Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas encompasses the visual artistic practices of the

indigenous peoples of the Americas The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples. Many Indigenous peoples of the A ...

from ancient times to the present. These include works from

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sou ...

and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

, which includes

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

and

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland ...

. The Siberian Yupiit, who have great cultural overlap with Native Alaskan

Yupiit The Yupik (plural: Yupiit) (; russian: Юпикские народы) are a group of indigenous or aboriginal peoples of western, southwestern, and southcentral Alaska and the Russian Far East. They are related to the Inuit and Iñupiat. Yu ...

, are also included. Indigenous American visual arts include portable arts, such as painting, basketry, textiles, or photography, as well as monumental works, such as

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...

land art Land art, variously known as Earth art, environmental art, and Earthworks, is an art movement that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, largely associated with Great Britain and the United StatesArt in the modern era: A guide to styles, schools, & mov ...

, public sculpture, or murals. Some Indigenous artforms coincide with Western art forms; however, some, such as porcupine quillwork or birchbark biting are unique to the Americas. Indigenous art of the Americas has been collected by Europeans since sustained contact in 1492 and joined collections in cabinet of curiosities and early museums. More conservative Western art museums have classified Indigenous art of the Americas within arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, with precontact artwork classified as pre-Columbian art, a term that sometimes refers to only precontact art by Indigenous peoples of

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived ...

. Native scholars and allies are striving to have Indigenous art understood and interpreted from Indigenous perspectives.

Lithic and Archaic stage

The

Lithic stage In the sequence of cultural stages first proposed for the archaeology of the Americas by Gordon Willey and Philip Phillips in 1958, the Lithic stage was the earliest period of human occupation in the Americas, as post-glacial hunter gatherers s ...

or Paleo-Indian period is defined as approximately 18,000 to 8,00 BCE. The period from around 8000 to 800 BCE is generally referred to as the Archaic period. While people of this time period worked in a wide range of materials, perishable materials, such as plant fibers or hides, had seldom been preserved through the millennia. Indigenous peoples created

bannerstone Bannerstones are artifacts usually found in the Eastern United States that are characterized by a centered hole in a symmetrically shaped carved or ground stone. The holes are typically " to " in diameter and extend through a raised portion ce ...

s, Projectile point, Lithic reduction styles, and pictographic cave paintings, some of which have survived in the present. Belonging in the lithic stage, the oldest known art in the Americas is a fossilized

megafauna In terrestrial zoology, the megafauna (from Greek μέγας ''megas'' "large" and New Latin ''fauna'' "animal life") comprises the large or giant animals of an area, habitat, or geological period, extinct and/or extant. The most common thresho ...

bone, possibly from a mammoth, carved with a profile of walking

mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks an ...

mastodon A mastodon ( 'breast' + 'tooth') is any proboscidean belonging to the extinct genus ''Mammut'' (family Mammutidae). Mastodons inhabited North and Central America during the late Miocene or late Pliocene up to their extinction at the end of the ...

that dates back to 11,000 BCE. The bone was found early in the 21st century near Vero Beach, Florida, in an area where human bones (

Vero man Vero man refers to a set of fossilized human bones found near Vero (now Vero Beach), Florida, in 1915 and 1916. The human bones were found in association with those of Pleistocene animals. The question of whether humans were present in Florida (o ...

) had been found in association with extinct

pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

animals early in the 20th century. The bone is too mineralized to be dated, but the carving has been authenticated as having been made before the bone became mineralized. The anatomical correctness of the carving and the heavy mineralization of the bone indicate that the carving was made while mammoths and/or mastodons still lived in the area, more than 10,000 years ago. The oldest known painted object in North America is the

Cooper Bison Skull The Cooper Bison Kill Site is an archaeological site near Fort Supply in Harper County, Oklahoma, United States. Located along the Beaver River, it was explored in 1993 and 1994 and found to contain artifacts of the Folsom tradition, including ...

from approximately 8,050 BCE.Bement, Leland C.
Bison hunting at Cooper site: where lightning bolts drew thundering herds.'' Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999: 37, 43, 176. . Lithic age art in South America includes Monte Alegre culture rock paintings created at Caverna da Pedra Pintada
dating back to 9250 to 8550 BCE. Guitarrero Cave in Peru has the earliest known textiles in South America, dating to 8000 BCE. The southwestern United States and certain regions of the Andes have the highest concentration of pictographs (painted images) and

Petroglyph A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

s (carved images) from this period. Both pictographs and petroglyphs are known as

rock art In archaeology, rock art is human-made markings placed on natural surfaces, typically vertical stone surfaces. A high proportion of surviving historic and prehistoric rock art is found in caves or partly enclosed rock shelters; this type also m ...

. File:MtnSheepPetroglyph.jpg, A petroglyph of a caravan of

bighorn sheep The bighorn sheep (''Ovis canadensis'') is a species of sheep native to North America. It is named for its large horns. A pair of horns might weigh up to ; the sheep typically weigh up to . Recent genetic testing indicates three distinct subsp ...

near Moab, Utah, United States; a common theme in glyphs from the southwestern

desert A desert is a barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About on ...

File:Coso archaic.jpg, Image:Petroglyphs in the Columbia River Gorge.jpg,

North America

Arctic

The Yup'ik of Alaska have a long tradition of carving

masks A mask is an object normally worn on the face, typically for protection, disguise, performance, or entertainment and often they have been employed for rituals and rights. Masks have been used since antiquity for both ceremonial and pract ...

for use in

shamanic Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiri ...

rituals. Indigenous peoples of the Canadian arctic have produced objects that could be classified as art since the time of the Dorset culture. While the walrus ivory carvings of the Dorset were primarily shamanic, the art of the

Thule people The Thule (, , ) or proto-Inuit were the ancestors of all modern Inuit. They developed in coastal Alaska by the year 1000 and expanded eastward across northern Canada, reaching Greenland by the 13th century. In the process, they replaced people o ...

who replaced them circa 1000 CE was more decorative in character. With European contact the historic period of Inuit art began. In this period, which reached its height in the late 19th century, Inuit artisans created souvenirs for the crews of whaling ships and explorers. Common examples include cribbage boards. Modern Inuit art began in the late 1940s, when with the encouragement of the Canadian government they began to produce prints and serpentine sculptures for sale in the south. Greenlandic Inuit have a unique textile tradition intregrating skin-sewing, furs, and appliqué of small pieces of brightly dyed marine mammal organs in mosaic designs, called avittat. Women create elaborate netted beadwork collars. They have strong mask-making tradition and also are known for an art form called '' tupilaq'' or an "evil spirit object." Traditional art making practices thrive in the Ammassalik.

Sperm whale The sperm whale or cachalot (''Physeter macrocephalus'') is the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator. It is the only living member of the genus ''Physeter'' and one of three extant species in the sperm whale famil ...

ivory remains a valued medium for carving. Basket with bear and seal carving by George Omnik, Point Hope, Alaska, Eskimo, HAA.jpg,

Baleen Baleen is a filter-feeding system inside the mouths of baleen whales. To use baleen, the whale first opens its mouth underwater to take in water. The whale then pushes the water out, and animals such as krill are filtered by the baleen and ...

basket with whale tooth

finial A finial (from '' la, finis'', end) or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the apex of a dome, spire, towe ...

, by George Omnik ( Iñupiaq, 1905–1978),

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U ...

;

Honolulu Museum of Art The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. The museum has one of the largest single co ...

(

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

, USA) Tupilak 1.jpg, A carved representation of a tupilaq, from

Alaska, yup'ik, maschera giimaquq, xix secolo.jpg, Yup'ik mask; from

; Musée du quai Branly (Paris) PaQi 2.jpg, Toy Angakkuq (shaman); 6 February 1998; serpentine,

caribou Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subspe ...

bone & feathers; by Palaya Qiatsuq

Subarctic

Cultures of interior Alaska and Canada living south of the

Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the most northerly of the five major circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth. Its southern equivalent is the Antarctic Circle. The Arctic Circle marks the southernmost latitude at ...

are Subarctic peoples. While humans have lived in the region far longer, the oldest known surviving Subarctic art is a petroglyph site in northwest

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, dated to 5000 BCE.

Caribou Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subspe ...

, and to a lesser extent

moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult ma ...

, are major resources, providing hides, antlers, sinew, and other artistic materials. Porcupine quillwork embellishes hides and birchbark. After European contact with the influence of the

Grey Nuns The Sisters of Charity of Montreal, formerly called The Sisters of Charity of the Hôpital Général of Montreal and more commonly known as the Grey Nuns of Montreal, is a Canadian religious institute of Roman Catholic religious sisters, found ...

, moosehair tufting and floral glass beadwork became popular through the Subarctic. File:Ak moosehair tufting.jpg, 21st-century

Athabaskan Athabaskan (also spelled ''Athabascan'', ''Athapaskan'' or ''Athapascan'', and also known as Dene) is a large family of indigenous languages of North America, located in western North America in three areal language groups: Northern, Pacific ...

moosehair tufting on beaded hide box,

Fairbanks, Alaska Fairbanks is a home rule city and the borough seat of the Fairbanks North Star Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior region of Alaska and the second largest in the state. The 2020 Census put the p ...

File:Assinaitappi.jpg, Tsuu T'ina painted hide tipi,
Alberta, Canada File:Arctic American shirt (UBC).jpg, Man's hide jacket. The floral designs' stems feature "thorny" beadwork, typical of the Subarctic,

Museum of Anthropology at UBC The Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia (UBC) campus in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada is renowned for its displays of world arts and cultures, in particular works by First Nations of the Pacific Northwest. As we ...

Northwest Coast

The art of the

Haida Haida may refer to: Places * Haida, an old name for Nový Bor * Haida Gwaii, meaning "Islands of the People", formerly called the Queen Charlotte Islands * Haida Islands, a different archipelago near Bella Bella, British Columbia Ships * , a ...

, Tlingit, Heiltsuk,

Tsimshian The Tsimshian (; tsi, Ts’msyan or Tsm'syen) are an Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Their communities are mostly in coastal British Columbia in Terrace and Prince Rupert, and Metlakatla, Alaska on Annette Island, the only r ...

and other smaller tribes living in the coastal areas of

Washington state Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a U.S. state, state in the Northwestern United States, Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first President of the United States, U.S. p ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

, and

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, for ...

, is characterized by an extremely complex stylistic vocabulary expressed mainly in the medium of woodcarving. Famous examples include totem poles, transformation masks, and canoes. In addition to woodwork, two dimensional painting and silver, gold and copper engraved jewelry became important after contact with Europeans. Image:Ketchican totem pole 2 stub.jpg, A totem pole in Ketchikan, Alaska, in the Tlingit style Namgis (Native American). Thunderbird Transformation Mask, 19th century.jpg, 'Namgis thunderbird transformation mask, 19th century, cedar, pigments, leather, nails, metal plate, 71 in. wide when open,

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Cro ...

, NY File:Haida argillite carving BC 1850 nmai13-1875.jpg, Haida argillite carving; 1850–1900; from Haida Gwaii; National Museum of the American Indian Image:Sombrero de jefe de balleneros Nutka (M. América Inv.13570) 01.jpg, Cedar bark hat;

Nuu-chah-nulth The Nuu-chah-nulth (; Nuučaan̓uł: ), also formerly referred to as the Nootka, Nutka, Aht, Nuuchahnulth or Tahkaht, are one of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast in Canada. The term Nuu-chah-nulth is used to describe fifte ...

; Museum of the Americas (

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

, Spain)

Eastern Woodlands

Northeastern Woodlands

The Eastern Woodlands, or simply woodlands, cultures inhabited the regions of North America east of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest Drainage system (geomorphology), drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson B ...

at least since 2500 BCE. While there were many regionally distinct cultures, trade between them was common and they shared the practice of burying their dead in earthen mounds, which has preserved a large amount of their art. Because of this trait the cultures are collectively known as the Mound builders. The

Woodland period In the classification of archaeological cultures of North America, the Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures spanned a period from roughly 1000 BCE to European contact in the eastern part of North America, with some archaeo ...

(1000 BCE–1000 CE) is divided into early, middle, and late periods, and consisted of cultures that relied mostly on hunting and gathering for their subsistence. Ceramics made by the Deptford culture (2500 BCE–100 CE) are the earliest evidence of an artistic tradition in this region. The Adena culture are another well-known example of an early Woodland culture. They carved stone tablets with zoomorphic designs, created

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and ...

, and fashioned costumes from animal hides and antlers for ceremonial rituals. Shellfish was a mainstay of their diet, and engraved shells have been found in their burial mounds. The

Middle Woodland period In the classification of archaeological cultures of North America, the Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures spanned a period from roughly 1000 BCE to European contact in the eastern part of North America, with some archaeologi ...

was dominated by cultures of the

Hopewell tradition The Hopewell tradition, also called the Hopewell culture and Hopewellian exchange, describes a network of precontact Native American cultures that flourished in settlements along rivers in the northeastern and midwestern Eastern Woodlands from ...

(200–500). Their

artwork A work of art, artwork, art piece, piece of art or art object is an artistic creation of aesthetic value. Except for "work of art", which may be used of any work regarded as art in its widest sense, including works from literature ...

encompassed a wide variety of jewelry and sculpture in stone, wood, and even human bone. The Late Woodland period (500–1000 CE) saw a decline in trade and in the size of settlements, and the creation of art likewise declined. From the 12th century onward, the

Haudenosaunee The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian Peoples, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Indigenous confederations in North America, confederacy of First Nations in Canada, First Natio ...

and nearby coastal tribes fashioned wampum from shells and string; these were

mnemonic A mnemonic ( ) device, or memory device, is any learning technique that aids information retention or retrieval (remembering) in the human memory for better understanding. Mnemonics make use of elaborative encoding, retrieval cues, and image ...

devices, currency, and records of treaties. Iroquois people carve

False Face mask The False Face Society is a medicinal society in the Haudenosaunee, known especially for its wooden masks. Medicine societies are considered a vital part of the well-being of many Indigenous communities. The societies role within communities is to ...

s for healing rituals, but the traditional representatives of the tribes, the Grand Council of the

, are clear that these masks are not for sale or public display.Shenadoah, Chief Leon
Haudenosaunee Confederacy Policy On False Face Masks.
''Peace 4 Turtle Island''. 2001. Retrieved 15 May 2011 The same can be said for Iroquois Corn Husk Society masks.Crawford and Kelley, pp. 496–497. File:Mound City Chillicothe Ohio HRoe 2008.jpg, File:Hopewell culture nhp raven effigy pipe chillicothe ohio 2006.jpg, File:Hopewell culture falcon.jpg, File:Wampum William Penn Great Treaty.jpg, One fine art sculptor of the mid-nineteenth century was Edmonia Lewis (African American / Ojibwe). Two of her works are held by the

Newark Museum The Newark Museum of Art (formerly known as the Newark Museum), in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, United States, is the state's largest museum. It holds major collections of American art, decorative arts, contemporary art, and arts of Asia, A ...

. Native peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands continued to make visual art through the 20th and 21st centuries. One such artist is Sharol Graves, whose serigraphs have been exhibited in the National Museum of the American Indian. Graves is also the illustrator of
The People Shall Continue
' from

Lee & Low Books Lee & Low Books is an independent children's book publisher focusing on diversity. History Lee & Low was founded in 1991 by Chinese Americans Tom Low and Philip Lee as a children's book publisher specializing in books featuring people of color a ...

