampeyo. Hopi, early
ad
clay,
of
Pennsylvania
Mexico. Photo Mick Sharp
64
Tribal Expressions, Illinois
Jar,
University 4).
Institute of
63 Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon,
family, late 19th century.
Photo
jar,
of
no. 16293.
Bakker
Courtesy Yvonne
Michigan State University
Museum
New
Mexico. Fired
Museum
77 Cochiti and Tesuque
Institute of Arts, Detroit,
62 Anasazi Fourmile polychrome
American Research.
Santa Fe. Photo Ben Wittick
78
26.7 x 10.2 (10/ x
Ganado, Arizona,
post,
1900. School for
Collection of
43.4 x 36.7
14 /), right
19th century. 110 (43/). Ethnological Berlin. IV
Charles Fletcher Lummis, 457. G.
Left
76.87. Photo Dirk Bakker
shirt of printed calico, early
Quill box,
Southwest Museum. Los Angeles. Gift of
c.
AD 700-900.
The
1850.
early classic-style poncho,
76 Hubbell trading
Morris
c.
Taylor, Michigan
1840-60. 171.4 x 127 (67/ x 50).
Navajo
olias.
16/ x
The Detroit no.
Photo Dirk Bakker
"Falling Leaf," Little Traverse
51
x 37.2
Mexico. Fired
Detroit Historical
Museum, Detroit (Chandler-Pohrt 47 Seminole
H
1250.
Sayles
Chief's blanket, Navajo,
75 Navajo
AD
c.
(17/x 14/). University of Colorado Museum, Boulder, UCM 9449 and UCM
(177.8 with fringe) x 4.8 (28/ [70 with fringe] x
Earl
Reservation, Arizona,
The Detroit
beads, cotton thread,
74
Plata black-on-white. 8.7 x
60 Black-on-white
ribbon,
E. B.
Flats,
Mexico,
Memorial Pottery Collection
1850. Michigan. Glass
c.
New
fabric,
Photo Dirk Bakker sash,
bowl. Tohatchi
ad
c.
Anasazi. Cotton,
Manoogian Collection.
Museum. Boulder,
Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1988.29.
46 Ojibwa
III
site,
Arizona State Museum,
162.6 (64).
(3/ x 7/). University of Colorado
1
Jr. (Hopi). Hemis Kachina The Detroit Institute of
University of Arizona, Tucson. Photo
Wash, Arizona.
or 1840s.
x 18.7 x 19.4 x 10.2
glass beads. 135.2
14/ x
(
Photo Dirk Bakker
Navajo Reservation,
Photo©
Alvin James
Hidden House
Institute of Arts,
at Sutherland
59 Basketmaker
Robert Hensleigh
Institute of Arts, Detroit,
Arts, Detroit, 1995.99
Photo courtesy Nile Root
ribbon,
x 135 (55/. x 53%). Collection of
I
The Detroit
Detroit. 81 .643.
fabric, silver
doll. 1930s.
Photo Dirk Bakker
doll, 1970s.
Institute
feast bowl, 19th century.
58 Pictograph
1820-40. Peoria. Indiana.
skirt,
Cranbrook
(53
1997.23.
72
steel blade,
Tama, Iowa. Maple, 35.9 x 42.5
Tennessee, Knoxville. Photo Dirk
Hopi Hemis Kachina
73 Painted cotton blanket
57 Mesquakie
Photo
Arizona. Painted wood. 47.6 (18/).
Great
Bakker
English artist,
Watercolor. Frank H.
late 18th century.
141
71
Taylor,
The Detroit
The Detroit
15).
Dirk Bakker
of Arts, Detroit, 1986.20. Photo Dirk
Michigan
Wool
Wood,
Lakes region.
(
1
Institute of Arts, Detroit. 1997.2.
Collection,
knife, late 19th century.
Wood,
fabric, hair, feathers, shell
pendants, 38.
Photo John Bigelow
rawhide, 23.5 (9/).
Collection, Taylor,
43 IroquoisWoman, French or
44 Miami
cotton
The Detroit
56 Crooked
3
(
Thaw
'/).
Gift.
doll,
purchased 1930s. Zuni, Arizona.
NYC
case. 1800-30.
Wisconsin. Blackened buckskin, vegetal
5/).
3/ x
New York.
Chicago.
fiber,
70 Zuni 'One Horn' Kachina
14 x 8.3 x
Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown,
Museum,
Field
#A99654 42 Menominee (?) knife
A).
„937 55 Iroquois spoon, 1800s. Maple.
by Lord Jeffrey Amherst. 1758-63 (Ojibwa?).
I
New
1934
the Royal Ontario
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detrou, 81
41 Black buckskin bandolier bag.
TA x
Fe.
Mexico. Mary Cabot Wheelwright
x 6.6 x
1
With permission of Museum, Toronto© ROM, NS38457 Pipe Bowl ROM2003-
2.9 (6% x
animal
(6/ x 8/). The
17.2 x 21
16.
American Research, Santa
86
No Two
Horns,
shield,
c.
1870 Leather
227
1
with pigment. 45
Museum
I
Arts (Chandler-Pohrt no 100). 1988
(17.) Denver Art
W.
Collection: Gift of C.
Douglas. 1932.237. Photo
© Denver Art
Museum All rights reserved 87 Unknown artist, pictographic
Reservation, Society of
robe, late
MH 86.17.1
88
1868 Pencil and
rocks of the
before
Riffle (sic),
ink. 8.3 x 14
Exploits.
1900-15. Paper, pigments. 20.3 x 25.4 (8 State Historical Society of
10).
Hyder
North Dakota 90 No Two Horns (He Nupa Wanica),
Hunkpapa Lakota, horse
leather, pigment, metal, hair, 76.2
North
(30). State Historical Society of
103
Zotom, On
the Parapet of Fort
(8^ x
II ).
