Timeline of Native American art history

This is a chronological list of significant or pivotal moments in the development of Native American art or the visual arts of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Earlier dates, especially before the 18th century, are mostly approximate.

Before common era

33,950–15,050 BCE: Artists paints hundreds of images at Serra da Capivara, Piauí, in northeastern Brazil.
12,800–8,500 BCE: Artists etch the Winnemucca Lake petroglyphs, near Reno, Nevada.
11,000 BCE: Megafauna bone etched with a profile image of a walking mammoth and cross-hatched designs left near Vero Beach, Florida is the oldest known portable art in the Americas
10,000–7000 BCE: "Horny Little Man," a petroglyph depicting a stick figure with an oversized phallus, is carved in Lapa do Santo, a cave in central-eastern Brazil, is the oldest reliably dated rock art in the Americas.
9250–8950 BCE: Clovis points - thin, fluted projectile points created using bifacial percussion flaking - are created by Clovis culture peoples in the Plains and Southwestern North America
9250–8550 BCE: Monte Alegre culture rock paintings created at Caverna da Pedra Pintada become the oldest known paintings in South America.
9000 BCE: A man and child interred in a cave near Serranópolis in central Brazil are accompanied by necklaces of human teeth and mother of pearl
8500 BCE minimum age : The Winnemucca Lake petroglyphs located near Winnemucca Lake, a dry lakebed in northwestern Nevada, are the earliest known petroglyphs in North America. They feature repeating designs of dots and arches, and other abstract designs.
8000 BCE: Fiberwork left in Guitarrero Cave, Peru is the earliest known example of textiles in South America
8200 BCE: Cooper Bison skull is painted with a red zigzag in present day Oklahoma, becoming the oldest known painted object in North America.
7650 BCE: Cave painting in the Toquepala Caves, Peru
7370±90: Stenciled hands are painted with mineral inks at the Cueva de las Manos, near Perito Moreno, Argentina, as well as images of humans, guanacos, rheas, felines, other animals, geometric shapes, the sun, and hunting scenes
7300 BCE: A painted herringbone design from Tecolate Cave in the Mojave Desert of California is the earliest well-dated pictograph in North America.
5630 BCE: Ceramics left at Caverna da Pedra Pintada, Brazil are the earliest known ceramics in the Americas
3450 BCE: Watson Brake, built by a hunter-gatherer society in Louisiana, is the earliest known mound complex in North America
2885 BCE: Valdivia culture pottery is created in coastal Ecuador
2600–2000 BCE: Monumental architecture, including platform mounds and sunken courtyards, built in Caral, Supe Valley; Asia; Aspero; Salinas de Chao; El Paraíso; La Galgada; and Kotosh, Peru
2500–1800 BCE: Elaborate twined textiles are created at Huaca Prieta in northern coastal Peru, part of the Norte Chico civilization
2000–1000 BCE: Poverty Point culture in northeastern Louisiana features stone work, flintknapping, earthenware, and effigy, conical, and platform mounds, as well as pre-planned settlements on concentric earthen ridges
1500 BCE–250 CE: Maya art is created in their Preclassic Period, in central and southeastern Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador
1400–400 BCE: Olmec culture thrives in Norte Chico, the tropical lowlands of Mexico. Their art includes colossal basalt heads, jade sculpture, carved writing in stones, and ceramic effigy jars.
1000–900 BCE: The Cascajal Block is carved with writing by the Olmec people, becoming the earliest known example of writing in the Americas
1000–200 BCE: Adena culture, known for its mound building, originates in Ohio and expands to Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky, and parts of Pennsylvania and New York.
900 BCE: Construction begins on Chavín de Huantar, a Chavín city in Callejón de Conchucos, Peru
900–200 BCE: Chavín synthesis flourishes in central coastal Peru and is characterized by monumental architecture, goldsmithing, stirrup spout ceramics, and Karwa textiles
750–100 BCE: Paracas culture flourishes in south coastal Peru
730 BCE: Porcupine quills used as binding agent in Utah and Nevada
500 BCE: Zapotec civilization emerges in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. They are known for their ceramics, jewelry, and stonework.
200 BCE–500 CE: The Hopewell tradition flourishes in Ohio, Ontario, and surrounding area, featuring ceramics, cut mica, weaving, carved pipes, and jewelry.

