Native American Art History & Types | The Art of Native Americans – Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

Types of Native American Artwork

Native American art always reflected place because their communities grew out of their relationship to their environment. They used materials that were ubiquitous in their natural environment to create designs that held memories of the people, their experiences, and their culture. Artwork was a collective rather than an individual expression.

Symbolic language was used in many forms of artwork including:

• Petroglyphs or rock painting
• Hide paintings
• Quillwork
• Beadwork
• Sand painting
• Pottery
• Basketry
• Weaving
• Flutes
• Pipes
• Totems

The most valued native artwork was created to venerate a deity, averted evil spirits, or honored births and deaths. Through these and other forms of artwork, natives aimed to control their environment, memorialize, and communicate.

Native American Rock Carvings and Drawings

Native American paintings and cave drawings, which used graphic symbols as words or phrases, date back to before 3000 BCE. Natural pigments were used to paint symbols on rock surfaces. The pigments were sourced from iron oxides, white or yellow clays, soft rock, and charcoal or copper minerals.

Petroglyphs, which were carved or scraped into cave surfaces, used similar symbols or picture writing as words. They had significant spiritual meanings that were individual to the artist or varied from one tribe or clan to another, making interpretation challenging. These images on caves were not merely rock art or a depiction of the natural world, nor were they graffiti. They were profoundly meaningful cultural symbols. Therefore, they may have been used as a form of communication. In the United States, petroglyphs are predominantly found in the southwest.

Many Native American drawings were done on buffalo hide. The purpose was to honor their gods with elaborate designs. Plains Native Americans are known for commemorating special events, family history, battles, and vision quests on buffalo hide.

Hides were used for decoration and as household items, including tipi coverings, clothing, and bedding. When used for clothing, the fur was worn against the skin so that the image could be displayed. Scenes depicted on hides included men on horseback hunting buffalo or skinning and butchering buffalo.

Native American Paintings and Embroidery

Sand painting, also known as dry painting, was used in healing ceremonies and was the retelling of healers’ memories. In Navajo sand paintings, sacred entities transformed the emotional and physical state. During ceremonies, the sand painting invoked the help of gods for harvests and healing. The objects in the paintings included sacred mountains inhabited by the gods or legendary visions. The paintings also illustrated dances or chants performed during rituals. During ceremonies, a painting was selected for its ability to heal a specific sickness, and the patient sat on the painting. After the ceremony, the remains of the painting were returned to the earth. Due to changing lifestyles, paintings were kept and sold as art to glue to boards. Pueblo culture was associated with sand painting, however, the Navajo developed complicated patterns using ground mineral pigments.

Historic beadwork and quillwork were major art forms from the Great Lakes, Northeast, and Subarctic regions. Quillwork is the oldest type of embroidery. Porcupine quills were stitched into many clothing items. It was a sacred art form unique to Native Americans, particularly in the Great Plains and the upper Midwest. It was used mainly for clothing, as decoration for shirts, moccasins, and jewelry. The abundance of porcupines in these regions gave rise to this form of art. Mineral or vegetable dyes were used for detailed and time-consuming items that were made only by women. Geometric patterns were used for costumes such as breastplates for dancing. More recently floral designs, people, or animals are portrayed on items used for social, ceremonial, and everyday use.

Beadwork was integrated into Native American artwork once lifestyles started to change. A loom or applique embroidery was used to craft beadwork; the art of crafting beadwork was considered sacred, like a prayer. Any bead, even the smallest one, had to be recovered if it fell on the floor. The designs were worn in powwow circles, and they represented tribes, histories, and ancestors.

Designs by Native Americans

The oldest documented Native American pottery is 4500 years old. Farming tribes such as the Zuni, Hopi, and Anasazi used pottery for cooking, storage, and carrying water. They covered cooking baskets with mud, however, over time, heated clay was found to be durable without a basket.