Chumash.
Chumash
found on San Nicholas
pipe,
of Natural History, Chicago
Museum
1
Photo D. H. Wulzen
.
Northern
dew
porcupine x
II).
Cody, Wyoming, NA.
94 Man's
shirt, collected
Sawtail (Second
Lt.
1
1
by Charles G.
6th Calvary), Fort
Amerian
110
Upper
dress,
of
Fort C.
F.
Smith,
knife case,
Montana
(
10 x 3).
The Detroit
c.
I860.
112
(6/<
x
c.
1890. Montana.
Rawhide, buckskin, glass beads,
16).
14%). British
Museum.
(45.7 with fringe) x
1
1
.4
(
12/
The Detroit
[
basket,
16
City.
bracken fern root, 28.6 x 40.6
(
1
1
/x
Collection. Fenimore Art
Museum. Cooperstown. NY. T75I
228
Photo John Bigelow
1880. Montana.
Buffalo, rawhide, pigment, 60.3 x 39.4
(23/. x 15/).
x
Nevada,
20005 c.
The Detroit
Institute of
1
D.
house
in
Kitwancool
Village,
Columbia Archives.
1910. British
A-06907
122 Rain wall screen,
Klukwan
Whale House.
village. Alaska. Tlingit.
State Library, Juneau, Alaska
Alaska
PCA 87- 13
Wood,
deerskin, ermine,
spruce root, iron
nail,
(20/). University
Museum,
bird beak. 52
University of
NA 8502 a
carver
©The Field Museum. Chicago. #A 08396 Photo Ron Testa I
1
.
Du'klwayella (Heiltsuk), chief's seat,
Wood. 225
x
1
12.5 x 76.5
(88% x 44/ x
Columbia Museum.
Robe Naaxein.
Chilkat robe. Tlingit.
c.
1890. Mountain goat wool, yellow cedar
51 %). Seattle
131
(66% x
Art Museum. Hauberg
Collection 83.229. Photo Paul Macapia
16).
parfleche,
Courtesy Richard
bark and natural dyes. 170 x
Arts. Detroit (Chandler-Pohrt no. 129),
98 Crow
121 Chief's
126
'Beacon Lights' coiled
Washoe, Carson
Thaw
site.
Victoria. 1856
coiled basket with
1904—05. Willow, western redbud,
18 with
Institute of
the shape of a reclining
in
Ozette
30%). Royal British
Lowie Museum of
113 Louisa Keyser,
31 .8
figure,
before 1900. Northern Kwakiutl.
Berkeley
knife case.
A'/,).
Institution.
Anthropology, University of California,
94). 2000.31
fringe] x
(
Ana Maria Marta.
40.5
120 Oil dish
500 bc-ad I. British Museum, Victoria
c.
Provincial
125 Captain Richard Carpenter, or
Archives of
arms, 1822. Ventureno Chumash.
Institute
Stone club with head of sandhill crane.
region, British Columbia, active 1800s.
the
Spanish inscription and royal coat of
of Arts, Detroit (Chandler-Pohrt no.
97 Crow
in
London. Ethno Van. 196
Territory.
of Natural
of the Nisga'a Tsimshian, Nass River
DC, NAA 431 14-A
Mission hat. 36
1 1
Buffalo rawhide, buckskin, glass beads,
25.4 x 7.6
a
Museum
124 Bentwood chest, attributed to
Jump Dance at Yurok town on the Klamath
participants
Washington,
Cambridge, Massachusetts
96 Northern Cheyenne
Hupa
in
with abalone
inlaid
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
I
Anthropology, Smithsonian
Museum
Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard
University,
I
River, 1893. National
Missouri, Lewis
and Clark Expedition. Peabody
(
Pekwon,
Indian,
Smithsonian Institution, 17.6694
95 Side seam
12.1
05.588.7436. Photo Justin Kerr
Tail
(Sinte Gleska), Brule Sioux. National
of the
or early
artist, late 19th
% x 4% x %). The Brooklyn Museum of Art, Museum Expedition 1905, Museum Collection Fund,
x 3.5
.47
57.5 (22). Field
century.
California,
20th century. Antler, pigment, 3.5 x
Laramie, 1855; belonged to Spotted
Museum
Unknown Yurok
13
Collected
123 Raven Barbecuing Hat, early 19th
Los Angeles
Historical Center,
Bill
Southwest Museum,
109 Horn purse, Morek,
x 33 x 28 (32 x
quills, 81 .3
Buffalo
Wyoming.
claws,
club.
History, Chicago. 14851
Victoria.
California. Willow,
feathers, deerskin.
1880, Arapaho,
shell,
bone
Whalebone
1792-94.
c.
DC,
c.
of
Quebec. No. 588-926
Daugherty
conifer root, beargrass, maidenhair fern,
Sack cloth, rawhide,
site,
Georgia' by Archibald Menzies
Columbia,
of Natural History, Chicago
Smithsonian Institution, Washington,
93 Cradle,
'New
Columbia
century.
26.22
Museum
Canadian
BC.
Museum
Museum, Berlin, Inv.-Nr. Ca 77 108 Jump Dance basket. Hupa, 19th
of Natural History,
500
Maidu, photographed 1900-10. Field
Collection, collected 1837. Ethnological
Sioux, 1830s or 1840s. National
Marpole
Hagwilget, Bulkley Canyon, British
107 Porno feather basket, Deppe
pipe bowl, Santee
effigy pestle,
MCC/CMC
119
Arthur and
artist,
heron
118 Chitoolth or whale
Gabrielino culture.
Miwok), June 190
95.2.633
YM-66820
Park
c.
106 Callipene and Lena Brown (Southern
92 Unknown
81 .9 (32/).
