Inseparable from its communities, Northwest Coast art functions aesthetically and performatively beyond the scope of non-Indigenous scholarship, from demonstrating kinship connections to manifesting spiritual power. Contributors to this volume foreground Indigenous understandings in recognition of this rich context and its historical erasure within the discipline of art history. By centering voices that uphold Indigenous priorities, integrating the expertise of Indigenous knowledge holders about their artistic heritage, and questioning current institutional practices, these new essays "unsettle" Northwest Coast art studies. Key themes include discussions of cultural heritage protections and Native sovereignty; re-centering women and their critical role in transmitting cultural knowledge; reflecting on decolonization work in museums; and examining how artworks function as living documents. The volume exemplifies respectful and relational engagement with Indigenous art and advocates for more accountable scholarship and practices.
The 50th anniversary edition of this classic work on the art of Northwest Coast Indians now offers color illustrations for a new generation of readers along with reflections from contemporary Northwest Coast artists about the impact of this book. The masterworks of Northwest Coast Native artists are admired today as among the great achievements of the world’s artists. The painted and carved wooden screens, chests and boxes, rattles, crest hats, and other artworks display the complex and sophisticated northern Northwest Coast style of art that is the visual language used to illustrate inherited crests and tell family stories. In the 1950s Bill Holm, a graduate student of Dr. Erna Gunther, former Director of the Burke Museum, began a systematic study of northern Northwest Coast art. In 1965, after studying hundreds of bentwood boxes and chests, he published Northwest Coast Indian Art: An Analysis of Form. This book is a foundational reference on northern Northwest Coast Native art. Through his careful studies, Bill Holm described this visual language using new terminology that has become part of the established vocabulary that allows us to talk about works like these and understand changes in style both through time and between individual artists’ styles. Holm examines how these pieces, although varied in origin, material, size, and purpose, are related to a surprising degree in the organization and form of their two-dimensional surface decoration. The author presents an incisive analysis of the use of color, line, and texture; the organization of space; and such typical forms as ovoids, eyelids, U forms, and hands and feet. The evidence upon which he bases his conclusions constitutes a repository of valuable information for all succeeding researchers in the field. Replaces ISBN 9780295951027
With his investigation of slavery on the Northwest Coast of North America, Leland Donald makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the aboriginal cultures of this area. He shows that Northwest Coast servitude, relatively neglected by researchers in the past, fits an appropriate cross-cultural definition of slavery. Arguing that slaves and slavery were central to these hunting-fishing-gathering societies, he points out how important slaves were to the Northwest Coast economies for their labor and for their value as major items of exchange. Slavery also played a major role in more famous and frequently analyzed Northwest Coast cultural forms such as the potlatch and the spectacular art style and ritual systems of elite groups. The book includes detailed chapters on who owned slaves and the relations between masters and slaves; how slaves were procured; transactions in slaves; the nature, use, and value of slave labor; and the role of slaves in rituals. In addition to analyzing all the available data, ethnographic and historic, on slavery in traditional Northwest Coast cultures, Donald compares the status of Northwest Coast slaves with that of war captives in other parts of traditional Native North America.
Originally published in 2006, Art of the Northwest Coast offers an expansive history of this great tradition, from the earliest known works to those made at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Although non-Natives often claimed that First Nations cultures were disappearing, Northwest Coast Native people continued to make art during the painful era of colonization, often subtly expressing resistance to their oppressors and demonstrating the resilience of their heritage. Integrating the art's development with historical events following contact with Euro-Americans sheds light on the creativity of artists as they appropriated and transformed foreign elements into uniquely Indigenous statements. A new chapter discusses contemporary artists, including Marianne Nicholson, Nicholas Galanin, Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, and Sonny Assu, who address pressing issues ranging from Indigenous sovereignty and destruction of the environment to the power of Native women and efforts to work with non-Natives to heal the wounds of racism and discrimination.
Bold, inventive indigenous art of the Northwest Coast is distinguished by its sophistication and complexity. It is also composed of basically simple elements which, guided by a rich mythology, create images of striking power. In Looking at Indian Art of the Northwest Coast, Hilary Stewart introduces the elements of style; interprets the myths and legends which shape the motifs; and defines and illustrates the stylistic differences between the major cultural groupings. Raven, Thunderbird, Killer Whale, Bear: all the traditional forms are here, deftly analyzed by a professional writer and artist who has a deep understanding of this powerful culture.
An addition to a popular history series presents a child's eye view of the Native American cultures of America's northern Pacific coast, showing their housing, clothing, social structure, religious customs, occupations, and more. Original.
