"Since the Indians had no writing, history begins for each tribe with its discovery by white men. Some tribes were discovered in the early sixteenth century, others not until Lewis and Clark opened the Northwest in the early nineteenth century, so that the length of the recorded history varies between one tribe and another according to the region."
"The followings areas made important contributions to art during the prehistoric period: the Southwest, with its painted pottery and murals; and the eastern woodlands, particularly in the south, with stone and ceramic sculpture, copper ornaments and wood carvings. The widely distributed petroglyphs cannot be assigned to definite periods, though many of them certainly go back to a time before the coming of the white man. Practically everything else in Indian art belongs to the historic period, and on the basis of the tree-ring calendar it has been possible to assign approximate dates to prehistoric Pueblo cultures and their crafts."
"The archaeology of the Southwest is complex and of interest chiefly to specialists. For pottery, several stems have been traced back to the early centuries of the Christian era. Three prehistoric cultures may be mentioned; the Anasazi, the Mogollon-Mimbres, and the Hohokam. Modern pottery styles, with which we are here primarily concerned, grew out of one or another of half a dozen different roots comprising, perhaps, some fifty different prehistoric styles. Of these we shall discuss examples of only two; Casa Grandes and Mimbres. Though pottery takes on a special historical significance, a good deal more is known of the prehistoric Indian culture of the Southwest."
"Ancestors of today's Pueblo Indians, the Basket Makers, lived in the Southwest, it is thought, between A. D. 300 and 700. They raised corn, squash and beans, developed basketry, began work in pottery and started to build permanent homes."
"Probably between A. D. 700 and 1100, newcomers fused with the Basket Makers to form a new group called the Anasazi, or ancient people. They developed the primitive pit house into larger clusters of rectangular rooms, of which the great D-shaped apartment house at Pueblo Bonito is an example. Cotton was grown, pottery was developed and probably there was some loom weaving. Basketry was less important. Among the pottery styles of the Southwest of this period are those of the Mimbres culture, the finest of all Southwest prehistoric pottery, and the Sikyatki style developed by the Hopi and revived by them in our own period."
"The period between 1100 and 1300 brought architecture, pottery, cotton weaving, work in skin and stone to their greatest development. Approximately between 1276 and 1298 it is believed that a drought of twenty-two years contributed to the abandonment of the Pueblo dwellings for new places near streams and springs. The new settlements were close to those occupied today."
"Between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, under the rule of the Spanish, some of the Indian crafts, like pottery, declined in favor of purely utilitarian wares. However, sheep were introduced by the Spaniards, as well as wool carding, dyes, knitting, embroidery and better house building."
"With the establishment of Mexican independence from Spain (1821) horses and burros formerly used by the Spaniards were acquired, and the Pueblos and the Navaho learned silverwork. The Southwest became a part of the United States in 1848 and 1853, and a new period of art can be dated from about 1880. Pottery revived, partly under the influence of American archaeologists, and weaving declined through competition with commercial textiles introduced from the East. Federal legislation of 1929 and 1932 gave the Pueblos new land, encouraged the revival of crafts and helped to make the Indians self-supporting. Weaving and silverwork were revived, and crafts were taught in government schools."
"The prehistoric development of the eastern part of the United States is only beginning to receive approximate dates. Of the several archaeological areas, the Hopewell culture centering in southern Ohio has been approximately dated from 500 B. C. to A. D. 500 though archaeologists tend to vary on such dates. The question of dating in the whole sculpture area, like the regions of New England, New York and Ontario, the lower Mississippi Valley and the Southeast has still not evolved sufficient definition in all regions for a general historical background comparable to what is known of the southwest."
"As Indians did not move into the Great Plains in large numbers until after they had acquired the horse from the Spaniards, Plains Indian art was probably not produced to any great extent until after the middle of the seventeenth century. It is known that beadwork did not develop until after 1800."
"One historical factor of importance, the early European occupation of North America, has tended to preserve some remnants of these handicrafts because white men collected them as curios. Also, a scientific interest in the artifacts of another culture, dating back to the early days of the republic, resulted in the collection of Indian articles by museums and historical societies."
