The oldest examples of petroglyphs may date back several thousand years; others, which include such items of European origin as firearms and horses, must be more recent. We know from the early missionaries of southern California that petroglyphs existed in the late eighteenth century. According to F. F. Latta's report about Wukchumne Indians of southern California, the immediate vicinity of petroglyphs had a supernatural or sacred significance. These same Indians said that "the paintings were generally placed at an important village site., one that was permanently inhabited, or at some place where Indian ceremonies were performed." Though some California Indians were familiar with the rock paintings in their regions, they attached no importance to them and did not explain their meaning beyond recognizing designs for which they gave the Indian names. Some California rock painting is presumably the work of Yokuts Indians, who also painted breech clouts, bows, arrows, buckskins and even faces and bodies." Some petroglyphs may have been painted within the historic period, as Latta suggests, for the "amusement of the, painter" or the interest and speculation of white men. The Indians of our own day no longer understand their meaning.
Petroglyphs showing figures., animals and "magic" symbols were pecked with a hammer, or they were rubbed,, or painted with a brush in red, white, black, yellow and orange. Those of the West are found on vertical cliffs in California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and in many other areas. In California alone petroglyphs have been found at more than one hundred twenty- five sites. Large petroglyphs, eighty feet long and fifteen feet high, are found in canyons and caves in Texas and in Barrier Canyon in southern Utah, where large, square-shouldered figures are painted on the smooth, sandstone wall.
Some petroglyphs are believed to be records of dreams or visions in connection with puberty initiation ceremonies. One of the painted designs of Carriso Rock in the Santa Barbara area shows a planned design with major and minor motifs symmetrically related. This design may be a picture of an event, or it may illustrate a myth or a vision with a mythological content. A dedication, a blessing or a thanksgiving after a triumph may be indicated. Two figures (twins) stand with arms locked and raised (in prayer) with lines (incantations) rising from their heads (mouths). The fact that the two figures stand on what looks like a centipede suggests that this may be an illustration of the Navaho creation myth, according to which twin heroes slew the great centipedes that were destroying man. Paired figures, the twin brothers of light, occur in the Navaho creation myth and in Navaho sandpainting themes, like the Sky Father and the Earth Mother. The centipede motif also occurs elsewhere, as on a Chiricahua Apache painted leather poncho in the Museum of the American Indian, New York.
Human beings in petroglyphs
are highly schematic, and occasionally designs appear that suggest the
human figure combined with other motifs.
Pre-Columbian Pitcher, Chaco Canyon
Pre-Columbian Water Bottle, frog effigy with human head, Indiana
Pre-Columbian
Effigy Jar, Arkansas
Wooden masks were carved for use by members of the False-face society, who, when a member of the tribe was ill, staged ceremonies and dances to frighten away the evil spirits who sent the disease. The evil spirit responsible was believed to be a strange creature with staring eyes and long hair. The masks were carved with staring eyes, streaming horse tails for hair and a show of teeth. The masks or false-faces are portraits of mythical beings who, according to the Iroquois Indians, "only a little while ago inhabited the far rocky regions at the rim of the earth or wandered about the forests."
Masks cured ailments like swelling of the face, toothache, inflammation of the eye, nose bleeding, sore chin and earache. Certain symptoms, like red or black spots on the patient's face, were false-face symptoms. Red spots called for red face masks. Dancers with these masks must dance in the morning before sunrise whereas black spots called for black masks at night. We have here another instance of the way sympathetic magic functions in the lives of primitive people, and the close link between art and magic.
The modern Iroquois distinguish two main classes of masks: the leader, "the great fellow who lives on the rim of the earth . . . and his underlings . . . the common forest people, whose faces are against the trees." The face of the leader is "red in the morning as he comes from the coast, but black in the afternoon, as he looks back from the direction of the setting sun." The masks representing him are painted red or black and show a broken nose, as he was struck in the face by the mountain. The other class of mask, the "Common Faces," is less well defined and the masks are more varied.
Iroquois masks have deep-set eyes, which are emphasized by bright metal sconces; the noses are usually bent; the arched brows are wrinkled and may be divided above the nose by a crease or comb of spines. The mouth is the most variable part of the face. It may be turned up in a smile or grimace or it may be oval-shaped for blowing hot ashes, a part of the cure, and the tongue may be extended. The mouth may be puckered as if whistling or it may be shaped like a spoon; it may even be straight.
