Book Review: These Were the Sioux

 These Were the Sioux by Mari Sandoz, Illustrations from Amos Bad Heart Bull and Kills Two, University Of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, Nebraska, 1961.

Mari Sandoz was a neighbor to the Sioux and she writes from her experience as a friend to the Sioux.  This is a very good book about Sioux culture.

Some examples of Sioux culture that I found interesting:  The often had second parents assigned and would keep the birth parents from having to provide harsh discipline.

The book provides insight into Sioux custom with regards to gender roles.  There is a large party after a young woman has her first period.  The children play together until about ten when boys and girls have separate activities.  There are specific guidelines for courtship, which is mostly done by the watering hole when the young women get water.  There are also rules around marriage.  Th more formal is done via gifts, while there are those who just go off together.  

This book describes the Sun Dance which was performed in conjunction with the buffalo hunt.  Part of the ritual was to bring on dreams.  Sitting Bull had such a dream where he saw many whites coming into camp.  This was shortly Before Cusger and his men attacked the camp and were destroyed.  

Native American Artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith

 Visual artist who recently passed away.  Enrolled member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribe but also with Shoshone and Métis heritage.  Five decades long career in which she had 50 solo exhibits as well as sponsoring many more.  Her art has a Native American slant focusing on oppression.  She hosted an exhibit of Native American Artists at the National Museum of Art in Washington.

 Jaune means yellow in French.  Quick-to-See was given to her by her Shoshone grandfather.  She passed away in January of this year from Pancreatic cancer at age 85. 

Book Review: Faces from the Interior: The North American Portraits of Karl Bodmer

 Faces from the Interior: The North American Portraits of Karl Bodmer Toby Jurovics, editor, Margre H. Durham Center for Western Studies, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska, 2121.

Karl Bodmer traveled with Prince Maximilian up the Missouri river in 1832-34.  Maximilian was the energy behind the trip, while Bodmer provided the scientific view and the paintings of local fauna and Native Americans.  The trip covered paintings from many different tribal groups: Sauk, Meswaki, Omaha, Ponca, Yankton Sioux, Yanktonai Sioux, Lakota Sioux, Arikara, Mandan, Hidatsa, Assiniboine, Gros Ventre, Piegan Blackfoot, Siksika Blackfoot, Kainai Blackfoot, Shoshone, Cree.  This study of art includes not only portraits of native Amerians, although it has plenty of these.  It also has flora, animals, and lodges and dwellings as well as landscape drawings.  Most of the artwork is housed at the Joslyn museum.  There is a previous publication, shortly after the expedition.  However this book has a modern reflection of these earlier works.  Most of the paintings were water colors with graphite on paper.  There are only two paintings of Omaha, a man and a boy, but other tribes are better represented.

Native American Art: End of the Trail

 

The"End of the Trail" sculpture is one of the most recognizable in American art.  It was originally done by James Earl Fraser.  It represents the Native American arriving at the Pacific ocean after being squeezed out by American expansion.   The original was created in 1894, but Fraser made several revisions.  A version was displayed at the Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in 1915.  That exposition statue is now displayed at the National Cowboy and Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.

This representation is a paper cast used for a mold in Springfield Missouri. It was created by Allen and Patty Eckman who are a husband-wife team using paper molds for their sculptures.  The sculpture is now in the public domain.  This is the mold used for a brass cast and is on display at Bass Pro Shop.

Native American Artifacts: Mohave Museum of History and Art

The Mohave Museum of History and Art offers a very good collection of Native American artifacts.  My pictures show only a small sample.  It also has displays talking of the history of the Native American populations in the area.   The displays show many different medium, including beaded moccasins, weaving, basket weaving and pottery.  The displays also represent several different Native American groups.  Most prominent is Hualapai but there are also Navajo and Hopi.  In the doll house collection is a representation of Pocahontas.

