Information on Native American Art
Native Americans have contributed various art forms to American society. Functional wares, spiritual tokens, ceremonial gifts, and paintings that represent important period history are just some of the pieces in the art history of the United States. Native American art celebrating tribal history and cultural beliefs can be found in museums, private collections and personal use.
Hopi Kachina Dolls
Kachinas are carved dolls decorated with designs covering the body and face, with clothing, color and style for the season and symbols of the ceremony for which it was created. The Hopi of northeast Arizona believe each doll is the representation of the Kachina spirit or "katsinum." This spirit can be represented in numerous forms, including small insects, large mammals, elements such as fire or water or even ancestors and figures from other tribes. Kachina dolls are given to every female member of the village as a reminder to respect spirit, nature and the Hopi way of life.
Ojibwe Dreamcatchers
Dreamcatchers were originally introduced by the Ojibwe, the largest Native American group north of Mexico and the third-largest tribe in the United States behind the Navajo and Cherokee Indians. Dreamcatchers are woven webs contained within a willow hoop. Strings extend from the bottom of the hoop usually holding feathers and other sacred items of a personal nature added by the artist. Designed to protect children from evil spirits while they sleep, catchers trap evil spirits in the web before they could slip into dreams. Good spirits were considered lighter and could pass through the web unhindered. Dreamcatchers are often created by grandparents and hung over the bed of children in the tribe.
Navajo Pottery
The Navajo is one of the largest tribes in the United States. Primarily located in Arizona, the Navajo nation extends into parts of Utah, Colorado and New Mexico. The local soil in those areas are rich in clay deposits which the Navajos use to create pottery for home use and ceremonial purposes. The Navajos use three primary methods to create their handbuilt pottery. The pinching technique includes using the forefinger and thumb to press, pinch and shape the clay into a desired shape. The coiling technique involves rolling clay into long snake-like coils, then layering the coils on top of each other to form taller shapes like pipes. The slab technique, used for box shapes, involves rolling the clay flat then pressing the clay onto an existing form. Handbuilt Navajo work is individual to each artist, usually featuring highly polished, simple but functional pieces.
Cherokee Baskets
Cherokee Indians inhabited the Appalachian Mountains, and continue to live in parts of Oklahoma, the Carolinas, Tennessee and Georgia. Their baskets were the primary source of storage before the introduction of plastic, glass and ceramics. There are several varieties of basket styles including double walled baskets for heavy use, flat-weave styles that serve as containers and purse styles which remain popular today. Baskets are woven using cane, white oak, hickory bark and honeysuckle. Black walnut, blood root and elderberries are used as dye to color the baskets depending on root and plant availability. The colors, patterns and technique are often exclusive to the artist and today most baskets are still made by the women of the tribe, moving from function to highly admired art.
Kiowa Ledger Art
The Kiowa tribe, currently found in Oklahoma, has a long art history in the expression and representation of life on the plains. Ledger Art, a form of plains Indian artistry reflecting the historic forced migration to government reservations in the late 1800s is captured in painted works on paper, muslin, canvas and sometimes even buffalo hides. Traditional work was created with stick brushes and paints but evolved to colored pencils and water color. In the 1920s the "Kiowa Five," an internationally known group of tribesman, developed a cultural style of expressing plains life and the native landscape that is still emulated today.
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