ABORIOINAXi DECORATIVE ART — KRIEQER 541 



tribes. This is not actually the case as they have absorbed only 

 certain types of culture traits from the Plains tribes, and none at all 

 from the Pacific coast f^roup. In prehistoric times, before the intro- 

 duction of tiie horse in the valley of the Columbia, plateau culture 

 resembled that i"epresented until quite recently by the Thompson 

 River tribes of inland British Columbia. This culture then repre- 

 sented a sinjzle desi<rn area oii«j:inally shared by Shoshonean tribes 

 with the Basketmaker, Apache, and Navaho of New Mexico and 

 Arizona on the south, and the Californian tribes of the west coast. 

 Within historic times. Plains design motives, and design patterns 

 have filtered in from the east, while in Arizona and New Mexico 

 the developments leading up to the growth of sedentary agricultural 

 life of the Pueblo Indians had long been under way. Here, as else- 

 where in aboriginal America, were developed ceramic and textile 

 arts without apparently any assistance or hindrance from without. 

 The nonuidic Navaho and Apache groups disjointedly learned from 

 the Pueblos their arts, while the Californian tribes continued until 

 historic times to pursue their unique basketry art. No suggestion 

 has ever been advanced regarding the borrowing of this art, which 

 permeates their entire culture complex, from cooking vessels to 

 cradle beds. The twined basketry of the inland Salish is distinct 

 in that it is intimately associated with weaving technic, which is not 

 practiced by the California tribes. Aboriginal California, except for 

 isolated culture influences coming from the north, offers an excel- 

 lent example showing how a culture may grow in isolation, the key 

 to decorative design being excellence in basketi-y technic. 



Among the basket-nuiking Apache of the Southwest, objects of 

 tanned skin decorated with beadwork designs, represent an intrusion 

 from the Plains area. Identity between the designs on Apache 

 baskets and objects of skin is therefore unusual, the latter being 

 borrowed from the Cheyenne or Comanche. Among the Plains 

 tribes it was the men who painted robes, tipis, and other skin objects 

 with realistic figures, while among the Shoshoni farther to the west, 

 both beadwork and basketry were the work of women, who wove 

 symbols into their art, although, like most of the Plains tribes, they 

 did not decorate pottery. 



Pictographs and petroglyphs are paintings and engraved designs 

 occurring on the smooth surfaces of rocky cliffs and boulders. 

 Explanation of the GO or more elements of design has been attempted 

 many times, but represents merely guesses. They represent, to be 

 sure, objects and ideas with which other primitive artists of the 

 tribe were acquainted. They do, however, give one a definite clue 

 as to the tribe to which the individual belonged; it may be assumed 

 that tribal art is always distinctive and characteristic. 



Similarity in ha.sketry^ pottenj^ aiul weaving design technic. — 

 There is an observable unity in designs on baskets from Utah and 



