Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South

Townsend, Richard F.

Richard F. Townsend

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Along the Ohio, Tennessee, and Mississippi Rivers, the archaeological remains of earthen pyramids, plazas, large communities, and works of art and artifacts testify to Native American civilizations that thrived there between 3000 B.C. and A.D. 1500. This fascinating book presents exciting new information on the art and cultures of these ancient peoples and features hundreds of photographs of important artworks, artifacts, and ritual objects excavated from Amerindian archaeological sites.

Drawing on excavation findings and extensive research, the contributors to the book document a succession of distinct ancient populations in the pre-Columbian world of the American Midwest and Southeast. A team of interdisciplinary scholars examines the connections between archaeological remains of different regions and the themes, forms, and rituals that continue in specific tribes of today. The book also includes the personal reflections of contemporary Native Americans who discuss their perspectives on the significance of the fascinating and beautiful prehistoric artifacts as well as their own cultural practices today.

Author

Richard F. Townsend

PublisherArt Institute of Chicago

Yale University Press

Print publication date October 2004 (in print)

Print ISBN 9780300106015

EISBN 9780300225600

Illustrations 430

Print Status in print

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List of illustrations

Birdstone
Effigy Tumuli: Water Strider, Frog, and Catfish
Two rectangular gorgets
Chronological Chart
Map of the Midwest and South
Deer mask
Rendering of Poverty Point
Parakeet effigy bead
Grave Creek Mound, an Adena burial mound
Map of Hopewell earthworks near Frankfort, Ohio, on North Paint Creek in Ross County
Plan of Pinson Mounds, Madison County, Tennessee
View looking north toward Monks Mound at Cahokia, the largest Mississippian settlement
Gorget with falcon and underwater panther design
Effigy of a mythic horned animal
Fragment of an engraved whelk shell with an Underwater Panther or piasa
Birdstone
Birdstone
Birdstone
Hourglass-shaped bannerstone
Hourglass-shaped bannerstone
Hourglass-shaped bannerstone
Bowtie bannerstone
Double-edged bannerstone
Reel-shaped bannerstone
Bottle-shaped bannerstone
Notched ovate bannerstone
Bannerstone
Two atlatl hooks and weights
Cache of three bannerstones (two hooked type and one hourglass-shaped)
Notched ovate bannerstone
Axe head
Cache of 32 bifacial blades
Monolithic axe
Ceremonial celt
Ceremonial celt
Blackfoot Medicine Man, Performing His Mysteries over a Dying Man
Wolf skull mask
The great Serpent Mound, set along Ohio Brush Creek
Kneeling human-feline effigy figure
Map of earthworks and Crawfordsville, Wisconsin
Map of the earthworks at Mound City, north of Chillicothe, in Ross County, Ohio
Hawk effigy platform pipe
Owl effigy pipe
Blind wolf pipe
Wolf tube pipe
Human effigy pipe
Human effigy pipe
Engraved whelk shell with two intertwined snake-men
Drawing of two intertwined snake-men from engraved whelk shell
Bilobed-arrow headdress
Ceremonial blade
Etowah
The Green Corn festival begins
Men gather to perform the Feather Dance
Plan of the Ocevpofv square ground, a traditional Creek ceremonial site in eastern Oklahoma
Plan of the Ocevpofv Green Corn ground
Beaver effigy platform pipe
Wilmington tablet
Berlin tablet
Low tablet
Headless torso
Atlatl effigy
Serpent effigy
Ornamental deer ear
Scroll ornament
Seated female figurine
Kneeling male figurine
Six-fingered-hand pipe
Bird and fish effigy pipe
Double goose pipe
Raptor effigy pipe
Elongated bird head
Raven effigy pipe
Rodent (squirrel?) effigy platform pipe; young feline effigy platform pipe; and turtle effigy platform pipe
Effigy platform pipe of a heron eating a fish
Effigy platform pipe of a heron eating a fish
Otter effigy platform pipe
Otter effigy platform pipe
