Native American art facts for kids

Native American art is the visual artistic practices of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. These include works from South America and North America, which includes Central America and Greenland. Native American art also includes all art from ancient times to the present. Sometimes their art was portable. Some paintings, basketry, textiles, and photography could be taken with them. Other times, Indigenous Americans left their art for others to enjoy on immovable objects like architecture, land art, public sculpture, or murals.

Indigenous art of the Americas has been collected by the Europeans since 1492 when the first Europeans sailed to the Americas. Native scholars are trying to understand Indigenous art correctly.

Lithic and Archaic stage

The Lithic stage, or Paleo-Indian period, took place from approximately 16000 to 8000 BC. The oldest known art in the Americas is a fossilized megafauna bone, possibly from a mammoth, with a mammoth or mastedon on it. Scientists believe this carving, which was found early in the 21st century near Vero Beach, Florida, dates back to 11000 BC.

The oldest known painted object in North America is the Cooper Bison Skull from approximately 8050 BC. Art from the Lithic stage in South America includes Monte Alegre culture rock paintings created at Caverna da Pedra Pintada dating back to 9250 to 8550 BC. The earliest known textiles, dating to 8000 BC, were found in Guitarrero Cave in Peru.

The Archaic stage took place after the Lithic stage. It lasted from approximately 8000 BC to 1000 BC. Evidence suggests that people of this period worked with many different kinds of materials. Some of their art, including bannerstones, Projectile point, Lithic reduction styles, and pictographic cave paintings, have survived. The southwestern United States and certain regions of the Andes have the most pictographs (painted images) and petroglyphs (carved images) from this period. Both pictographs and petroglyphs are known as rock art.

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  A petroglyph of a caravan of bighorn sheep near Moab, Utah, United States; a common theme in glyphs from the southwestern desert

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  Archaic abstract curvilinear style petroglyphs, Coso Rock Art District, California
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  Petroglyph from Columbia River Gorge, Washington, United States

Arctic

The Yup'ik of Alaska have a long tradition of carving masks for use in shamanic rituals. Indigenous peoples of the Canadian arctic have created objects that could be described as art since the time of the Dorset culture. The Thule people, who replaced them in approximately AD 1000, used walrus ivory for more than rituals. Their art was also used for decoration. This tradition has continued and more materials have been used, as many Inuit artisans continue to create art for tourists and crews of whaling ships. Some examples include cribbage boards, serpentine sculptures, textiles, beadwork collars, and masks. Sperm whale ivory is still an important material for carving.

• Inuit art from Alaska, Canada, and Greenland
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  Baleen basket with whale tooth finial, by George Omnik (Iñupiaq, 1905–1978), Alaska; Honolulu Museum of Art (Hawaii, USA)

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  A carved representation of a tupilaq, from Greenland

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  Yup'ik mask; from Alaska; Musée du quai Branly (Paris)

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  Toy Angakkuq (shaman); February 6, 1998; serpentine, caribou bone & feathers; by Palaya Qiatsuq

Subarctic

People who live in the interior (middle part) of Alaska and Canada and south of the Arctic Circle are Subarctic peoples. Their oldest known surviving art is a petroglyph site in northwest Ontario, dated to 5000 BC. Caribou and moose are important resources for the Subarctic people. They provide hides (skins), antlers, sinew, and other materials used for the creation of art. Porcupine quillwork decorates hides and birchbark. Moose hair tufting and floral glass beadwork also became popular throughout the Subarctic.

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  21st-century Athabaskan moosehair tufting on beaded hide box,
  Fairbanks, Alaska

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  Tsuu T'ina painted hide tipi,
  Alberta, Canada

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  Man's hide jacket. The floral designs' stems feature "thorny" beadwork, typical of the Subarctic, Museum of Anthropology at UBC

Northwest coast

Woodworking was the popular art form of the Haida, Tlingit, Heiltsuk, Tsimshian and other smaller tribes living in the coastal areas of Washington state, Oregon, and British Columbia. Famous examples of woodwork include totem poles, transformation masks, and canoes.

Jewelry engraved with silver, gold, and copper became important after the Europeans began settling in the Americas.

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  A totem pole in Ketchikan, Alaska, in the Tlingit style

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  Namgis thunderbird transformation mask, 19th century, cedar, pigments, leather, nails, metal plate, 71 in. wide when open, Brooklyn Museum, NY

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  Haida argillite carving; 1850–1900; from Haida Gwaii; National Museum of the American Indian

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  Cedar bark hat; Nuu-chah-nulth; Museum of the Americas (Madrid, Spain)

Eastern woodlands

Northeastern woodlands

The Eastern Woodlands, or simply woodlands, cultures lived in North America in areas east of the Mississippi River at least since 2500 BC. Though there were many tribes, they traded with each other for survival. Another name for this group of Native Americans is Mound builders because they buried their dead in mounds made of earth. This is how much of their art was preserved.

The Woodland period (1000 BC - AD 1000) is divided into three periods and was made of cultures that depended mostly on hunting and gathering for their survival.

• The Early Woodland period (1000 BC - 200 BC) is considered a stage of development. The Deptford culture and the Adena culture are two cultures of this time. They carved stone tablets with animal designs and made ceramics, pottery, and costumes. Shellfish was the main part of their diet, and engraved shells have been found in their burial mounds.
• During Middle Woodland period (200 BC - AD 500), the Hopewell tradition flourished. Their artwork contained a wide variety of jewelry and sculpture in stone, wood, and even human bone.
• During the Late Woodland period (AD 500 - 1000), settlements did not trade with each other as much and they became smaller in size. This resulted in the creation of less art.

From the 12th century onward, the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois: pronounced EER-i-coy) and nearby coastal tribes made wampum from shells and string. These wampum were used as mnemonic devices, currency, and records of treaties.

Much of the art of this period has been preserved or copied. Examples include False Face masks and Corn Husk Society masks of the Iriquois people as well as the works of artists Edmonia Lewis and Sharol Graves.

