Crafts

When Europeans arrived to North America crafts still remained domestic there. The exception was the Natchez and other Indians of the South-East. Local chiefs must have employed craftsmen who made cult objects and decorations made of stone, copper, sea shells and ceramics.

The indigenous peoples of North America mastered various techniques of processing many natural materials. Pottery was an ancient craft. Ceramics was invented in North America irrespectively of the Old World and South America. The earliest ceramic vessels that date to the 4th millennium BC were found in the lower course of Mississippi. Painted ceramic vessels of Pueblo Indians are especially famous. The Tlingit people were skillful wood-carvers and decorated facades of houses, wooden boats, chests, dishes and other objects with sophisticated fretwork. They also used horns, bones, ivory and shale. The Eskimo people, who carved figures of animal and people from wood and walrus bone, were also skillful craftsmen. Among modern Indian masters there are plenty of outstanding talents whose works are of no less value than paintings of prominent European artists.

North American Indians never smelted metal, although since the 3rd- 4th millennium BC they have been using copper implements. They were made by cold smithery from native copper whose deposits can be found around Upper Lake and in some other regions. In the North-West copper was rare and was used mostly for production of single ritual objects that were of great value. The inhabitants of Alaska obtained iron of Chinese or Japanese origin. By the time the Russians arrived this metal was still rare and expensive.

Wickered hat. USA, Russian America.The Chugach. The first half of the 19th cent.		Ceramic vessel. USA. The Pueblo. Mid-to late 19th cent.		Pueblo Indian at weaver's loom. USA. New-Mexico. Pueblo Indians, late 19th c.
Navajo woman at manual weaver's loom. USA. New-Mexico. The Navajo, late 19th c.		Ceramic vessels, mimbres-style. 11th century. Pueblo Indians.		Map of ceramics distribution in North America
Model of a boat. USA. Russian America. The Tlingits. 1841-1842.		Model of a boat. USA. Russian America. The Tlingits. 1841-1842.		Model of a boat. USA. Russian America. The Tlingits. 1841-1842.