Indians_In_American_Art

Indians In American Art American art contrasted Indians to European Americans. Americans viewed Indians as savages who were different; they were not and would never become white Christians. Instead, they were illiterate hunters and gatherers who followed pagan superstition and their own emotions. Cultural stereotypes of Native Americans swept through the United States. Indians were at first an object of European intellectual curiosity, serving a symbolic model for the Romantic notion of the “noble savage“. American depictions of Indians in the 1820s and 1830s portray Indians as one with their remote, natural surroundings. For example, in Charles Bird King’s Young Omahaw, War Eagle, Little Missouri, and Pawnees, Indians are depicted as bare-shouldered with buffalo skin robes and body decorations. Although these characteristics convey a primitive sense, their physiques and stature imply a noble sense of prowess. Paintings depicting this type of “noble savage” continued through the indians, savage, paintings, noble, indian, americans, american, whites, white, viewed, through, sense, primitive, order, notion, native, instead, favor, european, depictions, customs, young, way, war, violent, united, type, tribal, treaties, time, threatening, thereafter, symbolic, swept, survive