American flag protest piece

This piece is painted on animal hide.  It conveys the sentiment that Native American people feel towards the U.S. government.  The two Native American men are portrayed behind a barbed wire fence.  This piece is meant to remind people of how the U.S. government fulfilled it's 'manifest destiny' by removing and/or killing a people off to take their land.  This is a really interesting piece to think about and how the history they teach in schools differs from what really took place.

Plains and Plateau Living Painting

This painting is a very realistic perspective of Plains and Plateau living among a village.  Each horse has a painted marking on it to show ownership, just like they would have had in real life.  The mountains in the background show that horses were used by more than just the tribes of the American Plains.  The one thing about this painting that seems odd to me is that the tipis have no symbols or designs on them that would depict accomplishments of the dwellers inside them.  Other than that, the painting is very realistic compared to the traditional depictions of life made by Native Americans during the 19th century.

Head dress from National Museum of Native American

This museum piece here is complex and interesting in a few different ways.  First, this reminds me of the question asked as to what people think of when they hear the term "Native American" or "Indian" and the stereotypical look people believe them to have.  This exhibit shows the bead working, hide clothing and head dress of a chief of his tribe.  The head dress is very elaborate and extends to the legs of the mannequin.  This clothing shows just how much symbolism and decoration was put into distinguishing leaders from the rest of the tribe.

This is a wooden flute.  This a very complex looking piece.  It includes wood, bronze, brass and animal materials.  It is called "The Shaman Messenger."  The piece is by Roger McGee.  The bald eagle is the subject of this piece.  Sculpting, beading, tethering, braiding, metal working, it's all exhibited in this piece.  This is one of my favorite art pieces I've seen while taking this class.

Dakota Drum 2

This is what the buffalo hide looks like before it is stretched out across an actual drum.  You can see where the surface of the drum is to be based on the circle design in the middle of the hide.  Each ring of the circle has hunters on horseback chasing down a buffalo.  It commemorates what it takes to hunt the buffalo and the continuation of the buffalo hunt.

Beaded Converse

There have been a few examples of beaded converse in our class.  The amount of beads on these shoes and time time it had to take to make them is hard to comprehend.  All the shoes have some design depicting  a mother and child or a or traditional symbol by the heel.  This is another great example of artists blending modern with the traditional.

Dakota Drum

This is a drum for sale at the Dakota Drum Co.  It is made from rawhide that has had the meat and hair removed by water and scraping rather than with chemicals that would dry out the rawhide.  The items have traditional rather than U.S. symbolism on them.  This shows that artists can be successful at selling their product to tourists and clients without giving up the symbolism that is important to them.