Raven effigy platform pipe
Raven effigy platform pipe
Dog effigy platform pipe
Bird claw cutout
Ohio River valley Hopewell clay figurines display elaborate patterns of hairstyles
Figurine
Figurine
Figurine
Figurine
Figurine
Hand cutout
Human profile cutout
Ceremonial blade
Three ceremonial blades
Effigy of a human thumb
Four boatstones
Convoluted shamanic themes on bone tubes
Wolf effigy pipe
Panther effigy pipe
Blocked-end tube pipe
Hopewell ware jar
Hopewell-related zoned jar (Alligator Bayou Stamped)
Seated falcon effigy platform pipe
Falcon effigy platform pipe
Bird and owl effigy pipe
Wolf effigy pipe
The Miamisburg Mound
Map of High Bank Works, Ross County, Ohio
Comparative distribution of large Woodland mounds in the Scioto River valley of Ohio showing spatial concentration of Hopewell ceremonialism c. AD 50
Map of earthworks at the Baum site on the south bank of Paint Creek west of Chillicothe, in Ross County, Ohio
Map of Seip Earthworks on the north bank of Paint Creek west of Chillicothe, in Ross County, Ohio
Schematic plans of Ohio Hopewell earthen enclosures
Two centrally placed, superimposed basins and floors under Mound 18, Mound City, Ross County, Ohio
Schematic cross-section of Mound 25, Hopewell site, Ross County, Ohio
View of the Observatory Circle and Octagon, part of the Newark Earthworks in Licking County, Ohio
View of the Great Circle, a portion of the Newark Earthworks measuring 1,200 feet in diameter
View looking east over a portion of the Newark Earthworks
Map of the Newark Earthworks
Map of the Newark Earthworks
Map of the Newark Earthworks
Diagram showing the maximum and minimum points of the moon's rising and setting as observed from the Octagon and Observatory Circle at the Newark Eartworks
Diagram of parallel-displaced relationship between the Great Circle in Newark and the Observatory Circle between the Square and Octagon
Shaman wearing the head and hide of a bear, known as the Wray figurine
Map of the Scioto River valley at Chillicothe
International Indian Council (Held at Tahlequah, Indian Territory, 1843), detail
Portrait of Saucy Calf
Ethnologist and Omaha tribe member Francis La Flesche (1857–1932)
Map of the eastern half of North America showing the path of French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (1643–1687)
Map of the Southeast showing the path of Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto (1496–1542) from 1539 to 1543
Map of Indian tribal regions of the lower Mississippi and adjacent Gulf Coast
Map of greater southeastern United States showing Indian lands and communities
International Indian Council (Held at Tahlequah, Indian Territory, 1843)
View looking southwest over Monks Mound and the grand ceremonial plaza of Cahokia in St. Clair County, Illinois
French map of Illinois region
Prehistoric Indian Mounds Opposite St. Louis
Trappists Hill Opposite St. Louis
Early map of the Mississippi River near Cahokia
View looking northwest across the ceremonial and residential center of Cahokia
Cache of projectile points
Ramey Incised pottery of the type found at Cahokia
View looking east toward Monks Mound across the reconstructed woodhenge at Cahokia
Offering the Skin of a Stag to the Sun
Aerial view of Cahokia
View of Cahokia, looking southwest over Monks Mound, the Grand Plaza, and two other, well-preserved mounds
Engraved whelk shell depicting Birdman
Engraved shell gorget depicting a chunkey player
Engraved whelk shell depicting Birdman
Engraved whelk shell with two figures confronting a serpent staff
Engraved whelk shell with snake and talons motif
Drawing of engraved whelk shell with two figures confronting a serpent staff
Projected development of Braden, Craig, Hemphill, and Hightower styles
Engraved whelk shell with paired figures confronting a serpent staff or pole
Engraved whelk shell with "Tree of Fur and Feathers" motif
Engraved whelk shell depicting intertwined, two-headed serpents
Chunkey Player effigy pipe, with chunkey stone in right hand and chunkey sticks in left
