SANDWICH
ART HISTORY
Lesson 1 Native American Art
This year in art history we are going to focus on American art and in this lesson we will talk about Native American art.
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Many children will not have much of an image of Native American culture. Children no longer play cowboys and Indians and there is very little explicitly about Native American culture in our popular culture. Native American culture has given us other sources of recreation with which children will be familiar: lacrosse, kayaking, and the canoe.
Who are the Native Americans/American Indians? Native Americans are different groups of people who have lived in the Americas for tens of thousands of years. They are comprised of many nations, each with their own unique and rich culture and art. We could spend an entire year on Native American art, but we will scratch the surface with two lessons.
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TRADITION, 1922, Maynard Dixon, American (1876-1946)
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Dixon was descended from Virginia aristocracy who had moved to the sandy flats of the San Joaquin Valley.
Frail as a youth, he taught himself to draw. At 16 he sent sketches to Frederic Remington, and received an
encouraging comment. He attended the School of Design in San Francisco in 1891, but found the approach
too formal. He became a cow-puncher, wandering over Arizona, New Mexico and southeast California. His
first job in art was in 1895 as a newspaper illustrator in San Francisco. The earthquake of 1906 destroyed
Dixon’s accumulated work. In 1909 he was again in the Northwest, sketching Native Americans in Idaho and
Nevada. When he returned to San Francisco, his studio was a central point for the western art world. He was
considered the leading desert painter, the most successful of the Westerners painting the Southwest. As a colorist he was said to have been influenced by Maxfield Parrish, but Dixon's style simplified as it grew increasingly modern. In the 1930’s Dixon devoted his time to murals. He died of asthma after completing a mural of the Grand Canyon.
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Dixon was heavily influenced by nature. Notice the blues in this painting. They are used to reflect a calm moment, infused with the vibrant hues of the landscape.
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Dixon is considered an impressionist painter. He applied quick dabs of paint to his canvas, rather than smoothly blending the colors together.
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Dixon based the figures on Plains Indians, based on the bison bonnet. Other than that, the Native Americans have no detail showing that they belong to any particular tribe. The use of similar colors in both the landscape and the figures, make the Native Americans seem inherently connected to the land around them. They are portrayed as being part of the landscape.
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PAINTED TEEPEES, , Piegan (Blackfoot Confe, Edward S. Curtis., Reproduction print.
A teepee was the type of home most commonly used by the Plains tribes, because of their nomadic existence. A teepee was made by stretching a buffalo skin covering over poles. The poles were arranged in the shape of a cone. At the top, the ends of the poles crossed and stuck out of the covering. Two flap “ears" were opened at the top to let out smoke from the campfire. The tent was pegged to the ground all around the bottom. The front had a slit partly closed with wooden pins to form an entrance. The “door” was strategically located for convenience of weather. It was the woman’s work to set up and take down the teepee. It took 14 buffalo hides for 1 teepee.
Shot in the Eye, Oglala Sioux, Plains
Photo by Adolph Muir and Frank Rinehart (1899) – Platnum print
Thomas Mails, circa 1970, oil on board
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“Shot in the Eye” is adorned with a buffalo horn bonnet. The warrior’s turtle, with his navel cord enclosed, is tied to the skullcap. Apparently, the umbilical fetish was worn during war as a protection against death. Although the horns of the bonnet are large, they are hollowed, thus relatively light in weight.
Dream catcher
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Dream catchers originated in the Ojibwe tribe. Typically they are handmade from a willow hoop on which a net is loosely woven and sacred items such as feathers and beads are placed. The Ojibwe people have an ancient legend about the origin of the dreamcatcher. Storytellers speak of the Spider Woman, known as Asibikaashi; she took care of the children and the people on the land. Eventually, the Ojibwe Nation spread to the corners of North America and it became difficult for Asibikaashi to reach all the children. So the mothers and grandmothers would weave magical webs for the children, using willow hoops and sinew, or cordage made from plants. The dreamcatchers would filter out all bad dreams and only allow good thoughts to enter their mind. Once the sun rises, all the bad dreams just disappear.
Dreamcatchers were later adopted by some neighboring nations. It wasn't until the Pan-Indian Movement of the 1960s and 1970s that they were adopted by Native Americans of a number of different nations. Some consider the dreamcatcher a symbol of unity among the various Indian Nations, and a general symbol of identification with Native American or First Nations cultures. However, other Native Americans have come to see dreamcatchers as over-commercialized, offensively misappropriated and misused by non-Natives.
BEADED LEATHER BELT, beads on leather, contemporary
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Native American beadwork and regalia changed over the years depending on items traded and what was available in the local area. Each tribe had a variety of symbols they were partial to. Eagles, arrows, symbols for sun and moon and other animal shapes have been traditional
decorative designs. The most elaborated work was for ceremonial regalia and work was done mostly by women. Both men and women produce silver and turquoise jewelry in areas of the country where those natural resources are available.
COUNTRY OF THE KUTENAI, 1910, Edward S Curtis, American (1868-1952) photogravure from The North American Indian Vol 7
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The Kutenai took much of Montana, gradually moving westward to the northern tip of Idaho and Northeast Washington. They were a tall people and spoke a language unrelated to any other.
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It took two weeks to make a 15 foot canoe.
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Edward Curtis was a photographer and ethnologist whose work focused on Native Americans of the west. He received a $75000 grant distributed over five years, from J. P. Morgan to produce 20 volumes and 1500 photographs of Native Americans. For this, Curtis got no salary; the money was just for fieldwork. He hired a journalist and anthropologist to help write and record Native languages as he took his silver gelatin photographs. The project took more than 20 years to complete in what became a multivolume work entitled, The North American Indian.
Chief Joseph, Nez Perce, Edward Curtis 1903
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In 1871 Chief Joseph was elected chief of Nez Perce who lived in Oregon, Washington, Idaho on reservation land. Following the gold rush and discoveries on Nez Perce territory the United States government took back almost 6 million acres and tried to force the Nez Perce onto a small portion of their reservation in Idaho. Believing military resistance futile, Joseph reluctantly led his people toward Idaho.
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Unfortunately, they never got there. About twenty young Nez Percé warriors, enraged at the loss of their homeland, staged a raid on nearby settlements and killed several whites. Immediately, the army began to pursue Joseph's band and the others who had not moved onto the reservation. Although he had opposed war, Joseph cast his lot with the war leaders. In over three months, the band of about 700, fewer than 200 of whom were warriors, fought 2,000 U.S. soldiers and Indian auxiliaries in four major battles and numerous skirmishes. By the time he formally surrendered on October 5, 1877, Joseph was widely referred to in the American press as "the Red Napoleon.
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His surrender speech became famous: “I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. Looking Glass is dead. Toohoolhoolzote is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say, "Yes" or "No." He who led the young men [Olikut] is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are -- perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.”
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A few years ago this photo sold for just over $8,000.
Grade 3 Lesson 1 Optional Activity