Native Arts of the Columbia Plateau

Native Arts of the Columbia Plateau PDF Author: Susan E. Harless
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Columbia Plateau
Languages : en
Pages : 136

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Book Description

Native Arts of the Columbia Plateau

Native Arts of the Columbia Plateau PDF Author: Susan E. Harless
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Columbia Plateau
Languages : en
Pages : 136

Get Book Here

Book Description


Indian Rock Art of the Columbia Plateau

Indian Rock Art of the Columbia Plateau PDF Author: James D. Keyser
Publisher: University of Washington Press
ISBN: 0295806974
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 140

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Book Description
From the river valleys of interior British Columbia south to the hills of northern Oregon and east to the continental divide in western Montana, hundreds of cliffs and boulders display carved and painted designs created by ancient artists who inhabited this area, the Columbia Plateau, as long as seven thousand years ago. Expressing a vital social and spiritual dimension in the lives of these hunter-gathers, rock art captivates us with its evocative power and mystery. At once an irreplaceable yet fragile cultural resource, it documents Native histories, customs, and visions through thousands of years. This valuable reference and guidebook addresses basic questions of what petroglyphs and pictographs are, how they were produced, and how archaeologists classify and date them. James Keyser identifies five regions on the Columbia Plateau, each with its own variant of the rock art style identifiable as belonging exclusively to the region. He describes for each region the setting and scope of the rock art along with its design characteristics and possible meaning. Through line drawings, photographs, and detailed maps he provides a guide to the sites where rock art can be viewed. In western Montana, rock art motifs express the ritualistic seeking of a spirit helper from the natural world. In interior British Columbia, rayed arcs above the heads of human figures demonstrate possession of a guardian spirit. Twin figures on the central Columbia Plateau reveal another belief--the special power of twins--and hunting scenes celebrate success of the chase. The grimacing evocative face of Tsagiglalal, in lower Columbia pictographs, testifies to the Plateau Indians’ “death cult” response to the European diseases that decimated their villages between 1700 and 1840. On the southeastern Plateau, images of horse-back riders mark the adoption, after 1700 of the equestrian and cultural habits of the northwestern Great Plains Indians. Despite geographic differences in emphasis, similarities in design and technique link the drawings of all five regions. Human figures, animals depicting numerous species on the Plateau, geometric motifs, mysterious beings, and tally marks, whether painted or carved, appear throughout the Columbia Plateau.

Native Arts of the Columbia Plateau

Native Arts of the Columbia Plateau PDF Author: Susan E. Harless
Publisher: University of Washington Press
ISBN: 9780295977522
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 136

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Book Description


Plains Indian Rock Art

Plains Indian Rock Art PDF Author: James D. Keyser
Publisher: University of Washington Press
ISBN: 9780295980942
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
Archaeologist Keyser and Klassen share with readers the origins, diversity, and beauty of Plains rock art, with the hope of encouraging greater awareness and respect for this cultural tradition by society as a whole. Their guide covers the natural and archaeological history of the northwestern Plains; explains rock art forms, techniques, styles, terminology and dating; and suggests interpretations of images and compositions. The text is illustrated throughout with black-and-white photos, maps and drawings. The writing is serious, but accessible to the general reader. c. Book News Inc.

A Song to the Creator

A Song to the Creator PDF Author: Lillian Alice Ackerman
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780806128771
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 174

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Book Description
The Plateau culture area lies between the Rocky Mountains on the east and the Cascade Mountains on the west and includes parts of Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Montana, and British Columbia. Among the Native American peoples there, the women's economic role of food gathering was traditionally considered so important that their status was equal to that of men. A woman's most important role, that of teacher and tradition bearer, was attained as a result of life experience for which she was honored as an elder. While young women gathered and prepared food, bore children, and managed the family's resources, they also developed their individual artistic skills. As they grew older and became grandmothers, they were responsible for teaching their grandchildren traditional values and beliefs through stories and songs and helping them, in turn, to learn artistic techniques. Present-day Plateau women continue to be tradition bearers within the arts, sometimes also incorporating contemporary elements into their work.