Prince Rupert Harbor, British Columbia,
© William D.
The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Center, Oklahoma City, Shifra Silberman Collection
bracken fern root, willow,
Civilization, Gatineau,
Museum
pencil, 21 .6 x 27.9
Cave, Santa
105 Baskets of acorn mush, Southern
Marion
Next Day After Arrival, 1876-77. Pencil
and colored
at Painted
ad 1400-1600. Steatite, shell beads, asphalt. The Detroit Institute of Arts T 1987. 145. Collection of Gordon Hart 104 Miwok feast basket, late 1800s. Field
Dakota, Bismark. 867.234. 180 91
Paiute),
Yosemite Museum, Yosemite National
Island, California.
1900-20.
effigy,
(Mono Lake
coiled basket, 1930s. Yosemite Valley,
400 BC-ad 400. Photo Roy Carlson 117 Whale bone club. Boardwalk site,
Reverend Aaron McGaffey Beede
Fort Yates. Standing Rock Reservation.
Gift of Mrs.
central California. Sedge root, redbud.
Barbara County, San Marcos Pass,
at
New Jersey.
Montclair,
Henry Lang in memory of her mother. Mrs Jasper R. Rand. 1914.27 A-B
Arizona
California,
x
quills. 16.5
(6M x 5/) Montclair Art Museum.
116 Blue
102 Paintings
North
14
Photo Bureau of Land Management,
Dakota, Bismark. Collected by The
Wood,
of Inyo
© William D
101 Blythe geoglyphs, Blythe, California.
Hunkpapa Lakota, Scene ofWar x
Coso mountains
Hyder 1989
(He Nupa Wanica).
maidenhair fern, porcupine
115 Carrie Bethel
horn sheep on the
big
County. 550 bc-ad 950.
(3/ x 5%).
Missouri. 78.038.2.20
No Two Horns
North Dakota. Bismarck.
Photo Frank Fiske
St Louis Mercantile Library. St. Louis.
89
1900-10. State Historical
c.
100 Pictographs of
Pawnee
Little Shield.
51
99 Beadwork display of Joseph and Edith Claymore (Lakota). Standing Rock
1700s Buffalo hide Musee de I'Homme. Pans.
.
Taylor.
1914. California,
Wiyot.
c.
1890. Spruce
paint,
53 x 95 (20% x 37%). Seattle Art
Museum.
Gift of John H.
lid. c.
root,
Hauberg. Photo
Paul Macapia
Wood,
Redwood
Tlingit.
wood, pigment and
128 Shaman's mask.
NYC
14 Elizabeth Hickox, basket with a
127 Pattern board for Chilkat robe.
Tlingit.
before 1850
opercula, and red. black and
blue-green pigment, 33
Museum
of the
(
13).
American
National
Indian.
.
1
Smithsonian Institution, 9/8032.
Sound
Purchased from Emmons. 1919
Canadian
129 Oystercatcher
Wood,
and red and black pigment, 30
(
1
130 Guardian figure. Tlingit,
144 Burial mask, Ipiutak
125
New York.
1820—40.
c.
American Museum of Natural History, Dagger
Klukwan
Tlingit.
village, Saayeina'aat,
%x
54.6 x 0.3 (4% x 21
Museum,
%). Seattle
Gift of John H.
New York, 60.
c.
1770. Iron, copper, and buckskin, 10.5 x
before 1840. Canadian
MCC/CMC
Human
146
Red River
near Point
site,
Art
19.
Unga
Island.
159 Fire-bag, Cree of Metis. 1850s.
an
in
Wood with
pigment, stained with
Paul Macapia
Institute of
Arts. Detroit. 81.59
mask, found
archaeological deposit, Delarof Harbor.
Hauberg. Photo
39.4 x
quills.
The Detroit
15% x 7%).
(
1
1840.
c.
region, Manitoba. Buckskin,
caribou hide, porcupine
.7665
1
No. 575-626
158 Metis-Cree octopus bag,
7713
Bay.
of
Quebec,
Civilization, Gatineau,
Hope, Alaska, AD 1-800. Walrus ivory. American Museum of Natural History.
Shaman's Thrust,
Ixti'ku gwal'aa,
1.
145 Baby walrus, Ipiutak
New York 131
60.
Swampy Cree. Hudson Museum
157 Pouch.
near Point
site,
Volkerkunde und
fur
Schweizerisches, Basel
Hope, Alaska, ad 1-800. Walrus ivory. American Museum of Natural History,
%).
1
Museum, London, l944.Am.2.
British
(
Gatineau, Quebec, IV.E.92
Hoonah.
rattle, Tlinglit.
abalone, rawhide, ermine skin,
Museum
Wood, ivory, 33 13). Museum of Civilization,
1886.
in
Brown
modern
Museum
Haffenreffer
traces of
of Anthropology.
University. 87- 142
160 Man's
20th century.
jacket, early
preservative, 30.5 (12). National
Collected by H. A. Connoy. possibly at
Seaweed (Kwakiutl/Nakwaxda'xw),
Museum
Arctic
Kingcome
Arctic Studies Center, Smithsonian
132 Hamatsa crooked beak mask, Willie
Inlet. British
Wood, cedar British
Columbia, 1940s.
bark, paint, 94 (37). Royal
Columbia Museum, Victoria
133 Bullhead mask,
before 190
1
.
Institution.
qasgiq
Wood, rope, 89 x 54.5 (35 Museum of Natural
New York
1902
1900. 70.5 (27 %). National
Charlotte Islands. (
1845,
Queen
Argillite, ivory,
47 x 20
3
x 7 %). Shaw Collection, Fenimore
18/4
TI87. Photo John Bigelow Taylor, 135 Argillite chest, Charles (Haida),
NYC
10622, neg.no.
Museum
10622
century.