• Art from the Eastern woodlands of North America
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  Hopewell mounds from the Mound City Group in Ohio
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  Carved soapstone pipe depicting a raven, Hopewell tradition
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  Copper falcon from the Mound City Group site of the Hopewell culture
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  Great Treaty wampum belt given from the Lenape to William Penn, Pennsylvania, 1682

Southeastern woodlands

The Poverty Point culture lived in parts of Louisiana from 2000 to 1000 BC during the Archaic period. Their art was made of materials that came from places as far away as the Ohio and Tennessee River valleys, Alabama, and Georgia. The materials included chipped stone, ground stone, shell and stone beads, soapstone, and clay.

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  Clay cooking utensils, Poverty Point
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  Carved gorgets and atlatl weights, Poverty Point

The Mississippian culture flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately AD 800 to 1500. This culture began to rely on maize as the main part of their diet. This meant that they did not need to hunt as much as their ancestors did for food. They built platform mounds larger and more complex than those of their ancestors and developed more advanced ways of making ceramic by using ground mussel shell as a tempering agent (material that is added to clay to keep it from cracking when it dries). Tribes descended from Mississippian cultures include the Natchez, Taensa, Caddo, Choctaw, Muscogee Creek, Wichita, and many other southeastern peoples.

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  Engraved shell gorget, Spiro Mounds (Mississippian culture)
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  Engraved stone palette, Moundville Site, back used for mixing paint (Mississippian culture)
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  Stone effigies, Etowah Site (Mississippian culture)
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  Ceramic underwater panther jug, Rose Mound (Mississippian culture)

Many wooden artifacts have been found in Florida. The most famous was a 30-inch-tall carving of an eagle. More than 1,000 carved and painted wooden objects including masks, tablets, plaques, and wooden statues, were found at an archaeological site in 1896 at Key Marco, in southwestern Florida.

The Seminoles are best known for their textile creations, especially patchwork clothing. Doll-making is another important craft.

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  Eagle totem, Fort Center, Florida
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  Alligator effigy, wood carving, Key Marco, Florida
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  Wooden mask, Key Marco, Florida
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  Seminole patchwork fringed dance shawl, Big Cypress Indian Reservation, Florida, 1980s

The west

Great Plains

Tribes have lived on the Great Plains for thousands of years. Early Plains cultures are usually divided into four periods: Paleoindian (at least 10000 - 4000 BC), Plains Archaic (c. 4000 - 250 BC), Plains Woodland (c. 250 BC - AD 950), Plains Village (c. AD 950 - 1850). The oldest known painted object in North America was found in the southern plains, the Cooper Bison Skull, found in Oklahoma and dated 10900 - 10200 BC. It's painted with a red zig-zag. We do not know much about the cultures that lived before the Plains Village period.

During the Plains Village period, some cultures settled in rectangular houses and grew maize. Tribes were both hunters who used horses to follow the buffalo herds and farmers who stayed close to home. It is thought that drought caused many to move to the Eastern woodlands region until American settlers forced tribes to move west again.

Buffalo hide clothing was decorated with porcupine quill embroidery and beads. Later, coins and glass beads received from trading were used in Plains art. The Plains tribes used buffalo hide for painting. Men painted their adventures, visions, history, and calendars known as winter counts. Women painted designs that were sometimes used as maps.

Plains artists were forced to use new painting surfaces, such as muslin or paper in the late 19th century. By this time, non-native hunters had come and killed too many buffalo.

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  Sioux dress with fully beaded yoke
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  Sioux beaded and painted rawhide parfleches
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  Ledger drawing of Haokah (c. 1880) by Black Hawk (Lakota)
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  Kiowa ledger art, possibly of the 1874 Buffalo Wallow battle, Red River War

Great Basin and Plateau

Since the Archaic period, the Plateau region, also known as the Intermontaine and upper Great Basin, had been a center of trade. Plateau people usually settled near major river systems. Because of this, they copied the artistic style of other regions like the Pacific Northwest coasts and the Great Plains. Nez Perce, Yakama, Umatilla, and Cayuse women weave flat, rectangular corn husks or hemp dogbane bags, which are decorated with "bold, geometric designs." Plateau beadworkers are known for the shapes they make with beads and their detailed horse pictures.

Great Basin tribes have a sophisticated basket-making tradition. Paiute, Shoshone, and Washoe basketmakers are known for their baskets that contain seed beads on the surface and for waterproof baskets.

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  Nez Perce bag with contour beadwork, c. 1850 - 1860
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  Nez Perce man's beaded and quilled buckskin shirt with eagle feathers and ermine pelts, c. 1880 - 1885
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  Shoshone beaded men's moccasins, circa 1900, Wyoming
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  Basket by Carrie Bethel (Mono Lake Paiute), California, 30" diameter, c. 1931 - 1935

California

The Native Americans in California are known for their basket weaving arts. In the late 19th century, Californian baskets by artists in the Cahuilla, Chumash, Pomo, Miwok, Hupa and many other tribes became popular with collectors, museums, and tourists. Because of this, Californian Native American tribes began making more kinds and shapes of baskets.

California has many pictographs and petroglyphs. Some pictographs are more detailed than others. Big and Little Petroglyph Canyons are located in the Coso Rock Art District of the northern Mojave Desert in California. They have the most petroglyphs in that amount of space than other areas of North America.

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  Chumash rock art at Painted Cave

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  A basket made by the Pomo people of northern California
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  Pomo beaded, coiled basket, sedge root, willow, glass beads, abalone, circa 1880
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  Late 19th-century Hupa woman's cap, bear grass and conifer root, Stanford University

Southwest

In the Southwestern United States, numerous pictographs and petroglyphs were created. The people used the Barrier Canyon Style in famous places like Horseshoe Canyon, Newspaper Rock, and Arches National Park.

The Ancestral Puebloans, or Anasazi, (1000 BC - AD 700) are the ancestors of today's Pueblo tribes. Their culture formed in the American Southwest, after they learned to grow corn around 1200 BC. People in this region lived a farming lifestyle. They grew food, gourds for storage, and cotton. Because they did not move locations like some other tribes, they made pottery to store water and grain. Some pottery was used daily, but they also made pottery that was more detailed and colorful for ritual use. These were usually finished with polished surfaces and decorated with painted designs.

Around AD 200, the Hohokam culture developed in Arizona. They are the ancestors of the Tohono O'odham and Akimel O'odham, or Pima, tribes. The Mimbres, part of the Mogollon culture, are known for using their pottery to paint stories.

