North American Indian Crafts

"Details how Native American culture evolved, the artifacts produced on the continent and the ways they were made, and the techniques of decoration and embellishment that utilized a variety of disparate natural commodities that depended on geographical necessity and abundance"--Jacket flap.

Artistic traditions of indigenous North America are explored in a study that draws on the testimonies of oral tradition, Native American history, and North American archaeology, focusing on the artists themselves and their cultural identities. Original.

Uses of shields, drums, tipis, and other items, plus numerous well-illustrated, easy-to-follow projects—making clothing, tipis, wigwams, bows, arrows; fire-building; games; ritual song and dance. 30 photos; over 100 line drawings and diagrams.

The richness of Native American art is explored from the early pre-Columbian period to the present day, stressing the conceptual and iconographic continuities over five centuries and across an immensely diverse range of regions. 53 color photos. 104 halftones. 8 maps.

Fourteen authorities explore sociology, anthropology, art history of Native American creativity.

Rich selection of 391 copyright-free designs adapted from the art and artifacts of the Zuntilde;i, Hopi, Navajo, Sioux, Comanche, Haida, Tlingit, Maya, Aztecs and other Native American tribes. Handsomely executed designs for enhancing posters, newsletters, brochures, school reports and more. Disk contains all items in book.

Art of the American Indian Frontier examines an incomparable collection of nineteenth-century Native American art from the North American Woodlands, Prairie, and Plains. The collection resulted from the efforts of Milford G. Chandler and Richard A. Pohrt, whose early childhood fascination with the Indian frontier past evolved into a deep and comprehensive interest in Native American ceremonies, beliefs, and art. Though neither was wealthy or enjoyed the sponsorship of a museum, they traveled extensively early in the twentieth century, buying or trading for objects they could not resist. This volume presents the Detroit Institute of Art's Chandler-Pohrt collection with detailed documentation and commentary. Clothing and accessories of porcupine quill and buckskin, woven textiles, bags, beadwork, necklaces, rawhide paintings, smoking pipes, tools, vessels and utensils, pictographs, and visionary paintings are portrayed in 220 stunning color plates. Complementing the illustrations are essays dealing with historical context, ethnographic issues, and the lives and philosophies of the collectors.