ABORIGINAL DECORATIVE ART — KRIEGER 537 



Belts of wampuin, bamls of quill, and moose hair interwoven with 

 bast fiber tend to the geometric. The double-curve motive does not 

 work well in these materials. There appear to be some distinctions 

 between the eastern and the western sections of this area. The 

 Dene of the Mackenzie Valley of northern Canada weave rectilinear 

 and curved bands of ([uill and moose hair; while the Chippewa of 

 Wisconsin and the Menominee weave on a simple frame belts, bags, 

 \ind mats incorporating geometric designs. Textiles are elsewhere 

 practically nonexistent in the northeastern part of North America. 



Drawing and etching on birchbark became such a highly de- 

 veloped art among tribes of the vicinity of the Great Lakes as to 

 foiin a system of symbolic or mnemonic pictographic writing, along 

 with a decided realistic tendency in beadwork, while in the East, 

 freehand double-curve floral figures were embroidered or painted. 

 The extreme floral character of some of the beadwork of the Chip- 

 pewa has led many to regard the whole as a post-Columbian develop- 

 ment. The wide distribution of the Cree and Montagnais, together 

 with their very early intimate association w'ith the French colonies, 

 presents a favorable condition to rapid difl'usion. Yet, their very 

 characteristic double-curve art on bark and painted skins can not 

 be attributed to Europeans whose trade stimulated the use of beads, 

 wiiile the influence of the old French missions in the Mississippi 

 Valley and in Canada is not to be underestimated. There seems not 

 the h'ast reason to doubt tliat the very striking lieaded flowei's of the 

 West are due to the influence of French mission fathers. 



Pictog-raphic art. — Representative art of the tribes of the region 

 surrounding the Great Lakes and also of the Plains tribes, is ex- 

 pressed in picture writing. As decorative art the designs show a 

 distinctive pattern and conventionalized pictographic devices. Paint- 

 ings on muslin cloth supersede the older art of painting on tanned 

 hides landscape scenes embodying horses, men, and hunting scenes 

 where are shown buffalo. Horse stealing is also a favored theme 

 for pictogra})hic or representative decorative art. From the view- 

 point of art styles, pictographic or, as we might call it, ideogra[)hic 

 ait. has not a high value. The engraved pictographic representa- 

 tions on rock cliffs similarly pla<(Ml througliout many of the areas 

 of jirimitive art in America and in Oceania have a motivation in 

 representative art rathei- tlian in decorative design alone. 



Decorative designs in color are chai'acteristic of fewer areas and 

 peoples than is their application of design in relief. Modeling and 

 engraving are the early technics of decorative ait. Decorative art 

 of Plains tribes consists in the painting of geometric designs on sad- 

 dlebags of rawhide, while the tribes of the Pacific noi'thwest coast 

 paint toteraic zoomorphic forms on chests and boxes. The Eskimo 



