Sapatq'ayn: Art of the Nez Perce Nation

The legends, music, regalia, and culture of the Nez Perce have been deeply interwoven into tribal art. Until the 1930s, however, some overzealous government superintendents forbade Native Americans to paint pictures in their native style. Scholars have said such intrusions were a blundering attempt at cultural genocide--to extinguish traditions that seemed to prevent Indian tribespeople from melding into the general population. Thanks to shifting views on native art, Ann McCormack was able to organize the first sapatq'ayn (display) of twentieth-century Nez Perce artists, most of whose work had never been seen before by the general public. Learn more about the sapatq’ayn, and the Nez Perce artists, in this article, made available by The World & I Online.