Southwest architecture includes Cliff dwellings, multi-story settlements carved from living rock; pit houses; and adobe and sandstone pueblos. One of the most complicated and largest ancient settlements is Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, which includes 15 major complexes of sandstone and timber. These are connected by a network of roads. Construction for the largest of these settlements, Pueblo Bonito, began 1080 years before present. Pueblo Bonito, the largest of these settlements, contains over 800 rooms.

Within the last millennium, Athabaskan peoples emigrated from northern Canada to the Southwest. These include the Navajo and Apache. Sandpainting began as part of Navajo healing ceremonies and became an art form. Navajos learned to weave on upright looms from Pueblos and wove blankets and later rugs for trade.

Ancestral Pueblo used turquoise, jet, and spiny oyster shells for jewelry. For centuries, they have used detailed inlay techniques. In the 1850s, Navajos adopted silversmithing from the Mexicans. Atsidi Sani (Old Smith) was the first Navajo silversmith, but he had many students, and the technology quickly spread to surrounding tribes. Today thousands of artists produce silver jewelry with turquoise.

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  Montezuma Castle, a Sinagua cliff dwelling in Arizona, c. AD 700 - 1425

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  Ancestral Pueblo canteen, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, c. AD 700 - 1100

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  Navajo Sandpainting

Mesoamerica and Central America

The cultural development of ancient Mesoamerica was generally divided along east and west. The long-lasting Mayan culture was strongest in the east, especially on the Yucatán Peninsula. Various civilizations lived in the western area, including the Teotihuacan (1–500), West Mexican (1000 - 1001), Mixtec (1000–1200), and Aztec (1200–1521).

Central American civilizations generally lived in the regions south of modern-day Mexico, although there was some overlap.

Mesoamerica

Mesoamerica was home to the following cultures, among others:

Olmec

The Olmec (1500 - 400 BC), who lived on the gulf coast, were the first civilization to fully develop in Mesoamerica. Their culture was the first to develop many traits that remained constant in Mesoamerica until the last days of the Aztecs: a complicated astronomical calendar, the ritual practice of a ball game, and the building of stelae to remember victories or other important events.

The most famous artistic creations of the Olmec are colossal basalt heads. Historians think these heads resembled rulers who had them made to show their power. The Olmec also sculpted figurines that they buried under the floors of their houses. These were most often made in terracotta, but also sometimes carved from jade or serpentine.

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  Monument 1, one of the four Olmec colossal heads at La Venta. This one is nearly 9 feet (3 meters) tall.

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  An "elongated man" figurine, dark green serpentine
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  Kunz Axe; 1200-400 BC; polished green quartz (aventurine); height: 11.4 inches (29 cm), width: 5.3 inches (13.5 cm); British Museum (London)
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  Jade mask; 10th - 6th century BC; jadeite; height: 6³⁄₄ in. (17.1 cm), width: 6⁵⁄₁₆ in. (16.5 cm); Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

Teotihuacan

Teotihuacan was a city built in the Valley of Mexico, containing some of the largest pyramids built in the pre-Columbian Americas. Established around 200 BC, the city fell between the 7th and 8th centuries. Teotihuacan has many well-preserved murals.

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  A mural showing what has been identified as the Great Goddess of Teotihuacan

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  Restored Teotihuacan architecture showing red paint complemented on gold and jade decoration on marble and granite

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  Mask with a necklace with 55 beads and pendant; serpentine inlaid with amazonite, turquoise, shell, coral and obsidian; height: 8 in, National Museum of Anthropology

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  Statue of Chalchiuhtlicue; National Museum of Anthropology

Classic Veracruz culture

In his 1957 book on Mesoamerican art, Miguel Covarrubias speaks of Remojadas' "magnificent hollow figures with expressive faces, in majestic postures and wearing elaborate paraphernalia indicated by added clay elements."

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  A large terracotta figurine of a young chieftain in the Remojadas style. AD 300 - 600; height: 31 in (79 cm)
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  Veracruz altar urn

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  Stone head of a woman from El Tajin

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  Male-female duality figure from Remojadas, AD 200 - 500

Zapotec

The Bat god was one of the important gods of the Maya Zapotec people. An important Zapotec center was Monte Albán, in present-day Oaxaca, Mexico. The Monte Albán periods are divided into I, II, and III, which range from 200 BC to AD 600.

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  Ceramic urn, 200 BC - AD 800, British Museum
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  Ceramic Zapotec vessel

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  Golden ornamentation worn by Zapotec government officials

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  Mosaic mask that represents a Bat god, 25 pieces of jade, with yellow eyes made of shell. It was found in a tomb at Monte Albán.

Maya

The Maya civilization occupied the south of Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador.

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  Classic Period Maya eccentric flint, possibly from Copán or Quiriguá, Musées Roayaux d'art et d'Histoire, Brussels

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  Portrait of K'inich Janaab Pakal I; 615 - 683; stucco; height: 1 ft. 5 in. (43 cm); National Museum of Anthropology (Mexico City)

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  Jade plaque of a Maya king; 400 - 800 (Classic period); height and width: 5.5 in. (14 cm); found at Teotihuacan; British Museum (London)

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  Relief showing Aj Chak Maax presenting captives before ruler Itzamnaaj B'alam III of Yaxchilan; August 22, 783

Toltec

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  The Atlantes — columns in the form of Toltec warriors in Tula
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  An expressive orange-ware clay vessel in the Toltec style
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  Toltec bird carving in granite at Tula

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  Toltec turtle vessel

Mixtec

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  Mixtec king and warlord Eight Deer Jaguar Claw (right) Meeting with Four Jaguar, in a depiction from the pre-Columbian Codex Zouche-Nuttall
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  Mixtec pectoral of gold and turquoise, Shield of Yanhuitlán; National Museum of Anthropology

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  Closeup view of Mixtec stone mosaic-work at Mitla. This was an inspiration for similar mosaics by Frank Lloyd Wright.