Grinding rock

Two depictions of Pocahontas

Navajo blanket

Book Review: American Indian: Celebrating the Voices, Traditions and Wisdom of Native Americans

American Indian: Celebrating the Voices, Traditions and Wisdom of Native Americans, edited by Ashley Kircher, Weldonowen, San Francisco, 2012.

This is a fascinating book.  It is large size with many pictures and artwork.  But it is also organized well.  Each chapter has a different author.  From this book I learn that the three sisters are squash, beans and corn.  The book enlightens the viewer, reader to many customs of Native Americans.  The art is portrayed throughout the book, from things made to be used like basketry and pottery and musical instruments.  Dance and son are portrayed beautifully.  This is a book to own.

Black Native American: Edmonia Lewis, Sculptor

Edmonia Lewis attended Oberlin College, a school and town known for abolitionist activity.  She was of Chippewa and African American descent, her mother being native American and her father a freed former slave.  While at school she was accused of poisoning two classmates with wine.  They both became ill after drinking wine she had given them.  However she was found not guilty as her lawyer argued there was no evidence that the women were poisoned.  Lewis moved to Boston after the trial, without graduating.  She says she always wanted to make the forms of things.  With a letter of introduction to William Lloyd Garrison, a famous abolitionist she told him of her desire to "make forms."  Garrison in turn introduced her to Edmund Brackett, a Boston Sculpture.  Brackett took her under his wing, and slowly her work showed promise.  She made a medallion with the bust of John Brown.
Then she made a bust of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, who had led a regiment of Black soldiers.  She sold 100 copies of this sculpture.  She relocated to Rome, Italy in 1865, where she would live the remainder of her life.  She visited America frequently.  She continued to make sculptures that appealed to an American audience.  she used the neoclassical style, an updated version of classical art.
"Forever Free" is a famous work showing the emancipation.
Her most famous work is "The Death of Cleopatra."
She also took on Native American subjects, including "The Old Arrow Maker and his Daughter."  She also did a version of Hiawatha.
Moving to Rome allowed her to pursue her art as a woman, as their were a group of women there who supported each other.  Also her African and Native heritage was not a roadblock there.

Information is gleaned from the book Proudly Red and Black: Stories of African and Native Americans, William Loren Katz and Paula A Franklin, Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1993.

Native American Biography: Tonita Pena: San Ildefenso: Artist

Tonita Pena is mostly a self taught artist.  She started with crayons.  Then archeologist Edgar Hewett kept her supplied with water colors and paper.  She was the mother of eight children by three different men.  She also tended 100 fowl, had hogs and a flower garden.  She was a very busy woman with household responsibilities.  She would find time to pain at night by kerosene lamp.  She painted on wood, masonite, canvas and paper.  She used water colors, pen, colored ink and oils.  She mostly painted women at work and dance scenes.

Native American Biography: Maria Antonia Martinez and Family: Pottery

Maria Antonia Martinez sparked the come back of Native American pottery.  She is San Ildefonso Pueblos Indians, and developed black on black pottery and polychrome reproductions.  Her pieces now sell for thousands of dollars.  For her part, she has won numerous awards and visited the White House to be honored for her work.  She has also received honorary doctorates.  Some of her pottery is signed Marie Martinez, as she felt this would be more popular with Wwite buyers.
Family members were involved in painting and other parts of the operation.
Crescensio Martinez was a noted water color artist.  He painted the summer and winter dance scenes for a museum.  His pieces sold well, and so he painted more.  When he married Maximiliana, Maria Antonia's sister, he began decorating pottery of his wife, an accomplished potter in her own right, and that of his sister-in-law.
Julian Martinez became involved in pottery working for an archeological dig.  They wanted someone to reproduce pottery based on pieces they were finding.  He suggested his wife, and accomplished potter, but she only agreed if Julian would provide the painting.  Julian discovered he was an excellent painter.  The experimented with firing techniques which produced their trade mark black on black ware.
Popovi Da, Julian and Maria's son has continued the pottery tradition.  He opened a shop in San Ildefonso and sold his mother's pottery.  He then began to help with the decorating.  He developed new types of pottery, sienna ware and black-and-sienna ware.  These require complicated firing techniques.
His wife, Santana has also been involved in the family business.

