Plains hide painting
Encyclopedia
Plains hide painting is a traditional Plains Indian artistic practice of painting on either tanned or raw animal hides. Tipi
s, tipi liners, shields, parfleche
s, robes, clothing, drums, and winter counts could all be painted.
and later quillwork
and beadwork
.
was important and designs were discussed by women in terms of their negative space. Dots are used to break up large areas.
Buffalo robes and parfleches were frequently painted with geometrical patterns. Parfleches are rawhide envelopes for carrying and storing goods, including food. Their painted designs are thought to be stylized maps, featuring highly abstract geographic features such as rivers or mountains.
The "Feathered Sun" is a reoccurring motif of stylized feathers in several concentric circles. It visually connects a feather warbonnet
to the sun.
buffalo hide features the protagonist no fewer than eight times.
Painted hides also commemorate historical events, such as treaty signings.
After 1850, hide painting grew in complexity with finer lines and additional details added. Introduced technologies influenced hide painting, and a 19th century Omaha
tipi featured steamboats.
that defined the entire year. Prior to using the Gregorian calendar
, Lakota people counted years from first snow to first snow. Kiowas were unique in choosing two images per year– one for the winter and one representing the summer Sun Dance.
Before the late 19th century when buffalo became scarce, winter counts were painted in buffalo hides. The annual pictograms could be arranged in a linear, spiral, or serpentine pattern.
covers for circular rawhide hide shields, in particular, are inspired by men's visions and can include paintings of humans, animals, or spirit beings, reflecting the owner's personal powers and providing protection. Designs could be obtained from the warriors who received the visions or from medicine men. Cheyenne
men who received visions were allowed to make four shields with the design. Among the Kiowa
and Kiowa-Apache about 50 possible shield designs existed.
Tipi
s could be painted with visionary designs. The design and related power belonged to the tipi-owner, which could be transferred by inheritance, marriage, or, among some tribes such as the Blackfeet
, sale.
Followers of the Ghost dance
religion painted visionary designs on their clothing. Arapaho
and Lakota ghost dance shirts were painted with crows, magpies, turtles, and cedar trees.
soles are rawhide for toughness.
In the past, Plains artists used a bone or wood stylus
to paint with natural mineral and vegetable pigments. Sections of buffalo rib could be ground to expose the marrow, which was absorbent and worked like a contemporary ink marker. Swelling cottonwood buds provided brown pigment. Lakota artists used to burn yellow clay to produce ceremonial red paint. Lakotas associated blue pigments with women.
In earlier times, all members of a tribe might paint but highly-skilled individuals might be commissioned by others to create artwork. Before the 20th century, when a Kiowa man needed to repaint his lodge, he would invite 20-30 friends to paint the entire tipi in a single day. He would then treat them all to a feast.
. Contemporary Plains beadwork and jewelry used designs from hide painting.
Tipi
A tipi is a Lakota name for a conical tent traditionally made of animal skins and wooden poles used by the nomadic tribes and sedentary tribal dwellers of the Great Plains...
s, tipi liners, shields, parfleche
Parfleche
A parfleche is a Native American rawhide bag, typically used for holding dried meats and pemmican.The word was originally used by French fur traders...
s, robes, clothing, drums, and winter counts could all be painted.
Genres
Art historian Joyce Szabo writes that Plains artists were concerned "with composition, balance, symmetry, and variety." Designs can be similar to those found in earlier rock artRock art
Rock art is a term used in archaeology for any human-made markings made on natural stone. They can be divided into:*Petroglyphs - carvings into stone surfaces*Pictographs - rock and cave paintings...
and later quillwork
Quillwork
Quillwork is a form of textile embellishment traditionally practiced by Native Americans that employs the quills of porcupines as a decorative element.-History:...
and beadwork
Beadwork
Beadwork is the art or craft of attaching beads to one another or to cloth, usually by the use of a needle and thread or soft, flexible wire. Most beadwork takes the form of jewelry or other personal adornment, but beads are also used in wall hangings and sculpture.Beadwork techniques are broadly...
.
Geometric painting
Plains women traditionally paint abstract, geometric designs. Bright colors were preferred and areas were filled with solid fields of color. Cross-hatching was a last resort used only when paint was scarce. Negative spaceNegative space
Negative space, in art, is the space around and between the subject of an image. Negative space may be most evident when the space around a subject, and not the subject itself, forms an interesting or artistically relevant shape, and such space is occasionally used to artistic effect as the "real"...
was important and designs were discussed by women in terms of their negative space. Dots are used to break up large areas.