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  Mixtec incense burner

Totonac

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  Figure of a seated commander; 300 - 600; Art Institute of Chicago (USA)

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  Standing male figure; 600 - 900; earthenware; from central Veracruz (Mexico); Gardiner Museum (Toronto, Canada)

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  Sculpture; 700 - 900; andesite; height: 14 in. (35.56 cm)

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  Heads; circa 900; Leipzig Museum of Ethnography (Leipzig, Germany)

Huastec

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Aztec

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  Double-headed serpent; 1450 - 1521; Spanish cedar wood (Cedrela odorata), turquoise, shell, traces of gilding and pine resin and Bursera resin for adhesive; height 20.3 in. (51.6 cm); British Museum (London)

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  The original page 13 of the Codex Borbonicus; Bibliothèque de l'Assemblée Nationale (Paris). This 13th trecena (of the Aztec sacred calendar) was under the authority of the goddess Tlazōlteōtl, who is shown on the upper left, giving birth to Centeōtl. The 13-day-signs of this trecena, starting with 1 Earthquake, 2 Flint/Knife, 3 Rain, etc., are shown on the bottom row and the right column.

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  Aztec calendar stone; 1502 - 1521; basalt; diameter: 141 in. (358 cm); thickness: 39 in. (98 cm); discovered on December 17, 1790, during repairs on the Mexico City Cathedral; National Museum of Anthropology (Mexico City). The exact purpose and meaning of the Calendar Stone are unclear. Archaeologists and historians have suggested many theories.

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  Tlāloc effigy vessel; 1440 - 1469; painted earthenware; height: 1³⁄₄ in. (35 cm); Museo del Templo Mayor (Mexico City). Templo Mayor, dedicated to Tlāloc. This jar, covered with stucco and painted blue, is decorated with the face of Tlāloc, identified by his coloration, ringed teeth, and jaguar teeth.

Central America and "Intermediate area"

Greater Chiriqui

Greater Nicoya The ancient peoples of the Nicoya Peninsula in present-day Costa Rica traditionally sculpted birds in jade, which were used for funeral ornaments. Around AD 500, gold ornaments replaced jade, possibly because jade was not as plentiful as it once was.

Caribbean

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  Duho (Ceremonial wooden stool), Hispaniola. Taíno, AD 1000 - 1500, carved lignum vitae
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  Taíno zemi, ironwood with shell inlay, Dominican Republic, 15th - 16th-century bowl used for cohoba rituals
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  Las Caritas, Taíno petroglyphs, Lake Enriquillo, Dominican Republic
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  Taíno batey ball court petroglyph, Caguana, Utuado, Puerto Rico

South American

The native civilizations were most developed in the Andean region. They are roughly divided into two civilizations: the Northern Andes civilizations of present-day Colombia and Ecuador and the Southern Andes civilizations of present-day Peru and Chile.

Hunter-gatherer tribes throughout the Amazon rainforest of Brazil also have developed artistic traditions involving tattooing and body painting. Because it is difficult to travel to these locations, these tribes and their art have not been studied as thoroughly as Andean cultures, and many remain uncontacted.

Isthmo-Colombian Area

The Isthmo-Colombian Area includes some Central American countries (like Costa Rica and Panama) and some South American countries near them (like Colombia).

San Agustín

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  Zoomorphico-anthropomorphic figures from San Agustín Archaeological Park

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  Figure from San Agustín Archaeological Park

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  Double-spouted jar with strap handle; 500 BC - AD 500; slip-painted ceramic; height: 8³⁄₈ in. (27.27 cm), width: 71⁄2 in. (19.05 cm), depth: 6⁷⁄₈ in. (17.46 cm); Los Angeles County Museum of Art (USA)

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  Pendant; AD 1 - 900; gold; 1.2 x 3.8 x 3.5 in. (3.1 x 9.7 x 8.8 cm); Gold Museum (Bogotá, Colombia)

Calima

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  Funeral mask; 5th - 1st centuries BC; embossed gold; Ilama stage; Metropolitan Museum of Art

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  Animal-headed figure pendant; 1st - 7th centuries; gold; height: 21⁄2 in. (6.35 cm); Yotoco stage; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

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  Double spout and strap handle vessel with a mythological figure; 400 - 1200; slip-painted ceramic; height: 7⁵⁄₈ in. (19.37 cm), width: 71⁄2 in. (19.05 cm), depth: 4¹⁄₁₆ in. (10.32 cm); Yotoco stage; Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Tolima

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  Pectoral; 1 CE-550; tumbaga; 9.2 x 10.1 in. (23.4 x 25.7 cm); Gold Museum (Bogotá, Colombia)

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  Pendant; 1st - 7th centuries; gold; Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland, Ohio, USA)

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  Anthropomorphic pendant; 5th - 10th centuries; Metropolitan Museum of Art

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  Pendants in the form of flying fish; 10th - 15th centuries; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

Gran Coclé

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  Pedestal dish; 600 - 800; height: 6 in. (15.24 cm), diameter: 10⁷⁄₈ in. (27.69 cm); Walters Art Museum

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  Ceramic plate; University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (USA)

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  Gold plaque from Sitio Conte; University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Diquis

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  One of the stone spheres of Costa Rica

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  Stone figure resembling a masked shaman; 1000 - 1500; Musée du quai Branly (Paris)

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  Two lobster-shaped pendants; 700 - 1550; Museo del Jade Marco Fidel Tristán Castro (San José, Costa Rica)

Nariño

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  Nose ornament; 7th - 12th centuries; cantilever gold alloy; Metropolitan Museum of Art

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  Footed bowl depicting a pair of monkeys; 750 - 1250; resist-painted ceramic; height: 3¹⁄₂ in. (8.9 cm), diameter of the bowl: 8¹⁄₁₆ in. (20.45 cm), diameter of the foot: 3¹⁄₈ in. (7.94 cm); Los Angeles County Museum of Art (USA)

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  Gourd-shaped vessel; 850 - 1500; resist-painted ceramic; height: 10³⁄₈ in. (26.35 cm), diameter: 8 in. (20.32 cm); Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Quimbaya

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  Quimbaya airplanes in Museum of the Americas (Madrid)

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  Ceramic figurine with tumbaga decoration; 1200 - 1500; Museum of the Americas

Muisca

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  The Muisca raft; circa 600–1600; gold alloy; 7.7 x 3.9 in. (19.5 x 10.1 cm); Gold Museum (Bogotá, Colombia)

