Native Americans regard art as an element of life, not as a separate aesthetic expression. In aboriginal societies, public life brings together dancing, poetry, and the plastic and graphic arts, uniting them in a single function: ritual as the all-embracing expression of life. Art is indispensable to ritual, and ritual represents the Native American concept of the whole life process.
———Aboriginal philosophy does not separate art from healing or spirituality. Most of the healing disciplines came originally from religious beliefs and the practices of spiritual leaders. Trance, dance, painted drums, and painted shields were central to early shamanism, as they are to the continuing practice of this art and of other forms of Indian spirituality today.
———In the hundreds of Native American languages there is no word that comes close to the meaning of the western word art. Art, beauty, and spirituality are intertwined in the Native American routine of living.
———Native Americans freely use symbols of the spiritual and physical worlds to enrich their daily lives and ceremonies. Symbols are protectors and reminders of the living universe, bridging the gap between the spiritual and physical realms. Symbols are used in ritual performances to portray the power in the cosmos. A common visual symbol used for healing in many American Indian societies in the past and also today is the mandala. The mandala represents the cosmos in miniature and, at the same time, the pantheon. Its construction is equivalent to a magical re-creation of the world. The mandala is in essence a schematic diagram showing the balance of forces in the symbolic universe. Native Americans have created mandalas in Navajo and Pueblo sand paintings, on Plains war shields, and on rock paintings throughout North America; they have also projected the mandalas into space and time in the form of medicine wheels.
———The medicine wheel, a mandalic art form and religious symbol, is common to many tribes. It consists of a circle, through the center of which are drawn horizontal and vertical lines and at the center of which an eagle feather is usually attached. The circle represents the sacred outer boundary of Earth; the vertical and horizontal lines represent the sun's and humanity's sacred paths; the crossing of the lines indicates Earth's center; the eagle feather is a sign of the Creator's power over everything. The medicine wheel is often marked with the four sacred colors common to indigenous people throughout North and South America — black, white, red, and yellow — representing the four cardinal directions, the four symbolic faces of humanity, and other fourfold relationships.
———It is difficult to discuss traditional Native American visual arts, especially prehistoric art, in terms of isolated objects categorized as paintings, sculpture, and so forth. For example, in many native cultures masks from part of a whole complex encompassing music, dance, drama, and poetry. In the setting of a modern museum or gallery, the essence of the aesthetic of such masks is lost.
———In the area now called the United States, the indigenous populations were, and still are, extremely varies. Attempts to classify or order this diversity are complex. A common method used by scholars is the concept of "cultural areas," geographical regions occupied by peoples with a significant degree of similarity among themselves and a significant amount of dissimilarity from the cultures of peoples in other areas. For the purposes of this essay, then, the East will be considered to have the Atlantic Coast as its eastern boundary and to be bordered on the west by the Great Plains. (At times the art of the Southeast will be discussed separately.) The Plains will include the prairies of the Midwest, most of the states of Michigan, Illinois, and Missouri, and the western parts of Arkansas and Texas, and will have the Rocky Mountains as its western boundary. The West will include southern California, the Great Basin, and the Plateau — all of the United States west of the Rocky Mountains with the exception of the Northwest Coast and the Southwest. The Northwest Coast will include the Pacific Coast from Southern Alaska to Northern California. And the Southwest will encompass most of Arizona and New Mexico, southeastern Nevada, southern Utah, and southwestern Colorado.