137
Gold.
10.
Canadian
7
x 94 x 8.2 (3 % x 37 x
Museum
of Civilization,
138 Robert Davidson, Raven Stealing the
Moon.
Islands. Silkscreen
on paper, 58.
(22% x
Museum
10%). Field
1
x 27
of Natural
139 Floating or flying polar bear, Dorset
Canadian
Museum
MCC/CMC
3293
Detroit Institute of Arts,
Island,
found
Museum. University Philadelphia. NA 4780
University
Pennsylvania.
142 Umiak seat, whale
fetish.
Seward Peninsula, found inlaid
with
wooden
of
Sledge Island,
Wood,
1912
pegs, variegated
stone inset under whale from the back.
27
(
Woman's
Bay.
10%) University
Museum,
of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
143 Hunting hat. collected on
University
NA 4778
Norton
8%). Canadian
c.
Company
Northwest fur,
Archives,
Summer
Eskimo
Point,
Hudson
cloth, glass beads,
Museum. Toronto
outfit, late 19th century.
Caribou hide, sinew, porcupine
quills,
silver-willow seeds. Tunic 115 (4 S %).
moccasin-trousers (
1
1
%).
(11%). Hull,
121
(47%).
hood 30
mittens 26 (10%). knife sheath 30
Canadian
or 1880s. Photo
P0058
archives. Collection Baby,
IFp,067l8
Museum
Self-Portrait,
mid- 19th century. Oil on
Musee de La Civilisation, depot du Seminaire de Quebec, no. 1991 102 164 Earnest Spybuck (Shawnee), War Dance
of Civilization,
CMC VI-73A-F
156 Tailored coat (back view), painted with curvilinear (double curves) and
1910.
c.
Watercolor 3
on paper. 43.8 x 62.9 ( 17% x 24 %).
Museum
American
of the
Foundation,
New York,
Indian.
Heye
2/5614
165 Fred Kabotie (Hopi), Mixed Kachma
Dance,
1919. Pencil
c.
and watercolor on
paper, 10.8 x 25.5 (4% x
10).
American Research, Santa
School for
Fe, Indian
Arts Collection Fund no. 1985.20.2. Gift
&
Mrs. Oliver Seth. 1985
166 Crescencio Martinez (San lldefonso). Buffalo Dancers,
x 54
Territories, Canada.
wool
of
Universite de Montreal Division des
of Mr.
1920.
parka. Caribou Inuit
Royal Ontario
155
Whale-shaped box. Sledge 1912.
wood, 34.5 x
caribou hide, caribou teeth, 121.9 (48).
Detroit 1983.7 141
%x
1
Gray
1975.
Archives of Manitoba. I987/363-E-250-4
Caribou
ivory.
c.
of Civilization (IV-B- 1644)
(Padlimuit), 1938.
No. 590-
140 Winged ob|ect. Okvik. 300-1 BC.
Walrus
1
153 Attirak of Baker Lake.
154
ivory.
of Civilization.
Gatineau. Quebec.
Museum
13% x
(
Hudson's Bay
ad 100-1000. Walrus
CMNH 23102-15445
Talirunili, Migration,
29 x 20.6
History, Chicago, 14851
culture,
PN
a self-portrait, 1870s
and Gathering Scene,
Institute,
stone, skin, cotton thread,
Queen Charlotte
1977. Haida,
152 Joe
Museum
Anthropology, Brown University. 85-645
.
Alaska, early 20th century. Front
Pittsburgh,
CMC Vll-B- I574a.b
Gatineau. Quebec.
Soper
Ellis
The Philbrook Art Museum,
and back view. Carnegie
3/,).
Haffenreffer
hide, caribou fur,
28 x 19x33(11 x 7% x
canvas.
Engraved walrus tusk, Happy Jack,
Nome,
1971
13).
Moose
quills,
163 Zacharie Vincent (Huron of Lorette),
Oklahoma, 1995.24.268
Tulsa, 151
lid.
14%). National
tusk. Gift of the
University of Tulsa,
10670
Reid (Haida). box with
Bill
Walrus
Collection,
Columbia Museum,
1889. Royal British
(
127403
Institution,
Stilthda (sdiihldaa), Haida, before
Victoria.
1
of Natural History, Smithsonian
150 Unknown, tusk with scrimshaw, 19th
136 Mask representing an elderly man,
Simon
Kongiganak, on
Engraved ivory with
black pigment, 36.
Edenshaw
Victoria, cat. no.
CPN
Bay.
73 (28%). Canadian
(ties),
162 Zacharie Vincent, photograph painting
knife, collected at
Kuskokwim
1900-10. Royal British
c.
Columbia Museum,
of
9/3403
Institution,
149 Story
New York,
Art Museum, Cooperstown,
Museum
velvet,
multicolored glass beads,
1985. Fort Providence,
porcupine
the American Indian, Smithsonian
Territories,
Moosehide, black
Mary Agnes Bonnetrouge, mukluks, Northwest
161
c.
.
of Civilization, VI-S-4
Territories.
148 Kuskokwim river mask, muskrat,
1
skin,
Museum
Northwest
River,
191
ribbon
silk
Alaska State Museum, Juneau, neg. no.
3
c.
the
in
Qissunaq, Alaska, 1946. Photo
1098
1902—46. Collected by George Hunt,
134 Sailors. Haida,
ermine
Alfred Milotte, Milotte Collection,
AMNH
16/8942,
in
Red
acquired
Washington. D.C.
147 Masked dancers performing
Hopetown, carved
x 21 %). American History,
of Natural History, 13082,
c.
1916.
Watercolor. 37.2
14% x 21 %) (image); 57.2 x 72.4
(
Museum
(22% x 28%) (sheet). Philbrook of Art, Tulsa.
Oklahoma.