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  Tunjo; 10th - 16th centuries; from Guatavita Lake region; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

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  Mask; gold; 3.4 x 5 in. (8.7 x 12.7& cm); Gold Museum (Bogotá)

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  Ceramic mask; Colombian National Museum (Bogotá)

Zenú

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  Two-headed deer-shaped ornament; circa 400 - 1000; Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland, Ohio, USA)

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  Owl-shaped ornament; circa 400 - 1000; Cleveland Museum of Art

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  Bird finial; 5th - 10th centuries; gold; height 43⁄4 in. (12.1 cm); Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

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  Olla with circular base and modeled figures; 500 - 1550; ceramic yellow-ware; height: 11.2 in. (28.6 cm); width: 12.5 in. (31.8 cm); Walters Art Museum (Baltimore, USA)

Tairona

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  Small footed bowl with tiger head handles; 1000 - 1500; earthenware; 2 x 4 in. (5 × 10.1 cm); Walters Art Museum (Baltimore, USA)

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  Ancestral figure; 1000 - 1550; brown stone; height: 7.1 in. (18.1 cm), width: 1.8 in. (4.8 cm); Walters Art Museum

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  Anthropomorphic pendant; 1000 - 1550; gold alloy casting; width: 5³⁄₄ in. (14.6 cm); Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

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  Anthropomorphic pendant; 18th century; gold; height: 5.1 in. (13 cm), width: 5.1 in. (13 cm), depth: 1.7 in. (4.5 cm); Musée du Quai Branly (Paris)

Andes region

Valdivia

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  Parrot figure; 4000-1500 BC

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  Ancestor statue with six faces; Casa del Alabado Museum of Pre-Columbian Art (Quito, Ecuador)

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  Jaguar-shaped figure; 2000 -1000 BC; green serpentine

Chavín

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  A Chavin stone sculpture in the shape of a head of a man, an ornament from a wall; 9th century BC; Museo de la Nación (Lima, Peru)

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  Chavin crown; 1200 BC - AD 1 (Formative Epoch); gold; Larco Museum (Lima)

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  Stirrup-spout vessel with scroll ornament; ceramic; 900 - 200 BC; height: 7.2 in. (18.4 cm), diameter: 6.4 in. (16.2 cm); Dallas Museum of Art (Dallas, Texas, USA)

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  Raimondi Stela; 5th-3rd century BCE; granite; height: 6 ft. 6 in. (1.95 m); Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Antropología e Historia del Perú (Lima, Peru)

Paracas

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  Paracas mantle; AD 200 Larco Museum, Lima-Perú
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  Nazca mantle from Paracas Necropolis, 0-100. This is a "double fish" (probably sharks) design. Brooklyn Museum collections

Nasca

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  A fish-like double spout and bridge vessel from Cahuachi
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  An example of the Nasca Lines

Moche

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  Ceremonial headdress; 300 - 600; gold, chrysocolla & shells

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  Pottery that represents a Crawling Feline; ceramic with nacre inlays; Larco Museum (Lima, Peru)

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  2 ear ornaments with winged runners; 5th - 8th centuries; gold, turquoise, sodalite & shell; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

Recuay

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  Seated figure; 2nd century BCE-3rd century CE; stone; 25 × 171⁄2 × 8 in. (63.5 × 44.45 × 20.32 cm); weight: 226 lb. (102.51 kg); Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

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  Effigy bottle; 200 BC - AD 500; earthenware & slip paint; height: 11.1 in. (28.2 cm), diameter: 8 in. (20.5 cm); Walters Art Museum (Baltimore, USA)

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  Vase with music scene; 300 BC - AD 300; painted clay; height: 8.5 in. (21.5 cm); from northern coastal region of Peru; Kloster Allerheiligen (Schaffhausen; Switzerland)

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  Textile fragment; 4th–6th century; camelid hair; overall: 13 × 321⁄2 in. (33.02 x 82.55 cm); Metropolitan Museum of Art

Tolita

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  Standing figure; 1st century BC - 1st century AD; embossed gold; height: 9 in. (22.9 cm); Metropolitan Museum of Art

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  Nose-ornament; 1st - 5th centuries; gold and embossed silver; Metropolitan Museum of Art

Wari

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  Ornament in the shape of a bird; 6th - 10th centuries; embossed gold; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

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  Anthropomorphic figure; 7th - 10th centuries; burned clay; from Mantaro Valley; Museum Rietberg (Zürich, Switzerland)

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  Mozaic figure; 7th - 11th centuries; wood with shell-and-stone inlay & silver; 4 x 2.5 x 1 in. (10.2 x 6.4 x 2.6 cm); from the Wari Empire; Kimbell Art Museum (Fort Worth, Texas, USA)

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  Sacrificer-shaped container; circa 769 - 887; wood & cinnabar; Cleveland Museum of Art (USA)

Lambayeque/Sican

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  Beaker cups; 9th - 11th centuries; gold; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

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  Cup; 900 - 1100; Art Institute of Chicago (USA)

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  Sican headdress mask; 10th - 11th century; gold, silver & paint; height: 11¹⁄₂ in. (29.2 cm); Metropolitan Museum of Art

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  Ceremonial knife (tumi); 10th - 13th centuries; gold, turquoise, greenstone & shell; height: 1 ft. 1 in. (33 cm); Metropolitan Museum of Art

Tiwanaku

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  Closeup of carved stone tenon-head embedded in wall of Tiwanaku's Semi-subterranean Temple
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  Anthropomorphic receptacle
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  Ponce stela in the sunken courtyard of the Tiwanaku's Kalasasaya temple

Capulí

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  Pendant; 4th - 10th centuries; gold; height: 5³⁄₄ in. (14.6 cm); Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

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  Face-shaped plaque; 7th - 12th centuries; gold; diameter: 3⁵⁄₈ in. (1.9 cm); Metropolitan Museum of Art

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  Male figure-shaped coca chewer on a bench; 9th - 15th centuries; ceramic; height: 8¹⁄₂ in. (21.6 cm), width: 4 in. (10.2 cm); Metropolitan Museum of Art

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  Bowl supported by 3 figures; 850 - 1500; resist-painted ceramic; height: 11¹⁄₄ in. (28.58 cm), diameter of the bowl: 7³⁄₄ in. (19.69 cm); from Colombia; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (USA)