Chunkey stone
Chunkey stone
Chunkey stone
Chunkey stone
Chunkey stone
Chunkey stone
Chunkey stone
Chunkey stone
Map of the central Cahokia area showing the principal mounds, ceremonial plazas, and projected palisade
Map of the American Bottom, c. 1800, showing the principal mound groups and other nonmound archaeological sites
Engraved shell gorget with pair of figures
Copper repoussé plate depicting Birdman
Copper repoussé plate depicting a falcon
Copper repoussé plate depicting a double-headed falcon
Engraved whelk shell with Akron Grid motif
Ramey Incised vessel illustrating the deployment of ritually significant motifs surrounding a central opening
Copper repoussé plate depicting forked-eye-surrounds and concentric circles
Copper repoussé plate depicting a severed head surrounded by running arrowheads
Drawing of an engraved whelk shell showing Birdman rising within an arc of annular elements surrounded by running arrows
Underwater Panther effigy vessel with engraved swirls of the blocked-line motif
Copper repoussé plate depicting two dancing Birdman figures (?)
Wooden maskette
Effigy pipe of kneeling female figure holding maize and sunflower plants
Hypothetical model of the Native American cosmos
Engraved shell gorget with Birdman vessel and severed heads
Drawing of an engraved whelk shell showing four Underwater Panthers or piasas surrounding a cross-in-circle motif
Engraved whelk shell with four winged serpents surrounding a cross-in-circle motif
Drawing of four winged serpents engraved on shell
Six common motifs on engraved whelk shells from the Craig Mound at Spiro, Oklahoma
Drawing of an engraved whelk shell
Drawing of intertwined horned serpents from a vessel known as the Centi pot, found at the Chucalissa site near Memphis
Engraved whelk shell with droopy-eye-surrounds
A three-dimensional visualization of an engraved shell gorget from the Craig Mound at Spiro, Oklahoma, showing two dancing figures on either side of a striped centerpole
Underwater Panther effigy pipe
Effigy pipe of a seated male figure, known as the Resting Warrior and identified as Morning Star or Red Horn in related legendary accounts
Effigy pipe of a seated male figure, known as the Resting Warrior and identified as Morning Star or Red Horn in related legendary accounts
Long-Nosed God ear ornament
Crouching Man effigy pipe
Kneeling female effigy; known in archaeological literature as the Keller figurine
Effigy figurine of a mythical woman, possibly Our Grandmother or Old-Woman-Who-Never-Dies, hoeing an earth-serpent; known in archaeological literature as the Birger figurine
Effigy figurine of a mythical woman, possibly Our Grandmother or Old-Woman-Who-Never-Dies, hoeing an earth-serpent; known in archaeological literature as the Birger figurine
Effigy pipe of a crouching man holding a deer and rattle; known in archaeological literature as Grizzly Man or the Kneeling Rattler
Seated female effigy vessel; known as Old-Woman-Who-Never-Dies
Seated female effigy vessel; known as Old-Woman-Who-Never-Dies
Frog effigy pipe
Frog vessel
Human effigy pipe
Kneeling figurine effigy pipe
Kneeling female effigy vessel
The landscape of the Middle World reflecting the Upper World is seen in a natural spring in Camden County, Missouri
Petroglyph site in Monroe County, Illinois, with an incised hand
Nursing mother effigy bottle
Kneeling female figurine with tattoos
Various avian motifs
A victorious Birdman holding a mace and standing over a supine figure
Petroglyph panel at the Three Hills Creek site in St. Francois County, Missouri
Drawing of bird image from the petroglyph panel at the Three Hills Creek site in St. Francois County, Missouri
Vessel in the form of a kneeling female figure
A sampling of the vulvar motifs found in Missouri petroglyphs
Ceremonial mace
Mace petroglyph
Dancing Warrior at Rattlesnake Bluff
Pictograph panel of the Black Warrior
Osage headdress
Pictograph panel of the Giant
Drawing of an engraved shell cup showing a figure with shoulder tattoos of concentric circles
