Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Indian Arts
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
Indian Arts
For many centuries before the arrival of the European, Indians roamed
the country which was later to be called Canada. Unlike the later settlers,
the North American Indian turned to his mother country, Canada, for his
every need. Canada’s animals—her fish—her forests were his raw materials.
From these he drew his existence.
Though strenuous—living as he did in a temperate climate with cold,
snowy winters—his existence was not a dreary one. It was highly coloured
| by a wealth of symbolic ritual and strange folklore. Interwoven with this
mystical religious streak, in the lives of these imaginative people, was their
art. Whether they carved from wood, chipped from stone or wove from goats’
hair, the Indians gave to their crafts a design and colour that were both
’ unusual and most beautiful. Examples of these remarkable achievements
have been found right across Canada; they tell the stories of the Haidas,
the Cree, the Iroquois and the Eskimo.
Each of the main Indian tribes established itself in one part of the country
and developed its.own characteristic society, tradition and art. The Algon-
kians living in Eastern Canada, led a gypsy life, making their way by canoe
and tobaggan from one lake to the next, in search of fish and game. As gypsies,
they had few possessions, but those they did have were decorated with great
care and skill. They embroidered an intricate mosaic of porcupine-quills on
their caribou-skin jackets—and painted designs of flowers and birds on their
birch-bark food-bags.
Large
Kwakiutl
Mask
Iroquois Mask
Iroquois Mask
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
