Plains hide painting is a traditional

Plains Indian Plains Indians or Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies are the Native American tribes and First Nation band governments who have historically lived on the Interior Plains (the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies) of ...

artistic practice of painting on either tanned or raw animal hides.

Tipi A tipi , often called a lodge in English, is a conical tent, historically made of animal hides or pelts, and in more recent generations of canvas, stretched on a framework of wooden poles. The word is Siouan languages, Siouan, and in use in Dakot ...

s, tipi liners, shields,

parfleche A parfleche is a Native American rawhide container that is embellished by painting, incising, or both. Envelope-shaped parfleches have historically been used to contain items such household tools or foods, such as dried meat or pemmican. They w ...

s, robes, clothing, drums, and

winter count Winter counts (Lakota: ''waníyetu wówapi'' or ''waníyetu iyáwapi'') are pictorial calendars or histories in which tribal records and events were recorded by Native Americans in North America. The Blackfeet, Mandan, Kiowa, Lakota, and other Pla ...

s could all be painted. Gilcrease - Parfleche

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 art In archaeology, rock art is human-made markings placed on natural surfaces, typically vertical stone surfaces. A high proportion of surviving historic and prehistoric rock art is found in caves or partly enclosed rock shelters; this type also ...

and later

quillwork Quillwork is a form of textile embellishment traditionally practiced by Indigenous peoples of North America that employs the quills of porcupines as an aesthetic element. Quills from bird feathers were also occasionally used in quillwork. Histor ...

and

beadwork Beadwork is the art or craft of attaching beads to one another by stringing them onto a thread or thin wire with a sewing or beading needle or sewing them to cloth. Beads are produced in a diverse range of materials, shapes, and sizes, and vary b ...

Geometric painting

Plains women traditionally paint abstract, geometric designs.Szabo, 5"More About Buffalo Hide Painting."
''National Museum of American History''. (retrieved 4 Feb 2010) 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 space Negative space, in art, is the empty space around and between the subject(s) of an image. Negative space may be most evident when the space around a subject, not the subject itself, forms an interesting or artistically relevant shape, and s ...

was important and designs were discussed by women in terms of their negative space. Dots are used to break up large areas.

Buffalo robe A buffalo robe is a cured buffalo hide, with the hair left on. They were used as blankets, saddles or as trade items by the Native Americans who inhabited the vast grasslands of the Interior Plains. Some were painted with pictographs or Winte ...

s 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.

Representational painting

Traditionally, men painted representational art.Szabo, 7 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 Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known branc ...

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 Blackfoot 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.Szabo, 12 Introduced technologies influenced hide painting, and a 19th-century Omaha tipi featured steamboats.

Calendars

Traditional Plains calendars are called

winter counts Winter counts (Lakota: ''waníyetu wówapi'' or ''waníyetu iyáwapi'') are pictorial calendars or histories in which tribal records and events were recorded by Native Americans in North America. The Blackfeet, Mandan, Kiowa, Lakota, and other Pla ...

because among most Plains tribes they feature a single

pictogram A pictogram, also called a pictogramme, pictograph, or simply picto, and in computer usage an icon, is a graphic symbol that conveys its meaning through its pictorial resemblance to a physical object. Pictographs are often used in writing and ...

that defined the entire year. Prior to using the

Gregorian calendar The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It was introduced in October 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years dif ...

Lakota Lakota may refer to: * Lakota people, a confederation of seven related Native American tribes *Lakota language, the language of the Lakota peoples Place names In the United States: * Lakota, Iowa * Lakota, North Dakota, seat of Nelson County * La ...

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.Szabo, 8

Visionary painting

Visions and dreams could inspire designs. Buckskin 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.Penney, 112 Designs could be obtained from the warriors who received the visions or from medicine men.

Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enroll ...

men who received visions were allowed to make four shields with the design. Among the

Kiowa Kiowa () people are a Native American tribe and an indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in the 17th and 18th centuries,Pritzker 326 and eve ...

and

Kiowa-Apache The Plains Apache are a small Southern Athabaskan group who live on the Southern Plains of North America, in close association with the linguistically unrelated Kiowa Tribe. Today, they are centered in Southwestern Oklahoma and Northern Texas and ...

about 50 possible shield designs existed.Szabo, 6

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 The Blackfeet Nation ( bla, Aamsskáápipikani, script=Latn, ), officially named the Blackfeet Tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation of Montana, is a federally recognized tribe of Siksikaitsitapi people with an Indian reservation in Mon ...

