Native American Arts and Crafts—Plains

Tribes affected: Arapaho, Arikara, Assiniboine, Atsina, Blackfoot, Caddo, Cheyenne, Comanche, Cree, Crow, Hidatsa, Iowa, Kiowa, Mandan, Missouri, Omaha, Osage, Pawnee, Ponca, Sioux, Tonkawa, Wichita

Significance: The Native American beadwork and headdresses of the Plains are a dramatic statement of personal aesthetics, and they are the primary association with Native American art for many people

The arts and crafts of the Plains tribes were small in scale and highly transportable because of the largely nomadic Plains existence. The arts had supernatural relationships with the spirit world; for example, beautifying the skin of a slain animal was thought to please its spirit and avert retaliation. Ghost Dance shirts and dresses also demonstrate the close relationship between art and the spiritual world.

Clothing and Bags

Clothing, moccasins, and bags were made of skins, and most were decorated with geometric designs by women using quills, beads, or paint. Plains art is most known for the beadwork on clothing and other personal items and the earlier work with porcupine quills. By the early nineteenth century, colored beads of Venetian glass had been introduced by the Europeans as trade items, and by midcentury they had been replaced by even smaller “seed beads,” which led to a new style of beadwork that covered entire surfaces.

The elongated shape of the quill was used to decorate medallions, boxes, and cradleboards, among other items, and resulted in geometric designs or highly stylized figures. Beadwork portrayed such things as floral patterns, the tipi, crosses, the United States flag, and lightning. Dresses, shirts, and parfleches were frequently painted. The parfleche was a thick-skinned, folding bag which was capable of withstanding arrows and lances.

Narrative Art

Narrative paintings were done by men on skins, especially on robes and tipis. These narrated calendrical histories (called winter counts), important tribal gatherings, personal visions, mythological events, and important battles, raids, and hunts. The calendar drawings have mnemonic value for remembering the major events that occurred in a tribe or band over a number of years. The winter camps were the fixed points between which yearly events were remembered. Battle scenes, as well as raids and hunts, narrate the personal bravery and skill of a specific warrior, and these were usually painted by the same warrior on his personal buffalo robe or on his tipi cover. He would usually portray the most important moment of his triumph. Tribal gatherings were also portrayed in narrative detail, describing features of the landscape, placing of tipis, clothing, and tribal paraphernalia. The describing of personal visions and mythological events was done with less narrative detail; it was left to the imagination of the viewer to complete the story. Vision paintings were frequently done on shields or tipis.

As the independent lifestyle of the Plains people came to an end and the people were settled around forts, the art of skin painting was lost. This happened in part because the personal exploits narrated by the men in battle and hunting no longer happened and in part because the skins were no longer available. In its place, ledgerbook painting was developed among the Southern Plains tribes; among the Northern Plains tribes, men adapted to painting on cloth. Ledgerbook art typically narrates the experience of Native Americans with the European American world. Instead of the horses, tipis, and buffalo of the skin paintings, the ledger paintings portray forts, trains, wagons, and even towns. The most famous collection of ledger art comes from the seventy-two warriors from five Southern Plains tribes who were sent to Fort Marion in Florida after their surrender in 1875.

Pipes as Miniature Sculpture

The pipe was the single most important art object made by the Plains groups, and it explored the relationship between humans and the sacred in the earth and sky, including the concept of the universe. Each man carved his own private ceremonial pipe, and sometimes one would be made as a special gift for another person. The holiest pipes were common property and were considered to be especially powerful. The bowls were usually carved from reddish pipestone, which was considered to be blood colored and therefore to represent life. They were usually plain bowls but could include complex carvings of animals or humans. The stems were also elaborately carved and could be two feet long or more; sometimes they were of greater importance than the bowl itself. Stems were carved in a number of imaginative designs, including spiral stems, mazeway puzzle stems, and stems with figurative carvings of animals and guardian spirits. Since the power of the pipe was activated when the stem and bowl were united, they were usually separated when stored. Pipe bags show some of the most important Plains beadwork and quillwork, which indicates the significance of pipes.

Gender and Art

Women beautified clothes and other items of domestic use with geometric designs in their media of bead and Native American quillwork, with occasional painting. Craft and skill were definitive of women’s work, and they used the geometric signs that communicated the important concepts of nature and the supernatural. Many incorporated the United States flag into their beadwork during the late 1800’s, perhaps as a statement of peace. The women’s art uses collective designs, and it does not emphasize the individuality of the piece. In contrast, men’s narrative art is individualistic and boasts of personal exploits. Craft seems to be less important in the narrative art, which is done with lines that are rigid and awkward. Men’s pipe carvings are carefully crafted, however, and rival the quality of the women’s beadwork.

Bibliography

Coe, Ralph T. Sacred Circles: Two Thousand Years of North American Indian Art. Kansas City, Mo.: Nelson Gallery Foundation, 1977.

Catlin, George. Indian Art in Pipestone: George Catlin’s Portfolio in the British Museum. Edited by John C. Ewers. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1979.

Furst, Peter T., and Jill L. Furst. North American Indian Art. New York: Rizzoli International, 1982.

Penny, David W. Art of the American Indian Frontier. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1992.

Wade, Edwin L., ed. The Arts of the North American Indian: Native Traditions in Evolution. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1986.