Introduction
"Indian Art" is recognized for its creativity and context. Their craftsmanship - the process art making - is prized as much as the product itself. We recognize that American Indian art objects serve as integral parts of religious rituals, as identity markers, and provide bonds between their makers and the natural and supernatural worlds. Complications arise when there is no clear separation between "authentic" and "influenced" Indian art since Native Americans, like other artists, used foreign techniques, materials and subject matter and participated in direct trade.

If there is one common belief, it is the emotional power of Indian art. The character of Indian objects is emphasized by the range of regions, cultures and styles represented, from prehistoric to modern, from nature to fantasy, from ceramics to wood, and from bone and ivory to textiles. The differences make us realize how an object affects us as human beings and believe in a human bond and the power of art to bridge cultural distances.

Cultural Areas
Indian culture areas are defined by geographic regions where art and artifacts reflect particular communities and a certain way of life. Before 1492, when their cultures were altered by the white man, Native Americans were comprised of many similar groups that included a large number of nations and groups with distinct differences: Eastern Woodlands, Northwest Coastal, Plains, Inuit, and Southwest.

The art of these varied people had several features in common. It was deeply traditional and important to family and community well being. Most objects were made to show man's relationship with supernatural beings. Objects were usually made from local materials; for example, the peoples of the heavily wooded northern regions relied on wood and those of the arid southwest on clay.

Later, it was the European presence that changed the American Indian world. Being driven from their land and relocated, with increased closeness to other groups led to exchanges of forms and ideas. The addition of new objects, materials, and techniques, such as metal tools, glass beads, and dyes altered the color and shape of the native art. From the late 18th to the early 20th century, traditional designs and refined colors became bold with an added flair.

Eastern Woodlands
With no sharp boundaries, this culture existed from the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes to the Carolinas and Ohio River drainage and westward to the Mississippi. The Indian Groups in the Northeast spoke principally Algonquian, Iroquoian and Siouan. At the northern border, hunters shared some traits with the neighboring Inuit. In the west, they had some characteristics in common with the Plains peoples and in the south there were similarities with those groups in the Southeastern United States, whose homelands extended to the lower Mississippi Valley and from Tennessee to the Gulf of Mexico. It is of particular interest to note that Pennsylvania has been inhabited from 10,000 B.C.

Plains
The Plains Indians, living across the American grasslands from the Mississippi River to the Rockies and from the Saskatchewan River Basin to Texas, were what many people commonly thought of as the American Indian. Long before the advent of the white man, these people lived in semi-permanent villages where hunting was part of their agricultural economy. But the Plains were the scene of the "horse Indians,” and the last major conflicts between Indians and non-Indians, which resulted in a conquered, but proud, people being confined to live on reservations.

Southwest
Navajo, Pueblo, Hopi and Zuni are some of the Indians of the Southwest with the most commonly known names. They are part of a cultural area that includes Arizona, most of New Mexico, southeastern Utah, southwestern Colorado and parts of Nevada, California and western Texas. Today, the Athapaskan Navajos with over 100,000 people, are our nation's largest group.

Northwest Coastal
Inhabiting a rather narrow coastal area from Prince William Sound in Alaska to Northern California are a number of groups that include the Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, and Kwakiutl, to mention only a few. Without agriculture and pottery (normally the basis for advanced culture) the northwest coast people built their society on the resources of the ocean and forests, which surrounded them as they adopted a settled village life.

Inuit
The Indians of the far north and sub arctic were historically referred to as Eskimo and Aleuts. They are quite different from all the other Indians in North America in terms of their language and appearance, but like other Indians, their ancestors were immigrants from Asia. Their area ranges from Greenland, across Canada and Alaska to the Aleutian Islands and into Siberia. It included the desolate lands by the Arctic Ocean - perhaps the harshest natural environment on earth.

Please note, paintings, objects and artists represented on the website may not be on view at all times.

Ronald C. Roth Director & CEO