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Native American Trade Beads History

The first European explorers and colonists gave Native Americans glass and ceramic beads as gifts and used beads for trade with them. Native Americans had made bone, shell, and stone beads long before the Europeans arrived in North America, and continued to do so. However, European glass beads, mostly from Venice, some from Holland and, later, from Poland and Czechoslovakia, became popular and sought after by Native Americans. Europeans realized early on that beads were important to Native Americans and corporations such as the Hudson Bay Trading Company developed lucrative bead-trading markets with them. The Hudson Bay Trading Company was an organized group of explorers who ventured into the North American continent for trade expeditions during the 19th century.

The availability of glass beads increased, their cost decreased, and they became more widely used by Indians throughout North America. Ceramic beads declined in popularity as glass bead manufacturers came to dominate the market because of their variety of color, price, and supply.

Venetian Millefiori

Millefiori beads get their name from the Italian words "mille" (thousand) and "fiori" (flowers), together meaning "thousand flowers." It refers to the multi-layered wound mosaic glass beads which were produced in Venice beginning in the early 1800's. They were produced by creating flowers or stripes from glass canes, that were then cut and molded onto a core of solid color. They are commonly known as "African Trade Beads."

Padre Beads

Padre Beads are a variety of wound glass trade beads originally imported across the world especially to Africa and the Americas by Spanish Missionaries, Monks, Friars and Traders who used them as a form of currency. The name Padre Bead is derived from the fact that these beads were worn by Spanish priests who were called "padres" meaning "father" in the Spanish language. Some of these beads may have been part of the rosaries that Catholic priests would carry. Franciscan priests gave the beads to Native Americans for their good work and to convert them to Christianity. The period during which the Padre Beads believed to have been first used is between the 16th and 18th centuries.

The original Padre beads were opaque with a sky-blue or a turquoise shade. However, African bead sellers and collectors pasted the name 'Padre beads' to all opaque turquoise-blue glass beads, even those that were Venetian or Czech. This means Padre trade beads come in all shapes, sizes, and styles since they are not made in one place.

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Native American Trade Beads History - Blue Russian, Venetian Glass and unique strands of Millefiori Beads for sale from the Wandering Bull Shop

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American Indian Religious Freedom Act Document

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American Indian Religious Freedom Act Document

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This PDF explains how the department of interior came about creating the Code of Indian Offenses to assimilate any cultural practices and customs that Native Americans have been doing for thousands of years. These traditions and customs became illegal and if any individual was seen participating in any form of these practices they were jailed, or their rations were taken away for a significant period of time.

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Printmaking Petroglyphs Lesson Plan K-5th

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Printmaking Petroglyphs Lesson Plan K-5th

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This website has a great information pertaining to beading from the Potawatomi Tribe and a short instruction on how to create and make a beaded loom!

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Across North America, beading is one of the-best-known forms of Native artwork. Before European contact, Native Americans used natural materials like wood and stone to create beads. The Europeans brought glass beads to trade, and the Native Americans used them to make jewelry and adorn garments.

"A lot of families are generational beaders, and it's a way to add a little flair to regalia," said Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Education Specialist Kristen Wilson. "Some of the generational families incorporate their family color or their family design with each generation so that they can identify their work."

For those without family beading traditions, Wilson said now is a great time to learn and establish new customs.

Several beading techniques exist, including one and two-needle flat stitch, loom, off-loom and others. She encourages everyone to think happy thoughts while working, regardless of style.

"Whether or not you're making it for someone else, whatever vibes you're putting into it while doing something will carry with it," she said. "Always be mindful of what you're doing and what vibes you might be sending."

Learning a traditional craft can provide a sense of peace.

"Beading isn't a whole lot of stress. It doesn't take a lot of thought into it once you get the hang of it, so it can also be therapeutic," she added. "You can get in the mindset and worry just about the beads, not everything else that might be going on."

The project featured requires a loom to complete. Purchase one from the Citizen Potawatomi Gift Shop by following this link: cpn.news/giftsloom.

Creating a loom out of a spare tissue box at home is an economical approach that can take less than 15 minutes.

DIY loom materials needed:
1. Tissue box
2. Ruler
3. Knife

After purchasing or making the loom, follow the tutorial below to create a Potawatomi directions-inspired bracelet or hatband. The pattern's white and red diamonds represent the directions north and south and the yellow and black triangles symbolize the east and west. The Citizen Potawatomi Gift Shop offers a kit for $22, which includes thread, needles, seed beads and the pattern needed to complete the project featured. To purchase the kit, visit cpn.news/fourdirectionskit.

Materials:
1. Bead loom
2. Size A thread
3. Beading needle
4. Seed bead Hanks in red, yellow, white and black (Choose size 10, 11 or 12)
5. Scissors
6. Pattern
Step one: Select design and string loom
When beginning any piece of beadwork, Wilson suggests determining the length and width of the finished project first.

This project features the four directional colors.

"If it's small, you might not want a very long pattern - you might want something that's a bit smaller and easier," Wilson explained. "If it's long, like a hatband, you may want a pattern that's a little longer."

For those who did not purchase a kit through the Citizen Potawatomi Gift Shop, find a PDF version of the four directions inspired pattern here: cpn.news/fourdirectionskit. To make a longer piece, repeat the pattern until it reaches the desired length.

"After figuring out what size and what the project will be used for, you're ready to start stringing the loom," Wilson said.

Wilson uses size A string. When threading a loom, it is important to keep the strings tight. Stringing the loom too loosely makes beading difficult.

The four directions inspired pattern calls for 10 threads, but Wilson recommends doubling the exterior strings.

"Doing that helps stabilize the outside, which can get more wear and tear than the middle. I just do one string for each of the middle and two on the outside," she explained.

If using the tissue box loom, tape can provide additional support to hold the tension.
Step two: Thread the needle
Once the loom is ready, string the beading needle. Wilson said it is important keep the string at a manageable length to avoid tangles and unwanted knots. She recommends using long beading needles, but any beading needle will work.

"The longer needle is usually long enough to lay across the strings instead of having to thread it all the way through. I just leave the beads on the needle," Wilson said. "To me, it's easier that way because you don't have the flimsiness of the beads being on the thread."
Step three: Start beading
Wilson recommends size 10 to 12 seed beads. To begin, she places the pattern's colors for each line on the needle. For the Potawatomi directions inspired pattern, the first line requires nine white seed beads.

"When I go through, I normally go underneath the strings and bead from the right to the left. Then I push my beads up with my finger, and pull it back through on top," Wilson said. "As long as you pull your string tight, then that keeps the beads from moving."

The main thing to keep in mind, whether threading through the bottom or the top of the beads first, is ensuring the beads lie flat on each line.

With most projects, the needle will eventually need to be restrung, "but before I run completely out of string, I go back through the lines that look a little lose and try to tidy them up and make them more stable," Wilson said. She then hides a knot within the beadwork and restrings her needle to start again.
Step four: Finish
Once the project is to the desired length, she recommends cutting the strings off the loom.

"After cutting the string, tie the ends together and alternate the strings after each knot like macramé," Wilson said.

Some use either leather or metal clasps to cover the ends; ultimately, it's up to the individual creating the piece on which method to use.

The Citizen Potawatomi Gift Shop offers all the supplies needed to get started as well as the kit for the project featured in this article. Shop now by following this link: giftshop.potawatomi.org/shop/supplies.

The Cultural Heritage Center also offers in person craft classes. Visit potawatomi.org/events for details.

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Beginner's guide to beading on a loom - Potawatomi.org

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Native Americans, including Potawatomi, have used beading as an art form long before European contact. Many today adorn their regalia with wonderful patterns and meaningful beaded pieces. It's never too late to learn this beautiful tradition.

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Learn a bit more about beadwork from a contemporary lens!

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The Meaning Behind Beadwork Regalia | Native American Beadwork - ARTEFFECTS

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Additional information regarding Ledger Art in quick article post!

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In the latter half of the 19th century two developing realities changed how the Plains Indians recorded their history and culture. First and foremost, these Indians-Lakotas, Cheyennes, Arapahos, Comanches, Kiowas and others- found themselves in escalating conflict with the U.S. government. The inevitable outcome was forced settlement onto reservations or, in some cases, imprisonment. These tribes had traditionally recorded notable events and individual feats on buffalo hides, but the herds had been hunted almost to extinction, and their hides became increasingly unavailable for recording such milestones.

The forced resettlements and loss of buffalo hides were seemingly unrelated, but they shared a notable and lasting consequence: Lacking hides, the confined Indians instead recorded their exploits on the pages of discarded ledger books, while store-bought colored pencils, crayons and inks replaced the mineral and plant pigments found on the prairies. The result was poignant imagery of past battles or other important life events often rendered on top of the white man's writing.

According to Ross H. Frank, one of the foremost ledger art experts in the United States and an associate professor in the ethnic studies department at the University of California, San Diego, Indian agents, soldiers and other whites interacting with the tribes readily appreciated such art and would purchase or trade goods for a good ledger piece. Artists also gave their ledger illustrations as gifts. Frank is the founder of the Plains Indian Ledger Art Project [plains ledgerart.org], which digitally records ledger art created between 1850 and 1900, then makes it freely accessible online. As the ledger books are spread throughout museums and private collections and are often very fragile, Frank's digital archive serves as an invaluable asset for researchers, historians and art aficionados.

"The images in the books link so much together in one place," Frank says. "Often a ledger has been done by a singular person, so they are a general history of an individual. However, in a broader sense they are also ethnographically important in dealing with a scientific description of the Native American culture." Frank points out that the ledgers often portray battles, such as the June 1876 clash at the Little Bighorn (known by the Lakota as the Greasy Grass), from the Indian perspective. Thus when compared to written accounts of the same battles penned by soldiers, they are especially useful historical sources. And while many museums hold artifacts relevant to the Indian cultures, the ledgers depict such items in use as recalled by the artist.

Frank estimates that more than 200 books of Indian ledger art survive in institutional and private collections. Newly discovered books turn up intermittently, having been passed down from one generation to the next and saved as curios. Others have been disassembled and sold page by page. The oldest known example, a Southern Cheyenne book known as the Bowstring Warrior Society Ledger, dates from the 1850s. Cheyennes under Chief Black Kettle had presented it to a 7-year-old white boy, Ambrose Asher, in September 1864. Weeks earlier Cheyenne Dog Soldiers had killed most members of Asher's Nebraska Territory homesteading family, taking the boy and several other children captive. Black Kettle ransomed the boy and arranged for his return through Major Edward W. "Ned" Wynkoop, commander of Fort Lyon, Colorado Territory.

Elizabeth Guheen, director and chief curator of the Bair Family Museum [www.bairfamilymuseum.org] in Martinsdale, Mont., considers ledger art the Plains Indian equivalent of written words. "It is a first-person narrative," she says. "There is no question of authenticity. Nothing gets this close to the life they were living. Ledger art is timeless. When you realize it is so close to the hearts and minds of the people who did it, the events depicted still feel like they just happened. The feeling you get looking at the pieces is so multifaceted, modern technology becomes meaningless."

