Cover photo Autry National Center of the American West and University of Washington Press

A comprehensive look at floral designs in Native American beadwork, Floral Journey: Native North American Beadwork is an homage to the skill of the Native American artist and the resiliency of a people in the face of cultural eradication. The book is a collaboration between the Autry National Center of the American West in Los Angeles and the University of Washington Press. Author Lois S. Dubin is one of the preeminent authorities on Native adornment and beadwork in the United States.

Prior to contact with Europeans, Native artwork was mainly geometric in design, and relied on natural materials such as leather, birch bark, porcupine quills, shells and grasses. Following the discovery of North America by outsiders, artisans had not only new materials to choose from, including a huge variety of glass beads, but new motifs to draw from for their designs. Before the 16th century floral designs were only found among Northeast tribes in a very primitive style, but with the arrival of Europeans these motifs expanded and spread across the U.S. and were incorporated into almost every tribes artistic style.

Floral designs were incorporated into Native beadwork and design in part as a way to disguise the traditional spiritual forms found in pre-contact work, as tribes were increasingly encouraged to abandon their nature-based belief system and embrace European religious views. Depictions of the sun and stars became flowers, stems, tendrils and leaves, or cleverly disguised animal forms. In this way Native people were able to maintain their traditional beliefs while hiding them from disapproving eyes.

If nothing else, this book is a glorious feast for the eyes, with rich color photographs, maps and historical photos on almost every page. But Dubins journey through the history of floral design in North America offers a new perspective and insight into Native beadwork that guarantees youll never see it the same way again.

Floral Journey: Native North American Beadwork, by Lois S. Dubin. © 2014, Autry National Center for the American Indian/ University of Washington Press.