Twelve different mask types have been identified: crooked-mouth; straight; spoon-mouthed; hanging mouth; tongue protruding; smiling; whistling; divided half red, half black; long nose; horned; animal and blind masks. All these were carved from living bass wood trees. Some represent young, some old men with white hair and wrinkled faces. Dreams, visions and the imagination of the carver could be held responsible for the styles.
There are other societies that employ masks, for example the Society of Husk Faces or Bushy Heads. Their masks look like braided door mats on which the pile is cut off on the inside for the face, leaving a bushy fringe around the outside. Holes are cut for eyes and mouth. Husk Faces are said to be a race of agriculturalists who taught mankind hunting and agriculture. They visit the Seneca long house during two nights of the Midwinter Festival.
Eagle Mask, Cedar Wood, Haida
Face Mask, Cedar Wood, Haida
Whalebone Face, Alaskan Eskimo
Miniature Bone Mask, Alaskan Eskimo
Bird Mask, Alaskan Eskimo
Scalp Mask, False Face Society, Seneca
Doctor Mask, False Face Society, Seneca
Corn
Husk Mask, Seneca
During the period of buffalo hunting hides were plentiful. After the skins had been cleaned they were put to a variety of uses, among which were the covering of tepees, shields, rectangular folded containers or pouches, called parfleches, and robes for wear. They were decorated by incised designs or by painting. The painted hides fall into two groups: a geometric style painted by women and a representational style painted by men. There was rarely a mingling of the two styles.
The robes of the geometric style frequently have borders, which more or less follow the irregular contours of the hide. A single large design motif, usually consisting of a number of smaller units, may be placed practically in the middle of this field. Even the border and box pattern achieves a delicacy in the way the rectangle is divided into small units; through the contrast of colors and an excellent technique, the painted hides are attractive. The feathered circle shows lines radiating like rays in several concentric circles from the center. Here, too, the use of many rays, each emanating from its own circle, adds complexity to the pattern. Feathered circle patterns on robes are believed to indicate that men wore the robes; women wore border and box pattern robes. Personal preference does not seem to have entered into the choice of pattern. An approximation of the shape of the buffalo is suggested in the hourglass pattern.
A tribal distribution of patterns has not been conclusively demonstrated. It appears that the feathered circle and border and rectangle type of designs were preferred by the Sioux (Dakota) Indians, but these types of patterns were also used by other tribes. All Comanche robes studied by Ewers showed the hourglass pattern type, though the same type also occurred in robes attributed to other tribes. Both of these types were largely limited to the central Plains tribes.
Red, yellow and blue are the colors most favored. An outstanding preference for red suggests that the exciting quality of red may have been a deciding factor, assuming that the other pigments were equally available. No symbolic meaning of colors has been suggested.
Painted hides representing human beings or animals have been classified as time-counts, which are records of events taking the place of calendars, records of personal achievement or imaginative records of visions. The events depicted on the buffalo robe were visible proofs of the bravery of the chief who wore it, a means of reminding his fellows of his prowess in war.
Not all pictures of battles are based on authentic events, but whether the events represented are based on reality or imagination does not affect their value as works of art, nor does the fact that many were painted for sale rather than use as early as 1877. The painted skins in the realistic style do not represent the environment in the sense of being pictorial. The human figure and the horse appear, vividly painted without indication of background or any suggestion of space. Battle scenes and horse-stealings are common; animals other than the horse are rare; the buffalo hardly appears at all and the dog never.
The technique is one of outline and flat tone filled in with solid colors, different from one figure to another. Red is the color most frequently used, followed by yellow and blue.
The realistic style adheres to tribal patterns. Different tribes draw men and horses in more or less standardized fashions which vary from the schematic types of the Cree and Mandan to the realistic, technically superior types of the Sioux and Cheyenne. All but the Sioux drawings neglect feet and leave out hands.
A painted robe was looked upon as a practical device to advance personal prestige. A painted hide was worth only two unpainted hides at a time when hides were common. Yet this does not prove that Indians were lacking in discrimination of artistic excellence but rather that robes were not collected as art objects.
At the close of the buffalo era, after hides were no longer available, paintings on paper and cloth were executed by Plains Indians. This style departed from tribal tradition by representing in lively fashion battles and personal episodes reminiscent of inter-tribal exploits. An expression in painting of the individual made itself felt. Many of these early works have not been preserved as they were not yet recognized as art. Others were collected by members of the United States armed forces on duty in the western states. Some of this material is now in museums and private collections. So far nothing is known between this early period and the contemporary revival in water color painting.