The best-known ledger artists came from a group of Plains Indians imprisoned at Fort Marion, in Saint Augustine, Fla., between 1875 and 1878 for their participation in the 1874 Red River War in Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). Encouraged to draw by their military overseer, Lieutenant Richard Henry Pratt (who later founded the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania), 26 of the 72 prisoners, mostly Cheyennes and Kiowas, produced hundreds of drawings and books detailing their former lives as hunters and warriors and new lives as prisoners and students.

Janet Cantley, curator and manager of the Heard Museum North Scottsdale [www.heard.org/north] in Arizona, notes that ledger art experienced a resurgence in the 1970s, as contemporary Indian artists established themselves in the field. Historically the genre was the purview of male artists, but leading the revival were two women, Sharron Ahtone Harjo (Kiowa) and Virginia Stroud (Cherokee/ Creek). Today the genre is almost evenly represented by male and female artists.

Monte Yellow Bird Sr. (aka Black Pinto Horse), an Arikara/Hidatsa artist from Wilsall, Mont. [www.blackpintohorse finearts.com], renders his works on antique ledger sheets, maps and receipts and feels a connection with earlier ledger artists. "I still have the same values of protecting the family and being respectful of the spirits," he says. "Just like them I want to leave something behind that helps educate the public about the characteristics of my tribe." Yellow Bird says one aspect overlooked by most scholars is that ledger art was empowering to the Indians. "It was a dark time in our history and a time of real change," he says. "We are taught there is a spirit attached to the art, and drawing on top of the white man's words at that time was a positive spirit."

This year Cantley is curating a ledger art exhibit at the Phoenix campus of the Heard. "Stories Outside the Lines: American Indian Ledger Art" features 30 original pieces of ledger art, 20 contemporary pieces of ledger art, one hide painting and other Plains Indian objects. It runs until September 21.

Originally published in the June 2014 issue of Wild West. To subscribe, click here.

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Confined Indian Chiefs and Warriors Recorded Their Changing Lives on Paper

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As buffalo hides disappeared, ledgers became their medium. In the latter half of the 19th century two developing realities changed how the Plains Indians

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More information about Ledger art but focuses a bit more on contemporary ledger.

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Learn more about how ledger paper became an essential due to circumstances involving the incarceration of Native Americans throughout the plains.

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Like many of the world's peoples, American Indians kept history in dances, songs, and stories, and in a highly symbolic form of picture writing, called "pictographs" by Anglo-Europeans. To the people who were making and sharing them, these new drawings were historical documents-personal, political, cultural, and social.

Many Americans know and appreciate the representations of Native peoples as made by 19th-century painters and photographers. The drawings in this exhibit give a first-person version of American Indian history, as the artists lived it.

This drawing of U.S. Army cavalry soldiers, in a charge, displays the uniformity of the colors, equipment, and methods of the military. The soldiers fire their rifles at the Sioux and Cheyenne targets ahead of them. Some of these drawings are so accurate that the specific unit uniforms and types of firearms can be identified.

The Cheyenne Indians pictured in this drawing are displayed in identifiable Warrior Society clothing. The warriors ride at a gallop, the hoof marks indicating movement, while firing their rifles at the U.S. troops. Two riders lean low behind the necks of their trained war horses shielding themselves from the bullets which fly in all directions.

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NMAH | Albert H. Small Documents Gallery - Keeping History: Plains Indian Ledger Drawings

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The Albert H. Small Documents Gallery, located on the second floor of the National Museum of American History, is devoted to the display of rare and historically significant documents. The gallery features documents that reflect major events and themes in American history from the Smithsonian's collections, public institutions, and private collections.

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Learn more about FDR's Indian New Deal that helped protect Native Land, Sovereignty, and traditional culture.

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For Americans mired in the hardships of the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt devised a set of widespread economic relief programs he called the New Deal. For Native Americans already suffering from generations of harsh government treatment, his administration launched the less well-known "Indian New Deal," a corollary initiative designed to specifically help Native communities. F.D.R. signed into law its centerpiece, the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA), on June 18, 1934.

The legislation marked a sharp U-turn in federal policy toward Indigenous peoples.

Ever since its formation, the American government had waged war on tribal groups, driven them from their ancestral lands and forced them to culturally assimilate. By the early 20 th century, many surviving Native people lived in destitution on barren, isolated reservations. In 1920, they earned, on average, just $100 per capita annually, compared with $1,350 for the average American, according to a government report. Tribal communities had limited access to mainstream education or economic opportunity. Their traditions, evolved over millennia, ran the risk of disappearing.

The Indian Reorganization Act (IRA), also known as the Wheeler-Howard Act, was the first government legislation designed to help protect Native lands, safeguard tribal sovereignty and empower tribes with self-rule. It fostered jobs and supported traditional culture. It wasn't without its critics, but the bill represented significant change.

"It is, in the main, a measure of justice that is long overdue," Roosevelt wrote to Congress in 1934. "We can and should, without further delay, extend to the Indian the fundamental rights of political liberty and local self-government and the opportunities of education and economic assistance that they require in order to attain a wholesome American life. This is but the obligation of honor of a powerful Nation toward a people living among us and dependent upon our protection."

John Collier: An Advocate for Tribal People in Washington

The driving force behind the Indian New Deal was Roosevelt's commissioner of Indian Affairs, John Collier. A social reformer who saw Indian cultures as superior to industrialized American culture, he pushed to preserve traditional Indigenous lands, lifeways and world views.

Collier, who spent time among the Pueblo cultures of the Southwest in the 1920s, had helped form an advocacy group called the American Indian Defense Association in 1923. Ten years later, he carried its goals with him to Washington as Roosevelt's commissioner. His agenda included advancing educational opportunities for Indians, establishing credit for native farmers and providing protections for Indian lands that were being exploited by powerful business interests and bought by settlers.

Returning Lands, Growing Jobs and Education

The primary power of the Indian Reorganization Act came from the abolition of the 1887 Dawes Act. The federal legislation had broken up Native lands, destroyed tribal cohesion and led to the sale of 90 million acres-some two-thirds-of Indian territory to white settlers and business interests. The IRA also provided a mechanism that allowed the federal government to buy back 2 million acres to return to the tribes.

To help preserve Indigenous arts and culture, Collier decriminalized Indian spiritual practices, banned since the 1880s. He hired anthropologists and photographers to study and document tribes and their languages. The Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1935 provided protections for authentic Native American art and fostered economic development through art sales from Indian communities. Work relief projects commissioned Native artists to create public art across the U.S. and put others to work creating blankets, pottery and other handicrafts for sale.

In addition, the Indian New Deal began closing the boarding schools where Native children had been sent to unlearn their traditional ways. It facilitated the building of 100 community day schools on tribal lands and hired ethnographers to create school lessons in tribal languages.

The Indian New Deal also included a push for much-needed Native employment. Indians were designated as preferred employees for any Bureau of Indian Affairs jobs on Indian lands. And more than 85,000 Native men enrolled in the Civilian Conservation Corps ' Indian Division between 1933 and 1942, building roads, working on forest management and erosion control and generally improving reservation lands. These workers impacted millions of acres on 200 reservations in 23 states. And states received federal funds to support Native American agriculture and business development.

Negative Reactions to the Indian Reorganization Act

After such a long history of harsh treatment at the hands of the U.S. government, many tribal peoples expressed skepticism, or outright opposition, to Collier and the IRA. In Navajo country, for example, government efforts to minimize soil erosion by mandatory livestock reductions stood at odds with longstanding tribal land management practices. The result only deepened the Depression's economic devastation.

And while the Indian Reorganization Act encouraged self-rule, many tribes resented the imposition of boilerplate American-style constitutions and bylaws in exchange for subsidies. Instead of perpetuating traditional ways of organizing their people in flexible "kinship societies," tribes were encouraged to create formal councils that used strict blood quantum criteria, or a calculation of one's amount of genetic tribal purity, to determine tribal membership eligibility.

The IRA called for a referendum on self-governance. In a vote on whether to establish new tribal councils, 174 Native communities voted to organize their own city council-style governments. Seventy-eight tribes rejected the idea.

"Familiar cultural groupings and methods of choosing leadership gave way to the more abstract principles of American democracy, which viewed people as interchangeable and communities as geographical marks on a map," wrote Vine Deloria Jr. and Clifford Lyttle, authors of American Indians, American Justice. "Traditional Indians of almost every tribe strongly objected to this method of organizing and criticized the IRA as simply another means of imposing white institutions on the tribes."

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An economic relief program aimed specifically at helping Native American communities during the Great Depression, the legislation marked a sharp U-turn in federal policy toward Indigenous peoples.

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Read about how the Indian Arts and Crafts Act helped promote the development of indigenous Arts and Crafts after the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 making it possible for Natives to legally use cultural practices and ceremonies once again.

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[Public-No. 355-74th Congress]

To promote the development of Indian arts and crafts and to create a board to assist therein, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That a board is hereby created in the Department of the Interior to be known as "Indian Arts and Crafts Board", and hereinafter referred to as the Board. The Board shall be composed of five commissioners, who shall be appointed by the Secretary of the Interior as soon as possible after passage of this Act and shall continue in office, two for a term of two years, one for a term of three years, and two for a term of four years from the date of their appointment; the term of each to be designated by the Secretary of the Interior, but their successors shall be appointed for a term of four years except that any person chosen to fill a vacancy shall be appointed for the unexpired term of the commissioner he succeeds. Both public officers and private citizens shall be eligible for membership on the Board. The Board shall elect one of the commissioners as chairman. One or two vacancies on the Board shall not impair the right of the remaining commissioners to exercise all the powers of the Board.

The commissioners shall serve without compensation: Provided, That each Commissioner shall be reimbursed for all actual expenses, including travel expenses, subsistence, and office overhead, which the Board shall certify to have been incurred as properly incidental to the performance of his duties as a member of the Board.

SEC. 2. It shall be the function and the duty of the Board to promote the economic welfare of Indian tribes and the Indian wards of the Government through the development of Indian arts and crafts and the expansion of the market for the products of Indian art and craftsmanship. In the execution of this function the Board shall have the following powers: (a) To undertake market research to determine the best opportunity for the sale of various products; (b) to engage in technical research and give technical advice and assistance; (c) to engage in experimentation directly or through selected agencies; (d) to correlate and encourage the activities of the various governmental and private agencies in the field; (e) to offer assistance in the management of operating groups for the furtherance of specific projects; (f) to make recommendations to appropriate agencies for loans in furtherance of the production and sale of Indian products; (g) to create Government trade marks of genuineness and quality for Indian products and the products of particular Indian tribes or groups; to establish standards and regulations for the use of such trade marks; to license corporations, associations, or individuals to use them; and to charge a fee for their use; to register them in the United States Patent Office without charge; (h) to employ executive officers, including a general manager, and such other permanent and temporary personnel as may be found necessary, and prescribe the authorities, duties, responsibilities, and tenure and fix the compensation of such officers and other employees: Provided, That the Classification Act of 1923, as amended, shall be applicable to all permanent employees except executive officers, and that all employees other than executive officers shall be appointed in accordance with the civil-service laws from lists of eligibles to be supplied by the Civil Service Commission; (i) as a Government agency to negotiate and execute in its own name contracts with operating groups to supply management, personnel, and supervision at cost, and to negotiate and execute in its own name such other contracts and to carry on such other business as may be necessary for the accomplishment of the duties of the Board: Provided, That nothing in the foregoing enumeration of powers shall be construed to authorize the Board to borrow or lend money or to deal in Indian goods.