Coastal regions offer the observer a unique perspective on the forces of nature in conflict. The geologic forces that created and continue to shape the continent's edge in conjunction with factors of climate and oceanography produce wildlife zones of fascinating complexity. Nowhere is this truer than in the Northwest from Cape Mendocino to Cape Flattery, a young coast which also has the last vestiges of seashore wilderness in the continental USA. The author's aim has been not to provide a conventional field guide-there are many such available-but rather to provide insights into the relationships among the sea and the land and the living creatures they support. Starting in the coastal waters with their populations of marine animals and seabirds, the author examines the successive habitats found landward, from seashore, estuaries, dune, and freshwater wetlands to the great temperate conifer forests so characteristic of the region. The reader will learn how the coastal environment molded the bodies and behavior of its inhabitants over the millennia, and how these creatures, in turn, changed their environments; the forces controlling their abundance, distribution, growth, and reproduction are explained in non-technical language, drawing upon several branches of scientific inquiry. Along with a fuller understanding and appreciation of the structure of the Northwest's natural world, we hope the reader will gain a sense of its fragility, heeding the author's caution about human impacts on the coast and striving to protect this unique environment. A portion of the profits from the sale of this book go to support Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition and its efforts to protect our coastal region for future generations. Please visit our website, OregonShores.org, for more information. THE OREGON SHORES CONSERVATION COALITION For more than 40 years, the Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition has served as the guardian of Oregon's extraordinary coastal legacy. Founded initially by those who had campaigned for the state's pioneering Beach Bill, which reserves the entire shoreline for the public, Oregon Shores has over the decades expanded its focus from the beaches to the entire coastal region, from the crest of the Coast Range to the edge of the continental shelf. The ecology of this region is described in Stewart Schultz' The Northwest Coast, so it is fitting that Oregon Shores should re-publish this out-of-print classic. Public education about the resources and natural communities of the Oregon coast has always been an important aspect of the organization's work. Through the CoastWatch program, Oregon Shores organizes volunteers who keep watch over the shore-Oregon is the only state whose entire shoreline has been adopted by its citizens. CoastWatchers monitor the coast for a wide range of natural changes and human impacts. The program continually seeks to train its volunteers, while also providing educational experiences for the public at large. The value of The Northwest Coast as a resource for CoastWatch "mile adopters" was the original impetus for Oregon Shores' first venture as a book publisher. From sprawling development to the spread of riprap to the pollution of rivers and estuaries, Oregon's coast is under continual threat. The looming impact of climate change will exacerbate all these threats, unless we learn to adapt intelligently. Oregon Shores is dedicated to stewardship over this magnificent but endangered place. The Northwest Coast reveals what we have to lose if we fail to counter the threats to the coastal environment. In publishing the book, Oregon Shores hopes that the reader will delight in its wealth of information about the ecology of Oregon's coastal region and will be moved to action in defense of this natural legacy. Corrected/updated 2011
Keeping It Living brings together some of the world'smost prominent specialists on Northwest Coast cultures to examinetraditional cultivation practices from Oregon to Southeast Alaska. Itexplores tobacco gardens among the Haida and Tlingit, managed camasplots among the Coast Salish of Puget Sound and the Strait of Georgia,estuarine root gardens along the central coast of British Columbia,wapato maintenance on the Columbia and Fraser Rivers, and tended berryplots up and down the entire coast. With contributions from a host of experts, Native American scholarsand elders, Keeping It Living documents practices ofmanipulating plants and their environments in ways that enhancedculturally preferred plants and plant communities. It describes howindigenous peoples of this region used and cared for over 300 speciesof plants, from the lofty red cedar to diminutive plants of backwaterbogs.
Extending some 1,400 miles from Alaska to northern California, America's Northwest Coast is one of the richest and most distinct cultural areas on earth. The region is famous for its magnificent art--masks, totem poles, woven blankets--produced by the world's most politically and economically complex hunters and gatherers. As this pioneering account shows, the history of settlement on the Northwest Coast stretches back some 11,000 years. With the stabilization of sea levels and salmon runs after 4000 B.C., many of the region's salient features began to emerge. Salmon fishing supported rapid population growth to a peak over 1,000 years ago. The spread of rain forest made available trees such as red cedar that could be turned into vast houses and seaworthy canoes. Large households and permanent villages emerged alongside slavery and a hereditary nobility. Warfare became epidemic, initially hand to hand but later characterized by the development of fortresses and the bow and arrow. Art evolved from simple carvings and geometric designs 5,000 years ago to the specialized crafts of the modern era. Written by noted experts and profusely illustrated, this is an essential reference for scholars and students of Native American archaeology and anthropology as well as travelers to the region.
