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Thevisual arts of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas encompasses the visual artistic practices of theIndigenous peoples of the Americas from ancient times to the present. These include works from South America and North America, which includes Central America andGreenland. TheSiberian Yupiit, who have great cultural overlap withNative AlaskanYupiit, are also included.
Indigenous American visual arts include portable arts, such aspainting,basketry,textiles, orphotography, as well as monumental works, such asarchitecture,land art, publicsculpture, ormurals. Some Indigenous art forms coincide with Western art forms; however, some, such as porcupinequillwork orbirchbark biting are unique to the Americas.
Indigenous art of the Americas has been collected by Europeans since sustained contact in 1492 and joined collections incabinets of curiosities and early museums. More conservative Western art museums have classified Indigenous art of the Americas within arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, with precontact artwork classified aspre-Columbian art, a term that sometimes refers to only precontact art by Indigenous peoples of Latin America. Native scholars and allies are striving to have Indigenous art understood and interpreted from Indigenous perspectives.
TheLithic stage orPaleo-Indian period is defined as approximately 18,000 to 8,000 BCE. The period from around 8000 to 800 BCE is generally referred to as theArchaic period. While people of this time period worked in a wide range of materials, perishable materials, such as plant fibers or hides, had seldom been preserved through the millennia. Indigenous peoples createdbannerstones,Projectile point,Lithic reduction styles, and pictographic cave paintings, some of which have survived in the present.
Belonging in the lithic stage, the oldest known art in the Americas is a fossilizedmegafauna bone, possibly from a mammoth, carved with a profile of walkingmammoth ormastodon that dates back to 11,000 BCE.[1] The bone was found early in the 21st century nearVero Beach, Florida, in an area where human bones (Vero man) had been found in association with extinctpleistocene animals early in the 20th century. The bone is toomineralized to be dated, but the carving has been authenticated as having been made before the bone became mineralized. The anatomical correctness of the carving and the heavy mineralization of the bone indicate that the carving was made while mammoths and/or mastodons still lived in the area, more than 10,000 years ago.[2][3][4][5]
The oldest known painted object in North America is theCooper Bison Skull from approximately 8,050 BCE.[6][page needed] Lithic age art in South America includes Monte Alegre culture rock paintings created atCaverna da Pedra Pintada dating back to 9250 to 8550 BCE.[7][8]Guitarrero Cave in Peru has the earliest known textiles in South America, dating to 8000 BCE.[9]
The southwestern United States and certain regions of the Andes have the highest concentration ofpictographs (painted images) andPetroglyphs (carved images) from this period. Both pictographs and petroglyphs are known asrock art.
TheYup'ik of Alaska have a long tradition of carvingmasks for use inshamanic rituals. Indigenous peoples of the Canadian arctic have produced objects that could be classified as art since the time of theDorset culture. While the walrus ivory carvings of the Dorset were primarily ceremonial, the art of theThule people who replaced them circa 1000 CE was more decorative in character.
European contact dramatically changed Inuit art-making. In the late 19th century, Inuit artisans created souvenirs for the crews of whaling ships and explorers. Common examples includecribbage boards. Modern Inuit art began in the late 1940s, when with the encouragement of the Canadian government they began to produce prints andserpentine sculptures for sale in the south. In the mid-20th-century,Inuit printmaking emerged as a significant genre afterJames A. Houston created a printmaking studio inKinngait in 1957.[10]
Greenlandic Inuit have a unique textile tradition integrating skin-sewing, furs, and appliqué of small pieces of brightly dyed marine mammal organs in mosaic designs, calledavittat. Women create elaborate netted beadwork collars. They have strong mask-making tradition and also are known for an art form calledtupilaq or an "evil spirit object." Traditional art making practices thrive in theAmmassalik.[11]Sperm whale ivory remains a valued medium for carving.[12]
Cultures of interior Alaska and Canada living south of theArctic Circle areSubarctic peoples. While humans have lived in the region far longer, the oldest known surviving Subarctic art is a petroglyph site in northwestOntario, dated to 5000 BCE.Caribou, and to a lesser extentmoose, are major resources, providing hides, antlers, sinew, and other artistic materials. Porcupinequillwork embellishes hides and birchbark. After European contact with the influence of theGrey Nuns, moosehairtufting and floral glass beadwork became popular through the Subarctic.[13]
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The art of theHaida,Tlingit,Heiltsuk,Tsimshian and other smaller tribes living in the coastal areas ofWashington state,Oregon, andBritish Columbia, is characterized by an extremely complex stylistic vocabulary expressed mainly in the medium of woodcarving. Famous examples includetotem poles,transformation masks, and canoes. In addition to woodwork, two dimensional painting and silver, gold and copper engraved jewelry became important after contact with Europeans.
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TheEastern Woodlands, or simply woodlands, cultures inhabited the regions of North America east of theMississippi River at least since 2500 BCE. While there were many regionally distinct cultures, trade between them was common and they shared the practice of burying their dead in earthen mounds, which has preserved a large amount of their art. Because of this trait the cultures are collectively known as theMound builders.
TheWoodland period (1000 BCE–1000 CE) is divided into early, middle, and late periods, and consisted of cultures that relied mostly on hunting and gathering for their subsistence. Ceramics made by theDeptford culture (2500 BCE–100 CE) are the earliest evidence of an artistic tradition in this region. TheAdena culture are another well-known example of an early Woodland culture. They carved stone tablets withzoomorphic designs, createdpottery, and fashioned costumes from animal hides and antlers for ceremonial rituals. Shellfish was a mainstay of their diet, and engraved shells have been found in their burial mounds.
TheMiddle Woodland period was dominated by cultures of theHopewell tradition (200–500). Theirartwork encompassed a wide variety of jewelry and sculpture in stone, wood, and even human bone.
TheLate Woodland period (500–1000 CE) saw a decline in trade and in the size of settlements, and the creation of art likewise declined.
From the 12th century onward, theHaudenosaunee and nearby coastal tribes fashionedwampum from shells and string; these weremnemonic devices, currency, and records of treaties.
Iroquois people carveFalse Face masks for healing rituals, but the traditional representatives of the tribes, the Grand Council of theHaudenosaunee, are clear that these masks are not for sale or public display.[14] The same can be said for Iroquois Corn Husk Society masks.[15]
One fine art sculptor of the mid-nineteenth century wasEdmonia Lewis (African American / Ojibwe). Two of her works are held by theNewark Museum.[16]
Native peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands continued to make visual art through the 20th and 21st centuries. One such artist is Sharol Graves, whose serigraphs have been exhibited in theNational Museum of the American Indian.[17] Graves is also the illustrator ofThe People Shall Continue fromLee & Low Books.