SEC. 3. The Board shall prescribe from time to time rules and regulations governing the conduct of its business and containing such provisions as it may deem appropriate for the effective execution and administration of the powers conferred upon it by this Act: Provided, That before prescribing any procedure for the disbursement of money the Board shall advise and consult with the General Accounting Office: Provided further, That all rules and regulations proposed by the Board shall be submitted to the Secretary of the Interior and shall become effective upon his approval.

SEC. 4. There is hereby authorized to be appropriated out of any sums in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated such sums as may be necessary to defray the expenses of the Board and carry out the purposes and provisions of this Act. All income derived by the Board from any sources shall be covered into the Treasury of the United States and shall constitute a special fund which is hereby appropriated and made available until expended for carrying out the purposes and provisions of this Act. Out of the funds available to it at any time the Board may authorize such expenditures , consistent with the provisions of this Act, as it may determine to be necessary for the accomplishment of the purposes and objectives of this Act.

SEC. 5. Any person who shall counterfeit or colorably imitate any Government trade mark used or devised by the Board as provided in section 2 of this Act, or shall, except as authorized by the Board, affix any such Government trade mark, or shall knowingly, willfully, and corruptly affix any reproduction, counterfeit, copy, or colorable imitation thereof upon any products, Indian or otherwise, or to any labels, signs, prints, packages, wrappers, or receptacles intended to be used upon or in connection with the sale of such products, or any person who shall knowingly make any false statements for the purpose of obtaining the use of any such Government trade mark, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be enjoined from further carrying on the act or acts complained of and shall be subject to a fine not exceeding $2,000, or imprisonment not exceeding six months, or both such fine and imprisonment.

SEC. 6. Any person who shall willfully offer for sale any goods, with or without any Government trade mark, as Indian products or Indian products of a particular Indian tribe or group, resident within the United States or the Territory of Alaska, when such person knows such goods are not Indian products or are not Indian products of the particular Indian tribe or group, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and be subject to a fine not exceeding $2,000 or imprisonment not exceeding six months, or both such fine and imprisonment.

It shall be the duty of each district attorney, to whom the Board shall report in writing any violation of the provisions of this section which has occurred within his jurisdiction, to cause appropriate proceedings to be commenced and prosecuted in the proper courts of the United States for the enforcement of the penalties herein provided.

Approved, August 27, 1935.

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Read about how Congress made it illegal for Native Americans to practice cultural customs like Sun Dance and to strip away the right to have native traditions and sacred objects.

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Introduction

Most Americans are unaware that between 1883 and 1934 it was illegal for Indians to engage in their religious practices. The Bureau of Indian Affairs set up Courts of Indian Offenses to enforce the ban. "Indian offenses" were anything that did not conform to Christian mores, from religious ceremonies like the Sun Dance to other traditional practices like polygamy. The rules for these courts, extracted here, were more colloquially known to Indians as the "Religious Crimes Code."

It was Secretary of the Interior Henry M. Teller (1830-1914) who called for the courts. His comments on the Indians reflect the later-nineteenth-century effort to "civilize" the Indians; that is, to make them independent property owners who lived in stable monogamous relationships and were, if possible, Christian. As a senator from Colorado, however, Teller opposed the Dawes Act (1887), supported by most eastern reformers, which broke up commonly held tribal lands so they could be owned individually by members of the tribe. He thought the act would lead to decreased Indian ownership of the land, which it did. Teller is best known for authoring an amendment (1898) that required the United States to return control of Cuba to its people after the Spanish-American War

Many of the agencies are without law of any kind, and the necessity for some rule of government on the reservations grows more and more apparent each day. If it is the purpose of the government to civilize the Indians, they must be compelled to desist from the savage and barbarous practices that are calculated to continue them in savagery, no matter what exterior influences are brought to bear on them. Very many of the progressive Indians have become fully alive to the pernicious influences of these heathenish practices indulged in by their people, and have sought to abolish them; in such efforts they have been aided by their missionaries, teachers, and agents, but this has been found impossible even with the aid thus given. The government furnishes the teachers, and the charitable people contribute to the support of missionaries, and much time, labor, and money is yearly expended for their elevation, and yet a few nonprogressive, degraded Indians are allowed to exhibit before the young and susceptible children all the debauchery, diabolism, and savagery of the worst state of the Indian race. Every man familiar with Indian life will bear witness to the pernicious influence of these savage rites and heathenish customs.

On the 2d of December last [1882], with the view of as soon as possible putting an end to these heathenish practices, I addressed a letter to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, which I here quote as expressive of my ideas on this subject:

I desire to call your attention to what I regard as a great hindrance to the civilization of the Indians, viz, the continuance of the old heathenish dances, such as the sun-dance, scalp-dance, etc. These dances, or feasts, as they are sometimes called, ought, in my judgment, to be discontinued, and if the Indians now supported by the government are not willing to discontinue them, the agents should be instructed to compel such discontinuance. These feasts or dances are not social gatherings for the amusement of these people, but, on the contrary, are intended and calculated to stimulate the warlike passions of the young warriors of the tribe. At such feasts the warrior recounts his deeds of daring, boasts of his inhumanity in the destruction of his enemies, and his treatment of the female captives, in language that ought to shock even a savage ear. The audience assents approvingly to his boasts of falsehood, deceit, theft, murder, and rape, and the young listener is informed that this and this only is the road to fame and renown. The result is the demoralization of the young, who are incited to emulate the wicked conduct of their elders, without a thought that in so doing they violate any law, but, on the contrary, with the conviction that in so doing they are securing for themselves an enduring and deserved fame among their people. Active measures should be taken to discourage all feasts and dances of the character I have mentioned.

The marriage relation is also one requiring the immediate attention of the agents. While the Indians were in a state of at least semi-independence, there did not seem to be any great necessity for interference, even if such interference was practicable (which it doubtless was not). While dependent on the chase the Indian did not take many wives, and the great mass found themselves too poor to support more than one; but since the government supports them this objection no longer exists, and the more numerous the family the greater the number of the rations allowed. I would not advise any interference with plural marriages now existing; but I would by all possible methods discourage future marriages of that character. The marriage relation, if it may be said to exist at all among the Indians, is exceedingly lax in its character, and it will be found impossible, for some time yet, to impress them with our idea of this important relation. The marriage state, existing only by the consent of both parties, is easily and readily dissolved, the man not recognizing any obligation on his part to care for his offspring. As far as practicable, the Indian having taken to himself a wife should be compelled to continue that relation with her, unless dissolved by some recognized tribunal on the reservation or by the courts. Some system of marriage should be adopted, and the Indian compelled to conform to it. The Indian should also be instructed that he is under obligations to care for and support, not only his wife, but his children, and on his failure, without proper cause, to continue as the head of such family, he ought in some manner to be punished, which should be either by confinement in the guard-house or agency prison, or by a reduction of his rations.

Another great hindrance to the civilization of the Indians is the influence of the medicine men, who are always found with the anti-progressive party. The medicine men resort to various artifices and devices to keep the people under their influence, and are especially active in preventing the attendance of the children at the public schools, using their conjurers' arts to prevent the people from abandoning their heathenish rites and customs. While they profess to cure diseases by the administering of a few simple remedies, still they rely mainly on their art of conjuring. Their services are not required even for the administration of the few simple remedies they are competent to recommend, for the government supplies the several agencies with skillful physicians, who practice among the Indians without charge to them. Steps should be taken to compel these impostors to abandon this deception and discontinue their practices, which are not only without benefit to the Indians but positively injurious to them.

The value of property as an agent of civilization ought not to be overlooked. When an Indian acquires property, with a disposition to retain the same free from tribal or individual interference, he has made a step forward in the road to civilization. One great obstacle to the acquirement of property by the Indian is the very general custom of destroying or distributing his property on the death of a member of his family. Frequently on the death of an important member of the family all the property accumulated by its head is destroyed or carried off by the "mourners," and his family left in desolation and want. While in their independent state but little inconvenience was felt in such a case, on account of the general community of interest and property, in their present condition not only real inconvenience is felt, but disastrous consequences follow. I am informed by reliable authority that frequently the head of a family, finding himself thus despoiled of his property, becomes discouraged, and makes no further attempt to become a property owner. Fear of being considered mean, and attachment to the dead, frequently prevents the owner from interfering to save his property while it is being destroyed in his presence and contrary to his wishes.

It will be extremely difficult to accomplish much toward the civilization of the Indians while these adverse influences are allowed to exist.

The government having attempted to support the Indians until such time as they shall become self-supporting, the interest of the government as well as that of the Indians demands that every possible effort should be made to induce them to become self-supporting at as early a day as possible. I therefore suggest whether it is not practicable to formulate certain rules for the government of the Indians on the reservations that shall restrict and ultimately abolish the practices I have mentioned. I am not ignorant of the difficulties that will be encountered in this effort; yet I believe in all the tribes there will be found many Indians who will aid the government in its efforts to abolish rites and customs so injurious to the Indians and so contrary to the civilization that they earnestly desire.

In accordance with the suggestions of this letter, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs established a tribunal at all agencies, except among the civilized Indians, consisting of three Indians, to be known as the court of Indian offenses. The members of this tribunal consist of the first three officers in rank of the police force, if such selection is approved by the agent; otherwise, the agent may select from among the members of the tribe three suitable persons to constitute such tribunal.

The Commissioner of Indian Affairs, with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, promulgated certain rules for the government of this tribunal, defining offenses of which it was to take cognizance. It is believed that such a tribunal, composed as it is of Indians, will not be objectionable to the Indians and will be a step in the direction of bringing the Indians under the civilizing influence of law. Since the creation of this tribunal the time has not been sufficient to give it a fair trial, but so far it promises to accomplish all that was hoped for at the time of its creation. The commissioner recommends an appropriation for the support of this tribunal, and in such recommendation I concur. . . .

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Introduction Most Americans are unaware that between 1883 and 1934 it was illegal for Indians to engage in their religious practices. The Bureau of Indian Affairs set up Courts of Indian Offenses to enforce the ban. "Indian offenses" were anything that did not conform to Christian mores, from religious ceremonies like the Sun Dance to other traditional practices like polygamy.

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Religious Crimes Code of 1883: The Ban of Native Practices and Ceremonies

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Religious Crimes Code of 1883: The Ban of Native Practices and Ceremonies

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Read a little bit about the Code of Indian Offenses and how it was made to eradicate Native identity and to help conform Native Americans to Christan beliefs.

