European Influence On Native American Culture

The Europeans first started building settlements in North America in the 1500s, bringing not only germ cover blankets, but also new art techniques. Before contact with the Europeans the art style of the Native Americans consisted of carved totem poles, pottery decoration to show lineage, and complex paintings on stone. Imagery was used as a symbol of sacred events, rituals, and natural forces, which could include everything from celestial bodies and weather to the indigenous animals of the region. Animals were often used as symbolism to show reverence for their special traits, especially the bison, which was a staple of their lives. The Europeans brought alternative ways to live that influenced not only how art was made but how the Native Americans lived their life, the Navajo learned to keep sheep and to weave their wool, to make colorful blankets. Other Native Americans began experimenting with painting in oil, using European art styles and sometimes in their own traditional style.
In the 1800s, many Native American art traditions were lost when the United States governments took Native American children away from their parents and their villages, to grow up surrounded by only European