The pottery-making process included soaking, cleaning, and drying the clay, building the pottery with coils, and pit firing the pottery. Coiling was the most popular method for making pots; long coils were rolled out and used to shape the pot. Wedging was used to remove air bubbles by beating the piece the clay on a hard surface. Coiling was effective for larger pots and vessels, especially for deep bowls used over open fires. Native potters mixed clay with other materials like sand, plant fibers, or shells. Horsehair was used to make markings in pottery. The images on the pottery included snakes, feathers, and geometric shapes. Color was added to pottery more recently

Jeraldine Redcorn (Caddo) is a well-known Native American artist. A piece of her pottery is displayed in the White House Oval Office. She has revived interest in native American ceramic art, using bone and metal tools, and coiling and hand-firing clay.

Traditionally, baskets were used for gathering, processing, and cooking, as well as storage. Baskets decorated with beads, wool and shell pendants, and feathers were used in rituals such as ceremonial rites of passage, and weddings. Plant materials were coiled, twined, or plaited to weave baskets; traditionally, an awl and knife were used for weaving. The plants included willow, sedge, conifer root, grasses, and redbud. Other weaving activities included items made from wool primarily for clothing, but with commercialization, wool was produced to make blankets for trade.

Native American Pottery Collection at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art

Instruments of Tradition

Native Americans traditionally made a variety of totem poles including genealogy poles, shame poles, and memorial poles. The totem pole comprised animal effigies that represented the spirit that stayed with a person for a lifetime. Up to nine spirit animals could be used on an individual’s totem pole, and each animal represented the natural traits or qualities an individual shared with the animal. Totem poles had religious and political significance for Native Americans. For Pacific Northwest tribes, they commemorated ancestry, histories, people, or events. They were typically made from red cedar which was abundant in the region, and they were built for visibility in the community. Images on totem poles included crest animals, and supernatural forms representing family lineage and privilege. The totem pole served as a record of family or clan members, or to honor a person or event. The totem pole depicted the wolf, eagle, grizzly bear, or killer whale, depending on the crest or symbolic representation of the family.

Totem poles were 3 to 18 meters but some were over 20 meters high depending on the ritual or other purpose. Mortuary poles were used for tombstones and had the remains of the deceased. Memorial poles honored the deceased. “Shame poles” were erected to chastise neighboring groups with unpaid debts. More recently, they have been used to protest colonization and loss of land, as well as other grievances. Most poles were carved from rot-resistant cedar and lasted about a hundred years. Preferred trees were straight-grained and easy to carve. Prior to felling a cedar, a ceremony of gratitude and respect was held. Trees were chosen for their beauty and character.

Tools such as carving knives, adzes, axes, chisels, and chainsaws were used to create the swirling, oval shapes in the artwork. The grain and color of the wood was important for depicting life and movement in the artwork. Natural pigments from ground charcoal and ochre were used. Holy pipes were also made by native Americans; these were known as Peace Pipes or Calumet. Early barrow pipes were made from stalactites with a hole drilled through them. Plains Indians used rich red stone. The colors and symbols used in the decoration depicted elements of the spiritual world. Sacred pipes were used for communicating with sacred beings. During religious ceremonies, the Peace Pipe offered prayers to the four directions. Smoke dances were performed during rituals for communication with the creator.

The origin of the native flute is unclear, however, it is a recent development possibly inspired by the church organ. The Plains style flute originated by the Ute tribe was made of wood and may be a variation of a flute found among the southwest Indian tribes. Some flutes were crafted from a river reed. The Hopi used the flute for ceremonial and healing purposes, and other tribes most likely used it for the same purpose.

Pipe with Bird Forms at Peabody Museum Harvard University

Lesson Summary

Native American art history dates back around 13,000 years. Native American paintings and Native American drawings date prior to 3000 BCE. It is challenging to trace the origins of Native American designs due to disruptive historical forces such as colonialism. Indigenous art was originally created by artists but prescribed rituals became integral over time. Traditional Native American art reflects place because of the connection between communities and their environment.

Petroglyphs, known as rock carvings, are among the oldest and were likely used as a means of communication. Totem poles are a well-known native art form, widely recognized; they include genealogy poles, memorial poles, and shame poles but not calendar poles. Southwestern Native Americans originally made their baskets out of grasses and twigs, but then they incorporated metal from the Europeans. Native American pottery is typically hand-built and has a coil base; wheel throwing, however, is not a hand-built method. Native American artwork includes hide painting, quillwork, sand painting, flutes, pipes, totem poles, pottery, and basketry.