Maria Martinez

Native American Biography: R.C. Gorman: Navajo Painter

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R.C. Gorman's favorite theme was women.  I particularly like his women at night.  He became known as the Picasso American Indian art.  He painted scenes from throughout the Navajo Nation.  He had a studio in Taos.  He studied at Mexico City College and is influenced by Diego Rivera.  Gorman passed away in 2005 after a fall.

Native American Autobiography and Will Sampson Interview | "The First Americans" Circa 1975/1976

I have always thought of Will Sampson in the light of an actor.  His character in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" was superb.  He played the stoic Native American who learned how to play basketball.  But in the end, the title talked about him, he was the one who flew.  He has also portrayed several other character.  He was in White Buffalo.  I saw him in the roll of a Native American leader when he was the guest of honor at the Nevada Inter Tribal Council in probably 1984 and I was working for the Duckwater Shoshone Tribe.  This short video talks about some of his goals and dreams.

looks like a self portrait

ribbon dance

I also didn't know him as an artist, although I should have.  In fact he was doing art long before he was acting.

Native American Biography: Acee Blue Eagle: Oklahoma Painter

Blue Eagle is one of Oklahoma's most famous artists.  He was an artist, teacher and lecturer.  He studied with Oscar Jacobson at the University of Oklahoma.  He hosted a television program and was concerned about television for children.  He was named "Outstanding Indian in the United States" in 1928.  He passed away in 1959.  A children's book was published posthumously, "Ecogee, The Little Blue Deer."  He also wrote a local comic strip carried in Oklahoma newspapers.  
Many of his paintings have been applied to dishes and glasses, including a series of famous Native Americans.

Native American Biographies: Amos Bad Heart Bull

This information is taken from "American Indian Biographies."  Amos Bad Heart Bull was somewhat a self appointed historian for the Sioux people.  He was too young to fight in the Battle of Little Big Horn, but he was a witness to the events.  The battle started with an attack on an Indian encampment.  Bad Heart Bull drew pictures of this event, as well as several others which told the Sioux history during a very rough period.  His father and older family members also related to him many of the things that happened during this time.  His pictures go from before his birth, telling of Sioux battles with the Creek, and providing a general idea of Sioux life.  It continues until the Sioux are all confined on reservation, and includes the Battle of Wounded Knee.  The record includes over 400 drawings.  The originals were buried with his sister, however Helen Blish studied and photographed the collection and put them into a manuscript form.

Indian Biography: Kiowa Five/Six:

Spencer Asah

From the Jacobson House website a brief history is provided of these innovative artists.  "THE KIOWA SIX:  The Native American artists; James Auchiah (1906-1974), Spencer Asah(1905/ 1910-1954), Jack Hokeah (1902-1969), Stephen Mopope (1898-1974), and Monroe Tsatoke (1904-1937) and Lois (Bougetah) Smoky (1907-1981) were young and they [were]Kiowa Tribal members from the Anadarko area of Oklahoma. Because of their talent and the opportunities afforded them at The University of Oklahoma, they became international celebrities. It is well-remembered that these young Kiowa artists were occasionally homesick for their Kiowa cultural heritage and that during those times they would gather at the Jacobson House to sing, dance and tell Kiowa stories.
Oscar B. Jacobson, a Swedish art professor at the University of Oklahoma sponsored them, but he did not want to overly teach them for fear he would effect their style.  Instead he provided the place for them the flourish.  Many of them were experienced dancers, or drummers and their art reflected this. These artists were using palettes and water color, which was a variation form the traditional native American style.

Lois Smoky

The reason they are sometimes listed as the Kiowa Five is that Lois Smoky left the group early.  She struggled against tribal tradition that frowned on women doing painted art.  She returned home and married, but still expressed herself through beadwork.  Her art is the most coveted.  