Chimú empire

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  Chimú gold apparel, AD 1300, Larco Museum, Lima, Perú
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  Ceramic llama vessel, AD 1100 - 1400, Museo de América, Madrid, Spain
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  Chimu mantle, Late Intermediate Period, AD 1000 - 1476, featuring pelicans and tuna

Chancay

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  Beaded wrist ornament, ca. AD 1100 - 1399, hand-ground shell beads, cordage, 4.25 in. (10.8 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art

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  Fragment of slit tapestry with eccentric weave and applied fringe, 1000 - 1470, camel fiber and cotton, 16³⁄₄ x 18 in. (42.5 x 45.7 cm), Los Angeles County Museum of Art

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  Vessel; 1000 - 1470; earthenware, slip paint; height: 11.6 in. (29.6 cm); diameter: 4.7 in. (12.1 cm); Walters Art Museum

Inca

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  Hammered and Repoussed gold mural
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  Inca tunic

Amazonia

Amazonian indigenous peoples did not have much access to stone and metals, so they are good at featherwork, painting, textiles, jewelry, and ceramics. Feathers are used to create brilliantly colored headdresses, jewelry, clothing, and fans. Iridescent beetle wings are included in earrings and other jewelry. Weaving and basketry also thrive in the Amazon, as noted among the Urarina of Peru.

The Island of Marajó, at the mouth of the Amazon River was a major center of ceramic traditions as early as AD 1000 and continues to produce ceramics today. The ceramics are usually cream-colored and painted with lines and shapes in red, black, and white.

Caverna da Pedra Pintada (Cave of the Painted Rock) in the Pará state of Brazil houses the oldest firmly dated art in the Americas – rock paintings dating back 11,000 years. The cave is also the site of the oldest ceramics in the Americas, from 5000 BC.

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  Cave painting, Serra da Capivara National Park

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  Ceramic zoomorphic vase, Santarém culture, Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Belém, Brazil
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  Tiriyó-Kaxuyana beadwork, Memorial dos Povos Indígenas, Brasília

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  Enawene-nawe featherwork and body art

Modern and contemporary

Beginnings of contemporary Native American art

Western art historians have difficulty determining when "modern" and contemporary art began to appear. Native American art history is a new and important study. Ancestral Pueblo artists painted with tempera on woven cotton fabric, at least 800 years ago. Certain Native artists used non-Indian art materials as soon as they became available. For example, Texcocan artist Fernando de Alva Cortés Ixtlilxóchitl painted with ink and watercolor on paper in the late 16th century. Art schools began using easels to paint in the 17th and 18th centuries. The first cabinets of curiosities (early museums) in the 16th century featured Native American art.

In the Native American art world, the people continue to use much of their art rather than display it. This is called utilitarian art. For example, the Cherokee Nation honors its greatest artists as Living Treasures, including frog- and fish-gig makers, flint knappers, basket weavers, sculptors, painters, and textile artists.

Non-native people traded with and bought art from natives since they made contact, but during the 1820s - 1840s, the art market was quite popular. In the Pacific Northwest and the Great Lakes region, tribes depended on art to get money because the fur trade was declining. A painting movement known as the Iroquois Realist School began among the Haudenosaunee in New York in the 1820s.

Other modern and contemporary artists include Edmonia Lewis, who carved the portrait of President Ulysses S. Grant; Ho-Chunk artist Angel De Cora; and the Kiowa Six. The Santa Fe Indian Market began in 1922 and exhibited Native American art.

Basketry

Basket weaving is one of the ancient and most-widespread art forms in the Americas. Many materials have been used to weave baskets including sea lyme grass, bark, vegetable fibers, horsehair, baleen (whale), copper sheets, wire, exposed film, and various kinds of grasses.

California and Great Basin tribes are considered some of the finest basket weavers in the world. Pomo basket weavers are known to weave 60–100 stitches per inch and their rounded, coiled baskets decorated with quail's topknots, feathers, abalone, and clamshell discs are known as "treasure baskets."

A complex technique called "double weave," which involves continuously weaving both an inside and outside surface is practiced by the Choctaw, Cherokee, Chitimacha, Tarahumara, and Venezuelan tribes. The Tarahumara, or Raramuri, of Copper Canyon, Mexico, normally weave with pine needles and sotol. In Panama, Embera-Wounaan peoples are famous for their chunga palm baskets with pictures, known as hösig di. These baskets are colored using vivid natural dyes.

Yanomamo basket weavers of the Venezuelan Amazon paint their woven tray and burden baskets with geometric designs in charcoal and onto, a red berry. While in most tribes the basket weavers are often women, among the Waura tribe in Brazil, men weave baskets. They weave a wide range of styles, but the largest are called mayaku. They can be tightly woven in many designs and be two feet wide.

Today basket weaving often leads to environmental activism. Careless pesticide spraying endangers basket weavers' health. The emerald ash borer attacks the black ash tree, which is used by basket weavers from Michigan to Maine. Many native plants that basket weavers use are endangered. Various activists are working with their tribes to help save the plants and make others aware of the problem.

Beadwork

Beadwork is a typical Native American art form, but it uses beads imported from Europe and Asia. Glass beads have been in use for almost five centuries in the Americas. Today a wide range of beading styles flourish:

• In the Great Lakes, Ursuline nuns introduced floral patterns to tribes, who quickly applied them to beadwork. Great Lakes tribes are known for their bandolier bags which might take an entire year to complete.
• During the 20th century, the Plateau tribes such as the Nez Perce stitched lines of beads to create pictures.
• Plains tribes make dance outfits for men and women that have a variety of beadwork styles.
• Subarctic tribes such as the Dene bead lavish floral dog blankets.
• Eastern tribes like the Innu, Mi'kmaq, Penobscot, and Haudenosaunee (Iriquois)tribes are known for symmetrical scroll motifs in white beads, called the "double curve." The Iroquois are also known for "embossed" beading in which beads pop up from the surface when strings are pulled tightly.
• Indians of Jalisco and Nayarit, Mexico have a unique way of using beads. They stick beads, one by one, to a surface, such as wood or a gourd, with a mixture of resin and beeswax.