Prehistoric symbolism increased in the eastern United States around 1000 B.C., when the Woodland cultures began to take shape, particularly along the lower Mississippi River and the lower Ohio River. Although the people continued some modes of Archaic subsistence, horticulture had begun to emerge and Indians began manufacturing elaborate objects to be used in ceremonial and artistic contexts. During the Woodland period, pottery was manufactured all over the eastern United States. Techniques for carving stone and hammering copper were also developed. The animal symbolism used in embellishing these objects (buzzards, falcons, owls, eagles, frogs, serpents, and turtles) became wide-spread among indigenous peoples now called southeastern Indians.
———Design elements included an emphasis on raptorial birds with curved beaks and talons. Birds and other creatures either were depicted in a split representation, in which the creature is shown split down the middle, so that both its left and right sides are depicted, or were represented in opposition or conflict. Design elements also included geometric forms such as circles and four-sided figures. Such geometric motifs were incised on stone and ceramics that were used to form mounds and earthworks. Earth mounds in the shape of animals and in geometric shapes were built up over the remains of the dead.
———Around A.D. 800 southeastern Indians began practicing maize agriculture. Accompanying this horticultural development was the introduction of a wide-spread symbolic system that art historians call the Southern Cult or Southeastern Ceremonial Complex, which appears to have had links to Mesoamerica. Vessels and effigy jars excavated in southern Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisana resemble similar items found in Veracruz and Zacatecas, Mexico. Clay and shell engravings found in the Southeast also carry motifs that resemble Mexican designs, such as the winged serpent and the eagle warrior. Eye-in-hand and wide-jawed-skull symbols found on objects recovered from Moundville, Alabama, are associated with the Aztec god Mitlantescutli, the Death God of the Aztec codices. When Spanish explorers came to the South in the sixteenth century, the Moundville complex was flourishing. However, European diseases caused a population collapse and social deterioration. Many symbols associated with Moundville were no longer in use when the English arrived on the Atlantic Coast a century later.
———British and U.S. dominance of the eastern art area led to disease, warfare, land loss, and the disruption of traditional cultures. The 1830s, an era of forced removal to Oklahoma for many eastern groups, were a particularly troubling time. One effect of all these changes was a marked decline in pictorial and sculptural traditions. However, the decorative arts associated with clothing still flourished. European-introduced glass beads replaced quills and shells in beadwork. Although some European-derived design elements such as a floral motif and curvilinear patterns were incorporated in clothing decorations, there still persisted decorative symbols that had existed since precontact times.

In prehistoric times some Plains people lived a hunting-gathering life that had been practiced for thousands of years, while others lived in agricultural communities along major waterways and had a lifestyle similar to that of Eastern Woodlands cultures. Art activity was minimal, and the only known paintings scholars have found are in the form of rock art. However, the introduction of the horse in the eighteenth century and the westward migration of other tribes fleeing European settlers caused a shift in customs. Many Plains peoples adopted a nomadic lifestyle and encouraged individually and group assertiveness within the communities Personal honor became a significant goal for many people.
———These aspects of life influenced Plains art, which became portable and was intended to display the courage, war heroism, and prestige of the owner. The decorative arts were expressed in fine clothing and in horse regalia through the use of porcupine-quill embroidery, shells, and glass beads. Geometric motifs dominated, with white and bright colors used in smaller designs against a dark background. Women were responsible for decorating clothing and household items.
———Art created by men was mnemonic, detailing a man's conquests in war and on the hunt; it often incorporated symbols derived from vision quests and dreams. Hide paintings that recorded tribal events were made to be displayed on the ground, surrounded by viewers. Prior to the 1800s humans were depicted as stick figures and animal forms were formalized, with minimal detail. Greater naturalism in the depiction of people and animals occurred in the mid-1800s as a result of interaction with Europeans and American artists such as Karl Modmer and George Catlin, who visited and pictorially documented the Plains tribes. Hide paintings gradually became replaced by larger-book drawings and paintings, which also recorded historical events. Most ledger books (account books obtained from whites and filled with drawings) date from the last quarter of the nineteenth century, but some were produced as recently as the first decade of the twentieth century. In some books each page was equivalent to a section of a hide painting, while in others the format used was based on European spatial illusionism and perspective. Unlike art from other cultural areas, Plains art was predominantly the result of the cultural changes that began with the onset of Western expansion and the Plains peoples' consequent exposure to European art.

