American Indian Culture and Research Journal

INTRODUCTION By definition, an American Indian art history is concerned with historic change. In addition to describing and documenting change that is apparent in the historic record of visual expression, such a history must identify the events and processes that contribute to change or, more properly speaking, innovation. In American Indian art, innovation would seem to oppose the notion of tradition when the latter term is intended to refer to the conservative retention of artistic ideas and techniques from one generation to the next. In recent years, the term tradition, when applied to American Indian art, has become loaded with additional implications, as Jonathan C. H. King has observed in a recent essay. Tradition, or traditional art, connotes authenticity reinforced by associations with cultural purity in the pursuit of time-honored practices. The term tradition, then, testifies to connections with the cultural legacy of an ancient past. In order not to threaten these connections, artistic innovation must reconcile tradition and change. When innovation is absorbed into prevailing practice, it becomes part of tradition. How and why is tradition modified by each succeeding generation to coincide with unique cultural and historical experiences? This larger question is addressed in this essay, if only by examining in detail the development of an innovative mode of clothing decoration and handiwork known as the floral style.