Southeastern Woodlands

The Poverty Point culture inhabited portions of the state of

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is bord ...

from 2000 to 1000 BCE during the Archaic period. Many objects excavated at Poverty Point sites were made of materials that originated in distant places, including chipped stone projectile points and tools, ground stone plummets, gorgets and vessels, and shell and stone beads. Stone tools found at Poverty Point were made from raw materials which originated in the relatively nearby Ouachita and Ozark Mountains and from the much further away

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

and

Tennessee River The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other name ...

valleys. Vessels were made from soapstone which came from the Appalachian foothills of

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = " Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,7 ...

and

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

. Hand-modeled lowly fired clay objects occur in a variety of shapes including anthropomorphic figurines and cooking balls. File:Poverty Point clay utensils HRoe 2009.jpg, File:Poverty Point female figurines HRoe 2009.jpg, File:Poverty Point gorgets atlatl weights HRoe 2009.jpg, The

Mississippian culture The Mississippian culture was a Native American civilization that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 CE to 1600 CE, varying regionally. It was known for building large, eart ...

flourished in what is now the

Midwestern The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. ...

, Eastern, and

Southeastern United States The Southeastern United States, also referred to as the American Southeast or simply the Southeast, is a geographical List of regions in the United States, region of the United States. It is located broadly on the eastern portion of the south ...

from approximately 800 CE to 1500 CE, varying regionally. After adopting

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American English, North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous ...

agriculture the Mississippian culture became fully agrarian, as opposed to the hunting and gathering supplemented by part-time agriculture practiced by preceding woodland cultures. They built platform mounds larger and more complex than those of their predecessors, and finished and developed more advanced ceramic techniques, commonly using ground

mussel Mussel () is the common name used for members of several families of bivalve molluscs, from saltwater and freshwater habitats. These groups have in common a shell whose outline is elongated and asymmetrical compared with other edible clams, which ...

shell as a tempering agent. Many were involved with the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex, a pan-regional and pan-linguistic religious and trade network. The majority of the information known about the S.E.C.C. is derived from examination of the elaborate artworks left behind by its participants, including

shell gorget Shell gorgets are a Native American art form of polished, carved shell pendants worn around the neck. The gorgets are frequently engraved, and are sometimes highlighted with pigments, or fenestrated (pierced with openings). Shell gorgets were mo ...

s and cups, stone statuary, repoussé copper plates such as the Wulfing cache, Rogan plates, and

Long-nosed god maskette Long-nosed god maskettes are artifacts made from bone, copper and marine shells (Lightning whelk) associated with the Mississippian culture (800 to 1600 CE) and found in archaeological sites in the Midwestern United States and the Southeastern ...

s. By the time of European contact the Mississippian societies were already experiencing severe social stress, and with the political upheavals and diseases introduced by Europeans many of the societies collapsed and ceased to practice a Mississippian lifestyle, with notable exceptions being the Plaquemine culture Natchez and related Taensa peoples. Other tribes descended from Mississippian cultures include the

Caddo The Caddo people comprise the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, a federally recognized tribe headquartered in Binger, Oklahoma. They speak the Caddo language. The Caddo Confederacy was a network of Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands, w ...

Choctaw The Choctaw (in the Choctaw language, Chahta) are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Alabama and Mississippi. Their Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choctaw people are ...

Muscogee Creek The Muscogee, also known as the Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek, and the Muscogee Creek Confederacy ( in the Muscogee language), are a group of related indigenous (Native American) peoples of the Southeastern WoodlandsWichita, and many other southeastern peoples. Image:Spiro engraved hero twins HRoe 2005.jpg, Image:Moundville stone pallette HRoe 2003.jpg, Image:Etowah statues HRoe 2007.jpg, Image:Mississippian Underwater Panther ceramic.JPG, A large number of pre-Columbian wooden artifacts have been found in Florida. While the oldest wooden artifacts are as much as 10,000 years old, carved and painted wooden objects are known only from the past 2,000 years. Animal effigies and face masks have been found at a number of sites in Florida. Animal effigies dating to between 200 and 600 were found in a mortuary pond at

Fort Center Fort Center is an archaeological site in Glades County, Florida, United States, a few miles northwest of Lake Okeechobee. It was occupied for more than 2,000 years, from 450 BCE until about 1700 CE. The inhabitants of Fort Center may have been cul ...

, on the west side of Lake Okeechobee. Particularly impressive is a 66 cm tall carving of an eagle. More than 1,000 carved and painted wooden objects, including masks, tablets, plaques and effigies, were excavated in 1896 at Key Marco, in

southwestern Florida Southwest Florida is the region along the southwest Gulf coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is known for its beaches, subtropical landscape, and winter resort economy. Definitions of the region vary, though its boundaries are generall ...

. They have been described as some of the finest prehistoric Native American art in North America. The objects are not well dated, but may belong to the first millienium of the current era. Spanish missionaries described similar masks and effigies in use by the

Calusa The Calusa ( ) were a Native American people of Florida's southwest coast. Calusa society developed from that of archaic peoples of the Everglades region. Previous indigenous cultures had lived in the area for thousands of years. At the time of ...

late in the 17th century, and at the former

Tequesta The Tequesta (also Tekesta, Tegesta, Chequesta, Vizcaynos) were a Native American tribe. At the time of first European contact they occupied an area along the southeastern Atlantic coast of Florida. They had infrequent contact with Europeans a ...

site on the Miami River in 1743, although no examples of the Calusa objects from the historic period have survived. A south Florida effigy style is known from wooden and bone carvings from various sites in the Belle Glade,

Caloosahatchee Caloosahatchee may refer to: *Caloosahatchee River, a river on the southwest Gulf Coast of Florida in the United States *Caloosahatchee culture, an archaeological culture on the Gulf coast of Southwest Florida that lasted from about 500 to 1750 CE ...

, and Glades culture areas. The Seminoles are best known for their textile creations, especially patchwork clothing. Doll-making is another notable craft. File:Fort Center eagle.JPG, File:Calusa carved gator head on display at the Florida Museum of Natural History.jpg, File:KMOvalMouth.jpg, File:Seminole patchwork shawl.jpg,

The West

Great Plains

Tribes have lived on the

Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, a ...

for thousands of years. Early Plains cultures are commonly divided into four periods: Paleoindian (at least c. 10,000–4000 BCE), Plains Archaic (c. 4000–250 BCE), Plains Woodland (c. 250 BCE–950 CE), Plains Village (c. 950-1850 CE). The oldest known painted object in North American was found in the southern plains, the

, found in Oklahoma and dated 10,900-10,200 BCE. It's painted with a red zig-zag. In the Plains Village period, the cultures of the area settled in enclosed clusters of rectangular houses and cultivated

. Various regional differences emerged, including Southern Plains, Central Plains, Oneota, and Middle Missouri. Tribes were both nomadic hunters and semi-nomadic farmers. During the ''Plains Coalescent period'' (1400-European contact) some change, possibly drought, caused the mass migration of the population to the Eastern Woodlands region, and the Great Plains were sparsely populated until pressure from American settlers drove tribes into the area again. The advent of the horse revolutionized the cultures of many historical Plains tribes. Horse culture enabled tribes to live a completely nomadic existence, hunting buffalo. Buffalo hide clothing was decorated with

porcupine quill embroidery Quillwork is a form of textile embellishment traditionally practiced by Indigenous peoples of North America that employs the quills of porcupines as an aesthetic element. Quills from bird feathers were also occasionally used in quillwork. Histor ...

and beads – dentalium shells and elk teeth were prized materials. Later coins and glass beads acquired from trading were incorporated into Plains art. Plains

beadwork Beadwork is the art or craft of attaching beads to one another by stringing them onto a thread or thin wire with a sewing or beading needle or sewing them to cloth. Beads are produced in a diverse range of materials, shapes, and sizes, and vary ...

has flourished into contemporary times. Buffalo was the preferred material for Plains hide painting. Men painted narrative, pictorial designs recording personal exploits or visions. They also painted pictographic historical calendars known as

Winter count Winter counts (Lakota: ''waníyetu wówapi'' or ''waníyetu iyáwapi'') are pictorial calendars or histories in which tribal records and events were recorded by Native Americans in North America. The Blackfeet, Mandan, Kiowa, Lakota, and other Pla ...

s. Women painted geometric designs on tanned robes and rawhide

parfleche A parfleche is a Native American rawhide container that is embellished by painting, incising, or both. Envelope-shaped parfleches have historically been used to contain items such household tools or foods, such as dried meat or pemmican. They w ...

s, which sometimes served as maps. During the Reservation Era of the late 19th century, buffalo herds were systematically destroyed by non-native hunters. Due to the scarcity of hides, Plains artists adopted new painting surfaces, such as muslin or paper, giving birth to Ledger art, so named for the ubiquitous ledger books used by Plains artists. Image:Sioux-Womendress.jpg, Image:Bags and pouches of Sioux.jpg, Image:Blackhawk-spiritbeing.jpg, Image:Ledger-sm2.jpg,

Great Basin and Plateau

Since the archaic period the Plateau region, also known as the Intermontaine and upper

Great Basin The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja California. It is noted fo ...

, had been a center of trade. Plateau people traditionally settled near major river systems. Because of this, their art carries influences from other regions – from the Pacific Northwest coasts and Great Plains. Nez Perce,

Yakama The Yakama are a Native American tribe with nearly 10,851 members, based primarily in eastern Washington state. Yakama people today are enrolled in the federally recognized tribe, the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation. Their Ya ...

, Umatilla, and Cayuse women weave flat, rectangular corn husks or

hemp dogbane ''Apocynum cannabinum'' (dogbane, amy root, hemp dogbane, prairie dogbane, Indian hemp, rheumatism root, or wild cotton) is a perennial herbaceous plant that grows throughout much of North America—in the southern half of Canada and through ...

bags, which are decorated with "bold, geometric designs" in false embroidery. Plateau beadworkers are known for their contour-style beading and their elaborate horse regalia.

Great Basin tribes The Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin are Native Americans of the northern Great Basin, Snake River Plain, and upper Colorado River basin. The "Great Basin" is a cultural classification of indigenous peoples of the Americas and a cultural re ...

have a sophisticated basket making tradition, as exemplified by

Dat So La Lee Louisa Keyser, or Dat So La Lee (ca. 1829 - December 6, 1925) was a celebrated Native American basket weaver. A member of the Washoe people in northwestern Nevada, her basketry came to national prominence during the Arts and Crafts movement ...

/Louisa Keyser ( Washoe),

Lucy Telles Lucy Parker Telles (/1885–1955/6) was a Mono Lake Paiute - Kucadikadi (Northern Paiute) and Southern Sierra Miwok (Yosemite Miwok) Native American basket weaver.Giese, Paula"Miwok-Paiute Tradition."''Yosemite Basket Makers - Native American ...

, Carrie Bethel and Nellie Charlie. After being displaced from their lands by non-Native settlers, Washoe wove baskets for the commodity market, especially 1895 to 1935. Paiute,

Shoshone The Shoshone or Shoshoni ( or ) are a Native American tribe with four large cultural/linguistic divisions: * Eastern Shoshone: Wyoming * Northern Shoshone: southern Idaho * Western Shoshone: Nevada, northern Utah * Goshute: western Utah, easte ...

and Washoe basketmakers are known for their baskets that incorporate seed beads on the surface and for waterproof baskets. Image:NEPE9896 Beaded-Bag.jpg, Image:Nez Perce Shirt.jpg, Image:Beadedmoccasins.jpg, Image:Carrie Bethel basket.jpg, Basket by Carrie Bethel ( Mono Lake Paiute), California, 30" diam., c. 1931-35

California

The Native Americans in California have a tradition of exquisitely detailed

basket weaving Basket weaving (also basketry or basket making) is the process of weaving or sewing pliable materials into three-dimensional artifacts, such as baskets, mats, mesh bags or even furniture. Craftspeople and artists specialized in making basket ...

arts. In the late 19th-century Californian

basket A basket is a container that is traditionally constructed from stiff fibers and can be made from a range of materials, including wood splints, runners, and cane. While most baskets are made from plant materials, other materials such as horsehai ...

s by artists in the

Cahuilla The Cahuilla , also known as ʔívil̃uqaletem or Ivilyuqaletem, are a Native American people of the various tribes of the Cahuilla Nation, living in the inland areas of southern California.Chumash,

Pomo The Pomo are an Indigenous people of California. Historical Pomo territory in Northern California was large, bordered by the Pacific Coast to the west, extending inland to Clear Lake, and mainly between Cleone and Duncans Point. One small ...

Miwok The Miwok (also spelled Miwuk, Mi-Wuk, or Me-Wuk) are members of four linguistically related Native American groups indigenous to what is now Northern California, who traditionally spoke one of the Miwok languages in the Utian family. The word ...

Hupa Hupa ( Yurok language term: Huep'oola' / Huep'oolaa = "Hupa people") are a Native American people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group in northwestern California. Their endonym is Natinixwe, also spelled Natinook-wa, meaning "Peopl ...

and many other tribes became popular with collectors, museums, and tourists. This resulted in great innovation in the form of the baskets. Many pieces by

Native American basket weavers Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and enterta ...

from all parts of California are in museum collections, such as the

Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology is a museum affiliated with Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1866, the Peabody Museum is one of the oldest and largest museums focusing on anthropological material, wi ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

, the

Southwest Museum The Southwest Museum of the American Indian is a museum, library, and archive located in the Mt. Washington neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, above the north-western bank of the Arroyo Seco (Los Angeles County) canyon and stream. The muse ...

, and the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Found ...

National Museum of the American Indian. California has a large number of pictographs and

petroglyphs A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

. One of the largest densities of

in North America, by the Coso people, is in Big and Little Petroglyph Canyons in the

Coso Rock Art District Coso Rock Art District is a rock art site containing over 100,000 Petroglyphs by Paleo-Indians and/or Native Americans. The district is located near the towns of China Lake and Ridgecrest, California. Big and Little Petroglyph Canyons were ...

of the northern

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily ...

in California. The most elaborate pictographs in the U.S are considered to be the

rock art of the Chumash people Chumash rock art is a genre of paintings on caves, mountains, cliffs, or other living rock surfaces, created by the Chumash people of Southern California. Pictographs and petroglyphs are common through interior California, the rock painting tradi ...