Pictographs and petroglyphs were the only found pictorial art in the Great Basin and Plateau. Between the Sierra Nevada and the Pacific Ocean, on the other hand, pictorial traditions focused on basketry and rock art. With the exception of indigenous southern Californians, western Native Americans had no contact with Europeans until after the middle of the nineteenth century, at which point many of them experienced extermination or dislocation. Indians living in southern California missions had their lives totally disrupted during the post-1848 mining boom; as a result, 90 percent of them died. Contact with whites caused near-total destruction of all western indigenous art.

———Because of regional isolation and an unusual ecological situation, Northwest Coast cultures were very different from other indigenous groups. Stress was placed on kinship ranking and a hierarchical social system, expressed visually in village architecture and in outward signs of wealth through artworks such as heraldic wood carvings, decorated utensils, totem poles, kinetic masks, and blankets.
———Professional artists supported by an elite ruling class created prestigious items such as monumental sculptures celebrating the owner's family history and ceremonial masks used in dramas to enact a lineage's history and achievements. Architectural carving followed the vertical, columnar qualities of tree trunks; the dominant color schemes included the four sacred colors, red, yellow, black, and white. Unlike the masks of most Native American tribes and nations, Northwest Coast masks were highly naturalistic, often portraits of specific individuals. Most masks were equipped with moving parts, giving rise to a distinct, sophisticated illusionistic theater art.
———In the nineteenth century the European fur trade had devastating effects on the arts of the Northwest Coast. Trade upset the social, political, and economic life of the region, and European diseases and warfare reduced the population. Christian missionaries outlawed giveaway ceremonies and other traditional institutions that supported artistic development. By the end of the century, many aspects of traditional Northwest Coast culture had been eroded, but communities continued to practice their traditional crafts. When government policies began to change around the middle of the twentieth century, Northwest Coast peoples quickly reestablished their spiritual traditions and fostered a cultural renaissance.

Three great sedentary cultures developed in the Southwest, primarily after 300 B.C. In the southern Arizona desert area the Hohokan peoples lived in agricultural villages where they cultivated corn, beans, and squash. They created distinct poetry styles and used shells to make jewelry; their cultivation of cotton gave rise to experimentation in clothing design. The Nogollon peoples of southwestern New Mexico also lived in permanent homes and produced poetry, jewelry, and woven cloth. Their use of the kiva or underground ceremonial room indicates contact with the Anasazi culture. That culture was centered in the Four Corners area of the Southwest — the point at which Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah meet. Developing somewhat later (A.D. 1100-1300), the Anasazi displayed their creativity through architecture. They constructed cliff, mesa, and valley pueblos equipped with kivas. Murals were painted on kiva walls using a dry fresco technique. Color was applied in flat, even tones. Imagery included representational forms such as masked supernatural beings, beings with zoomorphic and anthropomorphic characteristics, plant life, and natural phenomena such as clouds, lightning, and astral forms. The Anasazi also created distinct pottery styles, basketry, textiles, and personal adornments.
———The richest artistic contribution of all three groups was the ceramic traditions they developed. The Hohokam peoples concentrated on red-on-buff styles, the Mogollon peoples emphasized black-on-white color schemes, and the Anasazi used shapes and designs that was reflective of their basketry.
———Because of its geographical location, "advanced" civilization, and similarities with Mexico in areas such as masonry, painted pottery, cloth weaving, rain ceremonies, and the priesthood, the Southwest is often regarded as the passageway for the flow of culture from Mesoamerica to other parts of North American continent. Many scholars believe that the concept of Father Sky and Mother Earth, which spread to many areas in North America, developed in Mesoamerica.
———Although 1540 is the date often used by scholars to mark the termination of North American prehistoric cultures, in the southwest there is little evidence of a break in craft expression at that time. Artistic traditions continued to flourish, with little noticeable change. With the advent of the railroad in the region in the 1880s, native crafts people adapted their works to meet the needs of Anglo tourists, sometimes incorporating new materials such as silver or commercial dyes. However, despite slight modifications in styles and materials, native artistic traditions continued.
———The use of the arts for healing has also continued on the Southwest, remaining almost unchanged since European contact. The most well known example of art is the service of healing is the Navajo sand-painting ritual, in which a patient lies on the ground while a medicine man-singer chants and blows colored sand onto the patient and onto the ground. Cultural symbols that are related to specific myths, deities, illnesses, and so forth are created by the medicine man during such ceremonies. Sand paintings are created and then destroyed each time a ceremony is performed. Over one thousand images and songs are associated with Navajo sand-painting ceremonies.
———Traditional pictorial arts of the Southwest were ancient and varied. Some were purely decorative; others. featuring representational images, tended to be used for ritual purposes. This practice, with modification continues today.