Buffalo Robe, Comanche
Parfleche Box, Ponca
Parfleche Headdress, Kiowa
Buckskin
Shirt, Tsimshian
Navaho silver making goes back about a century and a half and was learned from the Mexicans. For years the Navaho made massive and heavy silver jewelry for their own use, or for neighboring tribes, but around 1800, with the increase in travel, lighter silver was produced for the tourist trade. Much modern jewelry, hastily made and inferior, is turned out by assembly line methods, but there are Indians on reservations and in government schools who make silver according to the old traditions.
The early jewelry was made from coins melted down and hammered or cast in stone molds. About 1800, when the government prohibited the defacing of coins, the smiths turned to Mexican pesos, which contained fewer alloys and were more easily worked. Today the silver, supplied by the traders, comes in one-ounce slugs, alloyed with copper or brass. The contemporary craftsman largely uses modern tools that have made greater technical perfection possible. Typical of the articles made are conchas, bracelets, rings, earrings, buckles, necklaces, bow-guards, buttons, pins, tobacco canteens and bridles. Conchas are round or oval plaques strung on a strap to be worn as a belt. They derive from Plains Indians and may originally have come through eastern tribes from white colonial silversmiths. Earlier conchas have slots in the middle through which the strap was passed. When the Navaho learned to solder a loop to the back they made the plaque solid, but placed a design where the slot had been.
Up to about 1885, when die-stamped designs appeared, silver was decorated with the awl. Mexican silversmiths did not use dies, and their use must have been learned from Mexican leather workers, as the designs are often similar. By 1895 the use of the die was common, and silver designs had become more elaborate. The stamp designs fall into four basic types: crescent, the most common, triangle, circle with radiating lines and long narrow designs with parallel edges. All have many variations, but they are without symbolic meaning.
To the Navaho, silver is valued as decoration, as a means of displaying wealth and as collateral for loans from the trader. Navaho trading posts have racks where pawned silver is stored until the Indians redeem it, which they rarely fail to do. In the spring, when their wool is sold, and in the fall, when their lambs go to market, they settle their accounts and the pawn racks are comparatively empty. During the winter the racks gradually fill again.
Of the Pueblo Indians the Zuni make by far the most silver, and until about 1920, almost exclusively for their own use. The Zuni learned silver making from the Navaho, and in turn taught the Navaho the use of turquoise. The Zuni have carved turquoise for hundreds of years, but the stones, which are mined in Colorado and Nevada, have only been common since 1920. Zuni silver is as fine as Navaho but with its delicate set work takes longer to make and is therefore not so widely imitated. It differs from Navaho chiefly in the preference for turquoise sets rather than die work. "If a Zuni has no turquoise to put in his silver he will not make the silver until he has the stones. A Navaho who has no turquoise, or only one or two pieces, will make the silver and decorate it with his dies ... The Navaho is just as proud of his collection of dies as he is of his silver; to the Zuni the die is just another tool." Silver made by the Navaho for their own use is characteristically more massive than that of the Zuni.
Navaho silver jewelry shows a fine appreciation for the beauty of the material. However, the surfaces may be enriched by incised patterns, kept simple to form borders or central rosettes. These textured surfaces contrast pleasantly with the plain silver as in the smooth ovals of the concha belts and the flat bands of the bracelets. Cast and wrought silver with embossed designs use essentially the same kinds of motifs: dots, scallops, and zigzags. Wide flat bands are treated decoratively to emphasize surface in bracelets. In a narrow type of bracelet the lack of width is compensated for by a more varied emphasis of the cross-section, which is often triangular.
In Zuni bracelets the silver may serve as a foundation for turquoise, forming circles or rosettes. Here the attraction is in color and each small stone is separately set in a tiny box, all closely grouped for a mass effect that is still delicate. In wrought work, as in any kind of craftwork, the details show minor variations; the human hand does not handle the tool mechanically after a standardized pattern. That in itself is one of the attractions of the work made by hand, be it wood, clay or silver.
Contemporary
Silver Bracelet by Don Yeomans, Haida Tribe
Beadwork is another material which, while starting before European contact, is substantially changed with the introduction of European beads. Porcupine quillwork is a thoroughly American craft, unknown in other parts of the world with the possible exception of Siberia. It precedes and was supplanted by beadwork. Some pieces of quillwork are of some antiquity, although most examples are more recent.
Quillwork and beadwork, like the preparation of the skins and the making of clothing, was women's work. These painstaking decorations were applied to articles of men's and women's clothing, footwear, horse trappings, bags and pouches, cradles and ceremonial objects. In some tribes they were applied to birch bark as well as to leather.