Plains Indian Rock Art

Plains Indian Rock Art PDF Author: James D. Keyser
Publisher: University of Washington Press
ISBN: 0295806842
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 345

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Book Description
The Plains region that stretches from northern Colorado to southern Alberta and from the Rockies to the western Dakotas is the land of the Cheyenne and the Blackfeet, the Crow and the Sioux. Its rolling grasslands and river valleys have nurtured human cultures for thousands of years. On cave walls, glacial boulders, and riverside cliffs, native people recorded their ceremonies, vision quests, battles, and daily activities in the petroglyphs and pictographs they incised, pecked, or painted onto the stone surfaces. In this vast landscape, some rock art sites were clearly intended for communal use; others just as clearly mark the occurrence of a private spiritual encounter. Elders often used rock art, such as complex depictions of hunting, to teach traditional knowledge and skills to the young. Other sites document the medicine powers and brave deeds of famous warriors. Some Plains rock art goes back more than 5,000 years; some forms were made continuously over many centuries. Archaeologists James Keyser and Michael Klassen show us the origins, diversity, and beauty of Plains rock art. The seemingly endless variety of images include humans, animals of all kinds, weapons, masks, mazes, handprints, finger lines, geometric and abstract forms, tally marks, hoofprints, and the wavy lines and starbursts that humans universally associate with trancelike states. Plains Indian Rock Art is the ultimate guide to the art form. It covers the natural and archaeological history of the northwestern Plains; explains rock art forms, techniques, styles, terminology, and dating; and offers interpretations of images and compositions.

Contemporary Native American Horse Culture in the Columbia Plateau Culture Area

Contemporary Native American Horse Culture in the Columbia Plateau Culture Area PDF Author: Amelia-Róisín Seifert
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Keeping the Spirit Alive

Keeping the Spirit Alive PDF Author: Bonnie B. Kahn
Publisher: University of Washington Press
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 72

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Book Description
More than ninety objects demonstrate a continuity of artistry from pre-contact times to the present day, mixing the art of those whose names are lost to us with nationally recognized work from Lillian Pitt, Maynard White Owl Lavadour, Pat Courtney Gold, and Daryel Lopez, among others. This catalog and this collection preserve a valued and expanding spirit of creativity in American Indian art."--BOOK JACKET.

A Necessary Balance

A Necessary Balance PDF Author: Lillian Alice Ackerman
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 9780806134857
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
In the past, many Native American cultures have treated women and men as equals. In A Necessary Balance, Lillian A. Ackerman examines the balance of power and responsibility between men and women within each of the eleven Plateau Indian tribes who live today on the Colville Indian Reservation in north-central Washington State. Ackerman analyzes tribal cultures over three historical periods lasting more than a century--the traditional past, the farming phase when Indians were forced onto the reservation, and the twentieth-century industrial present. Ackerman examines gender equality in terms of power, authority, and autonomy in four social spheres: economic, domestic, political, and religious. Although early explorers and anthropologists noted isolated instances of gender equality among Plateau Indians, A Necessary Balance is the first book-length examination of a culture that has practiced such equality from its early days of hunting and gathering to the present day. Ackerman's findings also relate to an examination of European and American cultures, calling into question the current assumption that gender equality ceases to be possible with the advent of industrialization.

Indigenous War Painting of the Plains

Indigenous War Painting of the Plains PDF Author: Arni Brownstone
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806194286
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 299

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Book Description
In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains practiced an archival art—narrating war exploits in large-scale paintings executed on animal hide robes, shirts, tipi covers, and tipi liners. Essentially autobiographical, the paintings were worn and lived in by the men whose war exploits they portrayed, and were made to be “read” by the public at large. Executed in a pictorial narrative style and documenting actual events, these paintings blend visual art and history. Indigenous War Painting of the Plains is the first comprehensive look at this important North American art form, covering the full corpus of war paintings from fourteen tribes across the plains. Two impediments have previously made such a book impractical: photography alone falls short of rendering war paintings for the printed page, and only about half of the surviving works have reliable documentation on their cultural origins. Arni Brownstone surmounts these difficulties by producing precise electronic redrawings and by using well-documented paintings to inform poorly documented examples, bolstered by a careful examination of collection histories. Featuring some 300 photographs and electronic redrawings, the book focuses on 83 paintings organized into four chapters covering the paintings of tribes associated with a specific geographical sphere of artistic influence. Four appendixes feature paintings combined with “translations” by Indigenous collaborators who had intimate knowledge of the depicted events. Offering vivid access to the key works of war painting preserved in 37 museums throughout North America and Europe, Indigenous War Painting of the Plains illuminates distinctions between painting styles of different tribes, reveals how they influenced one another and changed over time, and conveys a deep understanding of how war painting developed in relation to profound social changes in Plains Indian cultures.