, sale. Followers of the Ghost dance religion painted visionary designs on their clothing.

Arapaho The Arapaho (; french: Arapahos, ) are a Native American people historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota. By the 1850s, Arapaho ba ...

and Lakota ghost dance shirts were painted with crows,

magpies Magpies are birds of the Corvidae family. Like other members of their family, they are widely considered to be intelligent creatures. The Eurasian magpie, for instance, is thought to rank among the world's most intelligent creatures, and is one ...

, 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

moccasin A moccasin is a shoe, made of deerskin or other soft leather, consisting of a sole (made with leather that has not been "worked") and sides made of one piece of leather, stitched together at the top, and sometimes with a vamp (additional panel o ...

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.

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 art Ledger art is a term for narrative drawing or painting on paper or cloth, predominantly practiced by Plains Indian, but also from the Plateau and Great Basin. Ledger art flourished primarily from the 1860s to the 1920s. A revival of ledger art b ...

. Contemporary Plains beadwork and jewelry used designs from hide painting.Dubin, 263

Gallery

Image:003 Knife River Village Buffalo Robe.jpg, Knife River Villages buffalo robe featuring the "Feathered Sun" motif, photo by Chris Light Image:Bags and pouches of Sioux.jpg, Sioux beaded and painted rawhide parfleches File:-Woman chopping firewood, Eagle tipi in foreground, Star tipi on left-. 815.jpg,

Siksika The Siksika Nation ( bla, Siksiká) is a First Nations in Canada, First Nation in southern Alberta, Canada. The name ''Siksiká'' comes from the Blackfoot language, Blackfoot words ''sik'' (black) and ''iká'' (foot), with a connector ''s'' bet ...

tipis in

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...

, photo by Walter McClintock. File:Blackfeet War Tipi. 869.jpg, Siksika war tipi, Montana, by McClintock File:Rainbow Tipi of Head Carrier. 845.jpg, Siksika rainbow tipi, Montana, by McClintock File:Drums for sale at the National Museum of the American Indian.jpg, Contemporary painted rawhide hand drums,

National Museum of the American Indian The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum in the United States devoted to the culture of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. It is part of the Smithsonian Institution group of museums and research centers. The museum has three ...

Notable Plains hide painters

Kicking Bear Kicking Bear ( lkt, Matȟó Wanáȟtaka, March 18, 1845 – May 28, 1904) was an Oglala Lakota who became a band chief of the Miniconjou Lakota Sioux. He fought in several battles with his brother, Flying Hawk, and first cousin, Crazy Horse, dur ...

, Oglala Lakota *

Naiche Chief Naiche ( ; –1919) was the final hereditary chief of the Chiricahua band of Apache Indians.Johansen, Bruce E"Naiche (ca. 1857–1919)." ''Oklahoma Historical Society's Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture.'' (retrieved 25 Sept 2011 ...

, Chiricahua Plains Apache *

Silver Horn Silver Horn or Haungooah (1860–1940) was a Kiowa ledger artist from Oklahoma. Background Silver Horn was born circa 1860 to Agiati (Gathering Feathers) and Sa-Poodle (Traveling in the Rain) and was a member of the Kiowa Indian tribe of Oklah ...

Tohausen Dohäsan, Dohosan, Tauhawsin, Tohausen, or Touhason (late 1780s to early 1790s – 1866) was a prominent Native American. He was War Chief of the Kata or Arikara band of the Kiowa Indians, and then Principal Chief of the entire Kiowa Tribe, ...

Notes

References

*Dubin, Lois Sherr. ''North American Indian Jewelry and Adornment: From Prehistory to the Present''. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1999. . *Penney, David W. ''North American Indian Art''. London: Thames & Hudson, 2004. . *Szabo, Joyce M. ''Howling Wolf and the History of Ledger Art''. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1984. .

External links

Plains Art
Glenbow Museum
Tracking the Buffalo: Stories from a Buffalo Hide Painting
National Museum of American History (for children)
Native paths: American Indian art from the collection of Charles and Valerie Diker
an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Plains hide painting {{DEFAULTSORT:Plains Hide Painting American art movements Bison Indigenous culture of the Great Plains Indigenous painting of the Americas Indigenous art in Canada Hide