Common era

1–600: Moche culture flourishes in northern coastal Peru, characterized by monumental adobe mounds, murals, metalwork, and ceramics
1–700: Nasca culture thrives in southern coastal Peru, characterized by double spout and bridge vessels and the Nasca lines, monumental geoglyphs
200–700: Maya civilization's Classic Period. Architecture, painting, stone glyphic writing, books, painting, ceramics, and Maya textiles created in central and southeastern Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador
400–900: Tiwanaku culture emerges from Lake Titicaca and spreads to southern Peru, eastern Bolivia, and northern Chile
500–900: Wari culture dominates central coastal Peru
755±65–890±65: likely dates of the Blythe Geoglyphs being sculpted by ancestral Quechan and Mojave peoples in the Colorado Desert, California
800–1500: Mississippian cultures flourish in the Eastern Woodlands, featuring ceramics, shell engraving, textiles, woodcarving and stonework.
900: Earliest event recorded in the Battiste Good Winter count
900-1470: Chimú culture thrives in Chimor, today's north coastal Peru. Their art is characterized by monochromatic pottery; fine metal working of copper, gold, silver, bronze, and tumbago ; and monumental abode construction in their capital city Chan Chan
1000: Island of Marajó flourishes as an Amazonian ceramic center
1000–1200: Dresden Codex written and illuminated. This Yucatecan Mayan codex from Chichén Itzá is the earliest known surviving book from the Americas
1000–1200: Acoma Pueblo and Old Oraibi are established, become the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the United States
1070: Great Serpent Mound built in Ohio.
1100: Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon reaches apex in size at 800 rooms
1100: Hohokam Culture reaches apex in present day Arizona
1142: Wampum invented by Ayenwatha, which the Haudenosaunee used to record information.
1200–1533: Inca civilization originated in the Peruvian highlands and spreads across western South America
1250: Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde, and other Ancestral Pueblo architectural complexes reach their apex
1325–1521: The Aztec Empire thrives, based in Tenochtitlan, central Mexico. Their arts are characterized by monumental stone architecture, turquoise mosaics, stone carving, ceramics, cotton textiles, and Aztec codices
1430: Construction of Machu Picchu begins, a classic example of Incan architecture
1479: Aztec Sun Stone, a monolithic calendar stone, almost 12 feet in diameter, is carved
1492: Glass beads are introduced to Taíno people
1500: Calusa culture flourishes in Key Marco, Florida, characterized by woodcarving
1500–1800: Navajo people learn loom-weaving techniques from Pueblo people
1600–1615: Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala illustrates his 1,189-page book, El primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno.
1600–1650: Fernando de Alva Cortés Ixtlilxochitl illustrates the Codex Ixtlilxochitl with watercolor paintings
1688: European and Mestizo members of the Cuzco School part ways with the Indian painters, allowing them to develop their own styles.
1725: Quebec Grey nuns and Mi'kmaq women devise new floral appliqué techniques in moose hair embroidery

19th century

1820s: Haida argillite carving emerges, in the wake of the declining Fur trade
1820s: Tuscarora brothers David and Dennis Cusick, both self-taught artists, begin painting, founding the Iroquois Realist Movement
1825: Ursuline nuns teach floral embroidery to Métis and Dene women in Fort Chipewyan and Winnipeg, which will revolutionize Great Lakes quillwork, embroidery, and beadwork
1830–1900: Tribes near Niagara Falls create beadwork whimsies, birch bark boxes, and other art forms, jumpstarting an active souvenir trade, following the decline in the fur trade
1840s: Zacharie Vincent begins his career as a realist oil painter
1826/8: David Cusick published his self-illustrated Sketches of Ancient History of the Six Nations.
1853: Atsidi Sani becomes the first known Navajo silversmith
1858–1869: Aron of Kangeq, a Kalaaleq sculptor and carver, paints over 300 watercolors about traditional ways of life in Greenland, later to be published in books
1860s: Depletion of buffalo and forced relocation onto reservations causes Plains Indians to shift from hide painting to painting and drawing on cloth and paper, giving birth to Ledger art
1876: Mississauga Ojibwe sculptor Edmonia Lewis is the talk of the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia for her monumental marble sculpture, The Death of Cleopatra.
1870–1900: Navajo weavers incorporate new Eyedazzler patterns and Germantown yarns.
1875–1878: Southern Plains artists imprisoned at Fort Marion become prolific Ledger artists
1885–1890: Nampeyo and her husband Lesou revive Sikyátki style pottery
1885–1905: Alaska native arts thrive in the curio trade precipitated by the Klondike Gold Rush
1890s: Silver Horn creates paintings for anthropologist James Mooney
1895: John Leslie published a book of his photography at Carlisle Indian School and exhibits his photographs at the Atlanta International Exposition
1899: Tsimshian photographer Benjamin Haldane establishes a professional photography studio in Metlakatla, Alaska

