Plains Indian art

About this book

This vividly illustrated collection of John Canfield Ewers's writings presents studies first published in American Indian Art Magazine and other periodicals between 1968 and 1992. Tracing the history of the pictorial art of Plains peoples from images on rock surfaces to the walls of modern museums, the essays reflect the principal interests of this pioneering scholar of ethnohistory: the depiction of tribal life and ritual, individual war honors, and aspects of sacred power basic to traditional Plains cultures. Chapters are devoted to particular tribal arts -- Blackfeet picture writing and Assiniboine antelope-horn headdresses, for example -- as well as the work of particular artists. Ewers also traces interactions between Plains Indian artists and Euro-American artists and anthropologists.