1981.5
167 James Silverhorn (Kiowa). Preparing
aWar
Expedition,
c.
crayon. 24.8 x 34.3
Koogler
for
1887. Pencil and
(9.x
13
Marion
-.).
McNay Art Museum.
San
Antonio. Gift of Mrs Terrell Bartlett. 1962.
1.
168 Stephen Mopope, The Procession. undated. Watercolor on board, 48.7 x 61 .6
(
1
(
19
I9 /. x
v
x 24
24
«)
.)
(image). 48.7 x 61 .6
(sheet). Philbrook
Museum
of Art. Tulsa. Oklahoma. 1958.20
169 Dick
West
(Dr.
Walter Richard West).
rectilinear designs. Naskapi, collected in
Cheyenne Sun Dance, the Third Day. 1949
1825 Paint on leather. 97 (38%).
Watercolor. 54.1 x 89
2 (21
229
89 2 (24* x 35 /t)
(.mage); 62 6 x
Museum
Philbrook
(sheet).
boxes 69.
Index
Oklahoma. 1949 20
C
170 Allan
bracelets 24. 33.89. 104. 105, /05
Houser. Drama on the
Buffalo
)
Bill
Art Fund;
16
77
Howe
Oscar
(Yanktonai Sioux). Ghost
Dance. I960. Casein on paper, 47 x
61
18 x 24). In the collection of the Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona, Copyright Adelheid Howe, 1983 (
172 George Morrison (Ojibwa), Red Rock
refer to illustrations
Tweed Museum
x
(6'A
Adena culture 32-5. 34. 37 Agawa Rock 69-72. 7/ Airport
Allison culture 41
York
T
174
1968. Oil
on canvas
.
88,90,97.97,204
on canvas, 182.9
Portrait in the Studio. Oil
x 132.
T
1
(72 x 52). Courtesy Estate of
C. Cannon
Mishapihsoo. 1976. Canadian of Civilization, Gatineau,
MCC/CMC
106.
Museum
No. K95-37
162. 163. 163, 164
bannerstones, birdstones
120, 133; see also cradles
58. 59. 60, 65, 66, 68, 69, 70,
,
184
Courtesy the
Barber,
Blue
basketry 24, 26, 128, 131^0, 132, 133, 134.
Courtesy the
artist
180 Emmi Whitehorse (Navajo), Meadow. 1996. Oil, chalk and paper
on canvas,
Courtesy the
101.6 x 129.5(40x51).
George Longfish (Sececa/ Tuscarora), Spirit Guide/Spirit
Healer. 1983. Acrylic
and pencil on paper, 30).
10
1
.6
x 76.2 (40 x
Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona,
HM.IAC22I8
Maps ML
31
,
32, 39, 56, 57, 57. 58. 62.
63. 65, 89, 180; see also glass beads
Every effort has been
made
to trace the
book, and
we
apologize
in
for any unintentional omissions.
advance
We would
151. 151, 152. 163.
Chewing Black Bones
Cheyenne /
208
20
200
Chickasaw 52 71
180. 181
Choctaw 52 Chon, Astadi 104
Chumash
129. 130, 130, 131, 136. 137.
Clark, William 107,
121
Claymore, Joseph and Edith /25
Bear Chief
Clovis culture 26-8. 27
Bell.
19
Leland 207
Clovis points 27-8,
belts 25, 58. 62. 104. 105
Berczy, William 61
Big
Bow
Big
Plume
Bird
116 19
Woman
31
;
see also atlatls
27
72^. 72.115. 143-A Cohn. Abe and Amy 138 Comanche 79. 116 combs 54. 55 Coosa 52 clubs 63.
copper
120
birdstones 30.
30. 31
.
43.
33. 34. 38-9. 39. 41
1
.
44. 157
46. 48.
cotton 55. 63. 64. 66. 67. 68. 95. 97. 97. 98
Crab Orchard culture
Blackfeet
cradles 21. 2/. 120
19.
108. 109. 110
Draw 26
Cree60.
blankets 97-100. 97. 99. 100. 104. 152
Creek
Acee 200
69. 110. 183. 184. 186.212
52. 66. 67.
68
crests 23. 145-52. 162
Crow
Crumbo. Woody 200 Cuerno Verde 79 Curtis. Edward 191
site l43-^».
38. 41
Craig mound. 48
blades 28, 28. 31,33. 34
Blue Eagle.
/
55.57.89. 157
Black Bear 116
Blackwater
/37
chunkey 43, 49, 50
Boardwalk
143
Boas. Franz 158. 159
Bonnetrouge, Mary Agnes /85. 187
230
19.
98. ///. 115. 116. 117. 119. 120.
99,
Blythe geoglyphs 128, 129
of this publication.
163
Nellie Jones
acknowledgment
any subsequent edition
209
52. 68, 209,
be pleased to insert the appropriate in
88
beadwork2l, 124-5, 125
Birnirk 169
Design
copyright holders of the images contained in this
beads 29, 30,
122. 123, 124
Bethel. Carrie 140
artist
181
137. 138. 139. 140. 144, 189
1998.
762 (720 x 300).
79. 86-9. 87.
Champlain, Samuel 58
Chingwauk Chipewyan
70
F.
bead applique
Room: IroquoisWhite Corn.
Installation. 1828.8 x
also atlatls
Ann 25
Barry, D.
63.5 x 127 (25 x 50). Courtesy the artist
l79Jolene Rickard (Tuscarora), The Corn
Chaco Canyon
122.
bannerstones 29, 29; see
NYC
120
Chew. Florence
(Flathead/Cree/Shoshone), Celebrate.
and June Kelley Gallery,
Woman
ceramics 50, 51, 87, 88
chests
116
bags 58-61
2000. Charcoal on paper,
Cedar
cherts 26, 27, 28. 28
axes 28, 55,
76
Cayuga 54
Cherokee
DC.
