The story of the Native peoples of the Great Plains--including the
Arapaho, Cheyenne, Lakota, Shoshone, Blackfeet, Kiowa, Pawnee, Arikara,
Gros Ventre, Assiniboine, Mandan, Hidatsa, and Crow tribes-- is integral
to the history and heritage of the American West. These buffalo-hunting
and horticultural people once dominated the vast open region of the
Great Plains, west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky
Mountains, that stretches from present-day Canada to Texas.
The Native people of the Plains found this vast, harsh land rich in
resources, with tall grass prairies abundant with herds of buffalo and
other grazing animals and fertile river valleys that supported farming.
Economic practices were intertwined with spiritual ceremonial activities
and core beliefs about the people's relationships to the land, sky, and
universe. The magnificent arts of Plains Indian people also had such
spiritual underpinnings, which, together with their historical and
cultural contexts, can provide greater insight into and appreciation of
their tribal significances. Lavishly illustrated with more than 300
images of objects from traditional feather bonnets to war shirts, bear
claw necklaces, pipe tomahawks, beadwork, and quillwork, as well as
archival photographs of historical events and individuals and
photographs of contemporary Native life, Memory and Vision is a
comprehensive examination of the environments and historic forces that
forged these cultures, and a celebration of their ongoing presence in
our national society.
