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Native Art Of Native American Art : Plains Indians

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Native American Art: Plains Indians When someone is presented with the word “art” many different definitions can come to mind. When most people in the United States think of art, they think of a painting on a wall or a sculpture in a museum. Before there was museum to go to, Native people were creating art that told stories and explained the histories of where they came from. Native people began expressing themselves through art by using natural resources such as seashells, cooper, wood from trees, plants, animal’s skins and furs, and other accessible items. Once the Europeans made their way to the Americas, they introduced new materials such as glass, beads, metal, and cloth to Native people to explore even more art forms. But before the Europeans began to lead native people towards more contemporary art, Plains people were expressing themselves through many different types of art such as rock, hide, beads, and pipes. As the Plains Indians began to settle between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi river, they soon started creating their own traditions and way of life. Although the plains were one of the most prosperous agricultural zones in the United States, it was always one of the last chunks of land surveyed by Europeans because of the wide spread diseases than ran through it (Penney 107). Before the introduction of guns to the Indians living in the plains, they had to find a way to feed their families without shooting down big prey. Most big game hunters

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