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Boarding School and Land Allotment Eras 1879-1933

1883

Henry Moore Teller, approved the code. Image: Library of Congress

Congress bans all Native dancing and ceremonies, including the Sun Dance, Ghost Dance, potlatches, and the practices of medicine persons. The Code gives Indian agents authority to use force, imprisonment, and the withholding of rations to stop any cultural practices they deem immoral or subversive to federal government-mandated assimilation policies. Courts of Indian Offenses are created as well as Indian police forces, established, paid for, and supervised by the federal government to replace Native governance. Enforcement of this law eventually leads to the massacre of Big Foot's band at Wounded Knee in 1890. Commission of Indian Affairs Charles Burke continues to issue anti-dancing directives well into the 1920s. The Code is amended in 1933 to eliminate the ban on Indian dances. The effect of this law is to drive Indian religious ceremonies such as the Ghost dance and the Sun dance underground. This piece of legislation is not repealed until the 1970s. The Code is one of various methods that the U.S. employs to try to restrict the cultural identity of American Indian tribes. Many political, cultural, and spiritual leaders are imprisoned (Nies, 1996 & "Code of Indian offenses," 1883).

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Religious Crimes Code of 1883 bans Native dances, ceremonies | Investing in Native Communities

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Boarding School and Land Allotment Eras 1879-1933 1883 Congress bans all Native dancing and ceremonies, including the Sun Dance, Ghost Dance, potlatches, and the practices of medicine persons. The Code gives Indian agents authority to use force, imprisonment, and the withholding of rations to stop any cultural practices they deem immoral or subversive to federal government-mandated assimilation policies.

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American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978

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American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978

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Read about AIRFA, the law that finally allowed Native Americans to begin exercising their right to their religion and cultural practices such as ceremonies and use of sacred objects.

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"Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That henceforth, it shall be the policy of the United States to protect and preserve for American Indians their inherent right of freedom to believe, express, and exercise the traditional religions of the American Indian, Eskimo, Aleut, and Native Hawaiians, including but not limited to access to sites, use and possession of sacred objects, and the freedom to worship through ceremonials and traditional rites." -American Indian Religious Freedom Act, 1978
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA), Public Law No. 95-341, 92 Stat. 469, passed by a joint resolution of Congress and signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on August 11, 1978. The First Amendment of the Constitution-the first article of the Bill of Rights-states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Yet Native Americans were not allowed to practice their religion and were persecuted for conducting tribal ceremonies integral to the continuation of traditional culture. At the same time, the federal government supported Indians' Christian conversion.

Beginning no later than the early 1800s, the government promoted Christian education among Native Americans. During the 1870s, in what was seen as a progressive decision, the administration of President Ulysses S. Grant assigned 13 Protestant denominations to take responsibility for managing more than 70 Indian agencies on or near reservations (leading the Catholic Church quickly to establish the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions). In 1887, the Dawes Act dividing tribal lands into individual allotments included a provision allowing religious organizations working among Indians to keep up to 160 acres of federal land to support their missions.

The Department of Interior's 1883 Code of Indian Offenses -de facto laws that applied only to American Indians-punished Indian dances and feasts by imprisonment or withholding food (treaty rations) for up to 30 days. Any medicine man convicted of encouraging others to follow traditional practices was to be confined in the agency prison for not less than 10 days or until he could provide evidence that he had abandoned his beliefs.

The code was amended 50 years after its adoption to remove the ban on dances and other customary cultural practices. Even so, despite the First Amendment's guarantees, American Indians' traditional religious practices were not protected until the passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act. The act also calls on federal departments and agencies to evaluate their policies and procedures in consultation with Native traditional leaders to protect and preserve Native American religious cultural rights and practices. The original law did not contain provisions for civil or criminal penalties for violations. As a result, additional legal protections were legislated, including the American Indian Religious Freedom Act Amendments of 1994.

To find out how Native Americans feel about the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, I asked people from across Indian Country who participate in their ceremonial traditions to share their stories. Here are their responses:

Kenny Frost, Ute Sundance Chief: "Sadly, prior to this law, Native people were prohibited from practicing our Native religion. The meat of the law enacted the basic civil liberties to protect and preserve American Indians' inherent right of freedom to believe, express, and exercise the traditional religious rights and cultural practices in Indian Country. These rights include, but are not limited to, access to sacred sites, freedom to worship through ceremonials, and the use and possession of objects considered sacred to Native people.

"This act brought to the forefront the need to continue a dialogue about how to safeguard for Native people our way of worshipping in our sacred places. This act was the first step to ensure that Native people can continue to worship. The extent to which this is or isn't the case, however, depends on federal policies, as Native people today still cannot go to their sacred places on federal lands. More needs to be done in the education of federal agencies.

"Sadly, due to the displacement of Native people to Indian reservations, many grassroots people do not know where their traditional sacred areas and territory lands are located. Manifest Destiny is still alive today. We risk losing the knowledge of traditional places as those people with traditional knowledge leave this world. We must continue to strive to pass this knowledge on to future generations. We must educate our tribal leaders to fund and provide transportation for our people to travel to our traditional homelands and reconnect to our sacred places."

Casey Camp-Horinek, Ponca Scalp Dance Society leader: "AIRFA is an oxymoron. How can a law be made around a religion and then be called 'freedom'? Are we free to care for our own Eagle feathers without a permit from the U.S. government? No. Do we still need to prove who we are with a Certificate Degree of Indian Blood (C.D.I.B.)? Yes. Can we live freely within the Natural Laws and honor our one true Mother, the Earth? No, not when laws created by man are defining our relationship with Her. Balance must be restored through prayer and ceremony, not by written words in man's attempt to override the Great Mystery's original instructions."

Katsi Cook, Mohawk elder and midwife: "I can't help but think about our many elders who made this protection of our Indigenous and human right to Indigenous spiritual expression real and protected. The act codified the religious freedom of Indigenous peoples, including my Mohawk people. My ancestor Col. Louis Cook fought in George Washington's army to ensure our Indigenous right to our ways of being and knowing. AIRFA is the historical antidote to the U.S. government's civilization regulations of the 1880s, which wrote into law the deprivation of Indigenous people and nations of our religious freedom."

Andrew Wakonse Gray, Osage Native American Church leader: "The first thing that comes to mind is that the Native American Church (NAC) is not a religion but a ceremony. At the turn of the 19th century, many tribes had to hide their ceremonial ways within a religious structure called the Native American Church. Back then, the government and non-Indian community were afraid of us, as our ceremonies became associated with rebellion. This misunderstanding resulted in the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890 and many other incidents. Many tribes took notice, including the Osage. We established our NAC ways with the help of John Wilson, a Caddo-Delaware Indian also known as Moonhead, and later of Francis Claremore, Blackdog, and others. We have included the NAC Ceremony into our Osage ways and have practiced our ways quite well. We still name, put our people away, use our pipe way by way of the corn shuck, paint, and follow other Osage ways. We believe in prayer. As my uncle used to say, 'More prayer, more better.'"

Jackie Yellowtail, Crow Sundancer: "The AIRFA is very important to our traditional ways, which have survived thousands of years, even through times when we had to hide to practice them. Our family has kept these ways strong, as we were taught by those who have gone before us. This is the way it has been done for generations! Our sacred life ways continue so the people can live!"

Tim Tsoodle, Headsman of the Kiowa Gourd Clan: "This law allowed us to openly dance, sing, and mostly pray as our grandfathers did. It is ceremonies like the Kiowa Gourd Dance that make us Kiowa. To be able to do these things without outside interference is what makes the American Indian Religious Freedom Act significant."

Shirod Younker, Coquille ceremonial woodcarver: "In 1954, Congress terminated the Coquille as a federally recognized tribe. In 1989, the Coquille Indian Tribe was reinstated as a newly 'restored' federally recognized tribe. Prior to this, our religion and language had been stripped from us. So at this time, we are trying to replicate what was taken away from us by government policies. We are indebted to our cousin tribes the Tolowa and Siletz who have shared ceremonies with us."

"The American Indian Religious Freedom Act may not have affected my tribe directly, but it has had an impact on that door of reaffirming our shared ceremonial practices in the open again. It has been 40 years since this act was passed. The practices to remove and destroy our culture started more than 150 years ago, in the 1840s and '50s. It will take at least that amount of time to come close to restoring what we lost. These ceremonies and practices reinforce the need to bring back our many distinct languages from the Oregon Coast. Our ceremonial ways all come from the earth. We cannot effectively understand their importance or details until we restore the environment that helps sustain us physically and spiritually."

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Native Perspectives on the 40th Anniversary of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act

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The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Forty years ago, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act finally finally extended that right to the country's Native citizens. Here Native Americans who observe traditional ways talk about religious freedom.

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This article explains the reasoning behind the creation of ledger art and as well as bringing up the debate over the selling or not selling historic ledger art as well as taking individual ledger pieces out from a ledger book. Enjoy!

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"It's very complicated." Ross Frank was on the phone the other day trying to explain, concisely, cogently, the "difficult history" of Plains Indian ledger drawings and how it couldn't be anything but complicated when the subject is a cultural phenomenon informed by unequal parts subjugation, resistance, acculturation, appropriation, admiration, creativity and, yes, beauty.

An associate professor of ethnic studies at the University of California San Diego and director of the La Jolla-based Plains Indian Ledger Art Project, Frank is in the forefront of an effort to study, preserve and make available the riches of the mostly 19th-century art form. The illustrations were usually done on lined pages and in prosaic paper ledger books used to record, say, a merchant's spending, or the disbursal of hardtack from a U.S. Army supply depot in Wyoming. Other ledgers might have contained the accounts of an Indian agent on a reservation in Nebraska, or, more sinisterly, the target practice scores of U.S. cavalrymen circa 1874 as they trained to subdue the Cheyenne, Kiowa and the other First Nations they believed were impeding the realization of America's so-called Manifest Destiny.

PILA was founded by Frank in 1995 to promote the preservation of, research on and public accessibility to these palimpsest-like metaphors of cultural collision, largely, in recent years, through high-resolution digitization of ledger books and pages. Yet as this has been occurring, ledger drawings not housed in public collections or in institutions such as PILA have become hot commodities in the art market. Be they intact ledger books or individual renderings, the most vivid and artful depictions of First Nations' history, life and rituals can now fetch tens of thousands of dollars each, and sometimes more.

Unsurprisingly, there is intensifying commercial pressure to break up books and sell their contents page by page, thereby short-circuiting any possibility of them being studied and understood as whole entities. While no one, not even First Nation peoples, argues that ledger art can't be sold - for one thing, they're not swathed in the religious significance accorded, say, sacred bundles - much more research needs to be done. Faced with the both the anarchy and logic of the market, Frank sees one of his primary jobs these days as "sensitizing people" to the issues.

