In Native American languages, there is no word
for "ART" in the sense most people understand it, as a commodity or specialized
area of activity. The closest equivalent translates as something like,
"something we (humans) do." A part of life, a part of the whole. The concept
of art as a profession is not part of Native cultures. Although "art" was
respected and in some areas, valued in similar ways to the European concept
(particularly among the Pacific Northwest tribes), it was not generally
seen as an occupation or calling, until the early years of this century.
Buffy Sainte-Marie, during a visit to Santa Fe several years ago, pointed
out the difference between views about art and artists between Native people
and non-Natives: she said that the measure of success in Western society
is how far the artist moves from his original community, while in Native
communities it is the opposite; how much the artist is involved in and
part of - even central to - his original community. These days this distinction
has become blurred as a large number of Native artists achieve success
in the Art World; many adopt the Western view and become removed from their
communities. But generally, the Native artists have taken advantage of
the popularity of their art to benefit their communities rather than themselves.
Like all contemporary art, the field of Native
American Art is large and varied and would require many volumes to cover
comprehensively. Painting, Photography, Sculpture, Poetry, Music, Film,
Literature, and many other fields are now seeing an increasing presence
of Native talent and perspective. Much of the emphasis in this presence
is on correcting the stereotypical images and concepts of non-Native art
dealing with Native people and communities; showing the Native world from
a Native perspective, as well as commenting on how they have been perceived
by others. The important thing to remember is that Native people today
live in the world of today, with cars, computers, credit cards (some anyway),
popular music and modern problems - drug addiction, alcoholism, domestic
violence, and poverty. Non-Native art on "Native" subjects often depicts
a romanticized idea of the Native people of two or three hundred years
ago, and many people have the mistaken idea that "Indian Art" only means
artifacts from that past. While it is true that many tribes have rediscovered
and revived these traditional arts and crafts, the field is now as expansive
and varied as contemporary art in general. In literature we have voices
as diverse as N. Scott Momaday, Sherman Alexie, Susan Power, Adrian Louis
and Leslie Marmon Silko, to name just a few.
Much of the impetus for the contemporary
Native art movement came from the Institute of American Indian Arts in
Santa Fe, New Mexico, with which I was associated from 1992 until 1996.
But the origins were earlier, in the years of captivity at Ft. Marion,
Florida at the end of the "Indian Wars."
The
image at the left is an example of "ledger art," a form developed by Plains
Indians in captivity following the end of the Indian wars, when ledger
pages were the only available paper. Many of these were produced at Fort
Marion, Florida. 71 Kiowa, Commanche, Cheyenne, and Arapaho were imprisoned
at Ft. Marion around 1875 at the end of the "Red River of the South" plains
war. They depicted their battle exploits and history of the plains wars
from their personal experiences on ledger sheets. Some of these drawings
were published in magazines (Atlantic and others). The leading artists
of Ft. Marion ledger art were Paul Zo-Tom, Howling Wolf, Etadlueh Doanloe,
and Buffalo Meat.
The most elaborate ledger art was a book
by Oglala Amos Bad Heart Bull (1869-1913), using captioned pictures to
describe cultural life, not just personal exploits or battles. Helen Blish,
an art teacher, discovered it and was given permission to "rent" the 400
pages (out of thousands that hadn't been lost by the 1926's) for photographing.
The ledger books were buried with Pretty Cloud, Bad Heart Bull's younger
sister, upon her death in 1947. University of Nebraska Press keeps Blish's
book, which they put together after the photos were found following her
death in 1941, and published as "A Pictographic History of the Oglala Sioux,"
1967.
The prisoners at Fr. Marion were allowed
to present and sell their art and crafts to the tourists who visited the
prison. When these prisoners returned home, many of the Kiowa nation, they
continued to pursue their art. The group of Kiowa artists known as the
Kiowa 5 (or 6 by some accounts), developing the ledger art tradition of
the Ft. Marion years and incorporating contemporary European techniques
and styles, inaugurated the modern Native American Art movement.
Many thanks to the late Paula Giese (AISES) for
correcting my earlier (poorly phrased) notation regarding the Ft. Marion prisoners,
and providing additional information. May your journey be safe. Wa-do! Do
hi yi!!