III.
/
191
191,
awls 34
177 Jaune Quick-to-See Smith
Rome
George
Charles, Nick 174-6
baby carriers 63,
artist
58
carving 172. 174-8,
Avonlea tradition 108
Smithsonian Institution, Washington
178 Kay WalkingStick (Cherokee), Dancing
Cartier, Jacques
Aubonwaishkum 75
of the American Indian,
P26509
C. 203. 205
catlinite74, 74, 117, 118
30, 31,33, 34; see also
atlatls 28,
Quebec,
Mountain View, Oklahoma. National
to
176-7, /77
114. 120, 120
112.
T
Carpenter, Captain Richard 152. /52
108,200,20/
98,
Arapaho
argillite 23, 24, 162,
76 Horace Poolaw, "Lela Ware, Paul Zumwalt and Trecil Poolaw," c. 1928.
Museum
Cannon.
Arctic Small Tool Tradition 166, 167
175 Norval Morriseau (Ojibwa),
Caldwell. Sir John 61
Catlin.
Apache
48, 48, 52
Cannibal Society, see hamatsa
117
167
Self-
Caddo 116 Caddoan culture
Cahokia43-4. 43. 48.49. 50
Jeffrey 60, 61
Anasazi 80, 81 82. 83. 84. 85. 85. 86-9, 87.
antlers 29, 54, 55. 134, 135. 142. 143, 166.
Cannon (Caddo/Kiowa),
C.
/
Cahodas, Marvin 138
17. 18
16,
Andrews site 30, 31 Angokwazhuk (Happy Jack)
c.
/
Lodge 110-12
Bundy, Camilius 74
American Museum of Natural History,
of Art,
Scholder (Luisefio), Santana,
Brouillette, Jean Baptist
Alerk, Emily Nipishna 179
Tweed Tuohy Foundation Purchase Fritz
15
14.
Aleut 173
Andre, Father Louis
Kiowa,
73
braiding (finger weaving) 97
Bull
University of Minnesota, Duluth, Alice
173
72.
Braden-style engraving 48, 49
Brant. Joseph 61
28
site
Amherst, Lord W'A).
Gros Ventre
see also
13;
New
Landscape. 1987. Acrylic and ink on
canvas on board. 16.5 x 29.2
1
in italic
Bradley, David
A'anmin
Lake Superior
Crevices. Soft Light
Collection
Page numbers
Historical Center. Cody.
Wyoming; William Weiss Contemporary 171
Braddock. Major General Edward
Plains.
Alabaster. 21 8 x 27 x 8.8 (8* x I0X x 3
70. 151. 152. 162. 164. /64. /69.
170
of Art. Tulsa.
123. 123. 124
Hixon
Dakota
Ho-Chunk,
117, 118
site
Long, Major Stephen 62
47
daggers 157, 157
Winnebago
see
David, Johnny 159
Hohokam
78. 81 151.
,
89-90. 90.
Davidson, Robert 164, 165
Holm.
de Soto, Hernando 52
Hopewell 35-42. 36. 44
DeHuff. Elizabeth 196
Hopewell Interaction Sphere
Delaware 72
Hopi 86, 90, 9/. 92, 92. 93-6, 95.
Dene
186-7
181. 182, 183.
Duff,
Wilson
167
167,
Luisefio 203.
164
143
Dunn, Dorothy 200
24
platform pipes 37-8. 37. 38
Ekven
site
172
Mandan 107
204, 205
Marin, John 197
196
Company
1
Marksville culture 41
Marpole
10
floral
Marquette, Father Jacques 52
Hupa 134, 135, Huron 61, 69
Martinez,
139
28-30
Iroquois 54, 61
64, 71
,
,
72, 75, 76, 117, 190
180-87
James,
Gilstrap, Harriet 192
Glacial glass
Kame
beads
burial
12. 21
31. 31. 47,
Grant, Ulysses
Grass Dance
47.48,49
Wentworth 54
Grey Beard
117
Grinnell,
Gros Ventre
Kachinas 91-4, 94, 95, 96, 194, 195
39^1 40 Mimbres 84-5. 84, 89
Kadjis-du-axtc 148, 150
Miwok
Kane, Paul 75
moccasins
Bird 119
Gwich'in Athapascan 182, 182, 185
/62, 163, 163. 164. /64
hamatsa6.
159,
Frederick
160
Montoya. Alfredo 196
Keyser, Louisa 138. 138. 140
Mooney, James 197
191
21, 109, 115, 116. 197, 198.
199.207.
Morrison, George 24-5. 202-4. 203
Klukwan
mortuary
147, 149, 150 ,
Mound
62. 123
Kokopelli 80, 84
Havana culture
Kowee 143,
154. 155.
62,
73,74
108
155 102-3. 102
Natchez 44. 52 Navaio
143. 151
Lakota
Herrera.Joe 204
Lawson. John 76
14, 112.
119-20. 121. 121, 124-5
Lewis. Meriwether 107,
Hewett, Edgar Lee 103.
Little Bluff 115. 116
196. 197
Hickox. Elizabeth 139 40. /39
Little
Hickox. Luther 139
Little Shield 114.
113. 117. 121. 122.
Rock. ///.
112
114
Loloma. Charles 204 Long. John
61
9.
97-100. 99.
104. 108. 209. 2
/
/
Nelson. Edward William 176
Herrera. Velino Shije 196
2
site
Naskapi 182-3. 183. 186
Henri. Robert 197
9. 181
Cave
91
Nampeyo
ladles 75-6. 76
178
Mummy murals
Kwakiutl 157-61. 189.207
Heiltsuk 152. 152
112.
