What Kind of Art Did the Plains Indians Create

Art of the Plains Peoples

Steven Leuthold

• LAST REVIEWED: 18 August 2021
• LAST MODIFIED: 25 Feb 2016
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199920105-0076

Introduction

Plains Indian art is a varied subject area with a long history of scholarship and collecting both by private individuals and institutions. As such, the literature on the subject is rich and, especially recently, is potent in its visual presentation. Newer publications include large, crisp, colorful photographs that describe the viewer into the artful splendor of the art created on the Plains. Earlier publications, by contrast, focus on the contextual estimation of artworks (more specifically understood equally ethno-historical artifacts at the time), generally from an anthropological perspective. These anthropological approaches to Plains Indian art began in the early 20th century, and they remained the dominant perspective in the subject at to the lowest degree until the late 1960s. During the 1980s and 1990s a tension arose between more "aesthetic" and anthropological frameworks of understanding art created by Native Americans. In the present, the tendency is toward an effort at a counterbalanced approach and, sometimes, an effort at synthesis between the two. The report of Native art of the Plains, then, brings u.s. non just to the artworks themselves and to the people who made them, but likewise to questions of framing and interpretation. This bibliography hints at some of these interpretive issues while being primarily concerned with the nomenclature of sources according to their approach to the subject. These include full general studies of Plains fine art and its relationship to civilisation; prominent amongst these more general studies are exhibition catalogs, which can be the piece of work of a single author but more frequently contain several essays, each of which deals with a different aspect of the exhibition. Exhibitions are oft organized around a group of works collected by an individual; thus, the motives of collectors and the history of collecting are an important aspect of writings about Plains Native fine art. A few studies focus on private tribes of the Plains region. Others consider the human relationship of art to important aspects of culture such equally diplomacy or practices in warfare. A larger number of books delve into a specific medium or genre: ledger drawing, for instance, or tipis. These books permit for a comparative study of an creative medium throughout the various regions of the Plains and beyond time. Finally, there is the word of both 20th-century and gimmicky Native artists of the Plains, though these books are fewer in number. The emphasis in the literature, then, tends to exist on fine art forms from the 19th century and before. From rock art to ledger drawings, there accept been important studies of Native fine art of the Plains that take appeared only recently.

Full general Overviews

There are a number of broad histories of Native American life on the Plains. Though non immediately concerned with art, these books will orient readers to the lifeways and historical changes in this vast, open region. Robert Harry Lowie's book (Lowie 1982) is an early on example of this type. Lowie was trained equally an anthropologist so the book reflects that discipline; at that place is much detailed information on diet, kinship, and other general topics. Lowie is considered one of the founders of anthropology. He did his doctoral inquiry on the Shoshone simply became closely tied to the Crow through subsequent research; he wrote iv books on that tribe, including one on their art in 1922. Lowie published on Native cultures from 1914 to his expiry in 1957 and, as a student of Franz Boas, reflects the formation of the discipline of American anthropology. A sweeping historical business relationship of Native life prior to the 19th century, Calloway 2003 demonstrates that Native cultures were in a abiding state of change. The book incorporates archæology, anthropology, and oral history and produces compelling reading that is broadly constructed in its approach. Calloway emphasizes the importance of the 18th century in relation to alter in Native ways of life. The book traces the trade routes of the W and the importance of trade itself, both prior to and after the inflow of Europeans. Geographically, it spans the Appalachia region to the Pacific. The approach taken in Mails 1995 differs from the offerings by Lowie, the anthropologist, and Calloway, the historian. The book is a product of spiritual discovery by its author, Mails, a California-born creative person who was drawn to the report of Native spiritual traditions. He had studied for the ministry building in Minnesota and served iii congregations over a period of 18 years. The University of Oklahoma has published a collection of essays by the important Plains fine art scholar, John Ewers, that were published in periodicals from 1968–1992. Together, these treat a number of themes and media in Plains and/or Native American fine art and function as an overview of the field. Ewers pioneered the application of ethno-historical methodology to Plains art, combining data from ethnography, archaeology, and archival materials in order to address important questions almost the human relationship between Plains fine art and culture. Ewers 2011 consistently addresses the relationship of material civilisation to communication systems.

• Calloway, Colin G. One Vast Winter Count: The Native American W before Lewis and Clark. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003.

  Demonstrates that migrations in response to variations in climate and other ecological conditions were the norm. The Mississippi is treated as a conduit through Native regions rather than as a dividing line betwixt the Woodlands and the Plains. The volume is a major accomplishment and should appeal to any serious reader, though a consideration of a more introductory source first may be useful.

• Ewers, John C. Plains Indian Art: The Pioneering Work of John C. Ewers. Edited past Jane Ewers Robinson. Introduction by Evan M. Maurer. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2011.

  Ewers pioneered the use of fieldwork, archival inquiry, and archaeology in the written report of Plains art. He focused on the art's chatty functions. These essays are collected in a single location for the first time and accompanied past more than 100 illustrations selected by Ewers himself. The volume is well designed and beautifully illustrated. The preface is past Candace Light-green, who was a colleague of Ewers at the Smithsonian Institution.

• Ganteaume, Cécile R., ed. Infinity of Nations: Art and History in the Collections of the National Museum of the American Indian. New York: Harper, 2010.

  Focuses on the way that objects reveal a history of contact and change between peoples of the Americas. Includes sections written by specialists on each region of the Americas. The book includes images from NMAI that are published here for the first time. The book accompanies the exhibition at the National Museum of the American Indian George Gustav Heye Eye.

• Hansen, Emma I. "People without Borders: Natives of the North American Plains." In Visions of the West: Art and Artifacts from the Private Collections of J. P. Bryan, Torch Energy Advisors Incorporated and Others. Edited by Melissa Baldrige, four–49. Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith, 1999.

  These objects are part of a large private collection with a focus on objects related to Texas. The Bryan collection is quite varied in its inclusivity of art from varied ethnic groups. The essay past Hansen emphasizes an ethos of Native cocky-affirmation on the Plains in the late 19th century, partly in resistance to absorption.

• Johnson, Michael Thou., and Bill Yenne. Arts & Crafts of the Native American Tribes. Buffalo: Firefly Books, 2011.

  A wide survey of Native arts, organized by civilisation area and, following that, by medium. It is intended to be a primary and thorough reference work on Native art. The illustrations, both photographs and line drawings, are of high quality. The authors produced Encyclopedia of Native Tribes of North America in 2007, and this is intended as a complementary reference piece of work.

• Lowie, Robert Harry. Indians of the Plains. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982.

  Contains a small section on art, only also capacity on Plains architecture and clothes, which are often discussed in relation to fine art. This is an older work, first published in 1954, and some of the language, e.g., "archaic peoples," may be objectionable to some readers. Lowie's approach is historical, emphasizing the idea of cultures in flux. Written at the end of his career, the volume synthesizes a lifetime of study in articulate linguistic communication.

• Mails, Thomas. The Mystic Warriors of the Plains: The Culture, Arts, Crafts and Religion of the Plains Indians. New York: Barnes and Noble, 1995.

  Written by an artist, this is an in-depth sympathetic portrayal of the great horse cultures of the Plains. Originally published in 1972, the book is quite comprehensive with many maps and illustrations and has go one of the most influential popular books about Plains Indian life and belief.

• O'Brien, Greg. The Timeline of Native Americans: The Ultimate Guide to North America'southward Ethnic Peoples. San Diego, CA: Thunder Bay, 2008.

  A well-illustrated and useful chronology of Native peoples. Part of the World History Timeline series. Aids in gaining a sense of the temporal depth of Native experience, which stretches back many thousands of years.

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