Consider Indian dwellings as an example. If we compare a village of wigwams as painted by George Catlin with an English-built wigwam of 1630 at Salem, MS, originally built in 1630, we see that the English could temporarily use native forms but these forms never become a part of the fabric of European-based builders. If fact, Bruce Goff's Hopewell Baptist Church at Edmond, OK, in the manner of a teepee strikes us as curious.
However, the San Xavier del Bac mission church at Tucson, AZ, of 1783, which is built by Native Americans looks typically Spanish. See the Hostal de San Marcos in Spain. The materials available and climate of Spain is surprisingly alike. Even the very rich interior reflects both Indian and Spanish taste.
The introduction of materials alone will often result in little formal variation. Consider the squash blossom necklace. Despite the fact that silverwork is totally of Spanish origin, the result is unmistakably Indian.
In other works, such as the Church at Taos, NM, the closeness of feeling the pueblo tradition is such that the Spanish influence is readily forgotten. Note the similarity to the Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde (general view, closeup of towers, and kiva). The pueblo at Acoma, while much later than the Mesa Verde buildings is of the same style. That these are made of the same materials [here you see adobe bricks drying in the sun], used in the same way, in the same climate and used for similar purposes accounts for the closeness of form.
The
Church
of the Twelve Apostles as Las Trampas, the mission church of
San
Esteban Rey at Acoma and Governors
Palace at Sante Fe give further examples of this point.
"Native Americans of all cultures shared certain ceremonial occasions. Out of a deep respect for their natural environment and because they knew that all supplies are ultimately limited these people prayed for replenishment; appeasing the gods was always done before harvest and hunts. They also had important ceremonies associated with both birth and death."
"Naturally, such cultures so rich in mythology, ritual an spirituality spawn art which reflects these aspects. However Native American art not only reflects the myths, it incorporates it in the form of ceremonial masks representing supernatural personalities, idols of revered gods, tools of magic and other creations full of symbology of the culture. Native American not only mirrors these cultures, it is an integral component of them."
"Art is so much a part of Native American cultures because great deal of it is functional: decorated utilitarian objects cooking vessels, tools, weapons and costumes. Designs used on ritual objects and costumes were thought to produce the magic or religious quality that distinguished these sacred objects from secular ones."
"Some cultures also had a full-time artist who produced art objects for wealthy patrons, shamans and chiefs, which were admired as fine examples of technique and form, independent of function. After contact with Europeans, however, some artistic expression slanted toward trade with whites, leading to the creation of many objects which had little function in native cultures."
Writing in 1900, La Flesche observed that white people in the United States of the late nineteenth century spoke of the area west of the Mississippi as a 'wilderness,' as though it were an empty track without human interest or history.
La Flesche noted that Native American tribal rites, which for generations running back beyond the historic period, were to the native people their law and their religion.
Even in the early twentieth century, he noted, these traditions were rapidly dying, as were the few old men to whom these rites had been transmitted with reverent care. La Flesche saw that, under the conditions and because of the ideas introduced among the people by the whites, these rites would soon fade from the memory of future generations and be lost beyond recovery. It was because of these changes that La Flesche gave his ardent attention to the ceremonial life of the people.
Most memorable was La Flesche's study of the Osage tribe and the rite called Ga-hi-ge O-kon, or the Rite of the Chiefs. Shamans also handed down stories of the tribe's experiences, but in cryptic form, the clear meanings of which were revealed only to the studious members of the tribe. These men were well aware of the historic facts of the tribal life of the people, as well as their tribal institutions, and that rites and traditions developed gradually.
La Flesche saw this gradual development as a process continually stimulated not only by a tribe's desire for the preservation of tribal existence, but by actual hard experiences which taxed both the physical and mental powers of the people and their leaders. Rites also recalled a time when the life of the people as a tribe was in a chaotic state, and chronicled their emergence therefrom to their achievement of a tribal government well suited to safeguard the people, as an organized body, from internal and external perils.