Long-Nosed God maskette ear ornaments
Close-up of Morning Star pictograph panel, showing white shell maskette ear ornament
Morning Star figure from petroglyph panel at the Maddin Creek site
Bilobed arrows, petaloid cross-in-circle motif, vulva form, and a type of eye marking or ogee symbol found in petroglyph
Copper repoussé plate depicting Birdman; one of two so-called Rogan plates
View looking northwest over Etowah
Changes in the Etowah site plan from AD 1100–1500
Panoramic view of Etowah
Map showing the development of chiefdom capitals in the Etowah River valley
Seated male and kneeling female figures
Kneeling ancestor effigy
Kneeling human effigy figurine
Kneeling human effigy figurine
Construction stages of Mound C
Composite plan of various excavations at Mound C, showing Late Wilbanks phase burials, AD 1325–1375
Copper repoussé plate depicting Birdman; one of the two so-called Rogan plates
Engraved shell gorget with turkey-cocks
Engraved shell gorget with cross-in-circle design
Engraved shell gorget with triskele design
Disc with ogee motif and scallop design
Disc with ogee motif and scallop design
Distribution of annular, triskele, cruciform, turkey-cocks, and anthropomorphic gorgets at Mound C, Etowah
Five gorget types represented in burials in Mound C at Etowah
Engraved shell mask
Engraved shell mask
Engraved shell mask
Engraved shell gorget with single figure
Engraved shell gorget with double dancers
Engraved shell gorget with rattlesnake design
Engraved shell gorget with rattlesnake design
Polished spud stone
Polished spud stone
Spatulate baton
Engraved circular palette with hand-and-eye motif and intertwined serpents; known in archaeological literature as the Rattlesnake Disk
View of Moundville, Tuscaloosa and Hale Counties, Alabama
View looking south over Moundville as it may have appeared in the 13th century
View of Moundville, Tuscaloosa and Hale Counties, Alabama
Plan of Moundville
Common themes on Hemphill-style pottery from Moundville
Jar with incised hands
Cup with incised skull motif
Long-necked globular bottle with negative resist design
Tripod vessel with negative resist design
Engraved circular palette with intertwined plumed serpents; known in archaeological literature as the Issaquena Disk
Engraved circular palette with hand motif, one of the earliest examples of this type
Engraved circular palette; known in archaeological literature as the Willoughby Disk
Oblong pendant with swastika and hand-and-eye motif
Oblong pendant with rayed circle, ogee, and hand-and-eye motif
Hair ornament
Piasa effigy pipe
Bowl with serpent/bird effigy
Bowl with serpent/bird effigy
Drawing of the incising on the underside of a limestone bowl
Engraved shell gorget with piasa
The Town of Secota
Ball Play of the Choctaw—Ball Up
Native American students at the Hampton Institute in Virginia
Crouching hunter effigy
Hunting Deer
How They Catch Fish
Engraved whelk shell showing fish being speared
Map of the Trails of Tears, showing the paths of forced removal of five Native American tribes from their homelands in the Southeast
Engraved shell gorget with supernatural warrior holding a severed head and mace
Town of Pomeiock
Outina Consults a Sorcerer
Outina's Order of March
Exercises of the Youths
Engraved shell gorget with two figures engaged in mortal combat
Crouching warrior effigy pipe
Kneeling prisoner effigy pipe
Bound captive effigy pipe
Ceremonial mace
Ceremonial mace
Copper repoussé plate
Copper repoussé plate
A Council of State
Hawk and human head effigy pipe
Conquering Warrior effigy pipe
Conquering Warrior effigy pipe
Raptor talon effigy
Raptor talon effigy
Sword
Chipped stone blade
Profile of a human head
Chipped stone disk
Engraved whelk shell with warriors' heads motif
Drawing of a engraved whelk shell
Engraved whelk shell with bows and eyes motif
Trophies and Ceremonies after a Victory
Monolithic axe
Monolithic axe
Monolithic axe
Vessel with bones and hand motifs
Wide-necked jar with human hand design