Kiowa Five without Lois Smoky

James Auchiah was the last to join the group.  He was talented form childhood, and became more interested in art over the years.  he was glad to join the group in 1927.  
Spencer Asah was the son of a tribal medicine man.  He grew up hearing tribal legends stories, which is reflected in his work.  He was also an accomplished dancer.
Steven Mopopo was perhaps the most prolific of the Kiowa Five artists.  He was the oldest of the group.  He was observed drawing designs in sand, so was taught to draw on tanned skins in the tribal fashion.  His art caught the eye of Jacobson and he was invited to be part of the group with four other tribal members.  
Jack Hokeah was raised by his grandmother and was talented form a young age.  He was conflicted between art and dance.  In his later life he did artwork on pottery produced by Maria Martinez.
Monroe Tsatoke was also very talented.  He was also a native singer.  He was very prolific as an artist, but became sick and he died young.

Steven Mopopo, Anadarko, Oklahoma Post Office

These six made a very large contribution to Native American art and there works are much in demand.

Book Review: The Anasazi

The Anasazi: Lost Civilizations, by William W. Lace, Lucent Books, Detroit, MI, 2005 I must admit, this book was a bit boring, with too much something that kept putting me to sleep.  However, the Anasazi people are intriguing, and people still wonder why they abandoned everything.  The total abandonment, to never return, took place in a period of about 50 years.  In this book I learned about the Chaco Canyon area.  This community was much larger than the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde, but I had not heard of it.  In fact, they had constructed an intricate network of roads.  However the book points out the roads may not have been necessary through flat desert regions where they had no horses or wheels.  The reason for the roads is not clearly understood. This book provides a good description of daily life, as limited by the passage of time.  It is believed the Hopi descend from the Anasazi and sometimes current customs of the Hopi are used to explain the Anasazi customs and religion.  As for the quick abandonment, many theories are presented, and the truth is likely a combination.   Drought conditions in the area were frequent, there could have been warfare from without, there could have been internal struggles, are lastly, there could have been a pull to other areas—as they traveled, they encountered other places that seemed more hospitable and then did not return.  In the case of Chaco, which was felt to be a religious center, when the priests were not able to stop the droughts, they lost their religious influence, and consequently their resources and power as people no longer looked to them for guidance.   The Anasazi are believed to have mixed with the Pueblo Indians, of which there are 20 different tribes. We are ageless; we are the blessed children of the Spirits. We thought we always have been and always will be. Yet, today the Spirits have forgotten Their promises. The corn we plant, grow, and bless in Their names Withers and dies in the fields tended by our people. We have angered the Sun who stares at us from up high. The Rain has abandoned us for our evil transgressions. The Wind has sent others to steal food from our children. The Elders have quested and dreamed with no answers. We prayed in all the old ways and still we have no sign. Our children cry in the night, yet we know not our crime. The Sun, Wind and Rain Spirits have always protected us. The Animal Spirits have always guided us to right path. Was it not the Sun that pointed the way to our sky-home? And the Wind that called us to the cliff-face we called home? And the Rain that showed us where to plant our maize? And the Lizard that taught us to walk to our sky-home? And the Bird that taught us how to build with earth and straw? They have left Their children alone, here in our sky-home. We have prayed to the Spirits, but They do not answer. We have dreamed with the Spirits, but we are ignored. We have walked with the Spirits, but They show us no path. The Spirits have abandoned us, here on the sky-path. The Spirits have abandoned us, here in the sky-city. The Spirits have abandoned us, here in our maize fields. It is time to wander again the plains and the mountains... It is time to wander again the desert and the forest... It is time to take our children back to the Beginning... Back to the lonely path that our ancestors called home... Until the Spirits find us again, or we all join the Spirits. We do this not for ourselves, but for our children's children. We are ageless, we are Anasazi, and we are alone again.

http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewpoetry.asp?AuthorID=6675&id=12048