Among the Osage, as among other tribes, there were rituals and traditions about what La Flesche termed the 'Sayings of Ancient Men.' In these, the tribe recorded the thoughts that occupied the minds of the shamans and storytellers when they were formulating principles, which were regarded by ancient men as fundamental to the tribal organization. These principles guided the people in tribal existence.
Every rite to which native people clung from the earliest times of their tribal existence was regarded by them as religious and supplicatory in character.
Those relating to war, to peace and to life were held with equal veneration. The thoughts embodied in the symbolic tribal organization and in the formulated rites were gathered by the shamans from the open book of nature, not in a single season, nor even in a single lifetime, but through years of dawn, when they saw the reddened sky signaling the approach of the Sun, men, women and children stood in the doors of their houses and uttered their prayer for divine help. As the Sun reached mid-heaven, they repeated their prayer, and their supplications again arose as the Sun touched the western horizon.
The thoughts of ancient shamans, the continual theme of which was life, were given expression not only in formulated rites, but also in symbols and artwork, which were often more expressive than words. The tribal organization, for instance, symbolically expresses the idea conceived by men who saw that the part of the universe visible to them was a great unit, and that life issues from the combined force and influence of the various bodies that compose the unit.
This expression was emphasized in the recited parts of many rituals of the tribal rites, which told of the descent of the people from the sky to take possession of the Earth and make it their abode. In their rituals, the Native Americans often went so far as to personify the various aspects of the natural world, as did the Egyptians, Hindus and the people of the Greco-Roman culture.
As La Flesche noted, the ancient shamans and artists had arrived at the conception that all life issues, which take on manifold forms, result from the combined influence of two great physical forces-namely, the Sky, including all the heavenly bodies, and the Earth, including the waters distributed over it, and represented this duality in tribal organization. The duality was also reflected in all tribal rites, those which pertained to war and those which related to peace and civil government.
While this sentiment, that the rituals of the people should not disappear, is a noble one, it does come into conflict with two major forces. One such force is the mainstream of society that both likes to see the continuation of the rites and myths and has little more than contempt for those who engage in them. Another, and a potentially more problematical one is the person drive to creative action. How can one continue a tradition while at the same time be original. This is not a new problem. It is a group phenomenon of the problem of the child's rejection of parents while at the same time becoming the parents. We are always our past and our hope for a future and these two forces are often in conflict. We cannot change (be creative) while remaining the same (adhering to our ethnic origins).
Following is a series of images of two directions. First we see a number of tribal objects made around the turn of the century. These would have relatively little influence from European-based forms. First is a Crow Buffalo Shield. Next, a Ponca Dance Shield. Both of these were made to be used in dancing rather than as utilitarian objects. The Missouri Dance Bustleand Kiowa Peyote Fan were also ceremonial. The beadwork on the fan was of imported beads, although the pattern of their application and the use of the fan were totally tribal. The Zuni Mask was purely tribal.
The artists individualized all the next works. In varying degrees we find a variance from tribal traditions. Do not assume, however, that this necessary superficially reflect the artists desire to deny a tribal heritage. The Juane Smith (Cree/Shoshone) Number 35 from the Porcupine Ridge Series of 1976 at first might seem other than Indian in origin. The sculpture Daydreaming by Craig Dan Guseton is more obviously Indian but only because such images have become familiar to us. The title of Bruce La Fountain's (Chippawa) Eagle Keeper gives us a clue and that combined with the character of the form makes clear the Indian origins of the whole. The same is true of his Echoes Thru Black Canyon. Anita Field's (Osage/Creek) sculpture of 1991 called Wapita has a strong Indian flavor although the details have no strong precedent in Native American art. Winter Shaman by Rueben Kent (Kickapoo/Iowa/Oto) of 1990 looks more Hopi than Kickapoo. David Dubois in his Cry the Color gives a formalist title to what appears to be a traditional ceremonial shield. We find a delightful affirmation of heritage in the painting Mungo Martin did on his house in Park Victoria in 1920. This combines several idea but probably was done more directly than we might expect of a contemporary artist.