, found in

cave painting In archaeology, Cave paintings are a type of parietal art (which category also includes petroglyphs, or engravings), found on the wall or ceilings of caves. The term usually implies prehistoric origin, and the oldest known are more than 40,000 ye ...

s in present-day Santa Barbara, Ventura, and San Luis Obispo Counties. The Chumash

includes examples at

Chumash Painted Cave State Historic Park Chumash Painted Cave State Historic Park is a unit in the state park system of California, preserving a small sandstone cave adorned with rock art attributed to the Chumash people. Adjoining the small community of Painted Cave, the site is lo ...

and Burro Flats Painted Cave. File:2009 07 09 camino cielo paradise 137.jpg, Chumash rock art at Painted Cave File:Pomo 19th century basket 2 CAC.JPG, File:Pomo Basket Bowl.jpg, File:Hupa woman's cap CAC.JPG, Late 19th-century

woman's cap, bear grass and conifer root, Stanford University

Southwest

In the

Southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, N ...

numerous pictographs and petroglyphs were created. The

Fremont culture The Fremont culture or Fremont people is a pre-Columbian archaeological culture which received its name from the Fremont River in the U.S. state of Utah, where the culture's sites were discovered by local indigenous peoples like the Navajo and ...

and

Ancestral Puebloans The Ancestral Puebloans, also known as the Anasazi, were an ancient Native American culture that spanned the present-day Four Corners region of the United States, comprising southeastern Utah, northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, a ...

and later tribes' creations, in the

Barrier Canyon Style Barrier Canyon Style (BCS) describes a distinctive style of rock art which appears mostly in Utah, with the largest concentration of sites in and around the San Rafael Swell and Canyonlands National Park, but the full range extends into much of the ...

and others, are seen at present day

Buckhorn Draw Pictograph Panel The Buckhorn Draw Pictograph Panel is an example of rock art, located in Buckhorn Draw in the San Rafael Swell in central Utah, approximately four miles north of the San Rafael campground and bridge. Primarily a Barrier Canyon Style panel, there ...

and Horseshoe Canyon, amongst other sites. Petroglyphs by these and the Mogollon culture's artists are represented in

Dinosaur National Monument Dinosaur National Monument is an American national monument located on the southeast flank of the Uinta Mountains on the border between Colorado and Utah at the confluence of the Green and Yampa rivers. Although most of the monument area is i ...

and at Newspaper Rock. The

, or Anasazi, (1000 BCE–700 CE) are the ancestors of today's Pueblo tribes. Their culture formed in the American southwest, after the cultivation of corn was introduced from Mexico around 1200 BCE. People of this region developed an agrarian lifestyle, cultivating food, storage gourds, and cotton with irrigation or

xeriscaping Xeriscaping is the process of Garden design, landscaping, or gardening, that reduces or eliminates the need for irrigation. It is promoted in regions that do not have accessible, plentiful, or reliable supplies of fresh water and has gained accep ...

techniques. They lived in sedentary towns, so pottery, used to store water and grain, was ubiquitous. For hundreds of years, Ancestral Pueblo created utilitarian grayware and black-on-white pottery and occasionally orange or red ceramics. In historical times,

Hopi The Hopi are a Native American ethnic group who primarily live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona, United States. As of the 2010 census, there are 19,338 Hopi in the country. The Hopi Tribe is a sovereign nation within the United ...

created

olla An olla is a ceramic jar, often unglazed, used for cooking stews or soups, for the storage of water or dry foods, or for other purposes like the irrigation of olive trees. ''Ollas'' have short wide necks and wider bellies, resembling beanpots o ...

s, dough bowls, and food bowls of different sizes for daily use, but they also made more elaborate ceremonial mugs, jugs, ladles, seed jars and those vessels for ritual use, and these were usually finished with polished surfaces and decorated with black painted designs. At the turn of the 20th century, Hopi potter Nampeyo famous revived

Sikyátki Sikyátki is an archeological site and former Hopi village spanning on the eastern side of First Mesa, in what is now Navajo County in the U.S. state of Arizona. The village was inhabited by Kokop clan of the Hopi from the 14th to the 17th c ...

-style pottery, originated on First Mesa in the 14th to 17th centuries. Southwest architecture includes Cliff dwellings, multi-story settlements carved from living rock; pit houses; and

adobe Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for '' mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of ...

and

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicat ...

pueblos. One of the most elaborate and largest ancient settlements is Chaco Canyon in

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe, New Mexico, Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque, New Mexico, Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Albuquerque metropolitan area, Tiguex , Offi ...

, which includes 15 major complexes of sandstone and timber. These are connected by a network of roads. Construction for the largest of these settlements, Pueblo Bonito, began 1080 years

before present Before Present (BP) years, or "years before present", is a time scale used mainly in archaeology, geology and other scientific disciplines to specify when events occurred relative to the origin of practical radiocarbon dating in the 1950s. Beca ...

. Pueblo Bonito contains over 800 rooms.

Turquoise Turquoise is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrated phosphate of copper and aluminium, with the chemical formula . It is rare and valuable in finer grades and has been prized as a gemstone and ornamental stone for thousands of year ...

, jet, and spiny oyster shell have been traditionally used by Ancestral Pueblo for jewelry, and they developed sophisticated

inlay Inlay covers a range of techniques in sculpture and the decorative arts for inserting pieces of contrasting, often colored materials into depressions in a base object to form Ornament (art), ornament or pictures that normally are flush with th ...

techniques centuries ago. Around 200 CE the

Hohokam Hohokam () was a culture in the North American Southwest in what is now part of Arizona, United States, and Sonora, Mexico. It existed between 300 and 1500 AD, with cultural precursors possibly as early as 300 BC. Archaeologists disagree about ...

culture developed in Arizona. They are the ancestors of the Tohono O'odham and Akimel O'odham or Pima tribes. The Mimbres, a subgroup of the Mogollon culture, are especially notable for the narrative paintings on their pottery. Within the last millennium,

peoples emigrated from northern Canada in the southwest. These include the

Navajo The Navajo (; British English: Navaho; nv, Diné or ') are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people of the Southwestern United States. With more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members , the Navajo Nation is the largest fe ...

and

Apache The Apache () are a group of culturally related Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, which include the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Mimbreño, Ndendahe (Bedonkohe or Mogollon and Nednhi or Carrizaleño a ...

. Sandpainting is an aspect of Navajo healing ceremonies that inspired an art form. Navajos learned to weave on upright looms from Pueblos and wove blankets that were eagerly collected by

and

Plains tribes Plains Indians or Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies are the Native American tribes and First Nation band governments who have historically lived on the Interior Plains (the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies) of ...

in the 18th and 19th centuries. After the introduction of the railroad in the 1880s, imported blankets became plentiful and inexpensive, so Navajo weavers switched to producing rugs for trade. In the 1850s, Navajos adopted silversmithing from the Mexicans. Atsidi Sani (Old Smith) was the first Navajo silversmith, but he had many students, and the technology quickly spread to surrounding tribes. Today thousands of artists produce silver jewelry with turquoise.

are renowned for their overlay silver work and cottonwood carvings. Zuni artists are admired for their cluster work jewelry, showcasing turquoise designs, as well as their elaborate, pictorial stone inlay in silver. File:Hohokam cliff dwelling (Montezuma Castle), Arizona.jpg, Montezuma Castle, a Sinagua cliff dwelling in

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

, c. 700 CE–1425 CE File:Chaco Anasazi canteen NPS.jpg, File:Navajo sandpainting.jpg,

Mesoamerica and Central America

The cultural development of ancient

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. Wit ...

was generally divided along east and west. The stable Maya culture was most dominant in the east, especially the Yucatán Peninsula, while in the west more varied developments took place in subregions. These included West Mexican (1000–1), Teotihuacan (1–500), Mixtec (1000–1200), and Aztec (1200–1521).

n civilizations generally lived to the regions south of modern-day Mexico, although there was some overlap.

Mesoamerica

Mesoamerica was home to the following cultures, among others:

Olmec

The Olmec (1500-400 BCE), who lived on the gulf coast, were the

first civilization A cradle of civilization is a location and a culture where civilization was created by mankind independent of other civilizations in other locations. The formation of urban settlements (cities) is the primary characteristic of a society that c ...

to fully develop in Mesoamerica. Their culture was the first to develop many traits that remained constant in Mesoamerica until the last days of the Aztecs: a complex astronomical calendar, the ritual practice of a

ball game This is a list of ball games and ball sports that include a ball as a key element in the activity, usually for scoring points. Ball games Ball sports fall within many sport categories, some sports within multiple categories, including: *Bat-and- ...

, and the erection of stelae to commemorate victories or other important events. The most famous artistic creations of the Olmec are colossal basalt heads, believed to be portraits of rulers that were erected to advertise their great power. The Olmec also sculpted votive figurines that they buried beneath the floors of their houses for unknown reasons. These were most often modeled in terracotta, but also occasionally carved from

jade Jade is a mineral used as jewellery or for ornaments. It is typically green, although may be yellow or white. Jade can refer to either of two different silicate minerals: nephrite (a silicate of calcium and magnesium in the amphibole group ...

or serpentine. File:Olmeca head in Villahermosa.jpg, Monument 1, one of the four Olmec colossal heads at La Venta. This one is nearly 3 metres (9 ft) tall. File:Olmec figurine, serpentine.jpg, File:British Museum Mesoamerica 052.jpg,

Kunz Axe; 1200-400 BCE; polished green quartz (

aventurine Aventurine is a form of quartz, characterised by its translucency and the presence of platy mineral inclusions that give it a shimmering or glistening effect termed ''aventurescence''. Background The most common color of aventurine is green, ...

); height: 29 cm, width: 13.5 cm;

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

(London)

File:Mask MET AO1977.187.33.jpg, Jade mask; 10th–6th century BCE;

jadeite Jadeite is a pyroxene mineral with composition Na Al Si2 O6. It is hard (Mohs hardness of about 6.5 to 7.0), very tough, and dense, with a specific gravity of about 3.4. It is found in a wide range of colors, but is most often found in shades ...

; height: 17.1 cm (6 in.), width: 16.5 (6 in.);

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

(New York City)

Teotihuacan

Teotihuacan Teotihuacan ( Spanish: ''Teotihuacán'') (; ) is an ancient Mesoamerican city located in a sub-valley of the Valley of Mexico, which is located in the State of Mexico, northeast of modern-day Mexico City. Teotihuacan is known today as ...

was a city built in the

Valley of Mexico The Valley of Mexico ( es, Valle de México) is a highlands plateau in central Mexico roughly coterminous with present-day Mexico City and the eastern half of the State of Mexico. Surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, the Valley of Mexico w ...

, containing some of the largest pyramidal structures built in the

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, ...

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America, North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. ...

. Established around 200 BCE, the city fell between the 7th and 8th century CE. Teotihuacan has numerous well-preserved

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spanis ...

s. Image:Great Goddess of Teotihuacan (T Aleto).jpg, A mural showing what has been identified as the

Great Goddess of Teotihuacan The Great Goddess of Teotihuacan (or Teotihuacan Spider Woman) is a proposed goddess of the pre-Columbian Teotihuacan civilization ( ca. 100 BCE - 700 CE), in what is now Mexico. Discovery and interpretation In years leading up to 1942, a series ...

Image:Facade of the Temple of the Feathered Serpent (Teotihuacán).jpg, Restored Teotihuacan architecture showing typical Mesoamerican use of red paint complemented on gold and jade decoration upon marble and granite Teotihuacan Masque de Jade.JPG, Mask with a necklace with 55 beads and pendant; serpentine inlaid with amazonite, turquoise, shell, coral and

obsidian Obsidian () is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock. Obsidian is produced from felsic lava, rich in the lighter elements such as silicon ...

, 8 in. H, National Museum of Anthropology Teotihuacán - Chalchiuhtlicue.jpg, Statue of Chalchiuhtlicue; National Museum of Anthropology

Classic Veracruz Culture

In his 1957 book on Mesoamerican art, Miguel Covarrubias speaks of Remojadas' "magnificent hollow figures with expressive faces, in majestic postures and wearing elaborate paraphernalia indicated by added clay elements."
File:Remojadas Chieftain 1 Art Institute.jpg, File:Male-female duality figure from Remojadas.jpg, File:Altar urn Collection H Law 53 n1.jpg, Veracruz altar urn File:Veracruz El Tajin head.jpg, Stone head of a woman from El Tajin

Zapotec

"The Bat God was one of the important deities of the Maya, many elements of whose religion were shared also by the Zapotec. The Bat God in particular is known to have been revered also by the Zapotec ... He was especially associated ... with the underworld." An important Zapotec center was

Monte Albán Monte Albán is a large pre-Columbian archaeological site in the Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán Municipality in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca (17.043° N, 96.767°W). The site is located on a low mountainous range rising above the plain in th ...

, in present-day

Oaxaca Oaxaca ( , also , , from nci, Huāxyacac ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca), is one of the 32 states that compose the Federative Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 570 municipaliti ...

, Mexico. The Monte Albán periods are divided into I, II, and III, which range from 200 BCE to 600 CE. File:British Museum Zapotec funerary urn 1.jpg,

Ceramic urn, 200 BCE – 800 CE, British Museum.

File:WLA lacma 1300 ceramic vessel.jpg, Ceramic Zapotec vessel File:2013-13-27 Goldener Ohrschmuck Grab Nr. 7 Monte Alban Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca anagoria.JPG, Golden ornamentation worn by Zapotec government officials Mascara Dios Murcielago.jpg, Mosaic mask that represents a Bat god, 25 pieces of jade, with yellow eyes made of shell. It was found in a tomb at

Maya

The

Maya civilization The Maya civilization () of the Mesoamerican people is known by its ancient temples and glyphs. Its Maya script is the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system in the pre-Columbian Americas. It is also noted for its art, ...

occupied the south of

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

, all of

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by Hon ...

and

Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wa ...

, and the western portions of

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

and

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south ...

. File:Maya eccentric.jpg, Classic Period Maya eccentric flint, possibly from Copán or

Quiriguá Quiriguá () is an ancient Maya archaeological site in the department of Izabal in south-eastern Guatemala. It is a medium-sized site covering approximately along the lower Motagua River, with the ceremonial center about from the north bank ...

, Musées Roayaux d'art et d'Histoire, Brussels File:K'inich Janaab Pakal I v2.jpg, Portrait of K'inich Janaab Pakal I; 615–683; stucco; height: 43 cm (1 ft 5 in.); National Museum of Anthropology (Mexico City) Maya jade plaque.jpg, Jade plaque of a Maya king; 400-800 (Classic period); height: 14 cm, width: 14 cm; found at

;

(London). File:Maya Presentation of Captives Kimbell.jpg, Relief showing Aj Chak Maax presenting captives before ruler Itzamnaaj B'alam III of

Yaxchilan Yaxchilan () is an ancient Maya city located on the bank of the Usumacinta River in the state of Chiapas, Mexico. In the Late Classic Period Yaxchilan was one of the most powerful Maya states along the course of the Usumacinta River, with Pi ...

; 22 August 783

Toltec

Image:Telamones Tula.jpg, Image:Toltec-style Vessel 1.jpg, File:Tula birdman.jpg, Toltec bird carving in granite at Tula File:TulaPlumbatei.jpg, Toltec turtle vessel

Mixtec

File:Oaxaca ocho venado.png, File:Escudo De Yanhuitlán.jpg, Mixtec pectoral of gold and turquoise, Shield of Yanhuitlán. National Museum of Anthropology File:Centro color grecas.JPG, Closeup view of

Mixtec The Mixtecs (), or Mixtecos, are indigenous Mesoamerican peoples of Mexico inhabiting the region known as La Mixteca of Oaxaca and Puebla as well as La Montaña Region and Costa Chica Regions of the state of Guerrero. The Mixtec Cult ...

stone mosaic-work at Mitla. This was an inspiration for similar mosaics by

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...

. File:Sahumador mixteco.jpg, Mixtec incense burner

Totonac

Massico, totonac, remojadas veracruz, figura di comandante seduto, 300-600 dc ca.jpg, Figure of a seated commander; 300–600;

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

(USA) Standing Male Figure, 600-900 AD, El Zapotal style, central Veracruz, Mexico, earthenware - Gardiner Museum, Toronto - DSC01139.JPG, Standing male figure; 600–900; earthenware; from central Veracruz (Mexico); Gardiner Museum (

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

, Canada) WLA lacma 700 andesite sculpture.jpg, Sculpture; 700–900;

andesite Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predo ...

; height: 35.56 cm (14 in.) Messico, el pantano, testine sorridenti, 900 ca. 01.JPG, Heads; circa 900;

Leipzig Museum of Ethnography The Leipzig Museum of Ethnography (german: Museum für Völkerkunde zu Leipzig) is a large ethnographic museum in Leipzig, Germany, also known as the Grassi Museum of Ethnology. Today it is part of the Grassi Museum, an institution which also i ...

(Leipzig, Germany)

Huastec

Image:Huastec statue Tampico Inv D94-20-600.jpg File:HPIM2116.JPG Image:Huaxtèque Auch 1.jpg Image:Huaxtèque Auch 2.jpg

Aztec

File:Double headed turquoise serpentAztecbritish museum.jpg,

Double-headed serpent The ''Double-headed serpent'' is an Aztec sculpture. It is a snake with two heads composed of mostly turquoise pieces applied to a wooden base. It came from Aztec Mexico and might have been worn or displayed in religious ceremonies. The mosaic is ...

