ABSTRACT
This chapter examines a selection of films and videos that represent nearly twenty years of documentation of Native American visual arts and artists by both natives and nonnatives. Traditional art forms, with their conventional stylistic elements, provided highly visual markers of identity in times of cultural contact and change. Visions, produced by Indian News Media of the Blood Reserve in Alberta, Canada, reveals a diversity of opinions about the role of Indian artists, although the video makers emphasize the role of tradition and culture in the visual arts. The filmmakers rely heavily on other visual traditions: paintings of traditional weddings and other ceremonies by Hopi artist Fred Kabotie; wonderful historical stills, especially portraits; and short interview sequences with various visual artists. Films and videos documenting contemporary and traditional Native American visual art point out differences in the expression of Indianness by native artists.
