Native American Art

Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas It encompasses the visual artistic traditions of the indigenous peoples of the Americas from ancient times to the present. These include works from South America, Mesoamerica, North America including Greenland, as well as Siberian Yup'ik peoples who have great cultural overlap with Native Alaskan Yup'iks.

In North America, the Lithic stage or period is defined as approximately 18,000–8000 BCE. The period from around 8000–800 BCE is generally referred to as the Archaic period. The production of stone engraving, and pictographic cave paintings are some of the art that remains from this time period.

Archaic abstract curvilinear style petroglyphs, Coso Rock Art District, California

A petroglyph of a caravan of bighorn sheep near Moab, Utah, USA; a common theme in glyphs from the southwestern desert

The geo- cultural areas of Native North Americans

The Yupik of Alaska have a long tradition of carving masks for use in shamanic rituals. Indigenous peoples of the Canadian arctic have produced objects that could be classified as art since the time of the Dorset culture.

While the walrus ivory carvings of the Dorset were primarily shamanic, the art of the Thule people who replaced them ca CE was more decorative in character. With European contact the historic period of Inuit art began

Yupik fish mask Wood Most probably used by Shamans

Giant destroying an igloo Leather sculpture Inuit culture

Most probably a ritual equipment from Greenland

The art of the Haida, Tlingit, Tsimshian and other smaller tribes living in the coastal areas of Washington State, Oregon, and British Columbia, is characterized by an extremely complex stylistic vocabulary expressed mainly in the medium of woodcarving. Famous examples include Totem poles, masks, and canoes

Haida totem pole, Thunderbird Park, British Columbia

Tsimshian halait mask depicting a mosquito, British Columbia, Louvre, Paris

Helmet and collar, wood, copper, leather and shell, 18th century, Tlingit. Museo de América, Madrid, Spain.

A totem pole in Ketchikan, Alaska, in the Tlingit style.

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

Hopewell mounds from the Mound City Group in Ohio

Copper falcon from the Mound City Group site of the Hopewell culture

Effigy head pot, Nodena Site (Mississippian culture)

In the Southwestern United States numerous pictographs and petroglyphs were created. The Fremont culture and Ancient Pueblo Peoples and later tribes' creations, are represented in Dinosaur National Monument and at Newspaper Rock.

Basket, Basketmaker Culture, Ancestral Pueblo

a Sinagua cliff dwelling in Arizona,

Navajo Sandpainting