; 1450–1521; Spanish cedar wood (''Cedrela odorata''),

turquoise Turquoise is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrated phosphate of copper and aluminium, with the chemical formula . It is rare and valuable in finer grades and has been prized as a gemstone and ornamental stone for thousands of year ...

, shell, traces of gilding and pine resin and Bursera resin for adhesive; 20.3 in. H;

(London). File:Codex Borbonicus (p. 13).jpg, The original page 13 of the ''

Codex Borbonicus The Codex Borbonicus is an Aztec codex written by Aztec priests shortly before or after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. It is named after the Palais Bourbon in France and kept at the Bibliothèque de l'Assemblée Nationale in Paris. T ...

''; (Paris). This 13th (of the Aztec sacred calendar) was under the auspices of the goddess , who is shown on the upper left wearing a flayed skin, giving birth to . The 13-day-signs of this , starting with 1 Earthquake, 2 Flint/Knife, 3 Rain, etc., are shown on the bottom row and the right column File:1479 Stein der fünften Sonne, sog. Aztekenkalender, Ollin Tonatiuh anagoria.JPG, Aztec calendar stone; 1502–1521;

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90 ...

; diameter: 358 cm (141 in.); thick: 98 cm (39 in.); discovered on 17 December 1790 during repairs on the

Mexico City Cathedral The Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven ( es, Catedral Metropolitana de la Asunción de la Bienaventurada Virgen María a los cielos) is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mex ...

; National Museum of Anthropology (

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

). The exact purpose and meaning of the Calendar Stone are unclear. Archaeologists and historians have proposed numerous theories, and it is likely that there are several aspects to its interpretationK. Mills, W. B. Taylor & S. L. Graham (eds), ''Colonial Latin America: A Documentary History'', 'The Aztec Stone of the Five Eras', p. 23 File:Tlaloc Vasija.jpg, Tlāloc effigy vessel; 1440–1469; painted earthenware; height: 35 cm (1 in.); (Mexico City). , dedicated to . This jar, covered with

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

and painted blue, is adorned with the visage of , identified by his coloration, ringed teeth and jaguar teeth

Central America and "Intermediate area"

Greater Chiriqui Greater Nicoya The ancient peoples of the Nicoya Peninsula in present-day Costa Rica traditionally sculpted birds in

, which were used for funeral ornaments. Around 500 CE gold ornaments replaced jade, possibly because of the depletion of jade resources.

Caribbean

Image:Duho.jpg, Image:Zemi figure Metropolitan.jpg,

Taíno zemi, ironwood with shell inlay,

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...

, 15th-16th-century bowl used for

cohoba Cohoba is a Taíno Indian transliteration for a ceremony in which the ground seeds of the ''cojóbana'' tree (''Anadenanthera'' spp.) were inhaled, the Y-shaped nasal snuff tube used to inhale the substance, and the psychoactive drug that was in ...

rituals"Deity Figure (Zemi) Dominican Republic; Taino (1979.206.380)"
/ref>

Image:LasCaritas01.JPG, Image:Petroglyph at Caguana.jpg,

South American

The native civilizations were most developed in the Andean region, where they are roughly divided into Northern Andes civilizations of present- day

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the ...

and

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ' ...

and the Southern Andes civilizations of present- day

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...

and

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

. Hunter-gatherer tribes throughout the

Amazon rainforest The Amazon rainforest, Amazon jungle or ; es, Selva amazónica, , or usually ; french: Forêt amazonienne; nl, Amazoneregenwoud. In English, the names are sometimes capitalized further, as Amazon Rainforest, Amazon Forest, or Amazon Jungle. ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

also have developed artistic traditions involving tattooing and body painting. Because of their remoteness, these tribes and their art have not been studied as thoroughly as Andean cultures, and many even remain uncontacted.

Isthmo-Colombian Area

The Isthmo-Colombian Area includes some Central American countries (like

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

and

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...

) and some South American countries near them (like

San Agustín

Parque Arqueológico de San Agustín - tomb of a deity with supporting warriors.jpg, Zoomorphico-anthropomorphic figures from

San Agustín Archaeological Park The San Agustín Archaeological Park (Spanish: ''Parque Arqueológico de San Agustín'') is a large archaeological area located near the town of San Agustín in Huila Department in Colombia. The park contains the largest collection of religious m ...

San Agustín (Huila) 16.jpg, Figure from

Double-Spouted Jar with Strap Handle LACMA M.2007.146.693.jpg, Double-spouted jar with strap handle; 500 BCE-500 CE; slip-painted ceramic; height: 21.27 cm (8 in.), width: 19.05 cm (7 in.), depth: 17.46 cm (6 in.);

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 19 ...

(USA) Museo del Oro San Agustín golden fish.jpg, Pendant; 1 CE-900; gold; 3.1 x 9.7 x 8.8 cm; Gold Museum (

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...

, Colombia)

Calima

Colombia, llama (calima), maschera funeraria, V-I sec ac. ca., oro sbalzato 02.JPG, Funerary mask; 5th-1st century BCE; embossed gold; Ilama stage; Metropolitan Museum of Art Calima Animal-Headed Figure Pendant MET DT11629 (cropped).jpg, Animal-headed figure pendant; 1st–7th century; gold; height: 6.35 cm (2 in.); Yotoco stage;

(New York City) Double Spout and Strap Handle Vessel wih Mythological Figure LACMA M.2007.146.7.jpg, Double spout and strap handle vessel with a mythological figure; 400–1200; slip-painted ceramic; height: 19.37 cm (7 in.), width: 19.05 cm (7 in.), depth: 10.32 cm (4in.); Yotoco stage;

Tolima

Museo del Oro - Tolima pectoral.jpg, Pectoral; 1 CE-550; tumbaga; 23.4 x 25.7 cm; Gold Museum (

, Colombia) Colombia, tolima, figurina pendente, oro, I-VII secolo.jpg, Pendant; 1st-7th century; gold;

Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, located in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on the city's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian ...

(

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the United States, U.S. U.S. state, state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along ...

, USA) Colombia, tolima, penden antropomofo, V-X sec, oro fuso 03.JPG, Anthropomorphic pendant; 5th-10th century; Metropolitan Museum of Art Colombia, tolima (attr.), pendenti a forma di pesce volante, X-XV sec, oro a fusione, 02.JPG, Pendants in the form of flying fish; 10th-15th century;

(New York City)

Gran Coclé

Cocle pedestal dish.jpg, Pedestal dish; 600–800; height: 15.24 cm (6 in.), diameter: 27.69 cm (10 in.);

Walters Art Museum The Walters Art Museum, located in Mount Vernon-Belvedere, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, is a public art museum founded and opened in 1934. It holds collections established during the mid-19th century. The museum's collection was amassed ...

Coclé Penn 08.JPG, Ceramic plate; University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (USA) Coclé Penn 04.JPG, Gold plaque from Sitio Conte; University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Diquis

Stone sphere.jpg, One of the stone spheres of Costa Rica Costa Rican - Ceremonial Metate - Walters 20092024 - Three Quarter.jpg, Ceremonial metate; 1500 BCE-1400; height: 56 cm (22 in.), width: 94.4 cm (37 in.), depth: 78 cm (30 in.);

(

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...

, USA) Costa rica, personaggio con testa felina, 1000-1500 ca..JPG, Stone figure resembling a masked shaman; 1000–1500; Musée du quai Branly (Paris) Pre-Columbian gold of Costa Rica (82).JPG, Two lobster-shapped pendants; 700–1550;

Museo del Jade Marco Fidel Tristán Castro The Museo del Jade is an archaeological museum in San José, Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of No ...

( San José, Costa Rica)

Nariño

Colombia, piartal (nariño), ornamento per il naso, VII-XII sec, lega d'oro a sbalzo 01.JPG, Nose ornament; 7th-12th century; cantilever

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

alloy;

Colombia, piartal (nariño), ornamento per il naso, VII-XII sec, lega d'oro a sbalzo 02.JPG, Nose ornament; 7th-12th century; cantilever gold alloy; Metropolitan Museum of Art Footed Bowl Depicting a Pair of Monkeys LACMA M.2007.146.4 (2 of 2).jpg, Footed bowl depicting a pair of monkeys; 750–1250; resist-painted

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain, ...

; height: 8.9 cm (3 in.), diameter of the bowl: 20.48 cm (8 in.), diameter of the foot: 7.94 cm (3 in.);

(USA) Gourd-Shaped Vessel LACMA M.2007.146.2.jpg, Gourd-shaped vessel; 850–1500; resist-painted ceramic; height: 26.35 cm (10in.), diameter: 20.32 cm (8 in.); Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Quimbaya

WLA metmuseum Colombia Quimbaya Lime Container Poporo.jpg, Lime container; 5th-9th century; gold; 23 cm (9 in) high; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City). Likely used by a member of the Quimbaya elite Cultura Quimbaya, caciques sentados sobre taburetes, Madrid, España, 2016.jpg, Two statues caciques sitting on stools; Museum of the Americas (

, Spain) Precolombina cultura prc.jpg, Quimbaya airplanes in Museum of the Americas (Madrid) Museo de América Quimbaya cacique.jpg, Ceramic figurine with tumbaga decoration; 1200–1500; Museum of the Americas

Muisca

Muisca raft Legend of El Dorado Offerings of gold.jpg, The Muisca raft; circa 600–1600; gold alloy; 19.5 x 10.1 cm; Gold Museum (

, Colombia) Muisca tunjo - MET - Art. DT6752.jpg, Tunjo; 10th-16th century; from Guatavita Lake region;

(New York City) Museo del Oro Tierradentro golden face.jpg, Mask; gold; 8.7 x 12.7 cm; Gold Museum (

) Mascara precolombina.JPG, Ceramic mask; Colombian National Museum (Bogotá)

Zenú

Colombia, sinù, estremità a forma di due caprioli, 400-1000 ca.jpg, Two-headed deer-shaped ornament; circa 400–1000;

(

, Ohio, USA) Colombia, sinù, estremità a forma di gufo, 400-1000 ca.jpg, Owl-shaped ornament; circa 400–1000; Cleveland Museum of Art Bird Finial MET DP296011.jpg, Bird finial; 5th–10th century; gold; height 12.1 cm (4 in.);

(New York City) Sinú - Olla with Annular Base and Modeled Figures - Walters 482860 - Side A.jpg, Olla with annular base and modeled figures; 500–1550; ceramic yellow-ware; height: 28.6 cm (11.2 in); width: 31.8 cm (12.5 in);

(

, USA)

Tairona

Tairona - Small Footed Bowl with Tiger Head Handles - Walters 482783 - Profile.jpg, Small footed bowl with tiger head handles; 1000–1500; earthenware; 5 × 10.1 cm (2 × 4 in.);

(

, USA) Tairona - Ancestral Figure - Walters 41333.jpg, Ancestral figure; 1000–1550; brown stone; height: 18.1 cm (7.1 in), width: 4.8 cm (1.8 in); Walters Art Museum Colombia, tairona, pendente a forma di figura con maschera, X-XVI sec, fusione di lega d'oro, 01.JPG, Anthopomorphic pendant; 1000–1550; gold alloy casting; width: 14.6 cm (5 in.);

(New York City) Golden pendant-70.2003.14.1-DSC00151-black.jpg, Anthopomorphic pendant; 18th century; gold; height: 13 cm (5.1 in), width: 13 cm (5.1 in), depth: 4.5 cm (1.7 in); Musée du Quai Branly (Paris)

Andes Region

Valdivia

MORTERO LORO VALDIVIA 2.JPG, Parrot figure; 4000-1500 BC Valdivia ancestor statue with six faces.jpg, Ancestor statue with six faces; Casa del Alabado Museum of Pre-Columbian Art (

Quito Quito (; qu, Kitu), formally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital and largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its urban area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha. Quito is located in a valley on ...

, Ecuador) Valdivia Female Figurine 2600-1500 BCE Brooklyn Museum.jpg, Female figurine; 2600-1500 BCE; ceramic; 11 x 2.9 x 1.6 cm (4 x 1 x in.);

(New York City) Valdivia-chorrera (ecuador), mortaio a forma di giaguaro in serpentino verde, 2000-1000 ac ca. 01.jpg, Jaguar-shaped figure; 2000-1000 BCE; green serpentine

Chavín

Image:Cabeza Clava Chavin.JPG, A Chavin stone sculpture in the shape of a head of a man, an ornament from a wall; 9th century BCE; Museo de la Nación (

Lima Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of the central coastal part of ...

, Peru) Image:Chavinmuseolarco.jpg, Chavin crown; 1200 BCE-1 CE ( Formative Epoch); gold; Larco Museum (Lima) Peru Chavin Stirrup-spout vessel with scroll ornament DMA 1970-3.jpg, Stirrup-spout vessel with scroll ornament; ceramic; 900-200 BCE; height: 18.4 cm, diameter: 16.2 cm; Dallas Museum of Art (

Dallas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

, USA) Estela Raimondi.JPG, Raimondi Stela; 5th-3rd century BCE; granite; height: 1.95 (6 ft. 6 in.);

Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Antropología e Historia del Perú The Museo Nacional de Arqueología Antropología e Historia del Perú (English: ''National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology, and History of Peru'') is the largest and oldest museum in Peru, located on Plaza Bolívar in the Pueblo Libre district ...

(

, Peru).

Paracas

Image:Paracas Mantle.jpg, File:Paracas mantle, BM.jpg,

Nasca

Image:Nazca-pottery-(01).png, Image:Nazca monkey.jpg,

Moche

Octopus frontlet, Moche - Peru.jpg, Ceremonial headdress; 300–600; gold, chrysocolla & shells Dragon Moche pottery Larco museum.jpg, Pottery that represents a Crawling Feline; ceramic with

nacre Nacre ( , ), also known as mother of pearl, is an organicinorganic composite material produced by some molluscs as an inner shell layer; it is also the material of which pearls are composed. It is strong, resilient, and iridescent. Nacre is ...

inlays; Larco Museum (

, Peru) Ear Ornament, Winged Runner MET DP-10734-01.jpg, 2 ear ornaments with winged runners; 5th century-8th century; gold, turquoise, sodalite & shell;

(New York City)

Recuay

Seated Figure MET vs1979 206 935.jpg, Seated figure; 2nd century BCE-3rd century CE; stone; 63.5 × 44.45 × 20.32 cm (25 × 17 × 8 in.); weight: 102.5129 kg (226 lb.);

(New York City) Recuay - Effigy Bottle - Walters 20092037 - Three Quarter Back.jpg, Effigy bottle; 200 BCE 500 CE; earthenware & slip paint; height: 28.2 cm (11.1 in.), diameter: 20.5 cm (8 in.);

(

, USA) Gefäss mit Musikszene Peru Recuay 1 Slg Ebnöther.jpg, Vase with music scene; 300 BCE-300 CE painted clay; height: 21.5 cm; from northern coastal region of Peru; Kloster Allerheiligen (

Schaffhausen Schaffhausen (; gsw, Schafuuse; french: Schaffhouse; it, Sciaffusa; rm, Schaffusa; en, Shaffhouse) is a town with historic roots, a municipality in northern Switzerland, and the capital of the canton of the same name; it has an estimate ...

