The Navajo Are Centrally Located In The Southwestern United

Native American culture was a great influence on newly introduced western art when settlers first came to North America. Not only did Native Americans have their own style of art, sculpture, basket weaving, and other fine arts. Their artistic styles helped influence some European art and gave them a different outlook on not only art itself, but a brand new culture that they have not seen before. This paper will talk about the different styles of Native American art and compare it to European art styles and artist, as well as going into detail about how their culture influenced artistic styles.

In warm climates men were mostly naked, but the women wore simple knee-length skirts and blouses. In the colder climates they would wear warm trousers and hooded anoraks. They would mostly wear animal skin from the animals they hunted or raised. The Navajo Indians would also wear paintings on their body, or permanent makings of a tattoo. The art on ones body would signify a persons age, social or material status, or for men, their level of skill as a warrior. The Navajo Indians would also wear many jewelry pieces. The Navajo Indians did not use silver jewelry until around 1870. The increase of silver jewelry among the Navajo’s at the time reflected the adaptation of these peoples to life as herds and silversmiths on the newly established reservations.

Native Americans are the indigenous people of the North American continent and the cultural traditions and art forms are unique to these regional groups. The people in these groups have several names and the first adopted name Indian by Spanish explorers proved erroneous, however, now accepted names include either American Indian or Native American. I will refer to these groups as Native Americans or by their tribal affiliation. There are diverse tribal groups original to North America who lived on the Great Plains, in the Woodlands, on the Northwest coast, and in the Southeast or the Southwest regions. Various Native American tribes created art forms such as the Apache, Cherokee, Pueblo, and Hopi communities. In my research, I found that the Navajo also contributed in many ways to Native American art through making jewelry, beading, drawing, painting, sculpting, carving, and weaving. These art works provided their tribe notoriety with countless “years of experience through their creativity and sense of design”, lending to an “astonishing volume and variety of artwork which has created a lasting legacy”, per NativeAmerican-Art.com (2010). Understandably, art comes in various forms and from various cultures, but the Native American Navajo tribe contributed vastly and merits mention for its beautiful contributions. Therefore, I

The Creek Indian Tribe created art by using items they found in nature. They used it to tell a story or represent history. Each item that was made had a purpose and was put to use. Many of the items were created just before the Green Corn Festival.

According to the history of the Navajo Tribe, the Holy People lived in the underworld and helped by guiding the First Man and First Woman to earth (McCoy 1988). The Holy People are said to be attracted to songs, dances, and chants during the ceremony along with the creation of Sandpainting. The Sandpainting is used in the healing process of the ceremony to draw a picture that tells a story of the Holy People. The Navajo culture have amazed so many people to how beautifully constructed the rituals are performed.

The Southwest Native American and their culture is very unique.There art contained their symbols and signs to show what they believe in.This is important because it is a big part of their daily life and practices.They had dolls that represented the Kachina spirits.This is important because this is an important part of their culture and history.In our exhibit the little girl is holding one.They wore turquoise jewelry because it promotes wealth,happiness and fortune.In our exhibit the people are wearing the jewelry.The South West native american culture is very unique because they used dolls to represent spirits.

Every culture has their own way of life, their own religious beliefs, their own marriage beliefs, their own values and feelings on life and the options it has to offer. Each culture has their own way to run things within their own government, and own way to keep their economy up to their standards. Also each culture and society have their own primary mode of subsistence that makes them unique. Among the Navajo culture their primary mode of subsistence are pastoralists.   Pastoralists have an impact on different aspects with in the culture.   The aspects that I will be discussing will be the Navajo’s beliefs and values, economic organization, gender relations and sickness and healing.

“Navajo trading has been a crucial component of that tribe's localized economy for generations and has been the subject of much scholarship over the years (Kiser, 2012).” Trading is what has really distinguished the Navajo from other cultures. They traded with the Spanish at first and then on to other tribes. They were first introduced to a horse from being able to establish trade with the Spanish in the 1620’s. Many other native cultures went

Ojibway Indian men usually wore breechcloths and leggings. The women wore dresses and kept their hair in neat braids. Their shoes were called moccasins. They were made out of deer or moose hide. Customarily, they wore leather headbands with feathers in the back. The Ojibway Indians made pictures, belts, purses, and other objects out of beads. They loved to use wampum beads in their artwork. Wampum beads are purple and white beads made from shells. The Ojibway Indians make beadart by sewing the beads onto leather so they can be placed individually or sewn into strips. They make the strips by stitching the beads into a string. This is usually done by hand or sometimes with a bowloom. Beadart takes years to master and is very time consuming for the Ojibway Indians. The Ojibway also made dream catchers out of sticks and feathers. They believed that the dream catchers would protect them from bad dreams.

The Navajo people believe that creation began in another world. Originally the Navajo began as insects on the first world. Due to continuous quarrelling the leaders of the realm force them

Chester is confused when it comes to religion. After being taught his whole life about Navajo beliefs he is now being introduced to Christianity. This is very confusing for him because as is his begin presented with all this new information, for example the birth of jesus, the trinity, saints, and sacraments. While learning this he beings to question if a navajo belongs at a “white man’s church”. He questions this because of the differences between the two religions; christianity as chester says stands in awe over the creation of the world by god, whereas the navajo focuses on forming a relationship with nature. Because of this when the children are forced to choose between the two religions, they could not. (Nez & Avila, 2011).

Native American art is a profoundly expressive culture that has been a way of life for so many Native Americans. Native American art history has advanced over thousands of years and is composed of several idiosyncratic styles from the differentiating cultures of diverse Indian tribes. From Navajo to Hopi, each tribe has a particular history, which consists of many types of Native American arts including beadwork, jewelry, weaving, pottery, carvings, kachinas, masks, totem poles, and more. To truly understand Native American art, we will explore Native American art history, its subjects, and if Native American art has a spiritual connection to it.

The Navajo, also known as the Diné, are one of the largest Native American Tribes in the world. Their culture is made up of very distinct and unique characteristics that have been passed down from generation to generation. They have been taught to adapt to their surroundings and to the land. Each moral, standard, belief and value are what make the Navajo so unique to the Native Americans. In the following, their primary mode of subsistence, kinship system, beliefs, values, and economic organizations will be briefly examined to gain a better knowledge of the Navajo culture.

Once corn pollen is added, the holy people are present and then, the "repairing" begins with the relationship with the "life-giving forces." In the cosmos, the destruction of the sand painting symbolizes the dissolution of the tensions and imbalances in that made the individual an ailing person. At the end of this highly symbolic ritual, there is a healthy person or a "re-creation" of a well ordered world. Sand painting rituals is one example of Native American beauty in art and cosmology as a whole. Though sand paintings are considered art, the real beauty lies in the whole of its contents of healing and realigning the cosmos in an individual for order.

Navajo culture distinctively took hold in the four corners area of the Colorado Plateau around 100 A.D., although they are believed to have been around for centuries before then. Disliking the term “Navajo Indians”, they refer to themselves as the “Diné” which means “The People” or “Children of the Holy People”.