ThePoverty Point culture inhabited portions of the state ofLouisiana from 2000 to 1000 BCE during theArchaic period.[18] Many objects excavated at Poverty Point sites were made of materials that originated in distant places, including chipped stone projectile points and tools, ground stone plummets, gorgets and vessels, and shell and stone beads. Stone tools found at Poverty Point were made from raw materials which originated in the relatively nearby Ouachita and Ozark Mountains and from the much further awayOhio andTennessee River valleys. Vessels were made fromsoapstone which came from theAppalachian foothills ofAlabama andGeorgia.[19] Hand-modeled lowly fired clay objects occur in a variety of shapes including anthropomorphic figurines and cooking balls.[18]
TheMississippian culture flourished in what is now theMidwestern,Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 CE to 1500 CE, varying regionally.[20] After adopting maize agriculture the Mississippian culture became fully agrarian, as opposed to the hunting and gathering supplemented by part-time agriculture practiced by preceding woodland cultures. They builtplatform mounds larger and more complex than those of their predecessors, and finished and developed more advanced ceramic techniques, commonly using groundmusselshell as a tempering agent. Many were involved with theSoutheastern Ceremonial Complex, a pan-regional and pan-linguistic religious and trade network. The majority of the information known about the S.E.C.C. is derived from examination of the elaborate artworks left behind by its participants, includingpottery,shell gorgets and cups,stone statuary,repoussé copper plates such as theWulfing cache,Rogan plates, andLong-nosed god maskettes. By the time of European contact the Mississippian societies were already experiencing severe social stress, and with the political upheavals and diseases introduced by Europeans many of the societies collapsed and ceased to practice a Mississippian lifestyle, with notable exceptions being thePlaquemine cultureNatchez and relatedTaensa peoples. Other tribes descended from Mississippian cultures include theCaddo,Choctaw,Muscogee Creek,Wichita, and many other southeastern peoples.
A large number of pre-Columbian wooden artifacts have been found in Florida. While the oldest wooden artifacts are as much as 10,000 years old, carved and painted wooden objects are known only from the past 2,000 years. Animal effigies and face masks have been found at a number of sites in Florida. Animal effigies dating to between 200 and 600 were found in a mortuary pond atFort Center, on the west side ofLake Okeechobee. Particularly impressive is a 66 cm tall carving of an eagle.[21]
More than 1,000 carved and painted wooden objects, including masks, tablets, plaques and effigies, were excavated in 1896 atKey Marco, insouthwestern Florida. They have been described as some of the finest prehistoric Native American art in North America. The objects are not well dated, but may belong to the first millienium of the current era. Spanish missionaries described similar masks and effigies in use by theCalusa late in the 17th century, and at the formerTequesta site on theMiami River in 1743, although no examples of the Calusa objects from the historic period have survived. A south Florida effigy style is known from wooden and bone carvings from various sites in theBelle Glade,Caloosahatchee, andGlades culture areas.[22][23] TheMiami Circle, aTequesta site depicting a near-perfect circle was excavated in 1998.[24]
TheSeminoles are best known for their textile creations, especially patchwork clothing. Doll-making is another notable craft.[25]
Tribes have lived on theGreat Plains for thousands of years. Early Plains cultures are commonly divided into four periods: Paleoindian (at least c. 10,000–4000 BCE), Plains Archaic (c. 4000–250 BCE), Plains Woodland (c. 250 BCE–950 CE), Plains Village (c. 950–1850 CE).[26] The oldest known painted object in North American was found in the southern plains, theCooper Bison Skull, found in Oklahoma and dated 10,900–10,200 BCE. It's painted with a red zig-zag.[6]
In the Plains Village period, the cultures of the area settled in enclosed clusters of rectangular houses and cultivated maize. Various regional differences emerged, including Southern Plains, Central Plains,Oneota, and Middle Missouri. Tribes were both nomadic hunters and semi-nomadic farmers. During thePlains Coalescent period (1400-European contact) some change, possibly drought, caused the mass migration of the population to the Eastern Woodlands region, and the Great Plains were sparsely populated until pressure from American settlers drove tribes into the area again.
The advent of the horse revolutionized the cultures of many historical Plains tribes.Horse culture enabled tribes to live a completely nomadic existence, hunting buffalo. Buffalo hide clothing was decorated withporcupine quill embroidery and beads – dentalium shells and elk teeth were prized materials. Later coins and glass beads acquired from trading were incorporated into Plains art. Plainsbeadwork has flourished into contemporary times.
Buffalo was the preferred material forPlains hide painting. Men painted narrative, pictorial designs recording personal exploits or visions. They also painted pictographic historical calendars known asWinter counts. Women painted geometric designs on tanned robes and rawhideparfleches, which sometimes served as maps.[27]
During the Reservation Era of the late 19th century, buffalo herds were systematically destroyed by non-native hunters. Due to the scarcity of hides, Plains artists adopted new painting surfaces, such as muslin or paper, giving birth toLedger art, so named for the ubiquitous ledger books used by Plains artists.
Since the archaic period the Plateau region, also known as theIntermontaine and upperGreat Basin, had been a center of trade. Plateau people traditionally settled near major river systems.[28] Because of this, their art carries influences from other regions – from the Pacific Northwest coasts and Great Plains.Nez Perce,Yakama,Umatilla, andCayuse women weave flat, rectangular corn husks orhemp dogbane bags, which are decorated with "bold, geometric designs" in false embroidery.[29] Plateau beadworkers are known for their contour-style beading and their elaborate horse regalia.
Great Basin tribes have a sophisticated basket making tradition, as exemplified byDat So La Lee/Louisa Keyser (Washoe),Lucy Telles,Carrie Bethel andNellie Charlie. After being displaced from their lands by non-Native settlers, Washoe wove baskets for the commodity market, especially 1895 to 1935.[30]Paiute,Shoshone and Washoe basketmakers are known for their baskets that incorporate seed beads on the surface and for waterproof baskets.[31]
The Native Americans of California have used different mediums and forms for their traditional designs found in artifacts that express their history and culture. Some traditional art forms and archaeological evidence include basketry, painted pictographs and petroglyphs found on the walls in the caves, effigy figurines, and shell beads.
TheNative Americans in California have a tradition of exquisitely detailedbasket weaving arts. In the late 19th-century Californianbaskets by artists in theCahuilla,Chumash,Pomo,Miwok,Hupa,Serrano,Cupeño, and many other tribes became popular with collectors, museums, and tourists. This resulted in great innovation in the form of the baskets. Many pieces byNative American basket weavers from all parts of California are in museum collections, such as thePeabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology atHarvard University, theSouthwest Museum, and theSmithsonian InstitutionNational Museum of the American Indian. Baskets are typically woven from a combination of dried grasses and other plants, such as those of theJuncaceae andSumac families, and often feature patterns created with dyed strands of grass, usually in black, red, or orange. Baskets of a single color are relatively uncommon amongst most tribes. Certain design motifs, such as stars, crosses, and flowers, can be found in the basketry of multiple tribes whose territories neighbor each other, and although this was once attributed to cultural exchange occurring within theSpanish Missions in California, baskets dating to before the beginning of the mission project suggest that this was actually the result of the exchange of goods and ideas that occur between neighboring cultures.[32]
California has a large number ofpictographs andpetroglyphsrock art. One of the largest densities ofpetroglyphs in North America, by theCoso people, is inBig and Little Petroglyph Canyons in theCoso Rock Art District of the northernMojave Desert in California. In the Sand Canyon Area, located in the Southern Sierra Nevada, California, rock art of theKawaiisu is found in the site of Teddy Bear Cave. Among the findings, the zoomorphic and anthropomorphic drawing elements within the cave have been tied to the site’s purpose as a ceremonial space where other material artifacts were given as sacred offerings.Kawaiisu mythology is directly represented in the rock art, displaying significance closely related tomyths of creation. Pictograph notes as well as otherethnographic data such as oral interviews with members of the tribe, Teddy Bear Caves' significance in Kawaiisu mythology can be further explained, along with its drawing elements which are not relatively known in California Archaeology.[34]
The most elaborate pictographs in the U.S are considered to be therock art of the Chumash people, found incave paintings in present-daySanta Barbara,Ventura, andSan Luis Obispo Counties. TheChumashcave painting includes examples atChumash Painted Cave State Historic Park andBurro Flats Painted Cave.