It was this sense of mission and, of course, expertise that recently brought Frank to Calgary's TrépanierBaer Gallery as guest speaker at the opening of "Keeping Time: Ledger Drawings and the Pictographic Traditions of Native North Americans ca. 1820-1900." For TrépanierBaer, which typically showcases contemporary artists such as Evan Penny and Chris Cran, it's an unprecedented exhibition and sale. The quality of work available is impressive - there are almost 70 ledger drawings by Sioux, Hidatsa, Arapaho and Cheyenne artists, with prices ranging from $8,500 to $95,000, plus 20 or so related objects. They include a pair of 1880 painted Cheyenne parfleche rawhide bags, and a painted Crow shield and cover from 1870, made of buffalo hide and deerskin which are selling for $175,000. It's the single largest assembly of ledger art ever offered for purchase.

Most of the works are from the collection of the respected Canadian tribal-art dealer Donald Ellis, who operates out of New York. Ellis is perhaps most famous for shepherding the return of the Dundas Collection to Canada from the U.K. in 2006. (The collection's 40 artifacts, from B.C.'s Tsimshian First Nation, were acquired under murky circumstances in 1863 by Anglican prelate R.J. Dundas.)

While Ellis has had a long-standing interest in ledger drawings, what really galvanized his engagement was seeing the now-epochal 1996 exhibition "Plains Indian Drawings 1865-1935: Pages from a Visual History" at Manhattan's Drawing Center. (It came to the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto in 1997.) Here was a fresh, little-known graphic art tradition. "Exotic," to be sure. One that seemed to offer "the other side" of the victory narrative found in the paintings of Frederic Remington and Charles Russell, yet whose best works had the colour sense of a Dufy or Vlaminck, the graphic economy and rhythmic dynamism of a Matisse.

"It set the New York art world on its ear," Ellis recalled recently of the show, which drew big crowds and rave notices from the critics. "So I've been sort of quietly, actively working with a few major collectors, building their collections and at the same holding back drawings with the idea of doing a much larger presentation on a commercial level, rather than a museum level."

The drawings at TrépanierBaer, mostly 14 or 22 cm by 29 cm, are flavoured with the same bittersweetness tasted (and remarked upon) by visitors to the Drawing Center show. It's true their depictions of courtship rituals, dancing and hunting, horseback riding, camp life and combat are a continuation of a rich artist-historian tradition among Plains Indian tribes. But for all that these works represent what ledger art historian Janet Catherine Berlo calls a "great flowering of graphic arts on the Great Plains of North America," they are also telling documents of a culture under severe duress.

Before the American Civil War (1861-1865), the imagistic rendering of significant events among Plains Indians largely involved the application of pigments made from minerals, plants and soils on the stretched hides of buffalo and other wild animals. Post-war, this tradition was ruptured as whites of various stripes - soldiers, settlers, adventurers, prospectors, whisky traders and government bureaucrats - gazed firmly westward and, for the next 35 years, proceeded to attack, sack and debilitate aboriginal societies, eviscerate buffalo herds, swarm sacred sites, violate treaties and drive formerly nomadic bands onto confined reservations. Faced with this aggression and displacement, Plains Indian artist-historians switched to a new, non-native, decidedly more convenient medium, the ledger book, variously bought, received as a gift, stolen or scavenged from the whites they were encountering.

A salient example of the phenomenon would be the so-called High Bull roster book of drawings, now in the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. Originally the property of a sergeant in the U.S. 7th Cavalry, the book listed the best marksmen in his company, among other records. In late June of 1876, the sergeant was one of hundreds who lost their lives at the famous Battle of the Little Bighorn in what is now southeastern Montana. The roster book was taken from the sergeant's body by the Northern Cheyenne warrior High Bull who, with other Cheyenne, drew over the records with graphite and crayons. Five months later, the book was back in white hands after High Bull himself was killed in another battle with cavalry. From there, Frank speculates, the book "may have been purchased a few times" before ending up in the possession of the wealthy author/suffragist/peace activist Grace Hoffman White, who donated it to the original Museum of the American Indian in New York in 1925.

Paradoxes abound in the "great flowering" that was ledger art. Though it may have been a symbol of an invasive, destructive culture, "paper, when it came, gave more opportunity to different people to draw, rather than just the tribal few," a First Nations' artist remarked. "So you saw things that weren't done before, like courtship rituals ... the soap opera of the day." Aboriginal scouts, hired by the U.S. cavalry, also made drawings in ledger books, sometimes giving or selling their narratives of present and past history to their white employers, who, in turn, would bring them home as souvenirs of their participation in the Indian wars.

One of the most illustrious profusions of ledger art didn't even occur on the Plains, but in a military prison on the Atlantic coast of Florida. Following the conclusion of the Red River War of 1874-75, close to 75 Plains Indian warriors and chiefs, mostly Cheyenne and Kiowa, were sent by rail to Fort Marion, near St. Augustine, after being deemed "murderers" by military court. Of these, 20 or so were given unlined paper, crayons, pencils, ink and paint, and for the next three years they churned out a voluminous number of drawings, many of them bought by tourists to the region. TrépanierBaer is selling at least eight drawings with a Fort Marion connection, including six especially striking works attributed to the Cheyenne warrior Howling Wolf (1849-1927), one of the most proficient and sought-after ledger artists.

"He clearly loved what he did. There's such attention to every aspect of art-making, from the paper it's drawn on to the colours used, how things are rendered, the subject matter. Extraordinary, really," says Yves Trépanier, co-proprietor of the Calgary gallery.

Attribution of ledger art, it should be noted, is fraught and slippery. Frank observes some Fort Marion artists did write their names on some of their work because they were being taught to write and read English. Moreover, most of the Fort Marion drawings in the Calgary sale have inscriptions in English written by the fort's commander, Capt. Richard Pratt.

However, Candace Greene, an ethnologist at the Smithsonian Institution, noted in a recent e-mail: "We know that many inscriptions [found on ledger art generally] are incorrect." What does "count for a 'signature' in ledger art," says Frank, "is a system of 'name glyphs' that hover above the heads of figures" in the drawings. But not all ledger drawings have them (most, in fact, do not); and sometimes a glyph represents both the figure in the drawing and the artist, but other times not.

Connoisseurship of a kind is a factor, too: For example, University of New Mexico historian Joyce Szabo, author of Howling Wolf and the History of Ledger Art (1994), thinks a case can be made that the Fort Marion drawings in Calgary are from the hand of another distinguished Cheyenne warrior, Chief Killer, whereas Trépanier and Ellis, among others, hold for Howling Wolf.

It's been argued that works such as the Fort Marion drawings are "products" of a people in exile and therefore are "tainted" and less "authentic" than the by-natives/for-natives works done prior to incarceration or confinement on reservations. Despite this reality, Joyce Szabo writes in Imprisoned Art, Complex Patronage (2011),"nothing suggests that any of the men was forced to draw ... The men known to have made these images had to want to do so."

Admittedly, Fort Marion's overarching agenda was one of acculturation: Capt. Pratt liked to say his job was to "kill the Indian, save the man," and to that end Howling Wolf and his fellow inmates had their hair shorn and traditional garb removed. Yet at the same time, according to Szabo, "an atmosphere existed that encouraged the creation of drawings and inspired experimentation."

Adds Frank: "In every case that we know of of what might be called 'patronage' of ledger art, it was unlike, for example, trading posts in the Navajo territories when trading-post folks would say, 'Do this design' ... This didn't happen in ledger art. Even when prisoners were in jail or commissioned to fill out a sketch-book album, they were allowed to do whatever came to them. The interest of the people commissioning them was to get the authentic Indian production."

And the results, more often than not, were pictures that display what New York Times critic Holland Cotter, in his 1996 review of the Drawing Center show, described as "a shrewd, bitter, dogged impulse to perpetuate the realities of Indian life, both as longed-for past and often grim but resilient present."
COMMERCE VS. PRESERVATION
Today, the big issue about ledger drawings has less to do with how much coercion was involved in their creation or what compensation their creators received, and more with maintaining, as Ellis says, "the integrity of the full ledger book."

Almost from their initial transfer to private hands from aboriginal, these books have, in many instances, been broken up and their individual pages scattered. One example involves the late movie star Vincent Price, who in the 1950s acquired a ledger book with more than 100 Cheyenne and Arapaho drawings purportedly done in the late 1870s. Price apparently kept the book intact for decades - but then, sometime in the 1980s as the commercial value of single drawings rose, he allowed the book to be unbound and individual pages sold. Five illustrations (including one double-sided drawing) from Vincent Price Ledger Book, as it's called, are in the TrépanierBaer exhibition/sale. Fortunately, four have been scanned for PILA's digital archives, part of a PILA initiative calling on all the owners of original Price pages to submit an image or images to permit the book's reconstruction online.

Ellis, meanwhile, has been working on a project to "rebuild" some of the actual ledger books dismantled during the 1980s and 1990s. And, to prevent any further dismemberment, the dealer and a "very serious major Canadian client," unnamed, is letting it be known they're prepared "to pay a premium for full books." It's an ethos shared by a U.S. private foundation, also unnamed, which recently acquired a complete book of 140 drawings called the Sheridan Ledger, for donation to PILA.

(Sheridan is John L. Sheridan, brother of Gen. Philip Sheridan, who oversaw the "pacification" of the Plains Indians, declaring, according to some accounts, that "the only good Indians I saw were dead" - a remark subsequently "translated" into white popular culture as "the only good Indian is a dead Indian." John, a lawyer and land agent, acquired ledger art during visits to forts in Oklahoma in the late 1870s. Another batch of his drawings, 40 in total, torn from an unknown ledger book, are called the Sheridan Pages; 26 are for sale at TrépanierBaer. PILA has obtained permission to digitally archive the Sheridan Pages.)

Given the fraught history of ledger drawings, you might think the genre would be anathema to contemporary aboriginals. But in fact artists, men and women such as Michael Horse, Terrance Guardipee and Sheridan MacKnight, continue the tradition by drawing and painting not just in old ledger books but on sheet music, maps, cheques, government documents, boarding-school records and hymnals.

Horse, a Yaqui/Mescalero Apache/Zuni who also acts in film and TV and collects ledger art, showed up at the opening of Keeping Time last month and was "very impressed" by what he saw. "Very seldom you actually see that many really good pieces of ledger art," he said. Speaking the other day from his home near San Francisco, Horse likened ledger art to the blues, another art form born of suffering and repression yet attesting to survival, preservation, resistance. "Imagine you're a free person, you have no boundaries, only where the wind takes you and the buffalo. And all of a sudden, in just a few years, somebody draws a little square and says to you, 'You can't go out of there' ... When people see ledger art sometime, even people who aren't collectors of native art, they know something's going on here. Yeah, it's a lot like the blues."
Keeping Time: Ledger Drawings and the Pictographic Traditions of Native North American ca. 1820-1900 continues at TrépanierBaer Gallery in Calgary through Aug. 16.

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american plains indian ledger drawings calgary sale

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Exploring the legacy of American Plains Indians ledger drawings, an art form weighted by tragedy

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It's known as ledger art: the beautiful drawings made by American Plains Indians on notebooks brought westward by white settlers and the military. Today, they are unsettling and controversial metaphors for cultural collision. They're also increasingly valuable, with the largest-ever sale on now in Calgary

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How to Avoid Cultural Appropriation in the Classroom! 

