Native American Art Analysis

Associated with wearing skins, living in teepees, and riding horses Native Americans are viewed as ‘country’ and lack of knowledge. Shown as dumb and have a lack of formal education, most of them live in poverty invested areas. Because of this, they feel that “one representation is better than no representation.” When a group feels underrepresented their psychological relevance and has a toil on the overall ethnic group and can make a difference in lives. Inaccurate and negative representations of Native Americans can be detrimental to the overall perception to the race in general.

In society today there are many stereotypes, including those surrounding Native Americans. The largest of these stereotypes is caused by the misrepresentation of Native Americans as sports mascots. Today, most Native Americans are depicted as, “Objects, cartoon characters, and savages” (Cummings, 2008). Often in the American

For most of my life, the word “Native American” had immediately made me think of feathers, powwows, and a society uncorrupted by civilization. However, in watching the movie Smoke Signals, a movie that depicts the modern Native American culture, I learned many other things. For one, I learned that many of the customs that modern Native Americans have are very similar to my own. I also saw that the family life of the Native Americans in the film had many of the same problems that my family had undergone in the past years. This film was unlike any that I have ever seen; therefore, it reached me on a very personal level.

The Mitchell Museum of the American Indian is located at 3001 Central Street in Evanston, Illinois. The museum’s main purpose is not only to educate the public about American Indians, but also to “deconstruct stereotypes” and give tribal members something along the lines of a safe place where they are welcome to embrace their ethnicity. One factor that showcases the information I previously stated is the fact that tribal members have free admission into the museum. Another way the museum salutes the ethnicity of American Indians is by commemorating Native individuals alive today. Names of famous Native Americans are displayed along with their contributions to the ethnic group. One of the people displayed is Sarah Deer, who is a professor and lawyer that fought for Tribal Jurisdiction.

This paper describes the Sea Bear Transformation Mask, created by Don Svanvik in 2000, and how it reflects Northwest Coast Indian art and culture, specific to the Kwakiutl tribe. A transformation mask is a large mask with hinged shutters that, when open, reveal another mask. Audrey and Alan Bleviss gave this mask to the Montclair Art Museum in 2005. The medium consists of red cedar, cedar bark, copper, pigment, and string. In the Montclair Art Museum, the mask is displayed in its open form.

Before I joined this class I didn’t know much of anything about Native Americans except the stereotypes that were shown on television whether they were positive or negative like all Native Americans live on a reservation, all Native Americans are drunks, and all Native Americans are spiritual.

I arrived around noon at the Marin Museum of American Indian which was located In Miwok Park. The Museum was a small two story building surrounded by lots of tall, beautiful trees. Thousand years ago this area was an Indian village composed of circular homes, a sweat lodge and a larger ceremonial house. On the right side of the park there was a creek which made this area Ideal location for Native Americans to live because attracted fish and ducks and other foods such as seeds and acorns, deer and rabbits available. The Coast Miwok Indians were hunters and gatherers whose ancestors had occupied the area for thousands of years. About 600 village sites have been identified in the area. They were also considered skillful craftsmen in basketry,

It would be stereotypical to draw a picture of a Native based off of the images the media and public schools paint, and would be demeaning because it would merely idealize and describe these people based off of their appearance, which would ultimately be dehumanizing. It is important not to assume a colorblind perspective when imagining and interacting with Native Americans, however, it is also irresponsible and prejudice to merely idealize them as the ways in which we were told to, rather than regarding the racism and violence they, their family, and their ancestors have experienced. Also I picked to draw a woman because often times, women of color are disregarded, but rather experience even more violence and bigotry than the men do, so I wanted to draw my image of a powerful, woman of color. The themes and patterns that emerge in my list are stereotypical ideals of Native Americans such as feathers, Teepees, Pocahontas, thanksgiving, and moccasins, that were fueled by the false narratives told by the public school systems, and the media, and white

Students will discuss as a class examples of how Native Americans are labeled with stereotypes. To begin students will watch a film clip, about sixty seconds long, on the stereotyping of Native Americans. Then, as a class, we will discuss the differences between an assimilated Native American and a traditional one and how Native Americans can fall anywhere on this spectrum. To do this, students will create individual Venn diagrams with one side being labeled assimilated, the other labeled traditional, and the middle labeled as both. Students will fill out in black ink the three areas. Once students have completed this task they will receive a reading which will be read out loud as they following along. The reading is from PBS and the link can be found in the materials and resources section of the lesson. When the reading is completed, students will do a think, pair, share; attempting to answer the question of “What does it mean for a Native American to be traditional, assimilated or both; how do you know this?” Students will then add to their Venn diagrams in blue ink. A wrap up discussion of tradition and assimilated Native Americans will close the day, to help guide discussion the following questions are discussed. Give an example of how a Native American can be both traditional and assimilated in their everyday life? Why is it important to understand how and why Native Americans can be

The concepts of today’s Native American Indians has changed considerably, however, our conception relating to the history of the Native American Indians has not changed much, but should.

The Native American culture is one that is often times overlooked in the society that we live in today. They were the first ones to settle in North America and have been here longer than any one else. Keeping to themselves has not really given the opportunity for the rest of the world to learn more about there culture that has a lot to offer.

Native American Art History is lush with a vast contribution to the American art culture. From jewelry, beading, quillwork, pottery, basketry, to the popular “dreamcatcher craze”, the variety and the beauty of Native American art history is expansive as America itself.

In contrast, representations of Native Americans are hard to find, specifically of Native American men, whom are typically portrayed

Native American rock art is a big part of early American history. Most of these fragments of history were destroyed and lost to the public due to vandalism, mass settlement and colonization, and man-made things like dams. The history of the rock art is incredibly fascinating.

Today my classmates and I took a trip to the Cherokee Reservation about an hour away from Warren Wilson college’s campus. It was most certainly worth the drive, for I have never been to a reservation before and was highly looking forward to learning about a culture, that honestly, I did not, and still do not, know enough about. In my public school education, from what I remember, my exposure to Native American studies in elementary school was primarily during Thanksgiving time, with storybooks and cartoons on bulletin boards of the Native Americans so graciously welcoming the pilgrims. As I got older, lesson plans became slightly more honest, explaining how we forced them out of their homes, treated them unfairly and discriminated against them,