Another form of stone carving, practiced by theHokan Chumash andComcaac peoples, is the art of carving stones to resemble slices of columnar cactus, referred to by as cactus stones, or cogged stones by indigenous Californian mythology expert,Paul Apodaca. These cactus stones were carved into the shape of a variety of cuts and species of cacti, commonly slices of theSan Pedro cactus andsaguaro cactus. Cactus stones resembling thin slices of the middle of the cactus could be used as tokens for a game called camoiilcoj, or as wheels for a children's toy, those resembling the rounded tops of the San Pedro and saguaro cactus were used as spinning tops, and those resembling thicker slices, often with a depression carved into the center of the stone were used as containers for materials used in rituals, as well as being sacrificed for religious rituals in place of actual cactus slices when the plants needed were unavailable.[35] The art of carving cactus stones originated with the Comcaac people, who had access to an abundance of cactus, and for whom cacti hold spiritual significance, are thought to have shared the art form with the neighboring Chumash tribes. This is thought to be the case because of cactus stones being found at Chumash sites with rock art bearing strong resemblance to Comcaac depictions of cactus. Since the Chumash sites are in regions where the species of cacti depicted by the rock art and cactus stones are not plentiful, the presence of such motifs is likely a result of the exchange of knowledge that accompanies the exchange of trade goods.[35]
An art practice used by the Native American tribes of California, such as the Chumash, are carving and shaping effigy figurines. From multiple archaeological studies that occurred in various historical sites (theChannel Islands,Malibu,Santa Barbara, and more) many effigy figures were discovered and portrayed several zoomorphic forms, such as fish, whales, frogs, and birds.[36][37] As a result from analyzing these effigy figurines in these studies, several strong conclusions were drawn that provided context to the Native Americans of California, such as social attributes between the Chumash and other tribes, economical significance, and possibly used in rituals.[36][37][38] Some effigy figurines were found in burials, and others were found in relation to having similar stylistic features with dates that suggest social interactional spheres in the Middle and Late Holocene between tribes.[36][37]There is limited evidence of sea otter andPinniped imagery in the coastal region of California spiritual practices, however there have been finds such as the ones in a Palmer-Redondo site in 1932 that indicate a connection between such imagery and ritual and belief. Effigies shaped to resemble sea otters were found in the Redondo Beach site in Los Angeles County and are believed to have played any number of roles in the cultural practices. The items found at the site were two full bodysea ottersteatite carvings. These items could have been decorative or aesthetic pieces however they are believed to have beentalismans oramulets, possessing spiritual essence or magic properties associated with good hunting or abundance in a species.[39]
An association of affluence from owning otterskin/pelts compared to the meat of the animal is also noted. In particular how the stone ottereffigies contributed to the social organization of communities. This is suggested based on the interpretation that the pelt of the animal is the most desired part of the otter, thus the importance of having a full bodyeffigy to indicate the importance of the otter’s fur. The presence of full body effigies in graves supports this idea of affluence in connection to the otter pelts. Social distinctions would likely be reflected in the differences in allocation of stone effigies in each grave, associating more stone effigies with higher social status.[39]
Similar stone effigies have been found in the California coastal area, in thePalos Verdes Peninsula a stone object was found believed to be part of theGabrielino/Tongva people. The object resembles the shape of a bird or potentially aporpoise-like creature. This is due to the distinctive hump and head that could be interpreted as a bird in flight or a porpoise showing its tail. Thesiltstone artifact may have started its cultural life as amanuport of some kind because of the similarities in shape to a bird or whale, but ultimately shows evidence of being shaped into its current form. Human manipulation of the rock is also evident from the perfectly placed midline on the effigy that is meant to indicate the object's center of gravity. When strung from this midline the effigy maintains a level horizontal position, potentially meant to mimic a bird in flight.[40]
Shell and otherglass beads have been widely used and traded along the California Coast from tribes such as theKumeyaay, theCahuilla, and theLuiseño for over 10,000 years. Throughout the Southwest, California, and theGreat Basin, disc beads such asOlivella biplicata,Haliotis rufescens epidermis, andMytilus californianus have been found through excavation, with collections deriving fromCalifornia State Parks and the Collections Management Program atSan Diego State University. Over the years, archaeologists and historians have studied how theseshell beads are crafted for various uses, including religious and traditional ceremonies.[41]Shells, such asfreshwater snails and other marine life, were utilized for ornamental purposes as much as they were crafted for jewelry. Jewelry forKumeyaay women was found to include “blue beads”, otherwise known as clam shell beads, while men wore nasal septums and small beaded strings of white clam shells. Shell bead jewelry that is traded is often later used and distributed in ceremonies amongst tribes such as theCahuilla, theSerrano, and theGabrieleño (Tongva).Shell beads not only pertained to decor purposes within the state of California but were also significant in trade and networking through other territories. Ornamental shell beads were traded across theMexican border integrating themselves into other tribes inBaja California.[41]
In the Southwestern United States numerous pictographs and petroglyphs were created. TheFremont culture andAncestral Puebloans and later tribes' creations, in theBarrier Canyon Style and others, are seen at present dayBuckhorn Draw Pictograph Panel andHorseshoe Canyon, among other sites. Petroglyphs by these and theMogollon culture's artists are represented inDinosaur National Monument and atNewspaper Rock.
TheAncestral Puebloans, or Anasazi, (1000 BCE–700 CE) are the ancestors of today'sPueblo tribes. Their culture formed in the American southwest, after the cultivation of corn was introduced from Mexico around 1200 BCE. People of this region developed an agrarian lifestyle, cultivating food, storage gourds, and cotton with irrigation orxeriscaping techniques. They lived in sedentary towns, so pottery, used to store water and grain, was ubiquitous.
For hundreds of years, Ancestral Pueblo created utilitarian grayware and black-on-white pottery and occasionally orange or red ceramics. In historical times,Hopi createdollas, dough bowls, and food bowls of different sizes for daily use, but they also made more elaborate ceremonial mugs, jugs, ladles, seed jars and those vessels for ritual use, and these were usually finished with polished surfaces and decorated with black painted designs. At the turn of the 20th century, Hopi potterNampeyo famous revivedSikyátki-style pottery, originated on First Mesa in the 14th to 17th centuries.[42]
Southwest architecture includesCliff dwellings, multi-story settlements carved fromliving rock;pit houses; andadobe andsandstonepueblos. One of the most elaborate and largest ancient settlements isChaco Canyon inNew Mexico, which includes 15 major complexes of sandstone and timber. These are connected by a network of roads. Construction for the largest of these settlements,Pueblo Bonito, began 1080 yearsbefore present. Pueblo Bonito contains over 800 rooms.[43]
Turquoise, jet, and spiny oyster shell have been traditionally used by Ancestral Pueblo for jewelry, and they developed sophisticatedinlay techniques centuries ago.
Around 200 CE theHohokam culture developed in Arizona. They are the ancestors of theTohono O'odham andAkimel O'odham or Pima tribes. TheMimbres, a subgroup of theMogollon culture, are especially notable for the narrative paintings on their pottery.
Within the last millennium,Athabaskan peoples emigrated from northern Canada in the southwest. These include theNavajo andApache.Sandpainting is an aspect of Navajo healing ceremonies that inspired an art form. Navajos learned to weave on upright looms from Pueblos and wove blankets that were eagerly collected byGreat Basin andPlains tribes in the 18th and 19th centuries. After the introduction of the railroad in the 1880s, imported blankets became plentiful and inexpensive, so Navajo weavers switched to producingrugs for trade.
