Kiowa Nation

On Thursday I attended the Native American Religion and Belief class for the talk given by Dr. Jenny Tone-Pah-Hote about the Kiowa Nation, and specifically silverwork and Peyote jewelry. She talked about the fact that she got interested in silverwork because it was a part of her family's history. She talked about the role it played in trade, and how it was a way of expressing one's identity. The jewelry was created during the assimilation period, which is very relevant in the comparisons of social status in the Kiowa Nation to social status in the United States at that time.

Dr. Tone-Pah-Hote showed a series of picture of the same people dressed in clothes to fit the context of Kiowa social status and United States social status. I was very interesting to see the same people in traditional Kiowa attire and then in a classic black suit that most men in United States wore at that time. Through assimilation, it seemed that less prestige came along with the silverwork such as hair metal because this was not something that people valued in the United States culture outside of Native American culture.

For a while, people did not identify this silverwork as artwork. They were considered jewelry and decoration rather than artwork. However, she explained that art is not static, so through time it was recognized as artwork. She also explained that these pieces of art did have connections to the Native American Church, but it had a larger meaning. That meaning was the relationship with Native American culture as a whole. Religion seemed to be an integral part of Native American culture, but she wanted to clarify that the connection was not solely with religion and more with the overarching culture.