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.

Post-American settlement clothing

This is a great example of changes in Native American art after the U.S. took over Native lands.  This shirt that was made by a Native American has U.S. regalia all over it.  Stars and stripes bands down the arms, Blue stars placed all over the shirt and the giant U.S. flag chest piece.  The purpose of making this may have been to sell it to U.S. citizens or may have been the product of direct or indirect pressure from the U.S. government to suppress native culture in order to assimilate them into white U.S. culture.

Sioux war painting

This is a war painting of a Sioux warrior knocking another warrior off of his horse.  Paintings like this are common among plains tribes men.  They are used to illustrate the account of the battle and for the men to gain power and prestige among the tribe.  In this painting the Sioux is very colorful and the defeated warrior is very plain and simple.  Even the horses are depicted as complex and simple.  Notice the fallen warrior's horse has two bleeding holes in it.

Beaded Knife Sheath

This beaded knife sheath was on an auction website.  It is said to be a Sioux beaded knife case.  From the picture it looks like it is quite old.  Blues, reds, and yellows are the primary colors used.  One half of the sheath has a symmetrical design, the other half has a design that reflects the shape of the knife that it houses.  I'm not really sure why someone would be willing to auction off a piece of history like this, but they do.

Bear hunting salmon

This piece depicts the common sight of bears hunting salmon during the spawning season.  It is in Pacific Northwest style.  Brown bear hunting salmon is very common in Northwest region, but not as common as it once was in the U.S. because of habitat destruction.  Canada, however, is still known for it's brown bear activity and salmon runs.

Horseback rider

This is a canvas painting of a warrior on horseback.  There is no year or specific tribe expressed in the details of the painting.  The colors are relatively simple but it abstractly depicts a horseback rider riding into battle.  The shield and raised weapon can be used to infer this.  There is only one subject in this painting so perhaps it is meant to depict a spiritual quest rather than a physical quest.

Spirit of the Farmer

This is a piece by a man who does canvas work in Pacific Coast style.  He had traditional symbols but this one stood out to me because of the tractor in it.  I've never seen modern equipment or material be depicted in such a traditional way.  The name of this piece is  "Spirit of the Farmer."  This piece illustrates that groups of Native Americans have moved to use modern ways of sustaining themselves but have still been able to keep traditional aspects of their group.

Rock art at 9 mile canyon in Utah.

This is a depiction of a hunt.  The figure in the middle and top position is a Fremont figure and is believed to be a shaman of hunting.  All the hunters are depicted on the right and are hunting antlered animals.  Rock art is common in the Colorado Plateau region as well as the southwest.  The caricatures in the rocks are made by scraping off the top layer of rock to expose the layer of rock that hadn't been exposed to weathering.

Native American Masks at the Denver Art Museum

These masks are all incredibly unique and very detailed.  Each one holds a different expression and portrays a specific figure.  It appears that the "hair" on most of the masks is made of animal fur.  The color varies from very vibrant reds and greens to more dull browns.  Each one looks like it took a considerable amount of time and painstaking attention to detail to complete.  One can only imagine the differences in opinion on having them collected together in a museum.