Great Serpent/Underwater Panther vessel
Engraved shell gorget
Drawing of the five elements in a Cox Mound gorget
Engraved shell gorget with turkey-cocks
Plan of the Kealedji square ground, a traditional Creek ceremonial site in eastern Oklahoma, as reordered by John R. Swanton of the Bureau of American Ethnology
Globular bottle
Representation of a Cox Mound gorget in three dimensions
Drawing of an engraved shell gorget with turkey-cocks
Bottle with ogee and hand-and-eye motifs
Representation of the Hand constellation just before it falls below the western horizon
The star Deneb in the constellation Cygnus stands at the dividing point of the Milky Way
Engraved bottle with winged serpent
Constellation of Scorpius or the Scorpion, showing the winged serpent
Engraved whelk shell with horned serpent motif
Wide-necked bottle with curvilinear swastika design
Great Serpent/Underwater Panther vessel
Great Serpent/Underwater Panther vessel, with swastika on back of head
Bottle with Underwater Serpents
Engraved shell gorget with water spider motif
Human head effigy vessel
Map of the central Mississippi River valley
Long-necked globular bottle with interlocking scrolls
Long-necked globular bottle with interlocking scrolls
Long-necked globular bottle
Long-necked globular bottle with scalp lock motif
Underwater Panther effigy vessel
Seated human effigy vessel
Crouching deer effigy vessel
Deer effigy vessel
Fish effigy jar
Bottle with possum head effigy
Frog effigy jar
Long-necked gadrooned bottle
Teapot" bottle with interlocking scrolls
Long-necked globular bottle with mask motif
Spouted head vessel
Human head effigy vessel
Human head effigy vessel
Human head effigy vessel
Human head effigy vessel
Human head effigy vessel
Human head effigy vessel
Human head effigy vessel
Human head effigy vessel
Human head effigy vessel
Human head effigy vessel
Water jar
Map of the Caddo area of Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas
Long-necked globular bottle
Map of Upper Nasoni, a principal Caddo town
Three vessels
Two vessels of the Dunkin Incised type
Vessel
Engraved whelk shell showing a ritual figure with a shell necklace and raccoon
Three vessels of the Spiro Engraved type
Burnished tripod bottle
Engraved jar with protuberant footing
Engraved jar
Engraved cylindrical bottle
Engraved tripod bottle
Engraved tripod vessel
Engraved egg-shaped bottle
Engraved egg-shaped bottle
Engraved cylindrical jar
Engraved redware bottle
Animal effigy vessel
Animal effigy vessel
Seed jar with fire clouds
Seed jar with fire clouds
Seed jar with fire clouds
Stirrup spout bottle
Engraved bottle
Round-bottomed flared vessel
Wide-necked vessel
Pair of earspools, 8-pointed star motif
Pair of earspools, 6-pointed star motif
Pair of earspools, 8-pointed star motif
Tripod bottle
Engraved bottle with chevron bands and petaloid motifs, hematite-rubbed
Engraved egg-shaped bottle with interlocking serpent design
Scalloped-rim vessel
Tripod bottle with arched band designs
Engraved double bottle
Water vessel
Engraved vessel with rayed concentric oval motif
Engraved vessel with arched bands and "lazy S" motifs
Portrait of Tecumseh (1768–1813)
Treaty between Shawnee, Delaware, and Mingo Indians and Great Britain, signed in 1765
Treaty signed at Fort Industry (Toledo) in 1805 between the United States and Shawnee, Potawatomi, Wyandot, Chippewa, and other Indians for the release of lands south of Lake Erie
Portrait of Tenskwatawa, the Prophet (1775–1837)
Shell Shaker
Shawnees at the Ceremonial Ground
Oklahoma Stomp Dance
Double-cresent bannerstone
Bannerstone
Bannerstone
Saddle-shaped bannerstone
Human figure
Plummet stone
Plummet stone engraved with bird motif
Birdstone
Human face effigy
Raptor effigy pipe
Pipe
Ovoid platform pipe
Beetle effigy
Vessel
Castellated vessel
Swallow-shaped gorget
Fish-shaped pendant
Concentric circle earspools
Pair of earspools
Spatulate Pipe with lizard motif
Ovoid pipe with broad rim
Rabbit vessel
Gourd-shaped vessel
Jar