In the 1850s, Navajos adoptedsilversmithing from the Mexicans.Atsidi Sani (Old Smith) was the first Navajo silversmith, but he had many students, and the technology quickly spread to surrounding tribes. Today thousands of artists produce silver jewelry with turquoise.Hopi are renowned for their overlay silver work and cottonwood carvings.Zuni artists are admired for their cluster work jewelry, showcasing turquoise designs, as well as their elaborate, pictorial stone inlay in silver.
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The cultural development of ancientMesoamerica was generally divided along east and west. "Archaeologists have dated human presence in Mesoamerica to possibly as early as 21,000 BCE" (Jeff Wallenfeldt)[44]. The stable Maya culture was most dominant in the east, especially the Yucatán Peninsula, while in the west more varied developments took place in subregions. These includedWest Mexican (1000–1), Teotihuacan (1–500), Mixtec (1000–1200), and Aztec (1200–1521).
Central American civilizations generally lived to the regions south of modern-day Mexico, although there was some overlap between the places.
Mesoamerica was home to the following cultures, among others:
The Olmec (1500–400 BCE), who lived on the gulf coast, were thefirst civilization to fully develop in Mesoamerica. Their culture was the first to develop many traits that remained constant in Mesoamerica until the last days of the Aztecs: a complex astronomical calendar, the ritual practice of aball game, and the erection ofstelae to commemorate victories or other important events.
The most famous artistic creations of the Olmec arecolossal basalt heads, believed to be portraits of rulers that were erected to advertise their great power. The Olmec also sculpted votivefigurines that they buried beneath the floors of their houses for unknown reasons. These were most often modeled in terracotta, but also occasionally carved fromjade orserpentine.
![Kunz Axe; 1200-400 BCE; polished green quartz (aventurine); height: 29 cm, width: 13.5 cm; British Museum (London)[45]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aBritish_Museum_Mesoamerica_052.jpg)
Teotihuacan was a city built in theValley of Mexico, containing some of the largestpyramidal structures built in thepre-ColumbianAmericas. Established around 200 BCE, the city fell between the 7th and 8th century CE. Teotihuacan has numerous well-preservedmurals.
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In his 1957 book on Mesoamerican art,Miguel Covarrubias speaks of Remojadas' "magnificent hollow figures with expressive faces, in majestic postures and wearing elaborate paraphernalia indicated by added clay elements."[46]
"The Bat God was one of the important deities of the Maya, many elements of whose religion were shared also by theZapotec. The Bat God in particular is known to have been revered also by the Zapotec ... He was especially associated ... with the underworld."[attribution needed][47] An important Zapotec center wasMonte Albán, in present-dayOaxaca, Mexico. The Monte Albán periods are divided into I, II, and III, which range from 200 BCE to 600 CE.
![Ceramic urn, 200 BCE – 800 CE, British Museum.[48]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aBritish_Museum_Zapotec_funerary_urn_1.jpg)
TheMaya civilization occupied the south of Mexico, all ofGuatemala andBelize, and the western portions ofHonduras andEl Salvador.
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![Aztec calendar stone; 1502–1521; basalt; diameter: 358 cm (141 in.); thick: 98 cm (39 in.); discovered on 17 December 1790 during repairs on the Mexico City Cathedral; National Museum of Anthropology (Mexico City). The exact purpose and meaning of the Calendar Stone are unclear. Archaeologists and historians have proposed numerous theories, and it is likely that there are several aspects to its interpretation[49]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3a1479_Stein_der_f%25C3%25BCnften_Sonne%2c_sog._Aztekenkalender%2c_Ollin_Tonatiuh_anagoria.JPG)
Greater Chiriqui
Greater NicoyaThe ancient peoples of theNicoya Peninsula in present-day Costa Rica traditionally sculpted birds injade, which were used for funeral ornaments.[50] Around 500 CE gold ornaments replaced jade, possibly because of the depletion of jade resources.[51]
![Taíno zemi, ironwood with shell inlay, Dominican Republic, 15th-16th-century bowl used for cohoba rituals[52]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aZemi_figure_Metropolitan.jpg)
The native civilizations were most developed in theAndean region, where they are roughly divided into Northern Andes civilizations of present- dayColombia andEcuador and the Southern Andes civilizations of present- dayPeru and Chile.
Hunter-gatherer tribes throughout theAmazon rainforest of Brazil also have developed artistic traditions involving tattooing and body painting. Because of their remoteness, these tribes and their art have not been studied as thoroughly as Andean cultures, and many even remainuncontacted.
The Isthmo-Colombian Area includes some Central American countries (likeCosta Rica andPanama) and some South American countries near them (likeColombia).
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Traditionally limited in access to stone and metals, Amazonianindigenous peoples excel at featherwork, painting, textiles, and ceramics.Caverna da Pedra Pintada (Cave of the Painted Rock) in thePará state of Brazil houses the oldest firmly dated art in the Americas – rock paintings dating back 11,000 years. The cave is also the site of the oldest ceramics in the Americas, from 5000 BCE.[53]
The Island ofMarajó, at the mouth of theAmazon River was a major center of ceramic traditions as early as 1000 CE[53] and continues to produce ceramics today, characterized by cream-colored bases painted with linear, geometric designs of red, black, and whiteslips.
With access to a wide range of native bird species, Amazonianindigenous peoples excel at feather work, creating brilliant colored headdresses, jewelry, clothing, and fans. Iridescent beetle wings are incorporated into earrings and other jewelry. Weaving and basketry also thrive in the Amazon, as noted among theUrarina of Peru.[54]
Pinpointing the exact time of emergence of "modern" and contemporary Native art is problematic. In the past, Western art historians have considered use of Western art media or exhibiting in international art arena as criteria for "modern" Native American art history.[55] Native American art history is a new and highly contested academic discipline, and these Eurocentric benchmarks are followed less and less today. Many media considered appropriate for easel art were employed by Native artists for centuries, such as stone and wood sculpture and mural painting.Ancestral Pueblo artists painted with tempera on woven cotton fabric, at least 800 years ago.[56] Certain Native artists used non-Indian art materials as soon as they became available. For example,Texcocan artistFernando de Alva Cortés Ixtlilxóchitl painted with ink and watercolor on paper in the late 16th century. Bound together in theCodex Ixtlilxóchitl, these portraits of historical Texcocan leaders are rendered with shading, modeling and anatomic accuracy.[57] TheCuzco School of Peru featuredQuechua easel painters in the 17th and 18th centuries. The firstcabinets of curiosities in the 16th century, precursors to modern museums, featured Native American art.