Buffalo robes and parfleches were frequently painted with geometrical patterns. Parfleches are rawhide envelopes for carrying and storing goods, including food. Their painted designs are thought to be stylized maps, featuring highly abstract geographic features such as rivers or mountains.
The "Feathered Sun" is a reoccurring motif of stylized feathers in several concentric circles. It visually connects a feather warbonnet
War bonnet
Feathered war bonnets were worn by honored Plains Indian men, sometimes into battle, but most often for ceremonial occasions, and were seen as items of great spiritual and magical importance...
to the sun.
Representational painting
Traditionally, men painted representational art. They painted living things. Plains Indian male artists use a system of pictographic signs, characterized by two-dimensionality, readily recognizable by other members of their tribe. This picture writing could be used for anything from directions and maps to love letters. Images were streamlined and backgrounds were minimal for clarity. Representational painting typically fell into two categories: heraldic accounts or calendars.Heraldic painting
Men recorded their battle and hunting exploits on hide tipi liners, robes, and even shirts. Figures were scattered across the hide and semi-transparent images sometimes overlapped each other. Narrative hides were often read right to left, with the protagonist emerging from the right. Allies are on the right with enemies on the left. Men and horses were commonly painted, and other popular motifs included footprints, hoofprints, name glyphs, bullets, and arrows. An 1868 BlackfootBlackfoot
The Blackfoot Confederacy or Niitsítapi is the collective name of three First Nations in Alberta and one Native American tribe in Montana....
buffalo hide features the protagonist no fewer than eight times.
Painted hides also commemorate historical events, such as treaty signings.
After 1850, hide painting grew in complexity with finer lines and additional details added. Introduced technologies influenced hide painting, and a 19th century Omaha
Omaha (tribe)
The Omaha are a federally recognized Native American nation which lives on the Omaha Reservation in northeastern Nebraska and western Iowa, United States...
tipi featured steamboats.
Calendars
Traditional Plains calendars are called winter counts because among most Plains tribes they feature a single pictogramPictogram
A pictograph, also called pictogram or pictogramme is an ideogram that conveys its meaning through its pictorial resemblance to a physical object. Pictographs are often used in writing and graphic systems in which the characters are to considerable extent pictorial in appearance.Pictography is a...
that defined the entire year. Prior to using the Gregorian calendar
Gregorian calendar
The Gregorian calendar, also known as the Western calendar, or Christian calendar, is the internationally accepted civil calendar. It was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, by a decree signed on 24 February 1582, a papal bull known by its opening words Inter...
, Lakota people counted years from first snow to first snow. Kiowas were unique in choosing two images per year– one for the winter and one representing the summer Sun Dance.
Before the late 19th century when buffalo became scarce, winter counts were painted in buffalo hides. The annual pictograms could be arranged in a linear, spiral, or serpentine pattern.
Visionary painting
Visions and dreams could inspire designs. BuckskinBuckskin (leather)
Buckskin is the soft, pliable, porous preserved hide of an animal, usually deer, moose or elk or even cowhide tanned to order, but potentially any animal's hide,. Modern leather labeled "buckskin" may be made of sheepskin tanned with modern chromate tanning chemicals and dyed to resemble real...
covers for circular rawhide hide shields, in particular, are inspired by men's visions and can include paintings of humans, animals, or spirit beings, reflecting the owner's personal powers and providing protection. Designs could be obtained from the warriors who received the visions or from medicine men. Cheyenne
Cheyenne
Cheyenne are a Native American people of the Great Plains, who are of the Algonquian language family. The Cheyenne Nation is composed of two united tribes, the Só'taeo'o and the Tsétsêhéstâhese .The Cheyenne are thought to have branched off other tribes of Algonquian stock inhabiting lands...
men who received visions were allowed to make four shields with the design. Among the Kiowa
Kiowa
The Kiowa are a nation of American Indians and indigenous people of the Great Plains. They migrated from the northern plains to the southern plains in the late 17th century. In 1867, the Kiowa moved to a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma...
and Kiowa-Apache about 50 possible shield designs existed.
Tipi
Tipi
A tipi is a Lakota name for a conical tent traditionally made of animal skins and wooden poles used by the nomadic tribes and sedentary tribal dwellers of the Great Plains...
s could be painted with visionary designs. The design and related power belonged to the tipi-owner, which could be transferred by inheritance, marriage, or, among some tribes such as the Blackfeet
Blackfeet
The Piegan Blackfeet are a tribe of Native Americans of the Algonquian language family based in Montana, having lived in this area since around 6,500 BC. Many members of the tribe live as part of the Blackfeet Nation in northwestern Montana, with population centered in Browning...
, sale.