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Contents

Richard F. Townsend

Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South

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Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South

To all but a few individuals, the works of art featured in this book and the exhibition Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South will be almost entirely unknown. Yet, as with masterpieces from more familiar ancient traditions, the objects strike us with a sense of surprise, wonderment, and puzzled interest. They appear to have a family affinity with the arts of Mesoamerica and other regions of the Americas where early societies arose and flourished, but …

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Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South

In many countries throughout the Americas, movements of cultural recovery and restoration are taking form in the creation of historical districts, the establishment of nature conservancies, and the preservation of archaeological sites. Projects of cultural renewal are also encouraging the teaching of indigenous languages and customs in peril of extinction. The work of museums plays another role in this vital collective endeavor: at the Art Institute of Chicago, our special interest concerns …

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Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South

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Richard F. Townsend

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Map of the Midwest and South

Richard F. Townsend

Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South

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Richard F. Townsend

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American Landscapes, Seen and Unseen

Richard F. Townsend

Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South

Few notions have so strongly affected the American imagination as the idea of the Untamed Wilderness. The perception of a vast continent, covered with forests and traversed by long rivers and mountain ranges, with immense inland lakes and sweeping prairies with limitless animals; the adventure of exploration and the complex tensions that arose in the fierce battle for North America among the competing French, English, and Spanish, and the many indigenous Indian nations; the formation of the …

Author

Richard F. Townsend

Subjects: Art, Ancient AmericanIndians of North AmericaArchaeology and historySymbolism in artCosmology

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Thoughts on the Preservation of Traditional Culture: An Interview with Timmy Thompson

F. Kent Reilly III

Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South

KENT REILLY: I’d like to start by asking you, as a traditional Muscogee person, and as a Medicine Man at the Hickory Ground near Henryetta, Oklahoma, to talk about growing up traditional and about how you became so fluent in the Muscogee language.
TIMMY THOMPSON: Well, my father was the chief at one of the ceremonial grounds and my mother was active in ceremonial traditions, too. A lot of traditions were passed down from my grandparents on either side, father’s side, mother’s side. I lost my …

Author

F. Kent Reilly III

Subjects: Indians of North AmericaMuscogee (Creek) NationPreservationIndians of North America--Rites and ceremoniesCultural property

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The Archaeology of Aesthetics

David W. Penney

Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South

On occasion someone will ask me how I became interested in American Indian art. Perhaps they expect to hear a story about childhood fascination with Indians, Boy Scout merit badges, and the like. But mine is, actually, a very different tale: while an undergraduate studying art history at New York University, I took a reading course with the late Howard Winters, an archaeologist peripherally linked to the early 1970s “New Archaeology” movement identified with Lewis Binford. I discovered that I …

Author

David W. Penney

Subjects: Art, Ancient AmericanIndians of North AmericaArchaeology and artPipesCultural property

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Hopewell Art in Hopewell Places

Mark F. Seeman

Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South

The ancient art of the Eastern Woodlands is one of the least-studied areas of North American art. Furthermore, most of what is known pertains to the relatively recent Mississippian societies of the tenth through sixteenth centuries rather than those of the deeper past. But well before the development of Mississippian culture, peoples of great talent and ability occupied all portions of this vast region. Their artistry, which shares with Mississippian art a generally religious caste, has proven …

Author

Mark F. Seeman

Subjects: Art, Ancient AmericanIndians of North AmericaHopewell cultureIndians of North America--Rites and ceremoniesSacred space

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The Newark Earthworks: Monumental Geometry and Astronomy at a Hopewellian Pilgrimage Center

Bradley T. Lepper

Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South

The Newark Earthworks in central Ohio comprise the largest complex of monumental geometric earthen enclosures ever built by the Hopewell culture (A.D. 1–400). The site originally encompassed more than four square miles (ten square kilometers) and included two gigantic circles, an even bigger ellipse, a square, and an octagon—all connected by a network of parallel walls. In addition, there were numerous smaller circular enclosures, mounds of various shapes and sizes, a second large square just …

Author

Bradley T. Lepper

Subjects: Art, Ancient AmericanIndians of North AmericaHopewell cultureEarthworks (Art)Archaeoastronomy

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Continuity and Change in Mississippian Civilization

Garrick Bailey

Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South

In 1910 Omaha anthropologist Francis La Flesche recorded Saucy Calf singing the songs and reciting the ritual prayers used in his clan’s portion of the sacred songs of the Wa-xo’-be rite of the Osages (figs. 2–3). Saucy Calfs version of the four-day-long rite consisted of ninety songs, six long ritual prayers, and seven symbolic ritual acts called we’-ga-xe. Like all Osage clan priests, Saucy Calf used a tally stick to assist as a memory aid, notched in various places along both of its flat …

Author

Garrick Bailey

Subjects: Indians of North AmericaMississippian cultureNatchez IndiansAmerica--Discovery and explorationIndians of North America--History

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The Cahokia Site and Its People

Robert L. Hall

Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South

When Hernando de Soto’s band of adventurers crossed the southeastern United States in 1539–43, they witnessed the living, vibrant cultures of moundbuilding American Indians (see fig. 5 in the essay by Garrick Bailey). Unlike settlers in the nineteenth century, these Spaniards had no need to invent a mythical race of moundbuilders to account for the earthen monuments they beheld, because the leaders of the Natchez Indians they met in Mississippi lived in mound-top lodges and honored their …