; Switzerland) Textile Fragment MET TP415.jpg, Textile fragment; 4th–6th century; camelid hair; overall: 33.02 x 82.55 cm (13 × 32 in.); Metropolitan Museum of Art

Tolita

Ecuador o colombia, tolita-tumaco, figura stante, I-IV sec, oro sbalzato, 01.JPG, Standing figure; 1st century BCE-1st century CE; emossed gold; height: 22.9 cm (9 in.);

Ecuador, tolita, ornamento per il naso, I-V sec., oro e argento sbalzato.JPG, Nose-ornament; 1st-5th century; gold and embossed silver; Metropolitan Museum of Art

Wari

Perù, wari della costa, ornamento a forma di uccello, VI-X sec, oro sbalzato.JPG, Ornament in the shape of a bird; 6th-10th century; embossed gold;

(New York City) Wari Würdenträger Museum Rietberg RPB 320.jpg, Anthropomorphic figure; 7th-10th century; burned clay; from Mantaro Valley;

Museum Rietberg The Rietberg Museum is a museum in Zürich, Switzerland, displaying Asian, African, American and Oceanian art. It is the only art museum focusing on non-European art and design in Switzerland, the third-largest museum in Zürich, and the largest t ...

(

Zürich , neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon , twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco Z ...

, Switzerland) Peru Huari Standing Dignitary 1 Kimbell.jpg, Mozaic figure; 7th–11th century; wood with shell-and-stone inlay & silver; 10.2 x 6.4 x 2.6 cm; from the

Wari Empire The Wari Empire or Huari Empire was a political formation that emerged around 600 CE in Peru's Ayacucho Basin and grew to cover much of coastal and highland Peru. The empire lasted for about 500 years, until 1100 CE. It existed during the same era ...

;

Kimbell Art Museum The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, hosts an art collection as well as traveling art exhibitions, educational programs and an extensive research library. Its initial artwork came from the private collection of Kay and Velma Kimbell, wh ...

(

Fort Worth Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. Accord ...

, USA) Ande centrali, wari, contenitore a forma di sacrificatore, legno e cinabro, 769-887 ca.jpg, Sacrificer-shaped container; circa 769–887; wood & cinnabar;

(USA)

Lambayeque/Sican

File:Sicán gold beaker cups (9-11th century).jpg, Beaker cups; 9th-11th century; gold;

(New York City) Ande centrali, costa del nord, lambayeque (sicàn), bicchiere in oro, 900-1100 ca. 03.jpg, Cup; 900–1100;

(USA) File:WLA metmuseum Sican Funerary Mask Peru 3.jpg, Sican headdress mask; 10th-11th century; gold, silver & paint; height: 29.2 cm (11 in.); Metropolitan Museum of Art Ceremonial Knife (Tumi) MET DP215693.jpg, Ceremonial knife ( tumi); 10th-13th century; gold, turquoise, greenstone & shell; height: 33 cm (1 ft. 1 in.); Metropolitan Museum of Art

Tiwanaku

Image:Tiwanaku tenon head 20060613 0475.jpg, Image:Precolombian Statue.jpg, Image:Tiwanaku1.jpg,

Capulí

Pendant MET DT5085.jpg, Pendant; 4th–10th century; gold; height: 14.6 cm (5 in.);

(New York City) Plaque with Face MET 1979.206.510.jpg, Face-shaped plaque; 7th–12th century; gold; diameter: 1.9 cm (3 in.); Metropolitan Museum of Art Coca Chewer on Bench MET DP104859.jpg, Male figure-shaped coca chewer on bench; 9th–15th century; ceramic; height: 21.6 cm (8 in.), width: 10.2 cm (4 in.); Metropolitan Museum of Art Bowl Supported by Three Figures LACMA M.2007.146.110 (1 of 2).jpg, Bowl supported by 3 figures; 850–1500; resist-painted ceramic; height: 28.58 cm (11 in.), diameter of the bowl: 19.69 cm (7 in.); from Colombia;

(USA)

Chimú empire

File:Atuendoritualchimumuseolarco.jpg, Image:Vasija chimú llama (M. América Inv.10745) 01.jpg, File:Chimu Mantle.jpg,

Chancay

Beaded Wrist Ornament MET DP18694 1979.206.1161.jpg, Beaded wrist ornament, ca. 1100–1399 CE, hand-ground shell beads, cordage, 4.25 in.,

Textile Fragment with Design of Stylized Birds and Humans LACMA M.76.45.13.jpg, Fragment ofslit tapestry with eccentric weave and applied fringe, 1000–1470, camelid fiber and cotton, 16 x 18 in.,

Chancay - Vessel - Walters 20092035 - Back.jpg, Vessel; 1000–1470; earthenware, slip paint; height: 29.6 cm (11.6 in.); diameter: 12.1 cm (4.7 in.); Walters Art Museum

Inca

Image:Muro de oro.JPG, Image:Tupa-inca-tunic.png, Image:Inca Auch 1.jpg,

Amazonia

Traditionally limited in access to stone and metals, Amazonian

indigenous people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

s excel at featherwork, painting, textiles, and ceramics.

Caverna da Pedra Pintada Caverna da Pedra Pintada (Painted Rock Cave ), is an archaeological site in northern Brazil, with evidence of human presence dating ca. 11,200 years ago.Saraceni, Jessica E. and Adriana Franco da Sá"People of South America."''Archaeology.'' Vol. ...

(Cave of the Painted Rock) in the

Pará Pará is a state of Brazil, located in northern Brazil and traversed by the lower Amazon River. It borders the Brazilian states of Amapá, Maranhão, Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas and Roraima. To the northwest are the borders of Guyana a ...

state of

houses the oldest firmly dated art in the Americas – rock paintings dating back 11,000 years. The cave is also the site of the oldest ceramics in the Americas, from 5000 BCE.Wilford, John Noble
Scientist at Work: Anna C. Roosevelt;Sharp and To the Point In Amazonia.
''New York Times.'' 23 April 1996. Retrieved 26 September 2009 The Island of

Marajó Marajó () is a large coastal island in the state of Pará, Brazil. It is the main and largest of the islands in the Marajó Archipelago. Marajó Island is separated from the mainland by Marajó Bay, Pará River, smaller rivers (especially M ...

, at the mouth of the

Amazon River The Amazon River (, ; es, Río Amazonas, pt, Rio Amazonas) in South America is the largest river by discharge volume of water in the world, and the disputed longest river system in the world in comparison to the Nile. The headwaters of t ...

was a major center of ceramic traditions as early as 1000 CE and continues to produce ceramics today, characterized by cream-colored bases painted with linear, geometric designs of red, black, and white slips. With access to a wide range of native bird species, Amazonian

s excel at feather work, creating brilliant colored headdresses, jewelry, clothing, and fans. Iridescent beetle wings are incorporated into earrings and other jewelry. Weaving and basketry also thrive in the Amazon, as noted among the

Urarina The Urarina are an indigenous people of the Peruvian Amazon Basin ( Loreto) who inhabit the valleys of the Chambira, Urituyacu, and Corrientes Rivers. According to both archaeological and historical sources, they have resided in the Chambira Bas ...

of Peru. File:Serra da Capivara - Several Paintings 2b.jpg, Cave painting,

Serra da Capivara National Park Serra da Capivara National Park ( Portuguese: ''Parque Nacional Serra da Capivara'', , locally ) is a national park in the Northeastern region of Brazil. The area has many prehistoric paintings. The name of the mountain range that defines the p ...

File:Vaso-santarém.JPG, File:Tiriyó-Kaxuyana beadwork - Memorial dos Povos Indígenas - Brasilia - DSC00537.JPG, Tiriyó- Kaxuyana beadwork, Memorial dos Povos Indígenas, Brasília File:Enawene-nawe 1257a.JPG, Enawene-nawe featherwork and body art

Modern and contemporary

Beginnings of contemporary Native American art

Pinpointing the exact time of emergence of "modern" and contemporary Native art is problematic. In the past, Western art historians have considered use of Western art media or exhibiting in international art arena as criteria for "modern" Native American art history. Native American art history is a new and highly contested academic discipline, and these Eurocentric benchmarks are followed less and less today. Many media considered appropriate for easel art were employed by Native artists for centuries, such as stone and wood sculpture and mural painting.

Ancestral Pueblo The Ancestral Puebloans, also known as the Anasazi, were an ancient Native American culture that spanned the present-day Four Corners region of the United States, comprising southeastern Utah, northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, a ...

artists painted with tempera on woven cotton fabric, at least 800 years ago. Certain Native artists used non-Indian art materials as soon as they became available. For example, Texcocan artist

Fernando de Alva Cortés Ixtlilxóchitl Fernando de Alva Cortés Ixtlilxóchitl (between 1568 and 1580, died in 1648) was a nobleman of partial Aztec noble descent in the Spanish Viceroyalty of New Spain, modern Mexico; he is known primarily for his works chronicling indigenous Aztec his ...

painted with ink and watercolor on paper in the late 16th century. Bound together in the

Codex The codex (plural codices ) was the historical ancestor of the modern book. Instead of being composed of sheets of paper, it used sheets of vellum, papyrus, or other materials. The term ''codex'' is often used for ancient manuscript books, with ...

Ixtlilxóchitl, these portraits of historical Texcocan leaders are rendered with shading, modeling and anatomic accuracy. The

Cuzco School The Cusco School (''Escuela cuzqueña'') or Cuzco School, was a Roman Catholic artistic tradition based in Cusco, Peru (the former capital of the Inca Empire) during the Colonial period, in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. It was not limited to ...

of Peru featured Quechua easel painters in the 17th and 18th centuries. The first cabinets of curiosities in the 16th century, precursors to modern museums, featured Native American art. The notion that fine art cannot be functional has not gained widespread acceptance in the Native American art world, as evidenced by the high esteem and value placed upon rugs, blankets, basketry, weapons, and other utilitarian items in Native American art shows. A dichotomy between

fine art In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwor ...

and

craft A craft or trade is a pastime or an occupation that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small scale pr ...

is not commonly found in contemporary Native art. For example, the

Cherokee Nation The Cherokee Nation ( Cherokee: ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ ''Tsalagihi Ayeli'' or ᏣᎳᎩᏰᎵ ''Tsalagiyehli''), also known as the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is the largest of three Cherokee federally recognized tribes in the United States. ...

honors its greatest artists as Living Treasures, including frog- and fish-gig makers, flint knappers, and

basket weavers A basket is a container that is traditionally constructed from stiff fibers and can be made from a range of materials, including wood splints, runners, and cane. While most baskets are made from plant materials, other materials such as horsehai ...

, alongside sculptors, painters, and textile artists. Art historian Dawn Ades writes, "Far from being inferior, or purely decorative, crafts like textiles or ceramics, have always had the possibility of being the bearers of vital knowledge, beliefs and myths." Recognizable art markets between Natives and non-Natives emerged upon contact, but the 1820–1840s were a highly prolific time. In the Pacific Northwest and the Great Lakes region, tribes dependent upon the rapidly diminishing fur trade adopted art production a means of financial support. A painting movement known as the Iroquois Realist School emerged among the Haudenosaunee in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

in the 1820s, spearheaded by the brothers

David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

and Dennis Cusick. African-Ojibwe sculptor, Edmonia Lewis maintained a studio in Rome, Italy and carved

Neoclassicist Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism wa ...

marble sculptors from the 1860s-1880s. Her mother belonged to the

Mississauga Mississauga ( ), historically known as Toronto Township, is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is situated on the shores of Lake Ontario in the Regional Municipality of Peel, adjoining the western border of Toronto. With a popu ...

band of the Credit River Indian Reserve. Lewis exhibited widely, and a testament to her popularity during her own time was that President

Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union A ...

commissioned her to carve his portrait in 1877.

Ho-Chunk The Ho-Chunk, also known as Hoocągra or Winnebago (referred to as ''Hotúŋe'' in the neighboring indigenous Iowa-Otoe language), are a Siouan-speaking Native American people whose historic territory includes parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iow ...

artist, Angel De Cora was the best known Native American artist before World War I. She was taken from her reservation and family to the Hampton Institute, where she began her lengthy formal art training. Active in the Arts and Crafts movement, De Cora exhibited her paintings and design widely and illustrated books by Native authors. She strove to be tribally specific in her work and was revolutionary for portraying Indians in contemporary clothing of the early 20th century. She taught art to young Native students at

Carlisle Indian Industrial School The United States Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, generally known as Carlisle Indian Industrial School, was the flagship Indian boarding school in the United States from 1879 through 1918. It took over the historic Carlisle ...

and was an outspoken advocate of art as a means for Native Americans to maintain cultural pride, while finding a place in mainstream society. The Kiowa Six, a group of Kiowa painters from Oklahoma, met with international success when their mentor,

Oscar Jacobson Oscar Brousse Jacobson (May 16, 1882 – September 15, 1966) was a Swedish-born American painter and museum curator. From 1915 to 1945, he was the director of the University of Oklahoma's School of Art, later known as the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of ...

, showed their paintings in First International Art Exposition in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1928. They also participated in the 1932

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

, where their art display, according to

Dorothy Dunn Dorothy Dunn Kramer (December 2, 1903 – July 5, 1992) was an American art instructor who created The Studio School at the Santa Fe Indian School. Background Dunn was born on 2 December 1903 in Pottawatomie County, Kansas and educated in Chi ...

, "was acclaimed the most popular exhibit among all the rich and varied displays assembled." The Santa Fe Indian Market began in 1922. John Collier became Commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1933 and temporarily reversed the BIA's assimilationist policies by encouraging Native American arts and culture. By this time, Native American art exhibits and the art market increased, gaining wider audiences. In the 1920s and 1930s,

Indigenist Indigenism can refer to several different ideologies that seek to promote the interests of indigenous peoples. The term is used differently by various scholars and activists, and can be used purely descriptively or carry political connotations. D ...

art movements flourished in

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

, and

, most famously with the Mexican Muralist movements.

Basketry

Basket weaving Basket weaving (also basketry or basket making) is the process of weaving or sewing pliable materials into three-dimensional artifacts, such as baskets, mats, mesh bags or even furniture. Craftspeople and artists specialized in making basket ...

is one of the ancient and most-widespread art forms in the Americas. From coiled sea lyme grass baskets in Nunavut to bark baskets in Tierra del Fuego, Native artists weave baskets from a wide range of materials. Typically baskets are made of vegetable fibers, but Tohono O'odham are known for their horsehair baskets and Inupiaq artists weave baskets from

baleen Baleen is a filter-feeding system inside the mouths of baleen whales. To use baleen, the whale first opens its mouth underwater to take in water. The whale then pushes the water out, and animals such as krill are filtered by the baleen and ...

, filtering plates of certain whales.Hessel, ''Arctic Spirit'', p. 17 Grand Traverse Band Kelly Church, Wasco-Wishram Pat Gold, and Eastern Band Cherokee Joel Queen all weave baskets from copper sheets or wire, and

Mi'kmaq The Mi'kmaq (also ''Mi'gmaq'', ''Lnu'', ''Miꞌkmaw'' or ''Miꞌgmaw''; ; ) are a First Nations people of the Northeastern Woodlands, indigenous to the areas of Canada's Atlantic Provinces and the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec as well as the no ...

- Onondaga conceptual artist Gail Tremblay weaves baskets in the traditional fancywork patterns of her tribes from exposed film. Basketry can take many forms.

artist Lisa Telford uses cedar bark to weave both traditional functional baskets and impractical but beautiful cedar evening gowns and high-heeled shoes. A range of native grasses provides material for Arctic baskets, as does baleen, which is a 20th-century development. Baleen baskets are typically embellished with walrus ivory carvings. Cedar bark is often used in northwest coastal baskets. Throughout the Great Lakes and northeast, black ash and sweetgrass are woven into fancy work, featuring "porcupine" points, or decorated as strawberries. Bark baskets are traditional for gathering berries.

