Maria Martinez
Revived San Ildefonso black-on-black pottery technique. Her work is in major museum collections. Trained generations of Pueblo potters.
Native American Traditions
Millennia → today
Pueblo pottery. Northwest Coast formline. Plains beadwork. Hopi katsina. Contemporary Native art from Jaune Quick-to-See Smith to Wendy Red Star. The most diverse single artistic tradition in North America — and still here.
Where this art lives
Native American art is hundreds of distinct traditions. Pueblo pottery in the Southwest. Northwest Coast formline (Tlingit, Haida, Kwakwaka’wakw). Plains beadwork and quillwork. Iroquois wampum. Hopi katsina dolls. Anishinaabe birch-bark. The list is long. Each tradition has specific materials, specific iconography, specific ownership rules.
Like Aboriginal Australian art, much Native American art has SACRED ownership rules. Specific designs belong to specific people, families, clans. Selling fake ‘Native’ work is illegal under the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990. The line between honoring a tradition and appropriating from it is real.
Contemporary Native American art is thriving. The Institute of American Indian Arts (Santa Fe) is a major academic center. Artists like Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Wendy Red Star, Cannupa Hanska Luger work at major museum scale.
The artists
Named voices in this tradition.
Some historic, some living. All deserve attention beyond the footnote.
Bill Reid
Master goldsmith and sculptor. Single-handedly led the renaissance of Haida formline art in the 20th century. His work is on the Canadian $20 bill.
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith
Major retrospective at the Whitney (2023). Mixed-media political work about land, identity, mapping. One of the most internationally recognized Native American artists of her generation.
Wendy Red Star
Photography and mixed media. Stages herself within historical and ceremonial scenes to interrogate how Native women have been represented (or erased). MacArthur Fellow.
Cannupa Hanska Luger
Multimedia sculptor. Created the Mirror Shield Project for Standing Rock protectors. Makes work at activist scale and museum scale simultaneously.
Materials & techniques
What this tradition uses.
🪴
Clay (Pueblo + Cherokee + many)
Hand-coiled pottery. Specific clays from specific lands. Burnishing with smooth stones. Pit-firing techniques.
🪡
Beads + quills
Plains traditions. Quillwork (porcupine quills) is the older tradition; beads arrived with European trade and were rapidly mastered.
🩵
Cedar + alder (Northwest Coast)
Pacific Northwest formline art is carved from cedar and alder. Bentwood boxes, totem poles, masks.
🌿
Natural pigments
Mineral and plant-based dyes. Each tradition has its specific palette and sources.
How to learn from this tradition
Buy from Native artists directly when possible. Reservations, Indian arts markets (Santa Fe Indian Market, Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair), and museum gift shops that source ethically.
Visit: National Museum of the American Indian (DC and NYC). Heard Museum (Phoenix). Eiteljorg Museum (Indianapolis). IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (Santa Fe).
Read: Native Art Now! A Celebration of Contemporary Native American Art by Veronica Passalacqua. Follow the National Museum of the American Indian’s programming.
If you make work inspired by Native traditions: never use SACRED designs (eagle feathers, war bonnets, specific clan crests). Never claim Native identity you don’t have. Study openly available techniques (basic pottery, basic beadwork) with respect for the source.