Author

Robert L. Hall

Subjects: Indians of North AmericaIndians of North America--Social life and customsEarthworks (Art)Indians of North America--HistoryIndians of North America--Rites and ceremonies

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The Cahokian Expression: Creating Court and Cult

James A. Brown

Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South

In 1884 archaeologist John Rogan discovered two thin, beautifully embellished copper plates at the ancient town site of Etowah, near Cartersville, Georgia, while excavating one of its three major mounds (see figs. 1 and 11 in the essay by Adam King in this volume). The thinness of these plates, beaten from nuggets of natural copper, combined with the refined and detailed tooling of a naturalistic image of a costumed warrior, struck Cyrus Thomas of the Bureau of American Ethnology in Washington, …

Author

James A. Brown

Subjects: Art, Ancient AmericanIndians of North AmericaCahokia Mounds State Historic Park (Ill.)IconographyArt and mythology

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People of Earth, People of Sky: Visualizing the Sacred in Native American Art of the Mississippian Period

F. Kent Reilly III

Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South

Art and ritual provided the symbolic and metaphorical means by which the people of the Mississippian world visualized their spiritual relationships with the supernatural. Mississippian art—or, more specifically, what I shall argue is the art of a Mississippian Art and Ceremonial Complex (MACC)—often displayed an encoded symbolic system that portrayed the locations and inhabitants of a perceived, yet unseen, reality. The MACC possessed a complex symbolic language with important political and …

Author

F. Kent Reilly III

Subjects: Art, Ancient AmericanIndians of North AmericaCosmologySymbolism in artEffigies

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Marking Stone, Land, Body, and Spirit: Rock Art and Mississippian Iconography

Carol Diaz-Granados

Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South

The landscape was different back then. It belonged to Wa-Kon-da, “the mysterious creative power that brings into existence all living things.”
All things embodied Wa-Kon-da, but stone was especially venerated because it was here first. It was called Inyan by the Osage’s northern relatives. Inyan was wise; Inyan was revered; Inyan was the father of all. Inyan was imbued with such power that people would go to the stone for comfort, and pray to the sacred stone to be healed, supplicate it for …

Author

Carol Diaz-Granados

Subjects: Art, Ancient AmericanIndians of North AmericaSymbolism in artSpirituality in artSacred space

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Power and the Sacred: Mound C and the Etowah Chiefdom

Adam King

Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South

The Etowah site, located in the northwestern corner of Georgia, still inspires the same sense of wonder and mystery that it invoked in Colonel Charles Whittlesey, a nineteenth-century geologist and amateur archaeologist.
We can, to some degree, generalize that carving a stone with symbols consecrated it and distinguished it from others. In some cases it rendered the stone otherworldly in that it could “grant favors” if properly supplicated. “The stone symbolized the steadfast power of Wa-Ko-da …

Author

Adam King

Subjects: Art, Ancient AmericanIndians of North AmericaEtowah Indian Mound State Historic Site (Ga.)Grave goodsSupernatural in art

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Moundville Art in Historical and Social Context

Vincas P. Steponaitis and Vernon J. Knight Jr.

Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South

Moundville in its prime was one of the largest civic-ceremonial centers in the Mississippian world, surpassed in monumental grandeur only by the great Cahokia site near modern St. Louis. Situated on the banks of the Black Warrior River in western Alabama, this site was founded around A.D. 1100, grew to regional prominence soon after 1200, and continued to be occupied until about 1600. Through most of that time it served as the political and religious capital of a powerful chiefdom. Among its …

Author

Vincas P. Steponaitis and Vernon J. Knight Jr.

Subjects: Art, Ancient AmericanIndians of North AmericaMoundville Archaeological Park (Moundville, Ala.)Grave goodsCosmology

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Thoughts on the Preservation of Traditional Culture: An Interview with Joyce and Turner Bear

F. Kent Reilly III

Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South

KENT REILLY:The 1940s and 1950s took a terrible toll on the cultural and linguistic survival of Native Americans throughout the United States. There were specific efforts by both state and federal agencies to suppress Indian identity. In particular, elementary school programs were structured so that Native American languages could not be spoken by students. What do you think the overall effect of that educational system has been in terms of Creek culture and of Native American culture in …