Dampened, the quills could be bent to any shape and would hold that position when dry. To decorate a slender article, like a pipestem, the quills were wound around it. In embroidery, the quills were folded and plaited over threads of sinew, which were stitched to the leather. The stitches passed only part way through the leather and did not show on the underside. Some quills were used in natural color, others were dyed with vegetable, and later with commercial, dyes. The designs were geometric stripes, bars, squares, oblongs, triangles or circles. Floral designs, where they occur, were probably influenced by white men's designs.
Quillwork placed a restraint on freedom in designs and favored straight lines although plant and animal shapes of simplified contours were not entirely excluded. The Indians must have welcomed colored beads, which needed no preparation and provided greater opportunities for decoration. The flexibility of beadwork allowed curves to be made as easily as straight lines. Beadwork began with the introduction of European beads. Indians had long made necklaces of animal teeth, bone, seeds and many other materials and the first European beads, being large, were used in the same way. It was the tiny Venetian bead known as "seed bead," which appeared about 1800 in the East and 1850 in the West, which made possible the accomplished beadwork of the Indian craftswomen. The seed beads have continued popular to the present time, but the best period of beadwork was the last quarter of the nineteenth century.
The technique of beadwork is somewhat similar to that of quillwork and was generally applied to nearly everything made of skins. The more elaborately embroidered suits or dresses, representing the work of months, were not for everyday wear but for ceremonials or special occasions. Beaded articles were saved for burial garments; they also served as a medium of exchange or as gifts to be given away on great occasions.
Methods of construction were according to tribal traditions, but designs were shared and motifs borrowed, one tribe from another. Geometric designs are impersonal, and no rigid separation into tribal styles is easy to demonstrate. Early design motifs are simple and geometric, blocks and crosses. Among the Blackfeet, floral patterns, probably inspired by white man's designs, became as popular as geometric. A double curve, as has been suggested, may have been derived from cast iron stoves. Floral designs still are popular with the Blackfeet for their own use. Among the western Sioux a sudden change in design motifs took place about 1870 when thin lines, terraces and forks appeared.
An emphasis on craftsmanship did not exclude an aesthetic element. Even with a limited number of designs there was a choice in colors as well as in the use of line and mass and in the contrast of dark and light. The white and blue of the backgrounds made an attractive contrast against the buff color of the skin. The Indians had definite color preferences. The traders could not sell them beads in any color, but only those which were preferred. In spite of tribal patterns, there is a remarkable variation of designs in such objects as moccasins. The earlier designs are apt to be in better taste; the more garish color combinations appeared after sale to the white man had become a factor.
The total effect of a piece of Indian beadwork is one in which artistry and practicalities are happily united. The appeal is one of contrasting textures, shiny beads against mat skin, and complementary colors, light blue against soft tans, enhanced by dark areas held together against a light ground, or light areas on a darker ground. These pieces are well made of durable materials.
Beadwork is still practiced in some tribes, and is encouraged in some Indian schools. Since textiles have replaced leather and skins, a change in technique has taken place; linen or cotton thread is used in place of sinew and the sewing thread is passed all the way through the cloth so that the stitches appear on the under side.
Quilled birchbark box, Canadian Woodlands
Beaded "Fire Bag," Tlingit, Alaska
Beaded
Shoulder Bag, Plains Indian
Art Nouveau which flourished in the Low Countries and France, especially Paris, at the end of the 19th Century gave way to a similar but simpler style. Compare the figurine, Marguerite, by Gregory Waylaude and the Mercedes Advertisement of 1925. The closeness of form to Alan Hausser and Bert Seabourn are unmistakable, but in this case the two ideas are concurrent in development.
A more self conscience similarity can be seen in the Parfleche Case, Ponca, of 18th Century, a Rug by Eliel Saarinen, 1928, a Beaded Deerskin of the Oglala Dakota, late 19th Century, and the RCABuilding, NYC, 1930.
Other works work comparing are an Apache Headdress, 1900, a Marcus and Company Broach, 1922, a painting by Tony Abeyta, Navajo, contemporary, Speed of Transportation Mural, Los Angeles by Herman Sachs, 1929, a North West Coast Sculpture, and a Noritake Vase, Masquerade, 1920s. Or a Plains Indian Dance Shirt, a 1934 Advertisement, the Daily Express Building, Fleet Street in London, 1931, the Paramount Theatre, Aurora, Illinois, 1931, Rapp and Rapp and a Mills Industry Juke Box, 1939.