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How to Avoid Cultural Appropriation in the Classroom! 

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When it comes to learning about another culture and doing project-based activities it's a good idea to talk about the differences between cultural appreciation versus cultural appropriation. Students should never copy a design or symbol, that is appropriating. A student can take inspiration from a design and create their own design, this is appreciation! This website gives good advice in how to deal with cultural appropriation and how to show appreciation of a culture instead!

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One step to creating an inclusive curriculum is to look at cultural appropriation in the art classroom. It's no surprise that artists create what we know; for centuries, humans reflect what we see, then combine, modify, adapt, and borrow. However, when it comes to reflecting cultures other than our own, we must be intentional and sensitive to the cultural contexts of colors, symbols, and techniques we use.

As art educators, not only do we need to look carefully at how our students are appropriating cultures in their own artwork, but we must also reflect on how we might unintentionally be teaching students through cultural appropriation.

Artistic Appropriation vs. Cultural Appropriation

As art teachers, we talk about appropriation all the time. Appropriation is when an artist takes a well-known image and uses it specifically for the social construct it carries to make a statement in a new way.

For example, when a student looks at Spongebob and directly replicates Spongebob in all his glorious cartoon nuances, your student is copying. When a student looks at Spongebob and creates artwork about sea life in a cartoon style, your student is using Spongebob as inspiration. When your student looks at Spongebob, creates a new subject that looks similar to Spongebob, is perhaps an olive color instead of bright yellow, manipulates the character in other manners, and creates a polluted environment, your student is appropriating Spongebob for the happy-go-lucky context we all know and love to tell a story about sea pollution. Just Googling "Spongebob Appropriation" brings up a myriad of playful examples.

Cultural appropriation, according to Lexico.com is, "The unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices, ideas, etc. of one people or society by members of another and typically more dominant people or society." Cultural appropriation is a topic that is either explicit or implicit in our classrooms and one that must be acknowledged and addressed in our artmaking practices. Interestingly enough, Spongebob Squarepants has been accused of cultural appropriation.

Cultural appropriation in the classroom is tricky.

To ignore teaching a variety of cultures in art is to deny the very essence in which art is created. However, when we teach a project specifically based on a specific culture, we are teaching our students that it's okay to appropriate that culture, but we also miss an opportunity to connect students with applying a specific technique to express their interests.

For example, consider teaching weaving to elementary students. Teachers will often teach paper weaving and have students create a colorful and geometric weaving project reflecting kente cloth. As a teacher, you are probably teaching about the rich history of kente cloth to your students. Students practice weaving and create beautiful paper weavings.

You might be thinking, what's wrong with this? As a teacher, we are exposing our students to cultures through artmaking. However, it is important to acknowledge the responsibility we bear to consider the ways we teach cultural and artistic connections.

In our kente cloth weaving project, we are missing an opportunity to teach weaving in a way that explores important qualities and identities cultures form through their textiles. Instead of replicating specific colors and patterns to teach weaving techniques, we can ask our students to connect with ways artists make intentional choices in their fibers to tell a meaningful story.
Instead of using kente cloth to teach weaving, teach weaving to introduce kente cloth.

Teach students how to weave with paper or other materials.

Let them practice techniques, explore various materials, and identify colors and patterns that interest them.

Introduce your students to a variety of cultures that use textiles in meaningful ways.

Ask students to identify what they notice about each culture's textiles and the significance behind each.

Discuss connections and the significance of function, colors, and design demonstrated in each culture.

Guide students to draw their own personal connections to begin creating a personal textile.

Talk to students about cultural appropriation. This is a great opportunity to discuss the differences between replicating and being inspired by others.

Talk to students about intentional decision making and how artists learn from history and rich cultural knowledge to inform their artmaking decisions.

Here are a few easy guidelines to remember:
What is NOT appropriate:

Replicating other cultural artwork.

Using cultural artwork as a costume.

Using cultural language in a vague or generic context.

Student choice will lead to deeper connections.

Choice allows opportunities for students to authentically connect with cultural context. Flipping your teaching practice gives students ownership over an artwork through research and interpretation. When students have to justify their artmaking choices, they will make deeper connections with the cultural context they are researching.

When we teach students how to research, ask students questions about their choices, and point out connections we see between cultural references, students will gain a deeper appreciation of both art and art used in cultural contexts. Be careful not to use a student's choice to avoid educating yourself on a particular culture. Take this opportunity to do some of your own research to help guide and support your students' decision making.

For example, when we teach a project based on a specific cultural context, students will take what we say and create from that lesson. If we teach a pinch pot lesson around sugar skulls and Dia de Los Muertos, students create artwork based on the saturated colors and decorative patterns they see. They only connect as deep as our instruction.

Back to our pinch pot example, we can teach students how to create a pinch pot and then ask them to research their own interests or cultures. You might even provide a list of cultural references to get students thinking about all the different paths to pursue. Students take ownership of their choices and learn to defend their choices by sharing their knowledge of the context they research. When we expose students to a range of cultures but then require them to consider their own interests, students bridge from copying to creating unique and personal artwork through inspiration.

Curiosity, research, and reflection guide our teaching.

Asking questions and thinking deeply are powerful tools in the art room. As teachers, we don't know all the answers. Often, teachers can feel uncomfortable teaching about a culture they may not fully understand themselves. We are afraid to make mistakes, teach something incorrectly, or gloss over important aspects of an unfamiliar culture.
A Project to Help Teach Your Students About Appropriation
A great way to start a conversation is to infuse questions into your daily practice to guide students through their artmaking choices. For example, while teaching jewelry/metals, I have become keenly aware of how functional art is at high risk for cultural appropriation. When researching, students gravitate toward designs, symbols, or forms they like; they don't always know the contexts those images embody.
How to Avoid Cultural Appropriation in Your Lessons
Engage your students through a scaffolded research approach. You might start by sharing a few specifically chosen resources with your students, such as books or artists' websites. Involve your students in expanding your resources. Creating a Padlet is a great way to have a bank of resources organized by cultures, techniques, and media. Not only are your students helping build resources to share time and time again, but they are visually connecting commonalities between techniques, media, and cultures.
How to Deal with the Idea of Appropriation in the Art Room
Through curiosity and reflection, we can push students beyond the surface of aesthetics. Instead of telling students what to do or not to do, we can lead the conversation to ask students why they are drawn to specific images, colors, and designs. We can teach students how to connect with specific cultures and the rich contexts these items carry.
Here are some questions to ask your students while they are creating:

Why is that color important to you?

How do you connect with that particular symbol?

What function does your work have?

How are your choices influenced by cultural significance?

How do your choices represent the meaning you intend?

If this symbol is important to a particular culture, how can you choose a symbol that represents you?

As art teachers, it is our responsibility and obligation to constantly reflect on what and how we teach. Teaching cultures in the context of art is a foundational piece in art education. When we fear teaching something incorrectly, we unintentionally silence our world's rich cultural history that we borrow from on a daily basis. Helping our students gain awareness of these diverse connections through their own artwork develops a deep appreciation for all cultures and their world. In doing so, we demystify the differences and engage in teaching through an anti-racist lens.
A special thank you to Jeff Sturgeon and Marie Weston, who helped spark this conversation via our book club and continually asked the hard questions to reflect on our own teaching practices. Another special thank you to Dr. Wynita Harmon for helping steer and hone the conversation to apply to all levels of our art teaching. In what ways do you unintentionally appropriate cultures through your teaching? What questions can you ask students to help guide them in learning about various cultures through their artmaking practice?
Magazine articles and podcasts are opinions of professional education contributors and do not necessarily represent the position of the Art of Education University (AOEU) or its academic offerings. Contributors use terms in the way they are most often talked about in the scope of their educational experiences.

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Considering Cultural Appropriation in the Art Classroom

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Considering Cultural Appropriation in the Art Classroom Connections % %

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Here is another site about beading history and styles. Enjoy!

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Posted By PowWows.com Last Updated on: February 27th, 2020

One of the most common arts and crafts practiced by multiple Native American tribes included the decorative use of beads of various types. Generations before Europeans landed on the shores of the new world, Native American beadwork used primarily stone, shell, quills, and bone carved patiently with non-metal tools.[i] As the decades went by and new materials like metal and glass were introduced by the new people arriving on the shores, the beadwork patterns used on clothing, jewelry, and decorations became much more intricate and stylized.

Many people now enjoy Native American beading designs mixed into their fashion sense or displayed on decorator items around their home. While the techniques and styles have changed quite a lot over the centuries, beadwork patterns remain an important part of native decorative artwork.

The Importance of Beadwork for Native Americans

Archeologists have found beads of varying materials, styles, and sizes in digs focused on various Native American settlements and tribes over the years. Originally, they may have been used as a type of currency for trades among tribes and individuals. Primarily, they simply decorated everything from buffalo hide belts to complex necklaces that featured story bead combinations.[ii] Unlike European artwork designed to stay in place and decorate a room, the nomadic nature of the Native Americans necessitated a combination of design and functionality. Their bead-based art existed in clothing, everyday objects, and their tents and horse tack.[iii]

One of the earliest forms includes porcupine quills stitched painstakingly onto moccasins and robes. These natural items were easy to gather from hunted animals, could be cut to any length that suited the design, and already had a natural hole through the middle. Then, Native American beadwork continued when the people used stone tools or abrasive sand to shape other materials and drill holes through them. Semi-precious stones like turquoise and jasper were quite popular, especially in the southwestern section of the country. Those early years of wood, shell, and stone gave way quickly to the more colorful and flashy glass, ceramic, or metal beads in silver and copper.

After the Europeans came, beadwork changed somewhat in both practice and value. The initial rarity of the bright glass beads made their worth skyrocket. Wampum, or shell beads threaded on a cord, were frequently used by both settlers and indigenous people until it became so commonplace that its value plummeted. [iv] Native American beadwork patterns became a symbol of wealth, were used in marriage ceremonies, trade agreements, and treaties. Some involve ritualistic use and were often used in spiritual dances and celebrations.

In these modern days, Native American beading remains important for both the people themselves and as a cultural artifact that teaches all about an important part of history. From a purely decorative standpoint, many people from all cultures and traditions simply love the look of the unique woven beadwork designs associated with various native peoples. Visitors can view exceptional pieces at history museums across the country. Fans can purchase authentically crafted jewelry and other accessories from shops both online and off. Many non-native people and companies also use the techniques and styles of the North American indigenous population's beading artwork to create new, modern designs or mimic older ones.

Native American Beading Styles

Most people understand beading as either something that includes stringing beads on threads to make necklaces or similar pieces or stitching beads directly onto a material backing. While both of these methods were used in Native American beadwork, they also have their one unique techniques that were worked in different ways than expected. Some of the most impressive create large, flexible sheets or strips of beads tightly arranged in patterns or pictures.