The notion that fine art cannot be functional has not gained widespread acceptance in the Native American art world, as evidenced by the high esteem and value placed upon rugs, blankets, basketry, weapons, and other utilitarian items in Native American art shows. A dichotomy between fine art andcraft is not commonly found in contemporary Native art. For example, theCherokee Nation honors its greatest artists as Living Treasures, including frog- andfish-gig makers,flint knappers, andbasket weavers, alongside sculptors, painters, and textile artists.[58] Art historian Dawn Ades writes, "Far from being inferior, or purely decorative, crafts like textiles or ceramics, have always had the possibility of being the bearers of vital knowledge, beliefs and myths."[59]
Recognizable art markets between Natives and non-Natives emerged upon contact, but the 1820–1840s were a highly prolific time. In the Pacific Northwest and the Great Lakes region, tribes dependent upon the rapidly diminishing fur trade adopted art production a means of financial support. A painting movement known as theIroquois Realist School emerged among the Haudenosaunee in New York in the 1820s, spearheaded by the brothersDavid andDennis Cusick.[60]
African-Ojibwe sculptor,Edmonia Lewis maintained a studio in Rome, Italy and carvedNeoclassicist marble sculptors from the 1860s–1880s. Her mother belonged to theMississauga band of theCredit River Indian Reserve. Lewis exhibited widely, and a testament to her popularity during her own time was that PresidentUlysses S. Grant commissioned her to carve his portrait in 1877.[61]
Ho-Chunk artist,Angel De Cora was the best known Native American artist before World War I.[62] She was taken from her reservation and family to theHampton Institute, where she began her lengthy formal art training.[63] Active in theArts and Crafts movement, De Cora exhibited her paintings and design widely and illustrated books by Native authors. She strove to be tribally specific in her work and was revolutionary for portraying Indians in contemporary clothing of the early 20th century. She taught art to young Native students atCarlisle Indian Industrial School and was an outspoken advocate of art as a means for Native Americans to maintain cultural pride, while finding a place in mainstream society.[64]
TheKiowa Six, a group of Kiowa painters from Oklahoma, met with international success when their mentor,Oscar Jacobson, showed their paintings in First International Art Exposition in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1928.[65] They also participated in the 1932Venice Biennale, where their art display, according toDorothy Dunn, "was acclaimed the most popular exhibit among all the rich and varied displays assembled."[66]
TheSanta Fe Indian Market began in 1922.John Collier became Commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1933 and temporarily reversed the BIA's assimilationist policies by encouraging Native American arts and culture. By this time, Native American art exhibits and the art market increased, gaining wider audiences. In the 1920s and 1930s,Indigenist art movements flourished inPeru,Ecuador,Bolivia, and Mexico, most famously with theMexican Muralist movements.
Basket weaving is one of the ancient and most-widespread art forms in the Americas. From coiledsea lyme grass baskets in Nunavut to bark baskets in Tierra del Fuego, Native artists weave baskets from a wide range of materials. Typically baskets are made of vegetable fibers, but Tohono O'odham are known for their horsehair baskets andInupiaq artists weave baskets frombaleen, filtering plates of certain whales.[67]Grand Traverse BandKelly Church,Wasco-Wishram Pat Gold, andEastern Band Cherokee Joel Queen all weave baskets from copper sheets or wire, andMi'kmaq-Onondaga conceptual artistGail Tremblay weaves baskets in the traditional fancywork patterns of her tribes from exposed film. Basketry can take many forms.Haida artistLisa Telford uses cedar bark to weave both traditional functional baskets and impractical but beautiful cedar evening gowns and high-heeled shoes.[68]
A range of native grasses provides material for Arctic baskets, as does baleen, which is a 20th-century development. Baleen baskets are typically embellished with walrus ivory carvings.[67] Cedar bark is often used in northwest coastal baskets. Throughout the Great Lakes and northeast, black ash and sweetgrass are woven into fancy work, featuring "porcupine" points, or decorated as strawberries. Bark baskets are traditional for gathering berries.Rivercane is the preferred material in the Southeast, andChitimachas are regarded as the finest rivercane weavers. In Oklahoma, rivercane is prized but rare so baskets are typically made of honeysuckle or buckbrush runners. Coiled baskets are popular in the southwest and the Hopi and Apache in particular are known for pictorial coiled basketry plaques. The Tohono O'odham are well known for their basket-weaving prowess, and evidenced by the success ofAnnie Antone andTerrol Dew Johnson.
California and Great Basin tribes are considered some of the finest basket weavers in the world.Juncus is a common material in southern California, while sedge, willow, redbud, and devil's claw are also used.Pomo basket weavers are known to weave 60–100 stitches per inch and their rounded, coiled baskets adorned with quail's topknots, feathers, abalone, and clamshell discs are known as "treasure baskets". Three of the most celebrated Californian basket weavers wereElsie Allen (Pomo),Laura Somersal (Wappo), and the late Pomo-Patwin medicine woman,Mabel McKay,[69] known for her biography,Weaving the Dream.Louisa Keyser was a highly influentialWashoe basket weaver.
A complex technique called "doubleweave," which involves continuously weaving both an inside and outside surface is shared by theChoctaw, Cherokee, Chitimacha,Tarahumara, and Venezuelan tribes.Mike Dart,Cherokee Nation, is a contemporary practitioner of this technique. The Tarahumara, or Raramuri, ofCopper Canyon, Mexico typically weave with pine needles andsotol. InPanama,Embera-Wounaan peoples are renowned for their pictorialchunga palm baskets, known ashösig di, colored in vivid full-spectrum ofnatural dyes.
Yanomamo basket weavers of the Venezuelan Amazon paint their woven tray and burden baskets with geometric designs in charcoal andonto, a red berry.[70] While in most tribes the basket weavers are often women, among theWaura tribe in Brazil, men weave baskets. They weave a wide range of styles, but the largest are calledmayaku, which can be two feet wide and feature tight weaves with an impressive array of designs.[71]
Today basket weaving often leads to environmental activism. Indiscriminate pesticide spraying endangers basket weavers' health. Theblack ash tree, used by basket weavers from Michigan to Maine, is threatened by theemerald ash borer. Basket weaver Kelly Church has organized two conferences about the threat and teaches children how to harvest black ash seeds.[72] Many native plants that basket weavers use are endangered. Rivercane only grows in 2% of its original territory. Cherokee basket weaver and ethnobotanist, Shawna Cain is working with her tribe to form the Cherokee Nation Native Plant Society.[73]Tohono O'odham basket weaverTerrol Dew Johnson, known for his experimental use of gourds, beargrass, and other desert plants, took his interest in native plants and founded Tohono O'odham Community Action, which provides traditional wild desert foods for his tribe.[74]
Beadwork is a quintessentially Native American art form, but ironically uses beads imported from Europe and Asia. Glass beads have been in use for almost five centuries in the Americas. Today a wide range of beading styles flourish.
In the Great Lakes, Ursuline nuns introduced floral patterns to tribes, who quickly applied them to beadwork.[75] Great Lakes tribes are known for their bandolier bags, that might take an entire year to complete.[76] During the 20th century the Plateau tribes, such as theNez Perce perfected contour-style beadwork, in which the lines of beads are stitch to emphasize the pictorial imagery. Plains tribes are master beaders, and today dance regalia for man and women feature a variety of beadwork styles. While Plains and Plateau tribes are renowned for their beaded horse trappings, Subarctic tribes such as theDene bead lavish floral dog blankets.[77] Eastern tribes have a completely different beadwork aesthetic, andInnu,Mi'kmaq,Penobscot, and Haudenosaunee tribes are known for symmetrical scroll motifs in white beads, called the "double curve."[78] Iroquois are also known for "embossed" beading in which strings pulled taut force beads to pop up from the surface, creating a bas-relief.Tammy Rahr (Cayuga) is a contemporary practitioner of this style.Zuni artists have developed a tradition of three-dimensional beaded sculptures.
Huichol Indians ofJalisco andNayarit, Mexico have a unique approach to beadwork. They adhere beads, one by one, to a surface, such as wood or a gourd, with a mixture of resin and beeswax.[79]
Most Native beadwork is created for tribal use but beadworkers also create conceptual work for the art world.Richard Aitson (Kiowa-Apache) has both an Indian and non-Indian audience for his work and is known for his fully beadedcradleboards. Another Kiowa beadworker,Teri Greeves has won top honors for her beadwork, which consciously integrates both traditional and contemporary motifs, such as beaded dancers on Converse high-tops. Greeves also beads on buckskin and explores such issues as warfare or Native American voting rights.[80]
Marcus Amerman,Choctaw, one of today's most celebrated bead artists, pioneered a movement of highly realistic beaded portraits.[81] His imagery ranges from 19th century Native leaders to pop icons such as Janet Jackson and Brooke Shields.
