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What could you create from a lump of clay?
How about from a buffalo hide? What could you make from a handful of porcupine quills? For centuries, Native Americans turned ordinary things into beautiful and useful works of art. Native art is about the spiritual connection between humans and nature. The artists often say a prayer of thanks to the animal, plant, or rock that gave them the material for their art.
Native American art goes back thousands of years. Yet Native artists have always used new ideas and materials in their work. Long before the Europeans arrived, different Native groups influenced each other’s art. They traded shells, feathers, copper, and paint. Europeans brought beads, ribbons, and silversmithing. Native Americans used these things in their own way. They created a blend of the old and the new.