28-42
Kownak. Lucie 178-9
Lachene
116
hides 26. 34.65.
rituals
City site 38, 39,39
Moundville, 47,49. 52
76
/
JohannGeorg
152. 155. 161. 164
Heart Eater
Mopope, Stephen 116, 197. 198. 199 Morgan. Lewis Henry 16-17 Morriseau. Norval 206-7, 207
hats 24. 24. 136. 137, 149, 149. 171. 171
headdresses 22. 23. 39, 46. 46. 48. 95.
103, 196
kivas 86. 88, 89, 90, 91
Kohl.
38, 41
61.63
Montoya, Maximiliana
knives 76. 77. 176.
116
54,
Keyser, James 109, /09
Harrington, M. R 192, 193, 196
Head Pendant
63
Monks Mound 44
Yvonne M. Walker 70
knife cases 61
61
132
61, 62,
Momaday, N. Scott 207
208
143. 145. 146. /5/, 152, 162,
132,
kettles 54. 55
Kiowa
Hagwilget 144
Sir
76
,
Mohawk
62
King, Charles Bird
Haesem-hliyawn /47, 150
Haldimand,
13,
Mogollon8l,84,85,89,90,97
139
127, 128, 139,
Keating, Samuel
100; see also A'aninin
Haida22. 23.
mica 33,
Kabotie, Fred 93, 195, 196,201
Keshick,
George
62
62,
Metis 69, 184, 186. 187
Keam, Thomas 102
115
Greenhalgh,
146, /47, 150.
totem poles
Mesquakie (Renard, Fox)
103
Louis 52
Karuk
114
S.
75, 176
Miami 64. 65, 74
beads
187; see also
/
Menzies, Archibald 144
complexes 31,3/
122, 124. 180, 180. 186,
119, 121. 122,
gorgets
Jollier,
55. 63. 65. 66. 68. 69.
.
Menominee
Alvin 96. 96
jars 50, 51. 82. 83. 101, 102.
106. 112
14.
Jr.,
see also
151, 162, 164;
Jacobsen, Adrian 158
137
73,
McMaster, Gerald 212
memorial poles 22. 23, 23,
112, 113.
/
McKenzie, Alexander 180. 182
Andrew 68
Jackson,
Ghost Dance
93, 154-5, 155. 157-62. 160.161.
9,
164, /64, 167, 172-4, /72,
Ipiutaksite 172, 172
designs 68-9, 70. 186
Martinez
masks
Fort Marion 116-17, 116
Aden
103, 195, 196
Martinez, Tonita 196; see also Roybal, Tonita
Iowa 52
pouches
Gale. William
Crescendo
Martinez, Julian 103, 103, 196
180. 181. 181. 183.207
garments 34. 63-7,
142-3
site
hunting 167-71, /68, /69, 170.171
Indian Knoll site
120
fire-bags, see
145
144, 145.
Martinez, Maria 103, 103. 196
45. 46. 46. 47. 52
Fewkes, Jesse 102
Wood
121
Howe, Oscar 202.
Inuit53, 169, 169, 177, /77, 178-80, 178,
Fire
Albert 20
Madison, Dolly
Malaspina, Alejandro 137
Elmore, Francis 94. 95. 96
Etowah 44-5.
Mad Plume.
Makah
Hudson's Bay
effigy
102. 105.
Howard, James 192-3
Edenshaw. Charles 23^, 23. Isabella 24,
41-2
Maidu 25. 132, 138
B.
/
204
Houston. James 192-3
Hubbell.Juan Lorenzo 100
163
/
Maes, Godfried 12
Edenshaw. Albert Edward 22^, 22. 163 163.
2
Houser. Allan 200. 201,20/
Hoyt, Esther
Edenshaw,
35,
195. 196,204
Dick. Beau 9
Dorset culture
Bill
George 209,
Longfish.
Lowe, Truman 10.208
91
121
New. Lloyd Kiva 204 Newark site 36 Nicholson. Grace 140 Nicholson. Marianne 207 Nicollet. Joseph 118
No Two Horns
///. 112. 114-15. 115
Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka)
144. 144. 145.
162
231
1
Odawa
Roybal. Juan
58. 69. 70. 72. 76
Ohettomt
116.
24. 60. 62. 66. 69. 70, 71
Oi.bwa
Underwater Panthers
Cruz 104
Roybal. Tonita Martinez 103-4; see also
197 73. 73.
.
Martinez, Tonita
59. 59-60. 61
.
71
.
71.
206.207 Ute9.98. 108
186.204.206.207
76. 118.
Okvik 168. /68. 169. 183 Old Bering Sea culture 169. 172 Old Copper burial complexes 30-31 Old Whaling Culture 169
Sanlldefonso /95. 196.204
Valley of the Shields 109
sandal sole gorgets, see gorgets
Vancouver, Captain George 144
Sani, Atsidi 104
Vincent. Zacharie 188. 190. 191. 193. 194.
Onandaga 54
Sawtail,
Oneida 54
Scholder, Fritz 202. 203. 204. 205
Oneota
Schoolcraft,
Saukamapee
117
ornaments
180-87
34. 48. 55. 63. 89. 104.
205
110
Charles G.
sdiihldaa.
121.
121
Henry Rowe
Simeon
WalkingStick. Kay 209. 209
walrus ivory 53.
71
/64
164,
155. 167. /67. 168. /68.
171. 172. /72. 176-7.
Warden. Cleaver
/60
Osage 52
Seaweed, Willie
Oto52
Seminole 52, 67. 68
Washo
Ozettesite 144-5. 145
Seneca 54, 209, 211
weaving 97-100. 104
Shawnee Paiute 140
159.
3
.
I
,
39. 41
,
47. 48. 49. 55.
palette stones 34
56,57,57,58,75.89,89.95,
parfleches 123, 123, 124
134,
Arthur C. 75
Parker.
shields
19,
pendants 30.