Some contemporary Native beadworkers include Richard Aitson (Kiowa-Apache), Teri Greeves, Marcus Amerman (Choctaw) Roger Amerman, Martha Berry (Cherokee), Jamie Okuma (Luiseño-Shoshone-Bannock), Juanita Growing Thunder Fogarty, Rhonda Holy Bear, Charlene Holy Bear, and Elizabeth James Perry ([[Aquinnah Wampanoag-Eastern Band Cherokee).

Ceramics

In Caverna da Pedra Pintada in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, pottery has been found that shows that ceramics have been created in the Americas for the last 8,000 years. The Island of Marajó in Brazil remains a major center of ceramic art today. In Mexico, Mata Ortiz pottery continues the ancient Casas Grandes tradition of polychrome (made with 3 or more colors) pottery.

In the Southeast, the Catawba tribe is known for its tan-and-black marked pottery. In Oklahoma, Cherokees lost their pottery traditions until Anna Belle Sixkiller Mitchell brought them back. The Caddo tribe's centuries-long pottery tradition had died out in the early 20th century, but Jereldine Redcorn made it popular again.

Pueblo people are particularly known for their ceramic traditions. Some famous Pueblo ceramic artists include Nampeyo, Maria and Julian Martinez, Lucy Lewis, Virgil Ortiz, and Helen Cordero.

Northern potters in the Arctic are not as well-known as the southern Arctic potters. However, ceramic arts flourish in the Arctic as well. Inuit potter, Makituk Pingwartok of Cape Dorset uses a pottery wheel to create her prizewinning ceramics.

Today, contemporary Native potters create a variety of ceramics, ranging from small pottery that can be used to giant ceramic sculptures. Some famous contemporary Native potters include Roxanne Swentzell of Santa Clara Pueblo, Nora Naranjo-Morse, Diego Romero of Cochiti Pueblo, and hundreds more artists.

Jewelry

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  German silver hair comb, by Bruce Caeser (Pawnee/Sac & Fox), Oklahoma, 1984, Oklahoma Historical Society

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  Silver overlay bolo tie by Tommy Singer (Navajo), New Mexico, c. 1980s

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  Navajo stamped silver belt buckle, collection of Woolaroc

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  Shell gorget carved by Benny Pokemire (Eastern Band Cherokee)

Performance art

Performance art is a new art form that appeared in the 1960s. Performance art uses storytelling traditions, as well as music and dance. Sometimes video, film, and textile design are included in the performances as well. It allows artists to confront their audience directly, make people think about stereotypes, and bring up current issues. For instance, Rebecca Belmore, a Canadian Ojibway performance artist, calls attention to violence against First Nations women. She and James Luna, a Luiseño-Mexican performance artist, create complicated outfits and props for their performances and play many characters.

On the other hand, Marcus Amerman, a Choctaw performance artist, plays one role: the Buffalo Man, who uses irony to comment on issues from the odd situations in which he finds himself. Jeff Marley, Cherokee, pulls from the tradition of the "booger dance" to use humor to cause people to think about current issues.

Erica Lord, Inupiaq-Athabaskan, uses her performance art to explore her mixed-race identity. A Bolivian anarcha-feminist cooperative, Mujeres Creando, or "Women Creating," features many indigenous artists.

Photography

Native Americans began creating art using photography in the 19th century. Some even owned their own photography studios, such as Benjamin Haldane (1874–1941), Tsimshian of Metlakatla Village on Annette Island, Alaska; Jennie Ross Cobb (Cherokee Nation, 1881–1959) of Park Hill, Oklahoma; and Richard Throssel (Cree, 1882–1933) of Montana. Their early photographs stand in stark contrast to the heart-warming images of Edward Curtis and other contemporary artists.

Martín Chambi (Quechua, 1891–1973), a photographer from Peru, was one of the first Indigenous photographers of South America. Peter Pitseolak (Inuk, 1902–1973), from Cape Dorset, Nunavut, photographed Inuit life in the mid-20th century while dealing with challenges presented by the harsh climate and extreme light conditions of the Canadian Arctic. He developed his film himself in his igloo, and some of his photos were shot near oil lamps. Parker McKenzie (1897–1999), Nettie Odlety McKenzie (1897–1978), and Horace Poolaw (Kiowa, 1906–1984) shot over 2000 images of neighbors and relatives in Western Oklahoma from the 1920s onward. Jean Fredericks (Hopi, 1906–1990) carefully changed Hopi cultural views toward photography and did not offer his portraits of Hopi people for sale to the public.

Today countless Native people are professional art photographers. Native photographers have taken their skills into the fields of art videography, photo collage, digital photography, and digital art.

Printmaking

Although it is widely assumed that the ancient Adena stone tablets were used for printmaking, not much is known about aboriginal American printmaking. 20th-century Native artists have borrowed techniques from Japan and Europe, such as woodcut, linocut, serigraphy, monotyping, and other practices.

Printmaking has flourished among Inuit communities in particular. European-Canadian James Houston created a graphic art program in Cape Dorset, Nunavut, in 1957. Houston taught local Inuit stone carvers how to create prints from stone blocks and stencils. Cooperative print shops were also established in nearby communities, including Baker Lake, Puvirnituq, Holman, and Pangnirtung. These shops have experimented with etching, engraving, lithography, and silkscreen. Natural settings and animals are usually printed with little to no background. Shops produced yearly catalogs so that people could buy their prints.

Many Native painters transformed their paintings into fine art prints. Some famous Native printers include Potawatomi artist Woody Crumbo, Kiowa-Caddo-Choctaw painter T.C. Cannon, Mapuche printmaker Santos Chávez, Melanie Yazzie (Navajo), Linda Lomahaftewa (Hopi-Choctaw), Fritz Scholder (Cowlitz), Debora Iyall (Cowlitz), and Walla Walla artist James Lavadour.

Sculpture

Native Americans have created sculptures, both enormous and small, for millennia. Stone sculptures are everywhere throughout the Americas, in the forms of stelae, inuksuit, and statues. Alabaster stone carving is popular among Western tribes, where catlinite carving is traditional in the Northern Plains and fetish-carving is traditional in the Southwest, particularly among the Zuni. The Taíno of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic are known for their zemis – sacred, three-pointed stone sculptures.