Roger Amerman, Marcus' brother, andMartha Berry,Cherokee, have effectively revived Southeastern beadwork, a style that had been lost because of forced removal from tribes to Indian Territory. Their beadwork commonly features white bead outlines, an echo of the shell beads or pearls Southeastern tribes used before contact.[82]
Jamie Okuma (Luiseño-Shoshone-Bannock) was won top awards with her beaded dolls, which can include entire families or horses and riders, all with fully beaded regalia. The antique Venetian beads she uses can as small as size 22°, about the size of a grain of salt.[83]Juanita Growing Thunder Fogarty, Rhonda Holy Bear, and Charlene Holy Bear are also prominent beaded dollmakers.
The widespread popularity of glass beads does not mean aboriginal bead making is dead. Perhaps the most famous Native bead iswampum, a cylindrical tube ofquahog or whelk shell. Both shells produce white beads, but only parts of the quahog produce purple. These are ceremonially and politically important to a range ofNortheastern Woodland tribes.[84]Elizabeth James-Perry (Aquinnah Wampanoag-Eastern Band Cherokee) creates wampum jewelry today, including wampum belts.[85]
Ceramics have been created in the Americas for the last 8000 years, as evidenced by pottery found in Caverna da Pedra Pintada in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon.[86] The Island ofMarajó in Brazil remains a major center of ceramic art today.[87] In Mexico,Mata Ortiz pottery continues the ancientCasas Grandes tradition of polychrome pottery.Juan Quezada is one of the leading potters from Mata Ortiz.[88]
In the Southeast, theCatawba tribe is known for its tan-and-black mottled pottery.Eastern Band Cherokees' pottery has Catawba influences.[89] In Oklahoma, Cherokees lost their pottery traditions until revived by Anna Belle Sixkiller Mitchell. TheCaddo tribe's centuries-long pottery tradition had died out in the early 20th century, but has been effectively revived byJereldine Redcorn.
Pueblo people are particularly known for their ceramic traditions.Nampeyo (c. 1860 – 1942) was aHopi potter who collaborated with anthropologists to revive traditional pottery forms and designs, and many of her relatives are successful potters today.Maria andJulian Martinez, bothSan Ildefonso Pueblo revived their tribe's blackware tradition in the early 20th century. Julian invented a gloss-matte blackware style for which his tribe is still known today.Lucy Lewis (1898–1992) ofAcoma Pueblo gained recognition for her black-on-white ceramics in the mid-20th century.Cochiti Pueblo was known for its grotesque figurines at the turn-of-the-20th century, and these have been revived by Virgil Ortiz. Cochiti potterHelen Cordero (1915–1994) inventedstoryteller figures, which feature a large, single figure of a seatedelder telling stories to groups of smaller figures.[90]
While northern potters are not as well known as their southern counterparts, ceramic arts extend as far north as the Arctic. Inuk potter,Makituk Pingwartok ofCape Dorset uses a pottery wheel to create her prizewinning ceramics.[91]
Today contemporary Native potters create a wide range of ceramics from functional pottery to monumental ceramic sculpture.Roxanne Swentzell ofSanta Clara Pueblo is one of the leading ceramic artists in the Americas. She creates coil-built, emotionally charged figures that comment on contemporary society.Nora Naranjo-Morse, also of Santa Clara Pueblo is world-renowned for her individual figures as well as conceptual installations featuring ceramics.[92]Diego Romero ofCochiti Pueblo is known for his ceramic bowls, painted with satirical scenes that combine Ancestral Pueblo, Greek, and pop culture imagery. Hundreds more Native contemporary ceramic artists are taking pottery in new directions.
Performance art is a new art form, emerging in the 1960s, and so does not carry the cultural baggage of many other art genres. Performance art can draw upon storytelling traditions, as well as music and dance, and often includes elements of installation, video, film, and textile design.Rebecca Belmore, a CanadianOjibway performance artist, has represented her country in the prestigiousVenice Biennale.James Luna, aLuiseño-Mexican performance artist, also participated in the Venice Biennale in 2005,[93] representing theNational Museum of the American Indian.
Performance allows artists to confront their audience directly, challenge long held stereotypes, and bring up current issues, often in an emotionally charged manner. "[P]eople just howl in their seats, and there's ranting and booing or hissing, carrying on in the audience," says Rebecca Belmore of the response to her work.[94] She has created performances to call attention to violence against and many unsolved murders of First Nations women. Both Belmore and Luna create elaborate, often outlandish outfits and props for their performances and move through a range of characters. For instance, a repeating character of Luna's is Uncle Jimmy,[95] a disabled veteran who criticizes greed and apathy on his reservation.
On the other hand,Marcus Amerman, aChoctaw performance artist, maintains a consistent role of the Buffalo Man, whose irony and social commentary arise from the odd situations in which he finds himself, for instance a James Bond movie or lost in a desert labyrinth.[96] Jeff Marley,Cherokee, pulls from the tradition of the "booger dance" to create subversive, yet humorous, interventions that take history and place into account.[97]
Erica Lord,Inupiaq-Athabaskan, explores her mixed-race identity and conflicts about the ideas of home through her performance art. In her words, "In order to sustain a genuine self, I create a world in which I shift to become one or all of my multiple visions of self."[98] She has suntanned phrases into her skin, donned cross-cultural and cross-gender disguises, and incorporated songs, ranging fromInupiaq throat singing to racist children's rhymes into her work.
A Boliviananarcha-feminist cooperative,Mujeres Creando or "Women Creating" features many indigenous artists. They create public performances orstreet theater to bring attention to issues of women's, indigenous people's, and lesbian's rights, as well as anti-poverty issues. Julieta Paredes,María Galindo and Mónica Mendoza are founding members.
Performance art has allowed Native Americans access to the international art world, and Rebecca Belmore mentions that her audiences are non-Native;[94] however, Native American audiences also respond to this genre.Bringing It All Back Home, a 1997 film collaboration between James Luna andChris Eyre, documents Luna's first performance at his own home, the La Jolla Indian Reservation. Luna describes the experience as "probably the scariest moment of my life as an artist ... performing for the members of my reservation in the tribal hall."[99]
Native Americans embraced photography in the 19th century. Some even owned their own photography studios, such asBenjamin Haldane (1874–1941),Tsimshian ofMetlakatla Village onAnnette Island, Alaska,[100]Jennie Ross Cobb (Cherokee Nation, 1881–1959) ofPark Hill, Oklahoma, andRichard Throssel (Cree, 1882–1933) ofMontana. Their early photographs stand in stark contrast to the romanticized images of Edward Curtis and other contemporaries. Scholarship by Mique’l Askren (Tsimshian/Tlingit) on the photographs ofB.A. Haldane has analyzed the functions that Haldane's photographs served for his community: as markers of success by having Anglo-style formal portraits taken, and as markers of the continuity of potlatching and traditional ceremonials by having photographs taken in ceremonial regalia. This second category is particularly significant because the use of the ceremonial regalia was against the law in Canada between 1885 and 1951.[101]
Martín Chambi (Quechua, 1891–1973), a photographer from Peru, was one of the pioneering Indigenous photographers of South America.Peter Pitseolak (Inuk, 1902–1973), fromCape Dorset, Nunavut, documented Inuit life in the mid-20th century while dealing with challenges presented by the harsh climate and extreme light conditions of the Canadian Arctic. He developed his film himself in his igloo, and some of his photos were shot by oil lamps. Following in the footsteps of early Kiowa amateur photographersParker McKenzie(1897–1999) and Nettie Odlety McKenzie (1897–1978),Horace Poolaw (Kiowa, 1906–1984) shot over 2000 images of his neighbors and relatives in Western Oklahoma from the 1920s onward.Jean Fredericks (Hopi, 1906–1990) carefully negotiated Hopi cultural views toward photography and did not offer his portraits of Hopi people for sale to the public.[102]
Today innumerable Native people are professional art photographers; however, acceptance to the genre has met with challenges.Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie (Navajo/Muscogee/Seminole) has not only established a successful career with her own work, she has also been an advocate for the entire field of Native American photography. She has curated shows and organized conferences at theC.N. Gorman Museum atUC Davis featuring Native American photographers. Tsinhnahjinnie wrote the book,Our People, Our Land, Our Images: International Indigenous Photographers. Native photographers have taken their skills into the fields of art videography, photocollage, digital photography, and digital art.