31. 31. 89. 89, 104. 105, 117,
Peralta.
Picking
Bones
115
mounds 43-4,
smoking pipes
209
Pocahontas 57
33, 33, 34, 37. 37, 38. 48. 49,
162; see also effigy
Polelonema. Otis 196
Soza,
206
Bill
wool 58.
26. 70. 75-6. 76. 77, 143. 176
63. 64. 65. 66. 68. 95. 98. 122.
122, 152. 153. 186
50,63,74-5.74,75, 117-19, 118, 131,
90
49, 50,
/
/
Smith, John 57
Plamondon, Antoine Sebastien 190-91
9
Winnebago 10.52.208 Winter, George /, 65 Wixha 146, 147. 150 Wiyot 127, 128, 139, 139 Woodard, Lizzie 2
woodwork
Smith, Jaune Quick-to-See 208,
113-17. 113, 128
Pollock. Jack
105
197-8, 198
116,
Sloan, John 197
119
pictographic art 74, 80. 108-10, 109,
platform
66, 68
silver 24, 55, 63, 64, 65, 66, 104-5,
Sleeping Bear
Woman
Ben 100. 101
Window Rock
Sioux 52, 74, 202, 204
Pedro de 79
200
99.
Wiffick,
Silverhorn, James
Peters. Susan 197
/
Whitehorse. Emmi 208-9, 21
silk 63, 64, 65.
122. 122. 134. 167
West. Dick
108, 109-12, /09, ///
Shotridge, Louis 150 121
161
190. 191
110
Pawnee
Charles Willson
Wendat
White. Amelia Elizabeth 197
Shoshone
Peal.
131,
134
pattern boards 152. 153 114. 118
131.
76. /77. 189
138. 139
Weber. Sam
72. 192
shell 29, 30, 31
/
120
Wovoka
112
Wright. Robin 22.
163. 164
platform pipes
205
Yokuts 129
spearthrowers, see
Young
atlatls
Bear, John
76
Spiro site 48, 48, 49, 49, 50
Youngblood, Nancy 9-10. 10
Ponca 52
Spybuck, Earnest 192-3, 193, 194, 196
Yuman
Poolaw. Horace 207-8, 208
Squiltcange 163
Yupik 174. /75. /76. /77. 189
Porno
133. 134. 138
porcupine quillwork 58, 58. 60,
62.63,69.
61
,
Stearne, Mabel
62,
70, 119-21, 120, 122, 182,
186
Dodge
Yurok
197
72. 192.
potlatches 6.
200
157-60. /60.
Stirn,
149-50.
9. 17, 146,
161. 162, 164.
189 .
97,
101^4. 101. 189. 186
Tafoya, Sara Fina 9 Talirunili.Joe 178,
91
Jeddito 86. 91
terracotta 41
Thiebaud,
Three Calf
White Mountain Red Ware 85
Thule 169
9. 12. 125.
20.
73,
77,111,
115-16. 120, 124
tipis 14. 19.
189
Tlingit 17. 143. 145. 146. 147. 148. 149, 149,
Punuk 169
/49, 150. 152. 153. 154-7. 155. 156. 157
totem poles Raudot. Antoine Denis 72 red ocher 27.
20
112
56-8
52,
78
Thunderbirds 59-60. 60.61.
Poverty Point culture 31-2, 32
powwows
/
Wayne 205
Pinedale 85 Sikyatki 86; Sikyatki-revival 102, 102
pouches, see bags
34
Tafoya, Margaret 9
Fourmile85.
Powhatan
Zotom
146; see also
memorial poles
Townsend-Gault, Charlotte 206 Tradescant.John 56. 58. 186
31
Red Ocher burial complexes 30-31 30 Red. Bill 164. /64
Tradescant. John, the Younger 56
Tremper
site
ribbon applique 64
Tsatoke,
Monroe
Richards. Elizabeth 196
Tsimshian
.
R.ckard. Jolene 208.
210
Rodriguez. Juan 136
Rousseau. Jean-Jacques
37-8 197
143. 145. 146. 146. 151. 152. 162
turquoise 89. 104, 105. /05
Tuscarora 208. 209. 210. 211 II
116. 117
Zuni 83. 85. 86. 92. 93-6. 94, 105 tablets (sandstone) 34,
91
.
135
Zia 196
Georg Christoph 56
151. 152.
pottery 32. 41 50. 54. 81-6. 83, 90.
127. 128.
Stearne, Maurice 197 steatite 131, 131
Potawatomi
128
•
world of art
NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN ART David W. Penney
A
splendidly illustrated introduction to the rich history of
Native American world
art
A photog'
perforn
art,
distinguished by
its
broad coverage
and nuanced discussion
lively narrative that
draws upon Native American
history,
the testimonies of oral tradition and the latest research
in
North American archaeology
Strong focus on the individual their
artists, their roles in society,
communities, and on the cultural and social contexts
of the objects they created
Wide ranging and
inclusive coverage, from the artistic
traditions of ancient cultures
such as the Adena, Hopewell,
Mississippian and Anasazi to the work of
modern
including Earnest Spybuck, Fred Kabotie,
T.
C.
artists
Cannon
and Gerald McMaster
Geographically organized, covering dozens of tribes from
Navajo and Cheyenne
On
to
Chumash, Tsimshian and
Inuit
the cover
Warrior's shirt (detail)
Upper Missouri, c 1840 Catalogue
No 403344A.
Department Smithsonian
ot
Anthropology.
Institution
Photo D E Hurtbert
Printed in Singapore
.
~>™^ ——-—
^^^^ r^ r^
CO
N o o 1/1
T_ T rr-
c: D
'
ri
C:
a z
"^v Thames & Hudson world of art
-
:
CD
09
C1