Inuit artists sculpt with walrus ivory, caribou antlers, bones, soapstone, serpentinite (a dark, greenish rock), and argillite (a rock made from clay that does not split easily). They often sculpt local animals and humans engaged in hunting or ceremonial activities.

Edmonia Lewis began using materials that were non-Native to sculpt objects. Others like Allan Houser (Warms Springs Chiricahua Apache), who used bronze and taught at the Institute of American Indian Arts, and Roxanne Swentzell (Santa Clara Pueblo), who used ceramic and bronze, followed.

The Northwest Coastal tribes are known for their woodcarving – most famously their giant totem poles that display clan crests (symbols of belonging to a tribe and of loyalty to its chief). Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole carvers such as Charlie James, Mungo Martin, Ellen Neel, and Willie Seaweed kept the art alive and also carved masks, furniture, bentwood boxes, and jewelry. Haida carvers include Charles Edenshaw, Bill Reid, and Robert Davidson. Besides working in wood, Haida also work with argillite. Glass sculpture became famous because of people like Preston Singletary (Tlingit), Susan Point (Coast Salish), and Marvin Oliver (Quinault/Isleta Pueblo).

In the Southeast, woodcarving is more popular than sculpture. Willard Stone, of Cherokee descent, and Amanda Crowe (Eastern Band Cherokee) are two popular woodworking artists of the 20th century.

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  For Life in all Directions, Roxanne Swentzell (Santa Clara Pueblo), bronze, NMAI

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  Pai Tavytera traditional woodcarving, Amambay Department, Paraguay, 2008

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  Each/Other by Marie Watt and Cannupa Hanska Luger, 2021

Textiles

Fiber work dating back 10,000 years was discovered in Guitarrero Cave in Peru. Cotton and wool from alpaca, llamas, and vicuñas have been woven into detailed fabrics for thousands of years in the Andes and are still important parts of Quechuas and Aymara culture today.

Kuna tribal members of Panama and Colombia are famous for their molas, cotton panels of fabric with intricate designs. Two mola panels form a blouse, but when a Kuna woman is tired of the blouse, she can take it apart and sell the molas to art collectors.

Mayan women have woven cotton with backstrap looms for centuries, creating items like huipils or traditional blouses. Elaborate Maya textiles featured representations of animals, plants, and figures from oral history. Many women join weaving collectives (weaving clubs that help women by providing looms and materials). This has helped Mayan women earn better money for their work and greatly expand the reach of Mayan textiles in the world.

After Seminole seamstresses started using sewing machines in the late 19th century and early 20th centuries, they invented an elaborate appliqué patchwork tradition. They used patches of cloth and sewed them on other larger pieces of cloth in beautiful patterns. Seminole patchwork, for which the tribe is known today, came into full flower in the 1920s.

Great Lakes and Prairie tribes are known for their ribbon work, found on clothing and blankets. Strips of silk ribbons are cut and sewn in layers, creating designs. The colors and designs might reflect the clan or sex of the wearer. Powwow and other dance outfits from these tribes often feature ribbon work. These tribes are also known for their finger-woven sashes.

Pueblo men weave with cotton on upright looms. Their mantas (rectangular material worn as a blanket or as a wrap-around dress) and sashes are normally made for ceremonies in the community, not for outside collectors.

Navajo rugs are woven by Navajo women today from Navajo-Churro sheep or commercial wool. Designs can be pictorial or abstract, based on traditional Navajo, Spanish, Oriental, or Persian designs. 20th-century Navajo weavers include Clara Sherman and Hosteen Klah, who co-founded the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian.

In 1973, the Navajo Studies Department of the Diné College in Many Farms, Arizona, determined that the length of time it took a Navajo weaver to create a rug or blanket from sheep shearing to market was 345 hours. Out of these 345 hours, the expert Navajo weaver needed: 45 hours to shear the sheep and process the wool, 24 hours to spin the wool, 60 hours to prepare the dye and to dye the wool, 215 hours to weave the piece, and only one hour to sell the item in their shop.

Traditional textiles of Northwest Coast peoples using non-Western materials and techniques are enjoying a dramatic revival. Tlingit weaver Jennie Thlunaut (1982–1986) greatly helped in this revival.

Experimental 21st-century textile artists include Lorena Lemunguier Quezada, a Mapuche weaver from Chile; Martha Gradolf (Winnebago); Valencia, Joseph, and Ramona Sakiestewa (Hopi); and Melissa Cody (Navajo).

Cultural sensitivity and returning of artifacts

As in most cultures, Native peoples create some works that are to be used only in sacred, private ceremonies. Many sacred objects are not allowed to be seen or touched by anyone other than those with special privileges or knowledge. Midewiwin birch bark scrolls are deemed too culturally sensitive (remaining considerate of other cultures) for public display. Medicine bundles, certain sacred pipes and pipe bags, and other tools of medicine people are not displayed either.

Navajo sandpainting is part of healing ceremonies, but sandpaintings can be made into permanent art that is acceptable to sell to non-Natives as long as holy people are not shown. Many tribes do not allow their sacred ceremonies to be photographed or sketched.

Tribes and individuals within tribes do not always agree about what is or is not appropriate to display to the public. Many artifacts that have to do with death or warriors' power are not displayed in museums and have been returned to the place they were made.

Museum representation

Native American arts have had a long and complicated relationship with museum representation since the early 1900s. In 1931, The Exposition of Indian Tribal Arts was the first large-scale show that held Native American art on display. After the Civil Rights Movement, artifacts of minorities were displayed more in museums. However, Native American art was not always displayed positively. For instance, Native American art pieces and artifacts would often be shown next to dinosaur bones, suggesting that they are a people of the past and that they do not exist or are not important in today's world. Native American remains (bodies of the dead) were on display in museums until the 1960s.

Native American art has recently become more popular. There are more shows, areas where it is seen, and displays in museums. For five months starting in October 2017, three Native American works of art were selected from the Charles and Valerie Diker Collection to be exhibited in the American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 does not allow non-Indigenous artists to claim to be Native American artists. Museum curators are careful to properly represent cultures that are not well-known. When they show the works in museums, it helps the public understand the artists and their cultures.