Five hundred years after the arrival of Columbus in the New World, the cultural influences acting on Native American art remains varied and complex. Many aesthetic changes have taken place in the twentieth century as native peoples have participated more fully on the dominant culture and incorporated artistic traditions from the United States, Europe, and other parts of the globe into their own traditions Native American artists are in the process of developing new definitions of Indian art. Any instance that Indian art remain "traditional" as a way of preserving a culture is a form of cultural discrimination, because cultures are dynamic, nor static.
———Some modern writers have categorized the dominant styles of twentieth-century Native American art into four schools: historic expression, traditionalism, modernism, and individualism. Historical expressionism follows the techniques and design conventions of nineteenth-century tribal aesthetics while incorporating new themes. It is a reinterpretation of ancient conventions. Traditionalism retains a flat, shaded treatment of historic native imagery. This style is identified in the public's mind as "real Indian art" and is associated with the Santa Fe Studio of Dorothy Dunn and the "Kiowa movement." It was the style encouraged in the Philbrook Art Center's earlier competitions, held in Oklahoma beginning in 1946. Celebrated artists of this style such as Gilbert Atenico, Andrew Tsinahjinnie, Archie Blackowl, Harrison Begay, Fred Kabotie, Stephen Mopope, Ma Pe Wi, and Pablita Velarde created a rich legacy. Unfortunately, some conservative scholars and collectors have canonized this heritage as the only legitimate Indian Art. Modernism experiments with mainstream contemporary art techniques but maintains a visible Native American imagery. Individualism refers to work that is indistinguishable from mainstream contemporary and does not show an obvious allegiance to Indian social movements or ethnic identity.
———Artists such as Oscar Howe (Yankton Sioux, 1915-84), Al Houser (Chiricahua Apache, 1914-94), R. C. Gorman (Navajo 1932-), and others helped bridge the gap between so-called traditional American Indian art and mainstream art. These artists opened new, expressive avenues for Indian artists that went beyond the meticulously detailed, yet frozen realism of traditional Indian painting. With neo-cubism, Howe recast traditional Indian imagery into structured planes and dramatic color combinations centered on heroic, mystical views of Indians. Howe's 1954 painting Victory Dance, influenced by European cubism, is a transitional work that retains the mystic nature of Howe's vision while at the same time imparting an experimental thrust to Indian painting. R. C. Gorman was the first Indian to paint nude figures and the first Indian to own a successful commercial gallery. Sculptor Al Houser's work spanned six decades, and he used styles ranging from the figurative to the surreal and abstract. No matter what the style or period, most Native American art emphasizes Indian values of beauty, balance, and harmony.
———Although contemporary Native American culture has lost some of its early symbolism and rituals because of cultural change and assimilation, its essence remains. Native American thinking has not ever separated art from life, what is beautiful from what is functional. Art, beauty, and spirituality are intertwined in the routine of living. The Native American aesthetic has survived colonialism, servitude, racial discrimination, and rapid technological change.

PHOEBE FARRIS-DUFRENE (Powhatan)
Purdue University