Although it is widely speculated that the ancientAdena stone tablets were used for printmaking, not much is known about aboriginal Americanprintmaking. 20th-century Native artists have borrowed techniques from Japan and Europe, such aswoodcut,linocut,serigraphy,monotyping, and other practices.
Printmaking has flourished amongInuit communities in particular. European-CanadianJames Houston created a graphic art program inCape Dorset, Nunavut in 1957.[103] Houston taught local Inuit stone carvers how to create prints from stone-blocks and stencils. He asked local artists to draw pictures and the shop generated limited edition prints, based on theukiyo-e workshop system of Japan. Cooperative print shops were also established in nearby communities, includingBaker Lake,Puvirnituq,Holman, andPangnirtung. These shops have experimented withetching,engraving,lithography, and silkscreen. Shops produced annual catalogs advertising their collections. Local birds and animals, spirit beings, and hunting scenes are the most popular subject matter,[103] but are allegorical in nature.[104] Backgrounds tend to be minimal and perspective is mixed.[105] One of the most prominent of Cape Dorset artists isKenojuak Ashevak (born 1927), who has received many public commissions and two honorary doctorate degrees.[105] Other prominent Inuit printmakers and graphic artists includeParr,Osuitok Ipeelee,Germaine Arnaktauyok,Pitseolak Ashoona,Tivi Etok,Helen Kalvak,Jessie Oonark,Kananginak Pootoogook,Pudlo Pudlat,Irene Avaalaaqiaq Tiktaalaaq, andSimon Tookoome. Inuk printmakerAndrew Qappik designed thecoat of arms of Nunavut.
Many Native painters transformed their paintings into fine art prints.Potawatomi artistWoody Crumbo created bold, screen prints and etchings in the mid-20th century that blended traditional, flatBacone Style withArt Deco influences.Kiowa-Caddo-Choctaw painter,T.C. Cannon traveled to Japan to study wood block printing from master printers.
In Chile,Mapuche printmakerSantos Chávez (1934–2001) was one of the most celebrated artists of his country – with over 85 solo exhibitions during his lifetime.[106]
Melanie Yazzie (Navajo),Linda Lomahaftewa (Hopi-Choctaw),Fritz Scholder andDebora Iyall (Cowlitz) have all built successful careers with their print and have gone on to teach the next generation of printers.Walla Walla artist,James Lavadour founded Crow's Shadow Institute of the Arts on theUmatilla Reservation in Oregon in 1992. Crow's Shadow features a state-of-the-art printmaking studio and offers workshops, exhibition space, and printmaking residencies for Native artists, in which they pair visiting artists with master printers.[107]
Native Americans have created sculpture, both monumental and small, for millennia. Stone sculptures are ubiquitous through the Americas, in the forms ofstelae,inuksuit, and statues. Alabaster stone carving is popular among Western tribes, wherecatlinite carving is traditional in the Northern Plains andfetish-carving is traditional in the Southwest, particularly among theZuni. TheTaíno ofPuerto Rico and theDominican Republic are known for theirzemis– sacred, three-pointed stone sculptures.
Inuit artists sculpt with walrus ivory, caribou antlers, bones, soapstone, serpentinite, and argillite. They often represent local fauna and humans engaged in hunting or ceremonial activities.
Edmonia Lewis paved the way for Native American artists to sculpt in mainstream traditions using non-Native materials.Allan Houser (Warms Springs Chiricahua Apache) became one of the most prominent Native sculptors of the 20th century. Though he worked in wood and stone, Houser is most known for his monumental bronze sculptors, both representational and abstract. Houser influenced a generation of Native sculptors by teaching at theInstitute of American Indian Arts. His two sons, Phillip andBob Haozous are sculptors today.Roxanne Swentzell (Santa Clara Pueblo) is known for her expressive, figurative, ceramic sculptures but has also branched into bronze casting, and her work is permanently displayed at theNational Museum of the American Indian.
The Northwest Coastal tribes are known for their woodcarving – most famously their monumentaltotem poles that display clan crests. During the 19th century and early 20th century, this art form was threatened but was effectively revived.Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole carvers such as Charlie James,Mungo Martin,Ellen Neel, andWillie Seaweed kept the art alive and also carved masks, furniture, bentwood boxes, and jewelry. Haida carvers includeCharles Edenshaw,Bill Reid, andRobert Davidson. Besides working in wood, Haida also work withargillite. Traditional formline designs translate well into glass sculpture, which is increasingly popular thanks to efforts by contemporary glass artists such asPreston Singletary (Tlingit),Susan Point (Coast Salish) and Marvin Oliver (Quinault/Isleta Pueblo).[108]
In the Southeast, woodcarving dominates sculpture.Willard Stone, of Cherokee descent, exhibited internationally in the mid-20th century.Amanda Crowe (Eastern Band Cherokee) studied sculpture at theArt Institute of Chicago and returned to her reservation to teach over 2000 students woodcarving over a period of 40 years, ensuring that sculpture thrives as an art form on the Qualla Boundary.[109]
Fiberwork dating back 10,000 years has been unearthed fromGuitarrero Cave in Peru.[110] Cotton and wool from alpaca, llamas, and vicuñas have been woven into elaborate textiles for thousands of years in the Andes and are still important parts of Quechua andAymara culture today. Coroma inAntonio Quijarro Province,Bolivia is a major center for ceremonial textile production.[111] An Aymara elder from Coroma said, "In our sacred weavings are expressions of our philosophy, and the basis for our social organization... The sacred weavings are also important in differentiating one community, or ethnic group, from a neighboring group..."[112]
Guna tribal members ofPanama andColombia are famous for theirmolas, cotton panels with elaborate geometric designs created by a reverseappliqué technique. Designs originated from traditional skin painting designs but today exhibit a wide range of influences, includingpop culture. Two mola panels form a blouse, but when a Guna woman is tired of a blouse, she can disassemble it and sell the molas to art collectors.[113]
Mayan women have woven cotton with backstrap looms for centuries, creating items such ashuipils or traditional blouses. ElaborateMaya textiles featured representations of animals, plants, and figures from oral history.[114] Organizing into weaving collectives have helped Mayan women earn better money for their work and greatly expand the reach of Mayan textiles in the world.
Seminole seamstresses, upon gaining access to sewing machines in the late 19th century and early 20th centuries, invented an elaborate appliqué patchwork tradition. Seminole patchwork, for which the tribe is known today, came into full flower in the 1920s.[115]
Great Lakes and Prairie tribes are known for theirribbonwork, found on clothing and blankets. Strips of silk ribbons are cut and appliquéd in layers, creating designs defined by negative space. The colors and designs might reflect the clan or gender of the wearer.Powwow and other dance regalia from these tribes often feature ribbonwork. These tribes are also known for theirfingerwoven sashes.
