Sand Painting

My aunt & uncle traveled to the southwest as they often do and picked up some nice Navajo postcards for me. This one is quite touristy...it shows Navajos making a sand painting in Monument Valley, Arizona (where director John Ford made many John Wayne movies in the 1950s).
"Sand painting" is actually part of a healing ceremony: minerals are ground up and then used to illustrate religious beings who bring blessings to the Earth and the Dine (Navajo). The ceremony is held inside a traditional Navajo home (hogan) with only family members present. The patient sits on the artwork while the healers sing and pray; at the end it is all swept away.
Small versions can be purchased in art galleries and tourist shops; colored sand is applied to a wooden board illustrating many of these spiritual beings called Yei.

Shoshone

today's cards feature dancers at the annual Gift of the Waters pageant in Thermopolis, Wyoming. Here Ethan Harris, Shoshone, displays his wonderful regalia including Plateau style floral beadwork, back bustle, eagle feather fan, and headdress which includes magpie and red tail hawk feathers.

another card features a Shoshone-Arapaho elder and her great-granddaughter. Her blue wool dress is decorated with cowrie shells while floral beadwork decorates her moccasins and dance purse.

thanks to Postcrosser creoledreamer for this nice exchange!

Fancy Dancer

Summer is pow wow season back home in Oklahoma and all over Indian Country....a great time to be with friends & family, children learn more about their tribal heritage, everyone can appreciate the amazing artistic skills used to create dance regalia (moccasins, feather bustles, hide & cloth dresses, shirts, leggings, pouches and more), enjoy fresh hot fry bread, and sometime shop for beads or other vendor merchandise. Young athletic men enjoy modern dances such as the Fancy Dance seen here...Postcrosser mmgray has a friend who does Fancy Dance, so this was a special card to send.

Hudson Valley, New York

a NY State Museum postcard showing a diorama of native people butchering at a flint quarry. While the card text states they are "ice-age hunters" of 11,000 years ago the scene is more reminiscent of the late Archaic when glaciers had melted & receded from the far north, filling lakes, streams & marshes and providing rich vegetation for a complex ecosystem. Later this area would be home to Iroquoian peoples. My collection doesn't have many cards from the NE so this is a very nice addition!

Taos, New Mexico

this is a fun reprint of a vintage (1959) Taos large letter card sent by a Postcrosser in Albuquerque. Taos is a very old Puebloan community that continues to hold ceremonial dances and celebrations of indigenous culture. Taos is listed as a UN heritage site and I look forward to visiting next time I'm in New Mexico! Thanks to Christine and I hope you will send me more great cards!