Rivercane ''Arundinaria gigantea'' is a species of bamboo known as giant cane (not to be confused with ''Arundo donax''), river cane, and giant river cane. It is endemic to the south-central and southeastern United States as far west as Oklahoma and Texas ...

is the preferred material in the Southeast, and Chitimachas are regarded as the finest rivercane weavers. In Oklahoma, rivercane is prized but rare so baskets are typically made of honeysuckle or buckbrush runners. Coiled baskets are popular in the southwest and the Hopi and Apache in particular are known for pictorial coiled basketry plaques. The Tohono O'odham are well known for their basket-weaving prowess, and evidenced by the success of

Annie Antone Annie Antone (born 1955) is a Native American Tohono O'odham basket weaver from Gila Bend, Arizona. Background Annie Antone was born in Tucson, Arizona in 1955. She learned how to weave baskets from her mother,McFadden and Taubman, 219 Irene ...

and Terrol Dew Johnson. Kumeyaai basket

California and Great Basin tribes are considered some of the finest basket weavers in the world.

Juncus ''Juncus'' is a genus of monocotyledonous flowering plants, commonly known as rushes. It is the largest genus in the family Juncaceae, containing around 300 species. Description Rushes of the genus ''Juncus'' are herbaceous plants that superfici ...

is a common material in southern California, while sedge, willow, redbud, and devil's claw are also used.

basket weavers are known to weave 60–100 stitches per inch and their rounded, coiled baskets adorned with quail's topknots, feathers, abalone, and clamshell discs are known as "treasure baskets". Three of the most celebrated Californian basket weavers were Elsie Allen (Pomo), Laura Somersal (

Wappo The Wappo ( endonym: ''Micewal'') are an indigenous people of northern California. Their traditional homelands are in Napa Valley, the south shore of Clear Lake, Alexander Valley, and Russian River valley. They are distantly related to the ...

), and the late Pomo-

Patwin The Patwin (also Patween, Southern Wintu) are a band of Wintun people native to the area of Northern California. The Patwin comprise the southern branch of the Wintun group, native inhabitants of California since approximately 500 AD. The Patw ...

medicine woman,

Mabel McKay Mabel McKay (1907–1993) was a member of the Long Valley Cache Creek Pomo Indians and was of Patwin descent. She was the last Dreamer of the Pomo people and was renowned for her basket weaving. Greg Sarris published a biography of Mabel, call ...

, known for her biography, ''Weaving the Dream''. Louisa Keyser was a highly influential Washoe basket weaver. Yurok 20061109192219

A complex technique called "doubleweave," which involves continuously weaving both an inside and outside surface is shared by the

, Cherokee, Chitimacha, Tarahumara, and Venezuelan tribes. Mike Dart,

, is a contemporary practitioner of this technique. The Tarahumara, or Raramuri, of Copper Canyon, Mexico typically weave with pine needles and

sotol Sotol is a distilled spirit from the Chihuahuan desert northern Mexico, western Texas sourced from the family of Asparagaceae; the genus Dasylirion and several species, most commonly: ''Dasylirion wheeleri'', Dasylirion durangense, '' Dasyliri ...

. In

, Embera-Wounaan peoples are renowned for their pictorial chunga palm baskets, known as ''hösig di'', colored in vivid full-spectrum of natural dyes. Emberabasket

Yanomamo basket weavers of the Venezuelan Amazon paint their woven tray and burden baskets with geometric designs in charcoal and ''onto'', a red berry. While in most tribes the basket weavers are often women, among the Waura tribe in Brazil, men weave baskets. They weave a wide range of styles, but the largest are called ''mayaku'', which can be two feet wide and feature tight weaves with an impressive array of designs. Today basket weaving often leads to environmental activism. Indiscriminate pesticide spraying endangers basket weavers' health. The

black ash Black ash is a common name for several plants and may refer to: * ''Acer negundo'', native to North America * ''Fraxinus nigra'', native to North America * ''Eucalyptus sieberi ''Eucalyptus sieberi'', commonly known as the silvertop ash or bla ...

tree, used by basket weavers from Michigan to Maine, is threatened by the

emerald ash borer The emerald ash borer (''Agrilus planipennis''), also known by the acronym EAB, is a green buprestid or jewel beetle native to north-eastern Asia that feeds on ash species. Females lay eggs in bark crevices on ash trees, and larvae feed undern ...

. Basket weaver Kelly Church has organized two conferences about the threat and teaches children how to harvest black ash seeds. Many native plants that basket weavers use are endangered. Rivercane only grows in 2% of its original territory. Cherokee basket weaver and ethnobotanist, Shawna Cain is working with her tribe to form the Cherokee Nation Native Plant Society. Tohono O'odham basket weaver Terrol Dew Johnson, known for his experimental use of gourds, beargrass, and other desert plants, took his interest in native plants and founded Tohono O'odham Community Action, which provides traditional wild desert foods for his tribe.

Beadwork

Beadwork Beadwork is the art or craft of attaching beads to one another by stringing them onto a thread or thin wire with a sewing or beading needle or sewing them to cloth. Beads are produced in a diverse range of materials, shapes, and sizes, and vary ...

is a quintessentially Native American art form, but ironically uses beads imported from Europe and Asia. Glass beads have been in use for almost five centuries in the Americas. Today a wide range of beading styles flourish. In the Great Lakes, Ursuline nuns introduced floral patterns to tribes, who quickly applied them to beadwork. Great Lakes tribes are known for their bandolier bags, that might take an entire year to complete. During the 20th century the Plateau tribes, such as the Nez Perce perfected contour-style beadwork, in which the lines of beads are stitch to emphasize the pictorial imagery. Plains tribes are master beaders, and today dance regalia for man and women feature a variety of beadwork styles. While Plains and Plateau tribes are renowned for their beaded horse trappings, Subarctic tribes such as the Dene bead lavish floral dog blankets. Eastern tribes have a completely different beadwork aesthetic, and

Innu The Innu / Ilnu ("man", "person") or Innut / Innuat / Ilnuatsh ("people"), formerly called Montagnais from the French colonial period ( French for "mountain people", English pronunciation: ), are the Indigenous inhabitants of territory in the ...

Penobscot The Penobscot ( Abenaki: ''Pαnawάhpskewi'') are an Indigenous people in North America from the Northeastern Woodlands region. They are organized as a federally recognized tribe in Maine and as a First Nations band government in the Atlantic ...

, and Haudenosaunee tribes are known for symmetrical scroll motifs in white beads, called the "double curve." Iroquois are also known for "embossed" beading in which strings pulled taut force beads to pop up from the surface, creating a bas-relief.

Tammy Rahr Tammy may refer to: *Tam o' Shanter (cap), a Scottish hat * ''Tammy'' (film series), a series of four films **''Tammy and the Bachelor'', the first film in the series ** "Tammy" (song), a popular song from ''Tammy and the Bachelor'' ** ''Tammy'' (T ...

(Cayuga) is a contemporary practitioner of this style. Zuni artists have developed a tradition of three-dimensional beaded sculptures. Huichol Trabajando

Huichol The Huichol or Wixárika are an indigenous people of Mexico and the United States living in the Sierra Madre Occidental range in the states of Nayarit, Jalisco, Zacatecas, and Durango, as well as in the United States in the states of Californi ...

Indians of

Jalisco Jalisco (, , ; Nahuatl: Xalixco), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Jalisco ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Jalisco ; Nahuatl: Tlahtohcayotl Xalixco), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Federal ...

and Nayarit, Mexico have a unique approach to beadwork. They adhere beads, one by one, to a surface, such as wood or a gourd, with a mixture of resin and beeswax. Most Native beadwork is created for tribal use but beadworkers also create conceptual work for the art world. Richard Aitson (

Kiowa Kiowa () people are a Native American tribe and an indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in the 17th and 18th centuries,Pritzker 326 and e ...

) has both an Indian and non-Indian audience for his work and is known for his fully beaded cradleboards. Another Kiowa beadworker,

Teri Greeves Teri Greeves (born 1970) is a Native American beadwork artist, living in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is enrolled in the Kiowa Indian Tribe of Oklahoma. Early life and education Teri Greeves was born on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming in 1 ...

has won top honors for her beadwork, which consciously integrates both traditional and contemporary motifs, such as beaded dancers on Converse high-tops. Greeves also beads on buckskin and explores such issues as warfare or Native American voting rights.

Marcus Amerman Marcus Amerman is a Choctaw bead artist, glass artist, painter, fashion designer, and performance artist, living in Idaho. He is known for his highly realistic beadwork portraits. Background Marcus Amerman was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1959 but ...

, one of today's most celebrated bead artists, pioneered a movement of highly realistic beaded portraits. His imagery ranges from 19th century Native leaders to pop icons such as Janet Jackson and Brooke Shields. Roger Amerman, Marcus' brother, and

Martha Berry Martha McChesney Berry (October 7, 1865 – February 27, 1942) was an American educator and the founder of Berry College in Rome, Georgia. Early years Martha McChesney Berry was the daughter of Capt. Thomas Berry, a veteran of the Mexican–A ...

Cherokee The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, th ...

, have effectively revived Southeastern beadwork, a style that had been lost because of forced removal from tribes to Indian Territory. Their beadwork commonly features white bead outlines, an echo of the shell beads or pearls Southeastern tribes used before contact. Jamie Okuma ( Luiseño-

- Bannock) was won top awards with her beaded dolls, which can include entire families or horses and riders, all with fully beaded regalia. The antique Venetian beads she uses can as small as size 22°, about the size of a grain of salt.

Juanita Growing Thunder Fogarty Juanita Growing Thunder Fogarty (born 1969) is a Native American, Assiniboine Sioux bead worker and porcupine quill worker. She creates traditional Northern Plains regalia. Background Juanita Growing Thunder Fogarty was born in Castro Valley, C ...

, Rhonda Holy Bear, and Charlene Holy Bear are also prominent beaded dollmakers. The widespread popularity of glass beads does not mean aboriginal bead making is dead. Perhaps the most famous Native bead is wampum, a cylindrical tube of

quahog The hard clam ('' Mercenaria mercenaria''), also known as the round clam, hard-shell (or hard-shelled) clam, or the quahog, is an edible marine bivalve mollusk that is native to the eastern shores of North America and Central America from Prince ...

or whelk shell. Both shells produce white beads, but only parts of the quahog produce purple. These are ceremonially and politically important to a range of Northeastern Woodland tribes. Elizabeth James Perry (

Aquinnah Wampanoag The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) ( wam, Âhqunah Wôpanâak) is a federally recognized tribe of Wampanoag people based in the town of Aquinnah on the southwest tip of Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts.Eastern Band Cherokee) creates wampum jewelry today, including wampum belts.

Ceramics

Ceramics have been created in the Americas for the last 8000 years, as evidenced by pottery found in Caverna da Pedra Pintada in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon. The Island of

in Brazil remains a major center of ceramic art today. In Mexico, Mata Ortiz pottery continues the ancient

Casas Grandes Casas Grandes (Spanish for ''Great Houses''; also known as Paquimé) is a prehistoric archaeological site in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua. Construction of the site is attributed to the Mogollon culture. Casas Grandes has been design ...

tradition of polychrome pottery. Juan Quezada is one of the leading potters from Mata Ortiz. In the Southeast, the Catawba tribe is known for its tan-and-black mottled pottery. Eastern Band Cherokees' pottery has Catawba influences. In Oklahoma, Cherokees lost their pottery traditions until revived by Anna Belle Sixkiller Mitchell. The

tribe's centuries-long pottery tradition had died out in the early 20th century, but has been effectively revived by Jereldine Redcorn. Pueblo people are particularly known for their ceramic traditions. Nampeyo (c. 1860 – 1942) was a

potter who collaborated with anthropologists to revive traditional pottery forms and designs, and many of her relatives are successful potters today. Maria and Julian Martinez, both San Ildefonso Pueblo revived their tribe's blackware tradition in the early 20th century. Julian invented a gloss-matte blackware style for which his tribe is still known today. Lucy Lewis (1898–1992) of Acoma Pueblo gained recognition for her black-on-white ceramics in the mid-20th century. Cochiti Pueblo was known for its grotesque figurines at the turn-of-the-20th century, and these have been revived by Virgil Ortiz. Cochiti potter Helen Cordero (1915–1994) invented storyteller figures, which feature a large, single figure of a seated

elder An elder is someone with a degree of seniority or authority. Elder or elders may refer to: Positions Administrative * Elder (administrative title), a position of authority Cultural * North American Indigenous elder, a person who has and ...

telling stories to groups of smaller figures. While northern potters are not as well known as their southern counterparts, ceramic arts extend as far north as the Arctic. Inuit potter, Makituk Pingwartok of

Cape Dorset Kinngait (Inuktitut meaning "high mountain" or "where the hills are"; Syllabics: ᑭᙵᐃᑦ), formerly known as Cape Dorset until 27 February 2020, is an Inuit hamlet located on Dorset Island near Foxe Peninsula at the southern tip of Baff ...

uses a pottery wheel to create her prizewinning ceramics. Today contemporary Native potters create a wide range of ceramics from functional pottery to monumental ceramic sculpture. Roxanne Swentzell of Santa Clara Pueblo is one of the leading ceramic artists in the Americas. She creates coil-built, emotionally charged figures that comment on contemporary society.

Nora Naranjo-Morse Nora Naranjo Morse (born 1953) is a Native American artist and poet. She currently resides in Española, New Mexico just north of Santa Fe and is a member of the Santa Clara Pueblo. Her work can be found in several museum collections including t ...

, also of Santa Clara Pueblo is world-renowned for her individual figures as well as conceptual installations featuring ceramics. Diego Romero of Cochiti Pueblo is known for his ceramic bowls, painted with satirical scenes that combine Ancestral Pueblo, Greek, and pop culture imagery. Hundreds more Native contemporary ceramic artists are taking pottery in new directions.

Jewelry

File:Caeser Bruce silver comb 1984 ohs.jpg, German silver hair comb, by Bruce Caeser ( Pawnee/ Sac & Fox), Oklahoma, 1984,

Oklahoma Historical Society The Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS) is an agency of the government of Oklahoma dedicated to promotion and preservation of Oklahoma's history and its people by collecting, interpreting, and disseminating knowledge and artifacts of Oklahoma. ...

File:Tommy Singer 2.jpg, Silver overlay

bolo tie A bolo tie (sometimes bola tie or shoestring necktie) is a type of necktie consisting of a piece of cord or braided leather with decorative metal tips (called aiguillettes) and secured with an ornamental clasp or slide. Popularity In the United ...

by Tommy Singer (

), New Mexico, c. 1980s File:Woolaroc - Navajo Gürtelschnalle.jpg,

stamped silver belt buckle, collection of

Woolaroc Woolaroc is a museum and wildlife preserve located in the Osage Hills of Northeastern Oklahoma on Oklahoma State Highway 123 about southwest of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and north of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Woolaroc was established in 1925 as the ranch ...

File:Bennie pokemire gorget.jpg,

Shell gorget Shell gorgets are a Native American art form of polished, carved shell pendants worn around the neck. The gorgets are frequently engraved, and are sometimes highlighted with pigments, or fenestrated (pierced with openings). Shell gorgets were mo ...

carved by Benny Pokemire ( Eastern Band Cherokee)

Performance art

Performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

is a new art form, emerging in the 1960s, and so does not carry the cultural baggage of many other art genres. Performance art can draw upon storytelling traditions, as well as music and dance, and often includes elements of installation, video, film, and textile design. Rebecca Belmore, a Canadian Ojibway performance artist, has represented her country in the prestigious

James Luna James Luna (February 9, 1950March 4, 2018) was a Payómkawichum, Ipi, and Mexican-American performance artist, photographer and multimedia installation artist. His work is best known for challenging the ways in which conventional museum exhibi ...

