Ernest Smith, Sky Woman, 1936
Native
American
Art
Serpent Mounds
Iroquois Long
House
Vincent Bomberry
(Iroqouis)
The Birth of Good and
Evil
1982
Steatite
Stan Hill
(Mohawk)
Corn Spirit
1983
MediumMoose Antler
24” high
Iroquois
Stan Hill
(Mohawk)
Eagle Pair
1983
Medium Deer
Antler
Irving Chrisjohn
(Oneida)
Moccasins
Braided Corn Husks
9.5” long
Doris Hudson
(Tuscarora)
Pin Cushion
Glass Beads on Velvet
11” high
Indian Pipes
Note: These notes are published since Julie did not have time to fully present her topic.
In the precontact period plains artists created monumental earthworks that we call
“land art” today. These are mostly giant round solar symbols formed from boulders or
mounded dirt, and were probably used as ritual spaces and burial mounds. The Precontact
period was the period before contact with the Europeans. The Archaic Period of the PreContact Period (8000-1000 B.C.E.) marked the beginning of a 5000-year long tradition of
building large scale earthworks that were used as burial sites and ceremonial centers. These
mounds are comparable to other better-known great building projects of the ancient world
because they demanded great investments of human labor, organizational skills, and cultural
will to sustain this effort over many centuries.
During the Early Woodland Period, which was in the Paleoindian period of the ProContact Period (12,000-8000 B.C.E.) there was also a focus on mound building dedicated
specifically to highly elaborate burials. These developments reached a particular intensity in
the central Ohio River Valley between about 1-350 C.E. Many mound complexes are
marked by a geometric precision of design and construction. Placed in some of these
mounds were an unprecedented quantity of offerings of luxury goods and impressive works
of art. Among some of the items that were placed in graves were ceramic pots, offerings of
luxury goods, plaques of animals, and human figures carved from mica and copper, stone
platform pipes in shapes of birds, frogs, beavers, and other animals, and treasures of shell
and copper jewelry. These items were offered only to the deceased of the elite, and this
implies a hierarchical social structure that contrasts with the Archaic Period.
We will never know the full scope of these mounds because of the effects of time and
assimilation into the landscape. These ancient earthworks are the finest expressions of the
Native North American quest for a harmony of natural and artificial forms. Finding construction materials posed a few problems for the earthwork builders. Soil from designated
sites was hauled in baskets and used to shape the structures. Since it is hard to date dirt,
these mounds have been dated using the items that were found in them. Some mounds have no
contents however.
The Serpent mound is located in southern Ohio. It has been attributed to the Adena culture
(1000 to 1 BCE.) since the 1880’s. This is because three mounds with Adena remains are close
by. IN 1991 charcoal was excavated from it that produced dates to the later Mississippian
period (1000-1600 A.D.) and now the mound is dated 1070 C.E.
It appears to have a coiled tail at one end and a mouth filled with an oval shape at the other. It is
interpreted as a striking snake with a wide-open mouth and may be swallowing an egg or grog.
It is a quarter-mile-long and is the largest surviving mound in North America. There have been
several interpretations as to it’s meaning. It has been interpreted as the sun in eclipse and a life
renewal symbol. Because snakes shed their skin snakes have also been associated with rain,
fertility and healing. The snake was feared and avoided and at the same time revered and
coveted and seen as critical to human life. It is located on the edge of a promontory above the
Ohio Brush Creek. The outline is made of stones and clay and it was filled with a foundation of
yellow clay and capped with baskets of dirt. There have also been different ideas as to its
original function, which includes a territorial boundary marker, a geoglyph of Haley’s comet, a
site for community feasts and an astronomical chart.
Iroquois art is not seen as art that is individualistic to the artist but it all seems to capture a
unified Iroquois spirit. The Iroquois are composed of six separate nations; the Mohawk,
Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora. * Here you see a conceptual drawing of an
Iroquois longhouse. The traditional dwelling of the Iroquoian peoples is the longhouse. It is a
large house up to 400 feet long. It is made of poles sheathed in sheets of elm bark, and it sheltered a number of families of the same lineage. The Iroquois Confederacy is metaphorically
expressed as a longhouse as it is shown in this conceptual drawing. Since the 1600’s the
Iroquois have been gradually losing contact with each other. They live today in seven separated
communities in New York, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Ontario, and Quebec. What amazes people is
that even though they have been gradually losing contact with each other they have preserved
their cultural unity.
A pincushion by Doris Hudson of the Tuscarora nation of the Iroquois shows how the
Iroquois are combining new media (glass beads) while still using traditional natural materials.
Glass beads from Europe have been used as an integral part of clothing decoration and personal
adornment, and the patterns may form ancient symbols. Another example of a combination of
old traditions using new materials would be found in clothing. They still make and fashion
some clothing using traditional designs, but may use a nontraditional material. An example of
this would be that traditional clothing and moccasins are made from deerskin. Today moccasins
are still made, but may be made with commercially tanned hide. A pair of moccasins by Irving
Chris John from the Iroquois nation Oneida are made with braided cornhusk. No matter
whether they are using new media or traditional materials, they acquire their knowledge through
their family. It is passed down from generation to generation. Much of Iroquois at has a specific utilitarian religious and political purpose. The Iroquois also produce more modern works
that at first may seem to be created only for esthetic reasons. Among some of these modern
Iroquois works are watercolors, oils, pen and ink drawings, and sculptures carved from stone,
animal antlers, or clay.