Explore some of the most common beadwork style techniques and stitches to learn more about how they are done and what they are used for.[v]

Lane or Lazy Stitch

This Native American beadwork method works almost the same as the overlay stitch above, except the artist works in short lengths of beads and affixes them to the fabric only at the ends.[vi] This was frequently used for large patterns such as on moccasins or cradles that had large areas of one color. For example, to fill the yoke of a dress, the craftswoman would repeatedly stitch rows of six to eight beads in tight, neat lines until they got to the next color. Different tribes used different numbers of beads. The Sioux, for one, used eight or nine in each small row.

In the area of the country that would become New England, the lazy stitch took on a unique ridged appearance through use of a different technique. The same number of beads were attached to a smaller section of fabric, which made them arc up away from the surface slightly. This added a three-dimensional component to flat beadwork stitching.[vii]

Loom Beading

When Native American beading occurred without backing fabric or leather, the artists frequently used a type of loom to form long strips. These could be used for hair decorations, belts, or sewn together after completion to create a wider piece.

Although commercial beading looms exist today at any craft store, original looms either used the beader's own body or wood bent similar to a bow to form the frame.[viii] Like weaving threads or yarn, the bead loom has warp string separated with a small divider on each end. Another thread or sinew forms the weft that is threaded on a needle. The artist puts the correct pattern of beads onto the needle, slides it down to the warp string, positions each bead between the warp, and then pushes the weft back through the beads on the opposite side to hold them in place.

Plains Indians were some who used beading looms more regularly.[ix] This increased in popularity during the 1800s and after the Civil War when more trade spread westward.

Peyote or Gourd Stitch

Instead of using a loom or fabric backing for this type of Native American beadwork, peyote or gourd stitch is worked as a tube or directly around an object like the handle of a basket. Each pattern designed must include a total number of beads that divide evenly by three. This makes sense because, if you look at a finished piece or a pattern closely, you see that the horizontal lines going around the tube are really clusters of three beads in a miniature triangle.

Using tiny glass seed beads, you fill your thread with the beads to go around the pattern once, then add more as you slip the thread through the first beads in turn.[x] This creates a type of net without spaces between it. Today, this stitch is used extensively to make keychains, necklaces, and similar small accessories.

Brick Stitch

A very similar technique to the gourd stitch described above, the brick stitch does not require factors of three in the pattern making.[xi] Instead of creating it around a cylindrical object, it is frequently created to lie flat. Other names for it include Cheyenne, Comanche, and bugle stitch. To create a flat mat of beads in a particular design, they are arranged horizontally with the bead holes on either side instead of directly next to each other. This requires a sometimes tricky method of holding them in place while you make the stitches.

Thread a short stretch of beads on a needle, then push them down to the knot at the end. Use the same needle and thread to weave back through the opposite side hole on each bead until they line up like bricks. Complete each row before moving on to the one next to it. The separate rows are woven together by passing the thread through the end loop that feeds out of each hole. This stitch can create any type of pattern or picture dreamed up.

Beaded Applique

Applique has been used in many cultures and time periods since the first time someone invented a needle. You can still find appliques of embroidered patches or fabric "stickers" that are sewn onto trendy jeans or jackets. When it comes to Native American beadwork techniques, beaded applique was used in much the same way. Instead of using overlaid or lane stitching to attach decorative patterns of beads directly to the fabric or leather, the artist created the design on another, a smaller piece that was then sewn onto the final form.

In some cases, strips or large patterns were created on bead looms and then sewn in place on a backing material. This applique technique would make decorative work much easier as the artist only had to work with a smaller item rather than an entire dress, tipi, or headdress.

Overlaid Stitch

This type of beadwork also goes by the names spot or crow stitch It is a relatively common way to attach patterns of beads to fabric or leather. After the artist plans the patterns and where each color of bead will go, they thread a needle with sinew or, in more modern circumstances, beading thread. The beads line the thread in the correct order so that, when laid across the fabric, they already form the pattern. For example, if the beader wanted to make simple stripes, they would thread three white beads, three blue beads, three white beads, etc.

After the thread contains all the necessary beads for the first part of the design, the artist lays it across the fabric. Then, they use another needle to stitch the first thread down to the fabric between each bead. This secures the pattern neatly.

Today, the popularity of Native American beadwork design and handicrafts continues unabated. Although many people do not understand the historical significance, they still enjoy the look of the pieces. Although the 1990 Indian Arts and Crafts Act made it illegal for any non-native to claim to produce native beadwork, crafts, or art of any kind, there are plenty of "native-inspired" products out there.

Although the Native American beadwork techniques did not differ greatly between tribes due to their frequent trading and influence, there were preferences and regional differences that affected the type of designs found from them.

For example, different groups seemed to prefer different colors and traded with the Europeans specifically for those.[xii] The Sioux frequently worked on a white background and used bold blues, yellow, various shades of green, and a unique shade of pink. The Cheyenne shared the Sioux's love of background white but included more turquoise, transparent beads, and bright red in their patterns. Far northern groups like the Ojibwa had multi-colored backgrounds with dark red, crystal clear, and even black with many floral motifs. Southeastern tribes like the Cherokee used a lot more black than other Native American groups.

These differences may have reflected what each group valued in the world, or were simply personal preferences that became trends much like people today have favorite colors in fashion. No matter what colors they chose, the overwhelming styles and designs featured geometric shapes of various types.

These Native American beading methods have become popular among crafters from all ethnicities and walks of life. People use peyote stitch to create US flag keychains, work out rainbow-hued friendship bracelets on bead looms, and recreate everything from fine art to cartoon characters on canvas with lane or overlay stitches.

From the rich tradition that began in pre-historic times, today's beading community finds methods, ideas, and inspiration aplenty from the Native American beadwork masters

References

[i] https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/native-american-beadwork/17880

[ii] http://indians.org/articles/beads.html

[iii] http://www.prairiefirenewspaper.com/2009/07/the-history-and-artistry-of-plains-indian-beadwork

[iv] http://www.nativetech.org/beadwork/beadwork.html

[v] https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/native-american-beadwork/17880

[vi] http://www.native-american-beadwork.net/english/English04Stitches_Lane.htm

[vii] https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/native-american-beadwork/17880

[viii] http://www.nativetech.org/beadweav/bweavt7.html

[ix] https://anthromuseum.missouri.edu/exhibit/loom-beadwork-plains-indians

[x] https://www.trc-leiden.nl/trc-needles/techniques/beadworking/peyote-stitch

[xi] https://beadage.net/glossary/brick-stitch/

[xii] https://www.crazycrow.com/site/native-american-tribal-bead-color-preference/

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Native American Beadwork | Traditional Beading History, Patterns & Styles

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Posted By PowWows.com Last Updated on: February 27th, 2020 One of the most common arts and crafts practiced by multiple Native American tribes included the decorative use of beads of various types.

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Here are some rules of etiquette that should always be followed when visiting these petroglyph sites. This is good information to relay to students in the off chance they see a petroglyph and will know what to do and what not to do!

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Common Etiquette for Visiting a Petroglyph Site - Petroglyph National Monument (U.S. National Park Service)

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Beadwork: History, Materials, and Construction

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Beadwork: History, Materials, and Construction

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Learn more about beading and its importance in sustaining culture!

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Yes, of course there is going to be laws about Indigenous arts. This is important information to give to students that way they know what's off limits when using indigenous art as inspiration!

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The Indian Arts and Crafts Act (IACA) of 1990 (P.L. 101-644) is a truth-in-advertising law that prohibits misrepresentation in the marketing of Indian art and craft products within the United States. It is illegal to offer or display for sale, or sell, any art or craft product in a manner that falsely suggests it is Indian produced, an Indian product, or the product of a particular Indian or Indian tribe or Indian arts and crafts organization, resident within the United States. For a first time violation of the IACA, an individual can face civil or criminal penalties up to a $250,000 fine or a 5-year prison term, or both. If a business violates the IACA, it can face civil penalties or can be prosecuted and fined up to $1,000,000.

Under the IACA, an Indian is defined as a member of any federally or officially State recognized tribe of the United States, or an individual certified as an Indian artisan by an Indian tribe.

The law covers all Indian and Indian-style traditional and contemporary arts and crafts produced after 1934. The IACA broadly applies to the marketing of arts and crafts by any person in the United States. Some traditional items frequently copied by non-Indians include Indian-style jewelry, pottery, baskets, carved stone fetishes, woven rugs, kachina dolls, and clothing.

All products must be marketed truthfully regarding the tribal enrollment of the producers so as not to mislead the consumer. It is illegal to market art or craftwork using the name of a tribe if a member, or certified Indian artisan, of that tribe did not actually create the art or craftwork.

For example, products sold using a sign claiming "Indian Jewelry" would be a violation of the Indian Arts and Crafts Act if the jewelry was produced by someone other than a member, or certified Indian artisan, of an Indian tribe. Products advertised as "Navajo Jewelry" would be in violation of the IACA if they were produced by someone who is not a member, or certified Indian artisan, of the Navajo tribe.

Before buying Indian art and craftwork online, at powwows, annual fairs, juried competitions, and other events, check the website policy page or event vendor requirements regarding the authenticity of products being offered for sale. Many events list the requirements online, in media advertisements, promotional flyers, and printed programs. If the event organizers make no statements on compliance with the IACA or on the authenticity of art and craftwork offered by participating vendors, you should obtain written verification from the individual vendors that their Indian art or craftwork was produced by tribal members or by certified Indian artisans.

Related Links:
25 CFR Protection of Indian Arts and Crafts Products 18 USC Indian Arts and Crafts Board 25 USC Indian Arts and Crafts Board Indian Arts and Crafts Act Legislative History
Indian Arts and Crafts Act Legislative Committee Report

Indian Arts and Crafts Amendments Act of 2010

Indian Arts and Crafts Enforcement Act of 2000
Final Regulations for the Act of 2000 Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 Final Regulations for the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 Senate Oversight Hearing May 17, 2000 BIA List of Federally Recognized Tribes Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1935 To Report a Potential Violation

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Read about the destruction of buffalos and its effect on Native American tribes and how they dealt with the resource being taken away. One reason why ledger art came to be.
Enjoy!

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The bison's (Buffalo's) value among Native American tribes, particularly the Plains tribes, remains priceless. Its life and near extinction closely mirror North America's indigenous-for without the Buffalo, life dwindled. The destruction of the Buffalo meant the United States government could manage the "Indian problem."

It is valuable to recognize the abundance of Buffalo that roamed North America. Experts estimate 60 million Buffalo freely grazed and cultivated the land. For centuries, they provided for the people everything from fly swatters to shelters. Native tribes followed the herds and only killed what they needed. Since the Buffalo were sacred and life-givers, the people carefully maintained a balance, never overkilling for sport-only for sustenance.

In the mid-1850s, the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Lakota, Blackfeet, Arikara, Ponca, and Cree were among the numerous tribes inhabiting the Nebraska Territory (1850). Here, Buffalo were plentiful, and the tribes thrived. However, the discovery of gold in the West brought white settlers who flooded the Plains, outnumbering the Natives nearly 3 to 1. The complexities of Western Expansion meant the Buffalo and the Indians would no longer have free reign over the Territory's grasslands.

