Art Of The Indigenous Americas

Inca art is best seen in highly polished metalwork and ceramics. When the war happened between the Inca's and the European, they had destroyed the art of the Inca's. So, it was hard to resemble it. They were inspired by the Chimu civilization. From research I learned that the Inca's weren't poor and they used high quality such as stone to build all the buildings. Their only choice of stone was Yucay limestone, green Sacsayhuaman diorite porphyry, and black andesite. So there wasn't much variety.

Native American culture was a great influence on newly introduced western art when settlers first came to North America. Not only did Native Americans have their own style of art, sculpture, basket weaving, and other fine arts. Their artistic styles helped influence some European art and gave them a different outlook on not only art itself, but a brand new culture that they have not seen before. This paper will talk about the different styles of Native American art and compare it to European art styles and artist, as well as going into detail about how their culture influenced artistic styles.

The long history between Native American and Europeans are a strained and bloody one. For the time of Columbus’s subsequent visits to the new world, native culture has

Native American art is a profoundly expressive culture that has been a way of life for so many Native Americans. Native American art history has advanced over thousands of years and is composed of several idiosyncratic styles from the differentiating cultures of diverse Indian tribes. From Navajo to Hopi, each tribe has a particular history, which consists of many types of Native American arts including beadwork, jewelry, weaving, pottery, carvings, kachinas, masks, totem poles, and more. To truly understand Native American art, we will explore Native American art history, its subjects, and if Native American art has a spiritual connection to it.

The fascination with Native Americans has been a constant with outsiders since explorers first “discovered” the New World. The biggest surge in this fascination came in the mid-19th century when the Indian Wars were starting to come to an end and the belief that Native Americans were disappearing, walking into the sunset never to be seen again. This led to an increase in the collecting of anything Native American, from artifacts to stories to portraits. The inevitable outcome of this was that Native Americans, who were never considered very highly to begin with, where now moved into a category of scientific interest to be study. This scientific interest in Native Americans is what many museums and other institutions based their collections and exhibits on and is one of the issues that many Native Americans have with how both their people and their culture were, and to some extent still are, represented in these places.

1) The book, 1491, by Charles C. Mann gives readers a deeper insight into the Americas before the age of Columbus, explaining the development and significance of the peoples who came before us. Moreover, Mann’s thesis is such; the civilizations and tribes that developed the Americas prior to the discovery by Europeans arrived much earlier than first presumed, were far greater in number, and were vastly more sophisticated than we had earlier believed. For instance, Mann writes, regarding the loss of Native American culture:

Traditions are often taught through hunting and gathering, song and oration, and environmental stewardship (About The Hualapai Nation, 4). Depending on the time, Hualapai will go to upper or lower regions of their land to hunt. Migration traditions help preserve and pass on cultural truths and lessons that connect Hualapai to their elders, community, lands, past, present, and future (About The Hualapai Nation, 4-5). Hualapai are deeply connected with nature and believe they are connected to the Colorado River, which they call Ha’yiđađa (About The Hualapai Nation, 6). They believe that they were created from the sediment and clay from the River (About The Hualapai Nation, 6). Elements around and in the canyon all hold deep symbolic meanings (About The Hualapai Nation, 6). The people seek to preserve and protect the land of their

In the early history of the United States, even before Europeans set foot in North America, there were Native Americans all across the continent. Native Americans lived in tribes and were nomadic. Although they were nomadic, they would also inhabit “permanent villages” where they would live year-round. On the occasion that those “permanent villages” were abandoned, left behind would be artifacts from their culture that explained a great amount about their lifestyle and traditions. These popular artifacts were most commonly found in southwest and northeast regions such as the Great Plains, the Great Basin, and the Mississippi River Valley.

It has been thought for many years that the Americas were a vastly unpopulated land until Columbus came. However new evidence disputes this previously thought notion. Archeologist, who have been studying the remains of Native American culture, have found evidence suggesting that the Indians were in the Americas for much longer and in greater numbers than what was believed. This new evidence shows us the impact the Europeans had on the New World and gives us insight into what the Americas were like before the Europeans and what they may have been had the Europeans never settled here.

There were many American Indian tribes living in the Americas before Europeans “discovered” the continents; some of these tribes had very distinguishing cultures unique to their tribe. A few of these cultures are those of the Aztec, Mayan, and Inca empires and of the Pueblo people of the Southwest. These cultures are very unique and recognizable by their way of life. The Aztec, Mayan, and Inca empires and the Pueblo peoples; with their geographic location and architecture, their religion and governments, and their notable innovations became some of the most recognizable American Indian tribes to date.

To start off, a Natural History Museum is usually a place where the public can visit to obtain knowledge on the history of the earth and its inhabitants. Much about people’s culture and customs is found in a Natural History museum, especially people that have made a difference or played a role in history that we learn today. Therefore, the Indigenous peoples are represented in these precise museums. The indigenous people have various amount of customs that are even used today, however, the fact that many of their descriptions are led by the word “histor” or “ancient” almost makes the guests at museums believe that these indigenous people are no longer alive, and that is incorrect. The key objective for a Natural History museum is to simply help connect the understanding of human beings, connections based on culture, communities, to the earth and to each other. Precisely, The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles does not fully represent in depth the qualities that made the indigenous people so innovative, intelligent, and powerful; Therefore, the importance of the indigenous people is almost overshadowed by everything else that is presented at the museum. Overall, the indigenous people are represented here because of their

Roughly 16,000- 40,000 years ago a group of nomadic people known as the Paleo-Indians who are the ancestors of the Native Americans followed the herds of animals from Siberia to Alaska across a land bridge called Beringia that connected Asia to North America (Mintz & McNeil, 2013). The land bridge that was used has been covered by water due to the rise of the Bering and Chukchi Seas (United States National Parks Services [NPS], 2014). The timeline for this journey has been in question because nothing was recorded so archeologists have an approximate time this took place. By the year 8,000 B.C.E these nomadic people spread and settled into different tribes throughout North and South America

Chaco Canyon is a historical site that is often forgotten but is still an amazing place to know about. What was the history, the culture and why did the Chacoans build such immense structures that were not occupied year-round.

Native American Art History suggests the indigenous tribal peoples did not experiment with various art forms until the advent of the “colonial presence”. It was through the social and cultural interaction with Europeans that the tribal peoples were exposed to materials that were different from those common to their understanding, such as beads.

Art is a very realistic aspect among the Native Americans. In fact, what we call primitive art is actually symbolic objects from the process of a sacred ceremony. This concept is one not easily understood. Furthermore, this concept by Sam Gill is explained in Native American Religions. Sam Gill shows that Native American Art is different in meaning because of its contents then what modern societies consider art. Nonliterate people produce objects of beauty through ceremonial performances and rituals that keeps the cosmos in order, while modern societies over look these factors.