Category Archives: Native American Art

Native American Buffalo Hides

Posted on by vsymtm

NAME OF PROJECT:  Native American Brown Paper Buffalo Hides

BASED ON ARTWORK BY:  Nampeyo (Hopi) and Kicking Bear (Sioux)

MAIN ARTWORK USED: Hopi Bowls by Nampeyo and Battle of Little Big Horn by Kicking Bear

SUBMITTED BY:  Luisa Dugas

GRADE LEVEL: 2/3

MATERIALS: 

Brown Paper bags (free at the Super market)

Acrylic Paint in red, turquoise, black, white and orange

Pencils and Black Sharpie

INSTRUCTIONS: 

STEP 1:  Scrunch up your brown paper bag, open and smooth it flat. Repeat. Then, tear brown paper bag to resemble the shape of a buffalo hide. Show example.

STEP 2: With black sharpie make a border around your whole hide. It is a good idea to create a repeating pattern. Show examples. If children want, they may draw it in pencil first, but it takes a lot of time.

STEP 3: Draw in pencil your Native American inspired designs. Make sure your designs are big and fill your hide. Designs should not have a lot of detail.

STEP 4: Use ONLY 3 of the 5 colors and color your designs. Set aside to dry.

STEP 5: When dry, edge all designs with black sharpie to make them stand out.

Totems

Posted on by vsymtm

Based on: Northwest Native North American Tribes

Artwork Used: Personal copies of totems copied from online researched articles (4/5 curriculum covers a multicultural curriculum every other year)

Submitted by: Dawn Forsberg

Grade Level: 4/5

Materials:

  • 2 coconuts per person
  • Assortment of seeds, berries, acorns, sticks
  • Acrylic paints (red, blue, black, yellow)
  • Assorted paint brushes
  • Glue gun and/or tacky glue

Instructions: 

  • STEP 1:Following the North American totem design tradition, students are instructed as follows: the top layer of the coconut should be designed to represent an animal that is meaningful to the student.  The bottom layer of the coconut totem should be designed to represent an important event or important people in the students’ life.STEP 2:Students write their names on the bottom of the coconut totem. Students first paint the two layers of the totem with the acrylic paint following the guidelines from step 1.STEP 3: (Optional): Students then glue the natural materials (seeds, sticks, acorns, etc) to add further detail to their individual totems. The glue gun works better for the heavier materials.