Pueblo men weave with cotton on upright looms. Their mantas and sashes are typically made for ceremonial use for the community, not for outside collectors.
Navajo rugs are woven by Navajo women today fromNavajo-Churro sheep or commercial wool. Designs can be pictorial or abstract, based on traditional Navajo, Spanish, Oriental, or Persian designs. 20th-century Navajo weavers includeClara Sherman andHosteen Klah, who co-founded theWheelwright Museum of the American Indian.
In 1973, the Navajo Studies Department of theDiné College inMany Farms, Arizona, wanted to determine how long it took aNavajo weaver to create a rug or blanket fromsheep shearing to market. The study determined the total amount of time was 345 hours. Out of these 345 hours, the expert Navajo weaver needed: 45 hours to shear the sheep and process the wool; 24 hours tospin thewool; 60 hours to prepare thedye and to dye the wool; 215 hours toweave the piece; and only one hour to sell the item in their shop.[116]
Customary textiles of Northwest Coast peoples using non-Western materials and techniques are enjoying a dramatic revival.Chilkat weaving andRavenstail weaving are regarded as some of the most difficult weaving techniques in the world. A single Chilkat blanket can take an entire year to weave. In both techniques, dog, mountain goat, or sheep wool and shredded cedar bark are combined to create textiles featuring curvilinearformline designs.Tlingit weaverJennie Thlunaut (1982–1986) was instrumental in this revival.
Experimental 21st-century textile artists includeLorena Lemunguier Quezada, aMapuche weaver from Chile, and Martha Gradolf (Winnebago), whose work is overtly political in nature.[117] Valencia, Joseph and Ramona Sakiestewa (Hopi)[118] and Melissa Cody (Navajo) explore non-representational abstraction and use experimental materials in their weaving.
As in most cultures, Native peoples create some works that are to be used only in sacred, private ceremonies. Many sacred objects or items that contain medicine are to be seen or touched by certain individuals with specialized knowledge. ManyPueblo andHopikatsina figures (tihü inHopi andkokko inZuni) and katsinam regalia are not meant to be seen by individuals who have not received instruction about that particular katsina. Many institutions do not display these publicly out of respect for tribal taboos.[119]
Midewiwinbirch bark scrolls are deemed tooculturally sensitive for public display,[120] as aremedicine bundles, certain sacred pipes and pipe bags, and other tools ofmedicine people.[121]
Navajo sandpainting is a component for healing ceremonies, but sandpaintings can be made into permanent art that is acceptable to sell to non-Natives as long as Holy People are not portrayed.[122] Various tribes prohibit photography of many sacred ceremonies, as used to be the case in many Western cultures. As several early photographers broke local laws, photographs of sensitive ceremonies are in circulation, but tribes prefer that they not be displayed. The same can be said for photographs or sketches of medicine bundle contents.
TwoMohawk leaders sued a museum, trying to remove aFalse Face Society mask orGa:goh:sah from an exhibit because "it was a medicine object intended to be seen only by community members and that its public display would cause irreparable harm to the Mohawk."[123] The Grand Council of theHaudenosaunee has ruled that such masks are not for sale or public display,[14] nor are Corn Husk Society masks.[15]
Tribes and individuals within tribes do not always agree about what is or is not appropriate to display to the public. Many institutions do not exhibitGhost Dance regalia. At the request of tribal leaders, theBrooklyn Museum is among those that does not exhibit Plains warrior's shields or "artifacts imbued with a warrior's power".[124] Many tribes do not want grave goods or items associated with burials, such as funerary urns, in museums, and many would like associated grave goods reinterred. The process is often facilitated within the United States under theNative American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA).[125] In Canada, repatriation is negotiated between the tribes and museums or through Land Claims laws.[126] In international situations, institutions are not always legally required to repatriate indigenous cultural items to their place of origin; some museums do so voluntarily, as withYale University's decision to return 5,000 artifacts and human remains toCusco, Peru.[127]
Fraud has been a challenge facing Indigenous artists of the Americas for decades. In 1935, the United States passed the Indian Arts and Crafts Act which established theIndian Arts and Crafts Board and outlawed "willfully offer[ing] for sale any goods, with or without any Government trade mark, as Indian products or Indian products of a particular Indian tribe or group, resident within the United States or the Territory of Alaska, when such person knows such goods are not Indian products or are not Indian products of the particular Indian tribe or group."[128] In response to widespreadIndigenous identity fraud, New Mexico passed the Indian Arts and Crafts Sales Act in 1959, which has been amended many times including in 1978 and 2023.[129] Oklahoma passed its American IndianArts and Crafts Sales Act of 1974.[130] Native American activists fought to strengthen protections against fraud which resulted in the 1990Indian Arts and Crafts Act (IACA), which makes it "illegal to offer or display for sale, or sell, any art or craft product in a manner that falsely suggests it is Indian produced, an Indian product, or the product of a particular Indian or Indian tribe or Indian arts and crafts organization, resident within the United States."[131][132] The penalties for the violation of IACA can include fines up to $250,000 and/or sentences up to five years in prison.[131]
Some tribes face so much fraud that they have had to enact their own laws to address the problem. TheCherokee Nation passed its ownCherokee Nation Truth in Advertising for Native Art in 2008.[133] This law states that only citizens of the threefederally recognized Cherokee tribes can sell their artwork, books, or other creative works as being "Cherokee."[133]
Indigenous artists of Mexico and Guatemala have fought to protect their designs throughintellectual property laws.Maya textile artists have lobbied for Guatemala to amend the nation's copyright laws to protect their collective intellectual property.[134] Non-Native fashion designers havemisappropriated Indigenous designs and artwork.[134]
Indigenous American arts have had a long and complicated relationship with museum representation since the early 1900s. In 1931,The Exposition of Indian Tribal Arts was the first large scale show that held Indigenous art on display. Their portrayal in museums grew more common later in the 1900s as a reaction to the Civil Rights Movement. With the rising trend of representation in the political atmosphere, minority voices gained more representation in museums as well.[135]
Although Indigenous art was being displayed, the curatorial choices on how to display their work were not always made with the best of intentions. For instance, Native American art pieces and artifacts would often be shown alongside dinosaur bones, implying that they are a people of the past and non-existent or irrelevant in today's world.[136] Native American remains were on display in museums up until the 1960s.[137]
Though many did not yet view Native American art as a part of the mainstream as of the year 1992, there has since then been a great increase in volume and quality of both Native art and artists, as well as exhibitions and venues, and individual curators. Such leaders as the director of the National Museum of the American Indian insist that Native American representation be done from a first-hand perspective.[138] The establishment of such museums as theHeard Museum and theNational Museum of the American Indian, both of which trained spotlights specifically upon Native American arts, enabled a great number of Native artists to display and develop their work.[139] For five months starting in October 2017, three Native American works of art selected from the Charles and Valerie Diker Collection to be exhibited in the American Wing at theMetropolitan Museum of Art.[140]
Museum representation for Indigenous artists calls for great responsibility from curators and museum institutions. TheIndian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 prohibits non-Indigenous artists from exhibiting as Native American artists. Institutions and curators work discussing whom to represent, why are they being chosen, what Indigenous art looks like, and what its purpose is. Museums, as educational institutions, give light to cultures and narratives that would otherwise go unseen; they provide a necessary spotlight and who they choose to represent is pivotal to the history of the represented artists and culture.
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