OUR COUNTRY’S BEAUTIFUL AND RICH INDIGENOUS CULTURES: Chambers Architects visits The Antique American Indian Art Show, Santa Fe, NM
Photography by Stephen B. Chambers Architects, Stephanie Chambers
Above: Steve and Stephanie Chambers in a still from the video produced for The Antique Indian Art Show, Santa Fe, 2016.
By Stephanie M. Chambers
Every August, the world goes to Santa Fe for Indian Market, the best in new American Indian Art. But to gain an education about the roots and development of the Native American arts and crafts one needs to start with The Antique American Indian Arts Show at El Museo in The Railyard. Dallas architect, Steve Chambers, went to the show in order to help build collections for his clients and create thoughtful interiors for their ranches. This upscale, walled show features carefully selected dealers whose antiques have been authenticated and curated. The dealers are tastemakers well versed in their objects of art and enjoy telling potential buyers and collectors about the provenance and heritage of their acquisitions.
This year’s Antique American Indian Art Show featured Chilkat ceremonial blankets made by the Haida, Tsimshian and Tlinget people of British Columbia and Alaska (see youtube video below.) These complex textiles are the most recognizable of all Northwest Coast American Indian art forms. The blankets were worn or used on ceremonial occasions, including the potlatch, an opulent ritual at which possessions were given away or destroyed to display the wealth or enhance the prestige of its chief. Potlatches featured speeches, feasting and dancing and ended with the host’s presentation of the privileges he claimed, validated by gift giving. Only the wealthiest chiefs were able to give Chilkat blankets to distinguished guests, in entirety, or cut into strips and distributed. These intricate blankets were so prized, that guests who had received a piece of the blanket would sew the fragment into a piece of clothing like an apron, leggings or tunic.
The costly and labor-intensive items served as grand displays and were often comprised of stylized animal figures or mythological beings. These ‘family crests’ amount to a substantial inheritance. Some are easily identifiable. The majority of the figurative designs are abstracted and difficult to decipher. The artists used natural dyes at first, including copper, which produced green, as well as tree lichen. Later they obtained synthetic dyes from Russia. The blanket was the principal actor in ceremonial costumes that included similarly designed leggings, tunics and aprons.
When both the U.S. and Canadian governments banned the potlatch near the end of the 19th century, the Chilkat blanket nearly died with it. By the mid 1950s there were only a very few living Chilkat weavers. Colonization had severely affected the First Nations communities in Canada and the Native American community of Alaska. Consequently many of their traditional arts were becoming more and more rare. Today these traditional ceremonial blankets are undergoing a revival, thanks in part to the efforts of Cheryl Samuel, the author of “The Chilkat Dancing Blanket,” as well as its remaining master weavers.
Please read more of our articles about Santa Fe in the links below: