What is American Indian Art and Who am I to talk about it?

As a reader, coming across this blog, you may be asking yourself what American Indian art is or maybe what an American Indian is.    American Indian is synonymous to Native American or a person indigenous to North America.  Many scholars associate power with labels and names and here I choose to call Native Americans "American Indians," which is the name I like to identify with.  Like other cultures have done in the past, Native Americans have reclaimed terms and appropriated them for their own use.  For example, "Indian" is a term that has been reclaimed by many Native American groups and used for their intended purposes.  I use "American" to signify the location of origin of this particular "Indian".  So in using  the term American Indian, I have reclaimed Columbus' mistake when he thought he reached the Indies, when he had thought he "discovered" a new continent.  Much of the specification of name appropriation is to make an effort to further distinguish indigenous groups from specific areas in North America.  I also choose to use American Indian because I have met some Americans who although have resided in America for various generations, misuse the term Native American because they were not originally native to this country.  Although it is indisputable that people who are born in America are considered American, the term Native American would be inappropriately used because they did not originate from America.  Furthermore, "America" is a country that is only 235 years old, whereas Native American tribes date back thousands of years.  


Other terms commonly used and that may be referred to in these series of blogs are:

• Native-- meaning indigenous to America and also appropriates social and legal identities within America
• Indigenous--describing that America is the origins of Native tribes in this country
• Indigenous Nations-- a synonymous with tribe but with more governmental appropriation and sovereignty
• First Nations-- typically describing Native Tribes from Canada
• Specific tribal names will be employed through the blog as well.  Some of you may be familiar with "popular" tribes like Cherokee, Navajo, Apache, and Sioux.  While these are popular tribes in the American imagination it is important to realize there are approximately 530 federally recognized tribes that are rarely, if at all, mentioned in popular American culture and history. 
• Terms you may have heard that are offensive to many Natives, and you should avoid using are: Squaw, Redskin, Tonto, and Chief. 

The following is an example of a name appropriation which has changed for a Native tribe:  Eskimo--named by an anthropologist and other rival tribes is typically viewed as a pejorative term by tribal members, who now prefer to be called Inuit or Yupik, which is more tribally representative and, thus, more culturally specific.  When one is able to, it is important to describe Natives by their respective tribal names.  If you see a tribal name that you do not recognize, I encourage you to "google it" and learn where in particular a nation is located because North America is a big land mass comprised of various different tribal nations.

Taos Pueblo

As a Native person from Taos and Santa Ana Pueblos, located in New Mexico, I hope to bring more awareness and discussion to what American Indian art is: an integral part of culture, not a separate entity.  I hope to blend everyday life from many tribes into what we as Americans consider art and to trace Native American art's history ending with what art is for Native tribes today.  I call myself an "urban Indian" describing that I am Indian and grew up in an urban setting, but still have family on various reservations that I visit frequently in addition to participating in traditional lifestyles.  I also have Spanish and Italian ancestors who came to the Southwest region of North America before other Europeans as part of the Spanish conquest and the homestead act, respectively.  While I am multiracial, culturally I identify more with my Native side, as that is what I have grown up learning.


I was inspired to make my topic about American Indians because I feel wider society has very minimal knowledge of the first peoples of this land.  Hopefully, I need not remind you all Indigenous cultures have long histories before the pan "Native American" was formed.  There is much of Indian culture that is appropriated in society today and I think it is important for people to know where the origins of this art comes from.  Here is an interesting clip on American Indians and First Nations peoples and their art.

Where does "Modern" fit in to this you may ask?  The sign at the Denver Art Museum says, "The term modern in its simplest form implies the up-to-date, a current development, or, better still, a spirit in step with its own time."  The sign goes on to say, "Ranging for the utilization of large-scale factory production to maintaining longstanding craft values and traditions, as well as to developing a synthesis between the two, design encompasses a variety of methods, materials and concepts. And while these works may be of different generations, together they represent the past, present and future of what is modern."  Keeping this definition of modern in mind and applying that to American Indian art, the following blogs will begin to dissect the long history of American Indians and the art they have produced and continue to produce.  It is important to remember that the Civil Rights Movement happened less than 50 years ago and what is now considered contemporary Indian art is what has been produced after that time.


Because American Indian history is so vast, I myself am still learning on a daily basis about other tribes histories but if there are general questions you wish to ask please ask them and I will do my best to address them.