Wedding Clothes and the Osage Community: A Giving Heritage (Material Vernaculars)

Wedding Clothes and the Osage Community: A Giving Heritage explores how gift exchange, motivated by the values of generosity and hospitality, serves as a critical component in the preservation and perpetuation of Osage society. Authors, Daniel C. Swan and Jim Cooley collaborate with members of the Osage Nation to discuss this foundational cultural practice over two centuries and in multiple social contexts. 
 The book begins with an in-depth examination of the Mízhin form of marriage, which bound two extended Osage families together for economic, biologic, and social reasons intended to produce value and community cohesion for the larger society. Swan and Cooley then follow the movement of Osage bridal regalia from the Mízhin from of marriage into the "Paying for the Drum" ceremony of the Osage Ilonshka―a variant of the Plains Grass Dance, which is a nativistic movement that spread throughout the Plains and Prairie regions of the United States in the 1890s. The Ilonshka dance and its associated organization provide a spiritual charter for the survival of the ancient Osage physical divisions, or "districts" as they are called today. Swan and Cooley demonstrate how the process of re-chartering elements of material culture and their associated meanings from one ceremony to another serves as an example of the ways in which the Osage people have adapted their cultural values to changing economic and political conditions. At the core of this historical trajectory is a broad system of Osage social relations predicated on status, reciprocity, and cooperation. Through Osage weddings and the Ilonshka dance the Osage people reinforce and strengthen the social relations that provide a foundation for their respective communities.

History

Swan, Daniel C.

Cooley, Jim

Americas

Indiana University Press

The Osage people, who have flourished in several locations and within a multiplicity of environments in the American Midwest, have infused their arts with an aesthetic vigor bound to an exquisite simplicity. Art of the Osage, the first comprehensive presentation of the art of the Osage people, explores the interconnections among their material culture, social organization, cosmology, aesthetics, and rituals. This volume draws together over two centuries’ worth of Osage art, tracing the patterns of Osage life and culture as they existed from contact to the present. The Osage people thrived in the central Mississippi Valley fur trade from the late seventeenth through the early nineteenth centuries, were forcibly relocated into northern Oklahoma in the nineteenth century, and prospered again from mineral and oil wealth in the twentieth century. As with other civilizations that have balanced abundance with hardship, the Osage experience yielded a highly refined artistic tradition, rich in meaning and complex in its commitment to utility. Cradle boards, headdresses, riding quirts and war clubs, beadwork and ribbon work, blankets, peyote fans, rattles, wedding garments, and dance costumes display the range and beauty of Osage material culture. In contrast to many other Native American artistic traditions, Osage art has never been commercialized: artisans have typically made items only for members of their families or other members of the Osage community. Although contemporary Osage art shows direct continuity in decorative motifs and basic forms with early historic Osage art, it is still a dynamic and evolving artistic tradition. Uninfluenced by external market forces, it represents one of a declining number of true indigenous living artistic traditions. The works illustrated here reveal the bold yet subtle aesthetic of Osage art, one of the most distinctive and significant Native artistic traditions in the United States.

Art of the Osage

Arts & Photography

Bailey, Garrick

History & Criticism

University of Washington Press

"Peyote has given me visions," says Elk Hair, a Delaware Peyotist in Daniel C. Swan's new book Peyote Religious Art (University Press of Mississippi $35.00, cloth). "He [Peyote] gave me visions telling me how to study our existence, how to think right. God taught Peyote to teach his children the good ways, to have good thoughts and clear minds before they leave." 
Elk Hair's narrative is one of many first-person accounts Swan gathered from practitioners and artisans in the Native American Church, whose holy sacrament is the small, spineless cactus, peyote. Combining 77 full color photographs, 32 black and white illustrations, and many narratives, Swan reveals the convictions, the faith, and the wealth of spiritual artistry surrounding worship in the Native American Church. 
Controversial and misunderstood, the ritualized use of peyote by American Indians has long been attacked by non-Indian religious and secular authorities. Despite official efforts to eliminate peyotism as far back as the Spanish Inquisition and as recent as the War on Drugs, its status in Native American spiritual life has not diminished. 
Works by self-taught and informally trained artists make up the diverse traditional and folk arts associated with the peyote religion. Peyote art displays an amazing range of genres, including carving, beadwork, featherwork, metalsmithing, and painting. Swan also explores regalia and accouterments that worshipers cherish and the evolution of symbols across time. 
Along with previously unpublished first-person narratives by practitioners of the religion and by artists, Peyote Religious Art features art objects from museum collections, works by contemporary artists, and materials from private family collections. Understanding these expressive forms provides invaluable insight into the challenging nature of American Indian life during the twentieth century and into the intertwining of art, religion, and community. 
Daniel C. Swan is senior curator at the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He has published numerous articles on the peyote religion among Oklahoma Indians.

Peyote Religious Art: Symbols of Faith and Belief (Folk Art and Artists Series)

UNIVERSITY PRESS OF MISSISSIPPI

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Swan, Daniel C.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Swan, Daniel C.