From this point through the Battle of Little Bighorn (1876) and beyond, conflicts between the U.S. Cavalry and Native tribes were numerous and tragic-the Indian Wars were underway. During these conflicts, Native Americans continued to outwit and outlast the U.S. Cavalry with their tactics, which kept the Cavalry from delivering a final blow to the "hostiles."

Amid the Indian Wars, the Transcontinental Railroad pushed its way across the Plains. With its completion, the U.S. Cavalry could move its men and equipment deeper into Indian Territory to assist in wrangling the Lakota (Sioux) and other tribes onto reservations.

Hunting the Buffalo to eradicate Native Americans

Generals William T. Sherman and Philip Sheridan believed if the soldiers could eradicate the Buffalo, the Indians would have no choice but to give up. This belief stemmed from General Sherman's tactic during the Civil War to defeat the Confederates in his March to the Sea-the "scorched earth" policy. Take away anything essential for the survival of a people, and they will surrender-as long as the Buffalo roamed the Plains, so did the Indians-the two were symbiotic.

"On 26 June 1869, the prestigious Army-Navy Journal reported that 'General Sherman remarked, in conversation the other day, that the quickest way to compel the Indians to settle down to civilized life was to send ten regiments of soldiers to the plains, with orders to shoot buffaloes until they became too scarce to support the redskins.'"

Soon, it became the norm for Sherman and Sheridan to provide opportunities for the rich and influential to travel West and hunt Buffalo with U.S. Cavalry guns alongside prominent generals like General William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill Cody), who claimed to kill 4,000 Buffalo himself. "In fact, the Springfield army rifle was initially the favorite weapon of the hide hunters. The party killed over six hundred Buffalo on the hunt, keeping only the tongues and the choice cuts, but leaving the rest of the carcasses to rot on the plains."

Military commanders had full license to kill as many Buffalo as possible to "do their part" in gaining control of the Indians. The slaughter of the Buffalo was relentless. Soldiers killed the 2000 lb. beasts at an alarming rate. Dignitaries from around the globe attended world-class buffalo hunts with the U.S. army. Additionally, troops shot Buffalo for target practice, killing massive numbers in a day.

One Captain of the Seventh Cavalry, General George Custer's men, wrote to his wife that his column, while marching against the Cheyenne south of Arkansas, "had killed 'not less than 75 buffaloes yesterday, and last evening there was a feast on fat buffalo humps, tongues, and marrow bones!'" Another account from General John Pope (1870) relates that he asked his West Point friend, Lieutenant Colonel Richard I. Dodge, in command at Fort Dodge, for twelve dozen (144) buffalo tongue (weighing 2 lbs. each). Dodge sent his marksman to hunt down the Buffalo on the Kansas plains. Within three days, a wagon with more than General Pope had ordered arrived.

The slaughter of the Native American's most sacred animal continued at a relentless pace. Hunters from the East Coast purchased tickets to hunt from their train windows as they traveled across the nation. Hundreds of thousands of Buffalo carcasses littered the plains. Hides sold for $3.50 apiece; fur traders took only the robes as the meat was too costly to transport. "A couple of years before, it was nothing to see 5,000, 10,000 buff in a day's ride. Now, if I saw 50, I was lucky. Presently, all I saw was rotting red carcasses or bleaching white bones. We had killed the golden goose," remarked Frank H. Mayer, a buffalo hunter from the 1870s-1880s.
The photo above, taken in 1870, depicts a pile of bison skulls waiting to be ground up and made into fertilizer.
The destruction of the Buffalo proved devastating

Indeed, the "golden goose" was gone-in a fifty-five-year period, 1830-1885, soldiers, hunters, and settlers killed more than 40 million Buffalo. The U.S. Congress passed legislation in 1875, but then-President Grant refused to sign. By 1884, there were no buffalo left in the Black Hills, home of Wind Cave, which according to the Lakota origin story, is the birthplace of the first humans and the first Buffalo.

By 1900, only a few wild Buffalo remained in Yellowstone, Montana-less than 500. At this point, Congress finally took action to outlaw the killing of birds and animals within Yellowstone National Park. The destruction of the Buffalo nearly destroyed the Native people as well. In an Annual Report of the General of the U.S. Army in 1878, General Sheridan acknowledged, "We took away their country and their means of support, broke up their mode of living, their habits of life, introduced disease and decay among them, and it was for this, and against this they made war. Could anyone expect less? Then, why wonder at Indian difficulties?"

Today, 500,000 Buffalo live in the U.S., and effort to reunite tribes with their four-legged relative are strong. The Buffalo no longer remains on the endangered list. In 2016, the American Bison became the National Mammal of the U.S.-its resilience "represents a true comeback story, embedded with history, culture, and conservation."
Learn more about the Buffalo and its importance to Native Americans. Native Hope recognizes the importance for cultural revitalization and preservation.
Join us in our effort to share the Untold Story of Native America.

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How the destruction of the Buffalo (tatanka) impacted Native Americans

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The destruction of the Buffalo meant the United States government could manage the "Indian problem."

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How to make Paint from natural pigments!

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How to make Paint from natural pigments!

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Before Colonization, how did Native American tribes make paint? Natural pigments and minerals of course! This site gives wonderful information into what natural pigment each color was made from. Maybe this could be a fun lesson in students making their own paint for their art!

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Native American painting traditions predate the arrival of European explorers, with different colors holding symbolic meanings. The paints were made from natural pigments, including minerals and plant material, mixed with a fish-egg binder. While some of the materials used then to make specific colors such as lapis lazuli, might be a little pricey today, you can still make many of the natural paints using the yolk of a hen's egg.

Prepare your paints by mixing finely ground or crushed pigments from plants, minerals and other sources with a beaten egg yolk binder. You can also mix your pigments with melted animal fat, linseed oil or milk as binders. Mix a little water to get the consistency you want for your project.For some pigments, such as dirt or clay, you can use water alone. if you prefer.

Brown Paints

The simplest brown paint comes from mixing ordinary dirt with water and brushing it onto the project surface. You can also get a red-tinted brown paint by scraping rust from a metal surface and mixing it with the binder.

Red paints come primarily from iron-rich clays or berries. Native Americans also used certain types of beetles to create these paint colors. Recycle broken terracotta garden pots by crushing them into a fine powder and mixing them with your binder. For deeper colors, you can mash the berries and heat them slightly to release more of the colorful juice.

White Paints

Limestone, gypsum or white kaolin clay produce white paint when ground finely and blended with a binder. Eggshells and sea shells are also good sources for whites, along with white chalk.

Black Paints

Soot or charcoal make excellent paint when combined with an egg yolk or other binder. Like the other pigment sources, they need to be ground finely so that the paint mixes smoothly.

Blue Paints

Native Americans used powdered azurite or lapis lazuli to make blue hues. Because those minerals were not easy to come by, they were used sparingly. Substitute blueberry juice and white vinegar, sunflower seeds or blue-hued flowers for less precious and costly options.

Green Paints

Although green is a prevalent color in nature, it is one of the most difficult to recreate in natural paints. Most of them will be quite pale, but you can still make them from moss and algae.

Yellow Paints

The gall bladder and other internal organs of the buffalo were the most common source of yellow paint for the Native Americans, but you can make yours from the skins of yellow onions or from flowers, moss and other yellow plants.

Tip

As long as you can make red, blue and yellow -- along with black and white -- you can mix these to make all the colors found on the artist's color wheel including neutrals and browns.

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How to Make Natural Paints Like the Native Americans | ehow.com

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Turn history lessons into arts and crafts when you make your own natural paints for project, just like the Native Americans did.

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Learn more about Petroglyphs that are located in the Wind Rivers.

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Ancient Visions: Petroglyphs and Pictographs of the Wind River and Bighorn Country, Wyoming and Montana

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Ancient Visions: Petroglyphs and Pictographs of the Wind River and Bighorn Country, Wyoming and Montana [Francis, Julie, Loendorf, Lawrence L] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Ancient Visions: Petroglyphs and Pictographs of the Wind River and Bighorn Country, Wyoming and Montana

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*** See if your school is nearby any of these well-known Petroglyphic locations in the state of Wyoming. Field Trip Ideas?

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Located in the Red Desert which is north of Rock Springs! Click on link to learn more!

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The site is located approximately26 miles northeast of Rock Springs, Wyo. From Rock Springs, take U.S. Highway 191 north for 10.5 miles and turn right on Tri-Territory Road (County Road 4-17), a dirt road that turns left-north-after about one mile. Continue another 10 miles north and turn left-east-at the White Mountain Petroglyphs sign, and follow that road for about two more miles. From the parking lot it is a quarter-mile walk to the site.

The site is open year-round for viewing during daylight hours as weather permits. There is no admission fee and only limited accessibility. The Bureau of Land Management recommends travelers visit the site in a vehicle with high clearance during good weather. Because the site is without facilities, visitors should bring plenty of food and water and travel with a full tank of gas. Another interesting structure, the Boar's Tusk volcanic formation, is visible on the horizon about five miles northeast of the Petroglyphs site. The rock art should not be touched, and artifacts should not be removed from this site.

For more information, contact the BLM's Rock Springs Field Office at (307) 352-0256.

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The White Mountain Petroglyphs in the Red Desert north of Rock Springs, Wyo., feature hundreds of images carved into a rock face between 1,000 and 200 years ago. The site is on Bureau of Land Management land, and is open to the public.

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Located in the Wind River Area!
Outside of Riverton, WY! Click on link to learn more!

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Near Hot Springs State Park! Outside of Thermopolis, WY! Click on link to learn more!

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Learn more about Legend Rock Petroglyph Historic Site, a partner of Travel Wyoming. You can find more information about Wyoming vacations in our free travel guide on the site.

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Located in the Big Horn Mountains! Near Hyattville, WY. Click on link to learn more!

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Medicine Lodge State Archaeological Site is located approximately six miles northeast of Hyattville, Wyo. From Worland, take U.S. Highway 16/20 north to state Route 31 and head east toward Hyattville. Turn onto Cold Springs Road and follow the signs to Medicine Lodge State Archaeological Site.

Most site grounds are open 24 hours per day year-round, weather permitting. The visitor center is open May 1 through Sept. 29. Additional facilities include camping and picnic areas, corrals, playgrounds, restrooms, telephone, trails, fishing pier and viewing areas. Drinking water is available. The restrooms and drinking fountains are closed during winter months, from Nov. 6 through April 30. Visitors with disabilities may use a motorized vehicle on designated trails to access the site. All other visitors must walk 1.5 miles on a gravel road from the parking area to the site.

For information on camping fees and guided bus tours Contact the Medicine Lodge Office at (307) 469-2234.

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Medicine Lodge State Archaeological Site, northeast of Hyattville, contains pictographs and petroglyphs left by Wyoming's ancient people, as well as an attractive, state-run campsite and small museum. Archaeologists have found evidence at the site of human habitation stretching back 10,000 years.