, a Luiseño-

Mexican Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...

performance artist, also participated in the Venice Biennale in 2005, representing the National Museum of the American Indian. Performance allows artists to confront their audience directly, challenge long held stereotypes, and bring up current issues, often in an emotionally charged manner. " ople just howl in their seats, and there's ranting and booing or hissing, carrying on in the audience," says Rebecca Belmore of the response to her work.Ryan, 146 She has created performances to call attention to violence against and many unsolved murders of First Nations women. Both Belmore and Luna create elaborate, often outlandish outfits and props for their performances and move through a range of characters. For instance, a repeating character of Luna's is Uncle Jimmy, a disabled veteran who criticizes greed and apathy on his reservation. On the other hand,

, a

performance artist, maintains a consistent role of the Buffalo Man, whose irony and social commentary arise from the odd situations in which he finds himself, for instance a James Bond movie or lost in a desert labyrinth. Jeff Marley,

, pulls from the tradition of the " booger dance" to create subversive, yet humorous, interventions that take history and place into account. Erica Lord, Inupiaq-

, explores her mixed-race identity and conflicts about the ideas of home through her performance art. In her words, "In order to sustain a genuine self, I create a world in which I shift to become one or all of my multiple visions of self." She has suntanned phrases into her skin, donned cross-cultural and cross-gender disguises, and incorporated songs, ranging from Inupiaq throat singing to racist children's rhymes into her work. A

n anarcha-feminist cooperative, Mujeres Creando or "Women Creating" features many indigenous artists. They create public performances or street theater to bring attention to issues of women's, indigenous people's, and lesbian's rights, as well as anti-poverty issues. Julieta Paredes, María Galindo and Mónica Mendoza are founding members. Performance art has allowed Native Americans access to the international art world, and Rebecca Belmore mentions that her audiences are non-Native; however, Native American audiences also respond to this genre. ''Bringing It All Back Home,'' a 1997 film collaboration between James Luna and Chris Eyre, documents Luna's first performance at his own home, the La Jolla Indian Reservation. Luna describes the experience as "probably the scariest moment of my life as an artist ... performing for the members of my reservation in the tribal hall."

Photography

Native Americans embraced photography in the 19th century. Some even owned their own photography studios, such as Benjamin Haldane (1874–1941),

of Metlakatla Village on Annette Island, Alaska,

Jennie Ross Cobb Jennie Ross Cobb ( Cherokee, 1881–1959) is the first known Native American woman photographer in the United States. She began taking pictures of her Cherokee community in the late 19th century. The Oklahoma Historical Society used her photos of ...

(

, 1881–1959) of

Park Hill, Oklahoma Park Hill is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in southwestern Cherokee County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 3,909 at the 2010 census. It lies near Tahlequah, east of the junction of U.S. Route 62 and ...

, and Richard Throssel (

Cree The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations. In Canada, over 350,000 people are Cree o ...

, 1882–1933) of

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

. Their early photographs stand in stark contrast to the romanticized images of Edward Curtis and other contemporaries. Scholarship by Mique’l Askren (Tsimshian/Tlingit) on the photographs of B.A. Haldane has analyzed the functions that Haldane's photographs served for his community: as markers of success by having Anglo-style formal portraits taken, and as markers of the continuity of potlatching and traditional ceremonials by having photographs taken in ceremonial regalia. This second category is particularly significant because the use of the ceremonial regalia was against the law in Canada between 1885 and 1951.

Martín Chambi Martín Chambi Jiménez (November 5, 1891 – September 13, 1973) was a Peruvian photographer, originally from Puno, in southern Peru. He was one of the first major Indigenous Latin American photographers. Recognized for the profound historic and ...

( Quechua, 1891–1973), a photographer from Peru, was one of the pioneering Indigenous photographers of South America. Peter Pitseolak ( Inuk, 1902–1973), from

Cape Dorset, Nunavut Kinngait (Inuktitut meaning "high mountain" or "where the hills are"; Syllabics: ᑭᙵᐃᑦ), formerly known as Cape Dorset until 27 February 2020, is an Inuit hamlet located on Dorset Island near Foxe Peninsula at the southern tip of Baff ...

, documented Inuit life in the mid-20th century while dealing with challenges presented by the harsh climate and extreme light conditions of the Canadian Arctic. He developed his film himself in his igloo, and some of his photos were shot by oil lamps. Following in the footsteps of early Kiowa amateur photographers Parker McKenzie(1897–1999) and Nettie Odlety McKenzie (1897–1978), Horace Poolaw (

, 1906–1984) shot over 2000 images of his neighbors and relatives in Western Oklahoma from the 1920s onward.

Jean Fredericks Jean Fredericks (1906–1990) was a Hopi photographer. He grew up in Old Oraibi, Arizona, a village located on Third Mesa on the Hopi Reservation The Hopi Reservation (Hopi: Hopituskwa) is a Native American reservation for the Hopi and Ari ...

(

, 1906–1990) carefully negotiated Hopi cultural views toward photography and did not offer his portraits of Hopi people for sale to the public. Today innumerable Native people are professional art photographers; however, acceptance to the genre has met with challenges. Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie (

/ Muscogee/

Seminole The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, ...

) has not only established a successful career with her own work, she has also been an advocate for the entire field of Native American photography. She has curated shows and organized conferences at the C.N. Gorman Museum at

UC Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institu ...

featuring Native American photographers. Tsinhnahjinnie wrote the book, ''Our People, Our Land, Our Images: International Indigenous Photographers.'' Native photographers have taken their skills into the fields of art videography, photocollage, digital photography, and digital art.

Printmaking

Although it is widely speculated that the ancient Adena stone tablets were used for printmaking, not much is known about aboriginal American

printmaking Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand processed techniqu ...

. 20th-century Native artists have borrowed techniques from Japan and Europe, such as

woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas tha ...

linocut Linocut, also known as lino print, lino printing or linoleum art, is a printmaking technique, a variant of woodcut in which a sheet of linoleum (sometimes mounted on a wooden block) is used for a relief surface. A design is cut into the linoleu ...

, serigraphy, monotyping, and other practices. Printmaking has flourished among

Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territorie ...

communities in particular. European-Canadian James Houston created a graphic art program in

in 1957.Hessel, ''Arctic Spirit'', p. 49 Houston taught local Inuit stone carvers how to create prints from stone-blocks and stencils. He asked local artists to draw pictures and the shop generated limited edition prints, based on the

ukiyo-e Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk ta ...

workshop system of Japan. Cooperative print shops were also established in nearby communities, including Baker Lake,

Puvirnituq Puvirnituq ( iu, ᐳᕕᕐᓂᑐᖅ) is a northern village ( Inuit community) in Nunavik, on the Povungnituk River near its mouth on Hudson Bay in northern Quebec, Canada. Its population was 2,128 as of the 2021 Canadian census. Of all ot ...

, Holman, and Pangnirtung. These shops have experimented with

etching Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an in ...

lithography Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

, and silkscreen. Shops produced annual catalogs advertising their collections. Local birds and animals, spirit beings, and hunting scenes are the most popular subject matter, but are allegorical in nature. Backgrounds tend to be minimal and perspective is mixed.Hessel, ''Arctic Spirit'', p. 50 One of the most prominent of Cape Dorset artists is Kenojuak Ashevak (born 1927), who has received many public commissions and two honorary doctorate degrees. Other prominent Inuit printmakers and graphic artists include Parr,

Osuitok Ipeelee Osuitok Ipeelee (23 September 1923 Neeouleeutalik camp-2005 Cape DorsetGermaine Arnaktauyok Germaine Arnaktauyok (born in Maniitsoq, Greenland in 1946) is an Inuk printmaker, painter, and drawer originating from the Igloolik area of Nunavut, then the Northwest Territories. Arnaktauyok drew at an early age with any source of paper she c ...

Pitseolak Ashoona Pitseolak Ashoona ( – May 28, 1983;) was an Inuk Canadian artist admired for her prolific body of work. She was also a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Biography Pitseolak was born to Timungiak and Oootochie on Nottingham Island ...

, Tivi Etok, Helen Kalvak,

Jessie Oonark Jessie Oonark, ( ᔨᐊᓯ ᐅᓈᖅ; 2 March 1906 – 7 March 1985) was a prolific and influential Inuit artist of the Utkuhihalingmiut ''Utkuhiksalingmiut'' whose wall hangings, prints and drawings are in major collections including the Nat ...

Kananginak Pootoogook Kananginak Pootoogook (1 January 1935 – 23 November 2010) was an Inuk sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in ...

, Pudlo Pudlat, Irene Avaalaaqiaq Tiktaalaaq, and Simon Tookoome. Inuit printmaker

Andrew Qappik Andrew Qappik (born February 25, 1964 in Nunataq, Northwest Territories, now Nunavut) is a Canadian Inuk graphic artist currently residing in Pangnirtung, Nunavut. Qappik is known for his printmaking and his contribution to the Nunavut coat of ...

designed the coat of arms of Nunavut. Many Native painters transformed their paintings into fine art prints.

Potawatomi The Potawatomi , also spelled Pottawatomi and Pottawatomie (among many variations), are a Native American people of the western Great Lakes region, upper Mississippi River and Great Plains. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a m ...

artist

Woody Crumbo Woodrow Wilson Crumbo (January 21, 1912—April 4, 1989) (Potawatomi) was an artist, Native American flute player, and dancer who lived and worked mostly in the West of the United States. A transcript of his daughter's interview shows that Mr. Cr ...

created bold, screen prints and etchings in the mid-20th century that blended traditional, flat

Bacone Style The Bacone school or Bacone style of painting, drawing, and printmaking is a Native American intertribal "Flatstyle" art movement, primarily from the mid-20th century in Eastern Oklahoma and named for Bacone College. This art movement bridges his ...

with

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...

influences.

painter, T.C. Cannon traveled to Japan to study wood block printing from master printers. In Chile,

Mapuche The Mapuche ( (Mapuche & Spanish: )) are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who s ...

printmaker

Santos Chávez Santos Chávez (1934-2001) was a Mapuche printmaker and painter from Chile, known for his engravings and woodcuts. Background Santos Segundo Chávez Alíster was born on February 7, 1934, in a small town of Canihual, between Tirúa and Quidico in ...

(1934–2001) was one of the most celebrated artists of his country – with over 85 solo exhibitions during his lifetime.

Melanie Yazzie Melanie Yazzie is a Navajo sculptor, painter, printmaker, and professor. She teaches at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Early life and education Yazzie was born in 1966 in Ganado, Arizona, United States. She is Navajo of the , born for .< ...

(

Linda Lomahaftewa Linda Lomahaftewa (born 1947) is a Hopi and Choctaw printmaker, painter, and educator living in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Background Linda J. Lomahaftewa was born July 3, 1947 in Phoenix, Arizona. Her late father was Hopi; her mother is Choctaw from O ...

(

Fritz Scholder Fritz William Scholder V (October 6, 1937 – February 10, 2005) was a Native American artist. Scholder was an enrolled member of the La Jolla Band of Luiseno Indians, a federally recognized tribe of Luiseños, a California Mission tribe. Scho ...

and Debora Iyall (

Cowlitz Cowlitz may refer to: People * Cowlitz people, an indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest ** Cowlitz language, member of the Tsamosan branch of the Coast Salish family of Salishan languages * Cowlitz Indian Tribe, a federally recognized tribe o ...

) have all built successful careers with their print and have gone on to teach the next generation of printers. Walla Walla artist, James Lavadour founde
Crow's Shadow Institute of the Arts
on the Umatilla Reservation in Oregon in 1992. Crow's Shadow features a state-of-the-art printmaking studio and offers workshops, exhibition space, and printmaking residencies for Native artists, in which they pair visiting artists with master printers.

Sculpture

Native Americans have created sculpture, both monumental and small, for millennia. Stone sculptures are ubiquitous through the Americas, in the forms of stelae,

inuksuit An inuksuk (plural inuksuit) or inukshuk (from the iu, ᐃᓄᒃᓱᒃ, plural ; alternatively in Inuinnaqtun, in Iñupiaq, in Greenlandic) is a type of stone landmark or cairn built by, and for the use of, Inuit, Iñupiat, Kalaallit, Y ...

, and statues. Alabaster stone carving is popular among Western tribes, where

catlinite Catlinite, also called pipestone, is a type of argillite (metamorphosed mudstone), usually brownish-red in color, which occurs in a matrix of Sioux Quartzite. Because it is fine-grained and easily worked, it is prized by Native Americans, pri ...

carving is traditional in the Northern Plains and fetish-carving is traditional in the Southwest, particularly among the Zuni. The

Taíno The Taíno were a historic Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, indigenous people of the Caribbean whose culture has been continued today by Taíno descendant communities and Taíno revivalist communities. At the time of European contact in the ...

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...

and the

are known for their zemis– sacred, three-pointed stone sculptures. Inuit artists sculpt with walrus ivory, caribou antlers, bones, soapstone, serpentinite, and argillite. They often represent local fauna and humans engaged in hunting or ceremonial activities. Edmonia Lewis paved the way for Native American artists to sculpt in mainstream traditions using non-Native materials. Allan Houser ( Warms Springs Chiricahua Apache) became one of the most prominent Native sculptors of the 20th century. Though he worked in wood and stone, Houser is most known for his monumental bronze sculptors, both representational and abstract. Houser influenced a generation of Native sculptors by teaching at the Institute of American Indian Arts. His two sons, Phillip and Bob Haozous are sculptors today. Roxanne Swentzell ( Santa Clara Pueblo) is known for her expressive, figurative, ceramic sculptures but has also branched into bronze casting, and her work is permanently displayed at the National Museum of the American Indian. The Northwest Coastal tribes are known for their woodcarving – most famously their monumental totem poles that display clan crests. During the 19th century and early 20th century, this art form was threatened but was effectively revived. Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole carvers such as Charlie James, Mungo Martin, Ellen Neel, and Willie Seaweed kept the art alive and also carved masks, furniture, bentwood boxes, and jewelry. Haida carvers include

Charles Edenshaw Charles Edenshaw (–1920) was a Haida artist"Master Artists: Charles Edenshaw ...

, Bill Reid, and Robert Davidson. Besides working in wood, Haida also work with argillite. Traditional formline designs translate well into glass sculpture, which is increasingly popular thanks to efforts by contemporary glass artists such as

Preston Singletary Preston Singletary (born 1963) is a Native American glass artist. Biography Preston Singletary was born in 1963 in San Francisco, California. He grew up in the Seattle-area listening to stories told by his great-grandparents, who were both ful ...

( Tlingit), Susan Point ( Coast Salish) and Marvin Oliver ( Quinault/

Isleta Pueblo Pueblo of Isleta ( tix, Shiewhibak , kjq, Dîiw'a'ane ; nv, Naatoohó ) is an unincorporated community and Tanoan pueblo in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, United States, originally established in the . The Southern Tiwa name of the pue ...

). In the Southeast, woodcarving dominates sculpture. Willard Stone, of Cherokee descent, exhibited internationally in the mid-20th century.

Amanda Crowe Amanda Crowe (July 16, 1928 – September 27, 2004) was an Eastern Band Cherokee woodcarver and educator from Cherokee, North Carolina. A graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, her work has been widely exhibited and is held by ...