Author

F. Kent Reilly III

Subjects: Art, Ancient AmericanIndians of North AmericaMoundville Archaeological Park (Moundville, Ala.)Grave goodsCosmology

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Art, Ritual, and Chiefly Warfare in the Mississippian World

David H. Dye

Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South

On a hot summer night in the mid-fourteenth-century Southeast, a chief prepares for a raid on his enemies. The forest is quiet and still as his warriors solemnly approach their fortified capital at the lake’s edge. The Sacred Warrior, the priestly leader of the war party, and his war commanders assemble in the great plaza or square ground that lies between the chief’s mound at one end and the temple that holds the remains and treasures of the chief’s ancestors at the other. With arrows nocked …

Author

David H. Dye

Subjects: Art, Ancient AmericanIndians of North AmericaIndians of North America--WarsWar in artIndians of North America--Rites and ceremonies

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World on a String: Some Cosmological Components of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex

George E. Lankford

Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South

Refusing to live in chaos means that humans must necessarily be creators of order. It is presumed that human beings always seek that order in the real world, so that the order that they establish—on the ground, in their social organizations, and in their behavior—is a reflection of the greater, cosmic order in which humanity is embedded. However it is perceived, the great cosmos is fundamentally one that humans did not create. Yet, as participants in it, they may legitimately recreate it and …

Author

George E. Lankford

Subjects: Art, Ancient AmericanIndians of North AmericaCosmologyIconographyArt and mythology

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Prehistoric Art of the Central Mississippi Valley

Chester P. Walker

Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South

The central Mississippi valley of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was a vast landscape of dissected alluvial hills, horseshoe-shaped swamps and backwaters, and massive meandering rivers and streams. In 1542 when the members of Hernando de Soto’s entrada crossed the Mississippi River, there was a complex cultural mosaic of chiefdoms ripe with political alliances and factions. The cultural landscape seems to have consisted of ceremonial centers with various types of mounds, densely …

Author

Chester P. Walker

Subjects: Art, Ancient AmericanIndians of North AmericaIndian pottery--North AmericaIconographyHead in art

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The Ancient Art of Caddo Ceramics

Richard F. Townsend and Chester P. Walker

Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South

When in early June 1991 Jereldine Redcorn and her friends in the Caddo Culture Club visited the Museum of the Red River in Idabel, Oklahoma, she saw for the first time a collection of beautifully shaped black and red earthenware bowls, bottles, jars, and other containers, elegantly burnished and finely engraved with abstract linear designs. These vessels had been recovered from archaeological sites widely distributed in old Caddo homelands, along the Red River between Texas and Oklahoma, in …

Author

Richard F. Townsend and Chester P. Walker

Subjects: Art, Ancient AmericanIndians of North AmericaCaddo IndiansIndian pottery--North AmericaCaddo pottery

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Caddo Art: A Personal Perspective

Stacey Halfmoon

Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South

As a Caddo person with a true love of my tribal family and my heritage, I have a perspective of Caddo art that is a personal one and by no means reflects that of any majority group, tribal or non-tribal. I feel fortunate to have had some unique, personal experiences in relation to the art of my ancestors, and I am honored and obligated to share these experiences.
First, I want to address how to define Caddo art. What makes a work of art distinctly Caddo? The answer largely depends on who is …

Author

Stacey Halfmoon

Subjects: Art, Ancient AmericanIndians of North AmericaCaddo potteryCultural propertyPreservation

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The Bread Dance: A Shawnee Ceremony of Thanks and Renewal

Ruthe Blalock Jones

Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South

In late spring, when the dogwood begins to bud, some say when the dogwood blossom is the size of a squirrel’s ear, a Shawnee council meeting is held to talk about the Bread Dance. According to our tribal traditions, the Bread Dance is the most important event in Shawnee life, ceremonial or otherwise. The ceremony represents the hunt, planting, and harvest, annually retelling the male and female roles in planting, germination, and new life. Attendance or participation is a part of being Shawnee. …

Author

Ruthe Blalock Jones

Subjects: Indians of North AmericaShawnee IndiansIndians of North America--HistoryIndians of North America--Rites and ceremoniesIndian dance

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Free

Catalogue of the Exhibition

Richard F. Townsend

Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South

[Catalogue of the Exhibition]

Author

Richard F. Townsend