Followers of the Ghost dance
Ghost Dance
The Ghost Dance was a new religious movement which was incorporated into numerous Native American belief systems. The traditional ritual used in the Ghost Dance, the circle dance, has been used by many Native Americans since prehistoric times...
religion painted visionary designs on their clothing. Arapaho
Arapaho
The Arapaho are a tribe of Native Americans historically living on the eastern plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Sioux. Arapaho is an Algonquian language closely related to Gros Ventre, whose people are seen as an early...
and Lakota ghost dance shirts were painted with crows, magpies, turtles, and cedar trees.
Process and materials
Buffalo hides, as well as deer, elk, and other animal hides, are painted. Clothing and robes are often brain-tanned to be soft and supple. Parfleches, shields, and moccasinMoccasin
A Moccasin is a form of shoe worn by Native Americans, as well as by hunters, traders, and settlers in the frontier regions of North America.Moccasin may also refer to:* Moccasin , an American Thoroughbred racehorse-Places:...
soles are rawhide for toughness.
In the past, Plains artists used a bone or wood stylus
Stylus
A stylus is a writing utensil, or a small tool for some other form of marking or shaping, for example in pottery. The word is also used for a computer accessory . It usually refers to a narrow elongated staff, similar to a modern ballpoint pen. Many styli are heavily curved to be held more easily...
to paint with natural mineral and vegetable pigments. Sections of buffalo rib could be ground to expose the marrow, which was absorbent and worked like a contemporary ink marker. Swelling cottonwood buds provided brown pigment. Lakota artists used to burn yellow clay to produce ceremonial red paint. Lakotas associated blue pigments with women.
In earlier times, all members of a tribe might paint but highly-skilled individuals might be commissioned by others to create artwork. Before the 20th century, when a Kiowa man needed to repaint his lodge, he would invite 20-30 friends to paint the entire tipi in a single day. He would then treat them all to a feast.
Related art forms
Many tribes throughout North America, besides those on the Plains, also painted hides, following different aesthetic traditions. Subarctic tribes are known for their painted caribou hides. On the Plains, when buffalo herds were being slaughtered in the late 19th century, other painting surfaces became available, such as muslin, paper, and canvas, giving birth to Ledger artLedger Art
Ledger Art is a term for Plains Indian narrative drawing or painting on paper or cloth. Ledger art was primarily from the 1860s to about 1900, although some of the old style drawing continues to the 1930s. There is also a contemporary group of accomplished Native American artists who work in the...
. Contemporary Plains beadwork and jewelry used designs from hide painting.
Notable Plains hide painters
- Kicking BearKicking BearKicking Bear , also called Matȟó Wanáȟtake, was an Oglala Lakota who became a band chief of the Minneconjou Lakota Sioux. He fought in several battles during the War for the Black Hills, including the Battle of Little Big Horn...
, Oglala LakotaOglala LakotaThe Oglala Lakota or Oglala Sioux are one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people; along with the Nakota and Dakota, they make up the Great Sioux Nation. A majority of the Oglala live on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, the eighth-largest Native American reservation in the... - NaicheNaicheChief Naiche was the final hereditary chief of the Chiricahua band of Apache Indians.-Background:Naiche name, which in English means "meddlesome one" or "mischief maker", is alternately spelled Nache, Nachi, or Natchez. He was the youngest son of Cochise and was named after his grandmother...
, ChiricahuaChiricahuaChiricahua are a group of Apache Native Americans who live in the Southwest United States. At the time of European encounter, they were living in 15 million acres of territory in southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona in the United States, and in northern Sonora and Chihuahua in Mexico...
Plains ApachePlains ApacheThe Plains Apache are a Southern Athabaskan group that traditionally live on the Southern Plains of North America and today are centered in Southwestern Oklahoma... - Silver HornSilver HornSilver Horn or Haungooah was a Kiowa Ledger Artist from Oklahoma.-Background:Silver Horn was born circa 1860 and was a member of the Kiowa Indian Tribe of Oklahoma. His Kiowa name, Haungooah, refers to sunlight reflecting off a buffalo horn, making it gleam like a polished, white metal...
, KiowaKiowaThe Kiowa are a nation of American Indians and indigenous people of the Great Plains. They migrated from the northern plains to the southern plains in the late 17th century. In 1867, the Kiowa moved to a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma... - Tohausen, KiowaKiowaThe Kiowa are a nation of American Indians and indigenous people of the Great Plains. They migrated from the northern plains to the southern plains in the late 17th century. In 1867, the Kiowa moved to a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma...
External links
- Plains Art, Glenbow Museum
- Tracking the Buffalo: Stories from a Buffalo Hide Painting, National Museum of American History (for children)