In the early 1900’s there were only a few Iroquois familiar with an easel and sculpture didn’t
really begin until the late 1960’s. To the public these modern works of art may seem to be
purely esthetic but they have the vital purpose of teaching to the Iroquois.
Iroquois fine arts involve symbols that are highly meaningful to tribal members. These symbols
are reminders of traditional Iroquois ways of life that were passed down through the years. The
strength of traditional religion may be shown by using an animal antler shown in the form of
corn, beans, or squash. The Iroquois refer to the corn bean and squash spirits as “Our ThreeSisters”. * Here you see a representation of the Corn Spirit by Stan Hill of the Mohawk tribe
(nation). It was made using a moose antler. A belief in the Iroquois government can be shown
by the carving of “The tree of Peace surmounted by a watchful eagle. Here you see a carving
made from deer antlers by Stan Hill from the Mohawk tribe and you can see the watchful eagles
that represent strong beliefs in their governments. Iroquois art are public statements of what they
greatly value and not just for esthetic reasons and these cultural symbols that they use unite them
to their ancestors and their future.
The Iroquois story of creation is illustrated by a painting entitled Sky Woman painted in 1336
by Ernest Smith of the Seneca tribe. Sky Woman is pushed from the land of the sky people
through a hole opened up by the uprooting of the great tree of light. She was carried by the
wings of birds to a safe landing spot on the back of a great turtle. A clod of earth was brought up
from beneath the waters and this clod expanded as Sky woman walked around until it became the
earth, as we know it. Sky woman gives birth to twins. One twin is called “Good Mind” ands the
other “Bad Mind”. Good mind created human beings and the things that would be useful to
them. Bad mind went about unleashing destructive and negative things.
It is said that just before Sky woman’s daughter was about to give birth to “Good Mind”
and “Bad Mind” that she heard them talking inside her. One was saying that they could come
out by the nearest way and the other was saying they should come out the proper way. After a
while they were born. The first came out in the usual way and the other came out through her
armpit and this killed her. A sculpture called The Birth of Good and Evil by Vincent Bomberry
of the Onondaga tribe done in 1982 portrays the birth of good and evil as believed by the
Iroquois people. This sculpture is made of stone and is expressing the challenge of moral choice
as a physical tension that twists and pulls at the mother’s body. This story and sculpture is
supposed to alert the listener to the central themes of Iroquois traditional teaching, which are the
dangers of antisocial conduct and the need for vigilance in maintaining order and peace.
The Artic
The material provided by the environment of the Arctic differed from those available to the
south. Walrus ivory, antler, bone, and small quantities of stone and wood provided artists with
materials for carving. Both the size of the raw materials and the nomadic way of life made
smallness of scale a virtue. Many object have survived in the northern permafrost, and the Arctic
presents one of the richest and longest archaeological records in the world. During the past
century, archaeological research has added to the collection of Arctic materials. Ancient ivory
carvers not only made functional tools for hunting marine mammals, they also elaborated these
tools, small-scale replicas and amulets with incised and carved designs. In coastal regions of
North and West Alaska, starting around 500 BCE this cultural complex is termed ‘The Old
Bering Sea Culture’, with various manes for different phases and regions. The Old Bering Sea
Culture is most likely part of one widespread tradition transmitted from west to east and flourishing in the centuries from 500 BCE to 1000 CE. One early sites was Okvik, on a small island off
the coast of St Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea, where archaeologists excavated several dozen
small ivory figurines, mostly female, suggesting ceremonialism centering on a female supernatural with both human and animal characteristics. Most have expressive faces, and lines incised on
their bodies. Here you see a female figure made of walrus ivory from an unknown Okvik artist
dated 100 BCE. She has a very expressive face, incised torso, exaggerated genitalia, and
legs ending in bear paws rather than human feet, this small figurine suggests an ancient
ceremonialism concerned with human fertility .
The Mississippian period (1000-1600 C.E.)was the final phase of Precontact
culture in the Eastern Woodlands. River valleys form Wisconsin to Florida supported
settlements from single-family farmsteads to cities with populations in the tens of thousands. Here is a figure by an unknown Mississippian artist called ‘Big Boy’ effigy pipe.
It is made of bauxite and is dated 1200-1350 C.E. It was found in Leffore County, Oklahoma. This figure probably represents a Caddoan chief and was made over a century
before being buried at Spiro Oklahoma with the body of a deceased member of the elite.
This figure is shown in a trance state and wears a copper headdress, massive shell-bead
necklace, and ear ornaments, illustrating how objects found at Mississippian sites would
have been used by living people
During the eighteenth century Native artists invented a new type of square or
rectangular bag attached to a strap copied form European military uniforms. Even with
the invention of this new type of bag these bags continued to display large central images
of thunderbirds and underwater beings or abstract designs that probably also expressed
the protective powers acquired from manitos (spirit beings such as the Sun or the
Thunderbird). Here you see a shoulder bad made by an unknown Anishnabe artist. The
Anishnabe are a group of Indians that lived in the area of northern Michigan and Canada.
This shoulder bag is made of deerskin, moose hair, porcupine quills, metal cones, and
deer hair. It was made between 1760-84. This bag displays the great Manito of the
upper-word, the Thunderbird, whose cosmic battles with the under-earth beings energize
the earth-world of human beings, appears on the bag. It displays an array of indigenous
needlework, tanning, and dyeing techniques, including embroidery in porcupine quills on
the body of the bag and moose hair embroidery on the strap.