The Spirit of Native America: Beauty and Mysticism in American Indian Art, by Anna Lee Walters

ALL REGIONS / MULTI-REGIONAL. 
Illustrated Art + Cultural History. 

This amazing group of native artifacts form the core of a collection permanently housed at the Grand Teton National Park. But as instructive as viewing such artifacts in a display can be, their having been removed from the social and cultural context in which they held artistic and ceremonial weight robs them of vital spirit. Anna Lee Walters provided the corrective. From the inner cover, her “authoritative texts removes these beautiful and mysterious objects from the usual category of museum relics and places them in their proper tribal perspective.” As we allude to in our regional descriptions, native tribes inhabited a continent with very different and much more fluid borders. Walters’ documentation placed these artifacts where they belong: the Northeast, Southeast, Great Plains, Southwest (stretching deep into modern Mexico), the Great Basin (the modern mountain and far desert west), Plateau (modern northwest between the Rockies & Cascades), the Pacific and Northwest Coast, while also including the Subartic and Arctic regions that make up most of Canada. But going beyond just region, Walters also placed these wonderful pieces inside themes, their reason for being: the blending of spirit and everyday life on Earth and in the Cosmos, elements of everyday life made beautiful, if still practical—those made for ceremony, those made for war. Walters’ added this important context: “In traditional Indian thinking, there is no separation between art and life or between what is beautiful and what is functional.” A Sioux buckskin dress with beautiful colorful bead work, an intricate diamond patterned birch bark trinket chest from Nova Scotia, an amazing array of tribal cradleboards, each one exhibiting an advanced degree of creative expression, these all find their way into this book. The woodwork and basketry for every day implements and utensils, bags, pouches, blankets, all show off a slew of styles and embellishments; while the native clothing and jewelry included seems picked for its “showing off” some. The most mysterious high-level creativity is reserved for the ceremonial: masks, totems, and dress that range from bold and evocative, to odd and a bit creepy. These 200+ artifacts with just simple captions would have made for a unique book. Add in Walters’ descriptions and this is a special find. [Condition: Used Very Good. The soft cardboard cover shows some wear, a bit of spine fraying at spine edge and the stubborn remnants of old price stickers. But excepting errant pencil marks on an intro page, the interior pages are otherwise pristine, the full color images spectacular.] 

Condition: Used Very Good. 
The Arts. 
Anna Lee Walters. 
Chronicle Books, 1989. 
Softcover, 120 pgs, 10 x 9.5” / 1.5 lb