Artistic traditions of indigenous North America are explored in a study that draws on the testimonies of oral tradition, Native American history, and North American archaeology, focusing on the artists themselves and their cultural identities. Original.

Art of the American Indian Frontier examines an incomparable collection of nineteenth-century Native American art from the North American Woodlands, Prairie, and Plains. The collection resulted from the efforts of Milford G. Chandler and Richard A. Pohrt, whose early childhood fascination with the Indian frontier past evolved into a deep and comprehensive interest in Native American ceremonies, beliefs, and art. Though neither was wealthy or enjoyed the sponsorship of a museum, they traveled extensively early in the twentieth century, buying or trading for objects they could not resist. This volume presents the Detroit Institute of Art's Chandler-Pohrt collection with detailed documentation and commentary. Clothing and accessories of porcupine quill and buckskin, woven textiles, bags, beadwork, necklaces, rawhide paintings, smoking pipes, tools, vessels and utensils, pictographs, and visionary paintings are portrayed in 220 stunning color plates. Complementing the illustrations are essays dealing with historical context, ethnographic issues, and the lives and philosophies of the collectors.