( Eastern Band Cherokee) studied sculpture at the

and returned to her reservation to teach over 2000 students woodcarving over a period of 40 years, ensuring that sculpture thrives as an art form on the Qualla Boundary. File:RSLife.jpg, left, ''For Life in all Directions'', Roxanne Swentzell ( Santa Clara Pueblo), bronze,

NMAI The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum in the United States devoted to the culture of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. It is part of the Smithsonian Institution group of museums and research centers. The museum has three ...

File:Pai Tavytera indian traditional wood carving.JPG, Pai Tavytera traditional woodcarving,

Amambay Department Amambay () is a department in Paraguay. The capital is Pedro Juan Caballero. The name comes from the name of a part of the Caaguazú Cordillera, " Amambai Mountains". Amambay is the name of a fern, typical of the forest in the region. Distric ...

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to t ...

, 2008 File:Each-Other - Marie Watt and Cannupa Hanska Luger - exhibit, 2021.jpg, Each/Other by Marie Watt and Cannupa Hanska Luger, 2021

Textiles

Lorena Lemunguier Quezada junto a sus obras

Fiberwork dating back 10,000 years has been unearthed from Guitarrero Cave in Peru. Cotton and wool from alpaca, llamas, and vicuñas have been woven into elaborate textiles for thousands of years in the Andes and are still important parts of Quechua and Aymara culture today. Coroma in Antonio Quijarro Province,

is a major center for ceremonial textile production. An Aymara elder from Coroma said, "In our sacred weavings are expressions of our philosophy, and the basis for our social organization... The sacred weavings are also important in differentiating one community, or ethnic group, from a neighboring group..." KunaWomanWithMolas

Kuna Kuna may refer to: Places * Kuna, Idaho, a town in the United States ** Kuna Caves, a lava tube in Idaho * Kuna Peak, a mountain in California * , a village in the Orebić municipality, Croatia * , a village in the Konavle municipality, Croatia ...

tribal members of

and

are famous for their molas, cotton panels with elaborate geometric designs created by a reverse

appliqué Appliqué is ornamental needlework in which pieces or patches of fabric in different shapes and patterns are sewn or stuck onto a larger piece to form a picture or pattern. It is commonly used as decoration, especially on garments. The technique ...

technique. Designs originated from traditional skin painting designs but today exhibit a wide range of influences, including

pop culture Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * ''Pop'' ...

. Two mola panels form a blouse, but when a Kuna woman is tired of a blouse, she can disassemble it and sell the molas to art collectors. Mayan women have woven cotton with backstrap looms for centuries, creating items such as '' huipils'' or traditional blouses. Elaborate Maya textiles featured representations of animals, plants, and figures from oral history. Organizing into weaving collectives have helped Mayan women earn better money for their work and greatly expand the reach of Mayan textiles in the world.

seamstresses, upon gaining access to sewing machines in the late 19th century and early 20th centuries, invented an elaborate appliqué patchwork tradition. Seminole patchwork, for which the tribe is known today, came into full flower in the 1920s. Great Lakes and Prairie tribes are known for their

ribbonwork Ribbon work is an appliqué technique for clothing and dance regalia among Prairie and Great Lakes Native American tribes. Deb Haaland wore a ribbon skirt made by Agnes Woodward for her 2021 swearing in ceremony as US Interior Secretary. History ...

, found on clothing and blankets. Strips of silk ribbons are cut and appliquéd in layers, creating designs defined by negative space. The colors and designs might reflect the clan or gender of the wearer.

Powwow A powwow (also pow wow or pow-wow) is a gathering with dances held by many Native American and First Nations communities. Powwows today allow Indigenous people to socialize, dance, sing, and honor their cultures. Powwows may be private or p ...

and other dance regalia from these tribes often feature ribbonwork. These tribes are also known for their fingerwoven sashes. Pueblo men weave with cotton on upright looms. Their mantas and sashes are typically made for ceremonial use for the community, not for outside collectors. Seminole patchwork shawl

Navajo rugs are woven by Navajo women today from Navajo-Churro sheep or commercial wool. Designs can be pictorial or abstract, based on traditional Navajo, Spanish, Oriental, or Persian designs. 20th-century Navajo weavers include Clara Sherman and

Hosteen Klah , , birth_date = 1867 , birth_place = Bear Mountain, near Fort Wingate, New Mexico , death_date = February 27, 1937 , death_place = , nationality = American / Navajo , spouse = , field = Weaver, artist and ...

, who co-founded the

Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian The Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian is a museum devoted to Native American arts. It is located in Santa Fe, New Mexico and was founded in 1937 by Mary Cabot Wheelwright, who came from Boston, and Hastiin Klah, a Navajo singer and medi ...

. In 1973, the Navajo Studies Department of the Diné College in

Many Farms, Arizona Many Farms ( nv, ) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Apache County, Arizona, United States. The population was 1,348 at the 2010 census. Geography Many Farms is located at (36.359870, -109.628053). According to the United States Census ...

, wanted to determine how long it took a Navajo weaver to create a rug or blanket from sheep shearing to market. The study determined the total amount of time was 345 hours. Out of these 345 hours, the expert Navajo weaver needed: 45 hours to shear the sheep and process the wool; 24 hours to

spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally ...

the

wool Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. ...

; 60 hours to prepare the

dye A dye is a colored substance that chemically bonds to the substrate to which it is being applied. This distinguishes dyes from pigments which do not chemically bind to the material they color. Dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution and ...

and to dye the wool; 215 hours to weave the piece; and only one hour to sell the item in their shop. Customary textiles of Northwest Coast peoples using non-Western materials and techniques are enjoying a dramatic revival. Chilkat weaving and

Ravenstail weaving Ravenstail weaving (''yeil koowu''), also known as Raven's Tail weaving, is a traditional form of geometric weaving-style practiced by Northwest Coast peoples. History The practice of Ravenstail and Chilkat weaving originated among the Tsimshian ...

are regarded as some of the most difficult weaving techniques in the world. A single Chilkat blanket can take an entire year to weave. In both techniques, dog, mountain goat, or sheep wool and shredded cedar bark are combined to create textiles featuring curvilinear formline designs. Tlingit weaver

Jennie Thlunaut Jennie Thlunaut (–1986) was a Tlingit artist, who is credited with keeping the art of Chilkat weaving alive and was one of the most celebrated Northwest Coastal master weavers of the 20th century.Brown, Steven C. ''Native Visions: Evolution in ...

(1982–1986) was instrumental in this revival. Experimental 21st-century textile artists include Lorena Lemunguier Quezada, a

weaver from Chile, and Martha Gradolf ( Winnebago), whose work is overtly political in nature. Valencia, Joseph and Ramona Sakiestewa (

) and Melissa Cody (

) explore non-representational abstraction and use experimental materials in their weaving.

Cultural sensitivity and repatriation

As in most cultures, Native peoples create some works that are to be used only in sacred, private ceremonies. Many sacred objects or items that contain medicine are to be seen or touched by certain individuals with specialized knowledge. Many Pueblo and

katsina figures (''tihü'' in

and ''kokko'' in Zuni) and katsinam regalia are not meant to be seen by individuals who have not received instruction about that particular katsina. Many institutions do not display these publicly out of respect for tribal taboos. Midewiwin birch bark scrolls are deemed too culturally sensitive for public display, as are medicine bundles, certain sacred pipes and pipe bags, and other tools of

medicine people A medicine man or medicine woman is a traditional healer and spiritual leader who serves a community of Indigenous people of the Americas. Individual cultures have their own names, in their respective languages, for spiritual healers and ceremo ...

. Navajo sandpainting is a component for healing ceremonies, but sandpaintings can be made into permanent art that is acceptable to sell to non-Natives as long as Holy People are not portrayed. Various tribes prohibit photography of many sacred ceremonies, as used to be the case in many Western cultures. As several early photographers broke local laws, photographs of sensitive ceremonies are in circulation, but tribes prefer that they not be displayed. The same can be said for photographs or sketches of medicine bundle contents. Two Mohawk leaders sued a museum, trying to remove a False Face Society mask or ''Ga:goh:sah'' from an exhibit because "it was a medicine object intended to be seen only by community members and that its public display would cause irreparable harm to the Mohawk."Phillips 49 The Grand Council of the

has ruled that such masks are not for sale or public display, nor are Corn Husk Society masks. Tribes and individuals within tribes do not always agree about what is or is not appropriate to display to the public. Many institutions do not exhibit

Ghost Dance The Ghost Dance ( Caddo: Nanissáanah, also called the Ghost Dance of 1890) was a ceremony incorporated into numerous Native American belief systems. According to the teachings of the Northern Paiute spiritual leader Wovoka (renamed Jack Wil ...

regalia. At the request of tribal leaders, the

is among those that does not exhibit Plains warrior's shields or "artifacts imbued with a warrior's power". Many tribes do not want grave goods or items associated with burials, such as funerary urns, in museums, and many would like associated grave goods reinterred. The process is often facilitated within the United States under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). In Canada, repatriation is negotiated between the tribes and museums or through Land Claims laws. In international situations, institutions are not always legally required to repatriate indigenous cultural items to their place of origin; some museums do so voluntarily, as with

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...

's decision to return 5,000 artifacts and human remains to

Cusco, Peru Cusco, often spelled Cuzco (; qu, Qusqu ()), is a city in Southeastern Peru near the Urubamba Valley of the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cusco Region and of the Cusco Province. The city is the seventh most populous in Peru; ...

Museum representation

Indigenous American arts have had a long and complicated relationship with museum representation since the early 1900s. In 1931, ''The Exposition of Indian Tribal Arts'' was the first large scale show that held Indigenous art on display. Their portrayal in museums grew more common later in the 1900s as a reaction to the Civil Rights Movement. With the rising trend of representation in the political atmosphere, minority voices gained more representation in museums as well. Although Indigenous art was being displayed, the curatorial choices on how to display their work were not always made with the best of intentions. For instance, Native American art pieces and artifacts would often be shown alongside dinosaur bones, implying that they are a people of the past and non-existent or irrelevant in today's world. Native American remains were on display in museums up until the 1960s. Though many did not yet view Native American art as a part of the mainstream as of the year 1992, there has since then been a great increase in volume and quality of both Native art and artists, as well as exhibitions and venues, and individual curators. Such leaders as the director of the National Museum of the American Indian insist that Native American representation be done from a first-hand perspective. The establishment of such museums as the Heard Museum and the National Museum of the American Indian, both of which trained spotlights specifically upon Native American arts, enabled a great number of Native artists to display and develop their work. For five months starting in October 2017, three Native American works of art selected from the Charles and Valerie Diker Collection to be exhibited in the American Wing at the

.Yount, Sylvia. "Redefining American Art: Native American Art in The American Wing". ''The Metropolitan Museum of Art, I.e. The Met Museum'', 21 Feb. 2017, www.metmuseum.org/blogs/now-at-the-met/2017/native-american-art-the-american-wing. Museum representation for Indigenous artists calls for great responsibility from curators and museum institutions. The Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 prohibits non-Indigenous artists from exhibiting as Native American artists. Institutions and curators work discussing whom to represent, why are they being chosen, what Indigenous art looks like, and what its purpose is. Museums, as educational institutions, give light to cultures and narratives that would otherwise go unseen; they provide a necessary spotlight and who they choose to represent is pivotal to the history of the represented artists and culture.

Citations

References

General

*Crawford, Suzanne J. and Dennis F. Kelley, eds. ''American Indian Religious Traditions: An Encyclopedia, Volume 1.'' Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2005. . *Levenson, Jay A., ed. (1991) ''Circa 1492: Art in the Age of Exploration.'' New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. . * Mann, Charles C. (2005). ''1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus.'' New York: Alfred A. Knopf. . * Nottage, James H. ''Diversity and Dialogue: The Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art, 2007.'' Indianapolis: Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, 2008. . *Phillips, Ruth B. "A Proper Place for Art or the Proper Arts of Place? Native North American Objects and the Hierarchies of Art, Craft and Souvenir." Lynda Jessup with Shannon Bagg, eds. ''On Aboriginal Representation in the Gallery.'' Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2002. .

North America

* * Dalrymple, Larry (2000). ''California and Great Basin Indian Basketmakers: The Living Art and Fine Tradition.'' Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press. * Dubin, Lois Sherr (1999). ''North American Indian Jewelry and Adornment: From Prehistory to the Present.'' New York: Harry N. Abrams. * Dunn, Dorothy. ''American Indian Painting of the Southwest and Plains Areas''. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1968. ASIN B000X7A1T0. * Hessel, Ingo (2006). ''Arctic Spirit: Inuit Art from the Albrecht Collection at the Heard Museum.'' Phoenix, AZ: Heard Museum. . * Hill, Sarah H. (1997). ''Weaving New Worlds: Southeastern Cherokee Women and Their Basketry.'' Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. . * Hutchinson, Elizabeth (Dec 2001). "Modern Native American Art: Angel DeCora's Transcultural Aesthetics." ''Art Bulletin.'' Vol. 83, 4: 740–756. * Masayesva, Victor and Erin Younger (1983). ''Hopi Photographers: Hopi Images.'' Sun Tracks, Tucson, Arizona. . * * Porter, Frank W. (1988). ''Native American Basketry: An Annotated Bibliography.'' Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. . * Ryan, Allan J. (1999). ''The Trickster Shift: Humor and Irony in Contemporary Native Art.'' Vancouver: UBC Press. . * Sturtevant, William C. (2007). "Early Iroquois Realist Painting and Identity Marking." ''Three Centuries of Woodlands Indian Art. ''Vienna: ZKF Publishers: 129–143. . * Wolfe, Rinna Evelyn (1998). ''Edmonia Lewis: Wildfire in Marble.'' Parsippany, NJ: Dillon Press. .

Mesoamerica and Central America

* *

South America

* Ades, Dawn (2006). ''Art in Latin America: The Modern Era 1820-1980''. New Haven: Yale University Press. . * Siegal, William (1991). ''Aymara-Bolivianische Textilien.'' Krefeld: Deutsches Textilmuseum. . * Stone-Miller (2002). ''Art of the Andes: from Chavín to Inca.'' London: Thames and Hudson. .

Buffalo Bill Historical Center The Buffalo Bill Center of the West, formerly known as the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, is a complex of five museums and a research library featuring art and artifacts of the American West located in Cody, Wyoming. The five museums include the B ...

Elizabeth Willis DeHuff Collection of American Indian Art
from the collection of th
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University
Oklahoma Historical Society
Native Arts Collective
Profiles of many contemporary Native American artists
''Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520-1820''.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Visual Arts By Indigenous Peoples Of The Americans Pre-Columbian art Mesoamerican art Art

Lithic and Archaic stage

North America

Arctic

Subarctic

Northwest Coast

Eastern Woodlands

Northeastern Woodlands

Southeastern Woodlands

The West

Great Plains

Great Basin and Plateau

California

Southwest

Mesoamerica and Central America

Mesoamerica

Olmec

Teotihuacan

Classic Veracruz Culture

Zapotec

Maya

Toltec

Mixtec

Totonac

Huastec

Aztec

Central America and "Intermediate area"

Caribbean

South American

Isthmo-Colombian Area

San Agustín

Calima

Tolima

Gran Coclé

Diquis

Nariño

Quimbaya

Muisca

Zenú

Tairona

Andes Region

Valdivia

Chavín

Paracas

Nasca

Moche

Recuay

Tolita

Wari

Lambayeque/Sican

Tiwanaku

Capulí

Chimú empire

Chancay

Inca

Amazonia

Modern and contemporary

Beginnings of contemporary Native American art

Basketry

Beadwork

Ceramics

Jewelry

Performance art

Photography

Printmaking

Sculpture

Textiles

Cultural sensitivity and repatriation

Museum representation

See also

Citations

References

General

North America

Mesoamerica and Central America

South America

Further reading

External links