20th century

1904: Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri features Native American art, including paintings by Silver Horn and Narcissa Chisholm Owen, art by Geronimo, and many others
1906–1915: Ho-Chunk artist Angel De Cora serves as director of Carlisle Indian School's Native American art program
1906: Carlisle Indian School builds state-of-the-art photography school and offers photography classes to its Native students
1910s: Maria Martinez revives her tribe's blackware ceramics
1910–1932: San Ildefonso Pueblo Painting Movement thrives in New Mexico, led by artists Crescencio Martinez, Julian Martinez, Alfredo Montoya, Tonita Peña, Alfonso Roybal, and Abel Sanchez (Oqwa Pi)
1914: Louisa Keyser, Washoe basket maker, experiences peak of her fame
1915: Iñupiaq men invent baleen basketry
1916: In a controversial move, Navajo weaver Hastiin Klah incorporates Yeibichei imagery into a rug
1917: Quechua photographer Martín Chambi establishes his own photography studio in Peru
1917–1930s: Seminole women in Florida develop their unique patchwork appliqué designs
1918: Julian Martinez invents the matte-on-glossy blackware ceramic technique
1920s: The Kwakwaka'wakw Four collaborate to revive and modernize Kwakwaka'wakw art
1922: Social Indigenist movement begins in Peru and thrives for three decades
1922: First Santa Fe Indian Market held, sponsored by the Museum of New Mexico
1925: Native Arts department of the Denver Art Museum was founded
1926: Indigenist Movement formed in Ecuador by Camilo Egas, Oswaldo Guayasamín, and other Quechua and Mestizo artists
1927: First Nations art exhibited with Euro-Canadian art in the Exhibition of the Canadian West Coast Art in the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa
1928: Kiowa Six participate in the International Art Congress in Prague, Czech Republic
1931: Exposition of Indian Tribal Arts opens at the Grand Central Art Galleries in New York City. Sponsored by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, the Secretary of the Interior, and the College Art Association, the exhibition of over 600 artworks then toured the Venice Biennale.
1932: Kiowa Six participate in the Venice Biennale. Their art, according to Dorothy Dunn, "was acclaimed the most popular exhibit among all the rich and varied displays assembled."
1932: Professor Mary Stone McClendon "Ataloa" founds the Ataloa Art Lodge, a Native American art center at Bacone College, in Muskogee, Oklahoma
1932: The Studio at the Santa Fe Indian School is established by Dorothy Dunn
1933–34: Century of Progress Exposition, better known as the Chicago World's Fair features Native artists such as Navajo artists Fred Peshlaikai, Ah-Kena-Bah, and Hastiin Klah, as well as Maria and Julian Martinez, who won Best in Show.
1934: Arts and Crafts of the Indians of the Southwest opens at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco
1934–1941: The Seneca Indian Arts Project, a WPA-funded project at the Rochester Museum and Science Center, headed by Arthur C. Parker, hires 70 Haudenosaunee artists to create almost 6,000 artworks
1936: Indian Arts and Crafts Board created in the US
1938: Osage Nation establishes the oldest tribal museum in Pawhuska, Oklahoma
1939: Many Native artists participate in the New York World's Fair including realist landscape painter Moses Stranger Horse and Fort Sill Apache sculptor Allan Houser
1939: Hopi artist Fred Kabotie curates a Native American art show at the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco
1941: Indian Art of the United States exhibition shows at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City
1946: Qualla Arts and Crafts is founded on the Qualla Boundary in North Carolina by Eastern Band Cherokee artists, becoming the first arts and crafts cooperative founded by Native Americans in the US
1948: Allan Houser completes his first monumental sculpture at the Haskell Indian School in Lawrence, Kansas
1950s and 1960s: Maya weaving cooperatives established by the Mexican government
1957: West Baffin Eskimo Co-op Ltd., an Inuit graphic arts workshop, is founded by James Archibald Houston in Cape Dorset, Nunavut.
1958: Yanktonai Dakota artist Oscar Howe writes his famous letter after his work was rejected from the Philbrook Museum art show for not being "Indian" enough
1958: Heard Museum Guild hosts their first annual Indian Fair and Market in Phoenix, Arizona
1958–1962: Norval Morrisseau develops Woodlands Style painting in Ontario
1960: Oscar Howe appears on an episode of This Is Your Life, Ralph Edwards Productions, NBC, 13 April 1960. The guest host was Vincent Price. Among the surprise guests was Howe's former teacher, Dorothy Dunn.
1962: The Institute of American Indian Arts is founded in Santa Fe, New Mexico
1965: University of Alaska, Fairbanks creates their Native Art Center
1967: Fritz Scholder paints Indian No. 1, 1967, Oil paint on canvas, 20 x 18 in, the first of his famed Indian series paintings.
1967: Red Cloud Indian School in Pine Ridge, South Dakota hosts its first annual juried, competitive, intertribal art show which continues today
1971: The Cherokee Heritage Center in Park Hill, Oklahoma hosts the first Trail of Tears art show, an annual juried, competitive, intertribal art show which also continues today
1971: The Institute of American Indian Arts Museum is founded by the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, as the only museum to focus on contemporary intertribal Native American art
1972: Two American Painters shows at the Smithsonian Institution's National Collection of Fine Arts in Washington, DC, featuring T. C. Cannon and Fritz Scholder
1977: Sna Jolobil in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Mexico becomes the first artist-run Mayan weaving cooperative
1990: Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act passed in the US
1990: American Indian Arts and Crafts Act passed in the US
1992: Crow's Shadow Institute of the Arts, a center for fine printmaking, is founded by Walla Walla artist James Lavadour on the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
1992: Eiteljorg Museum hosts their first annual Indian Market and Festival
1995: Edward Poitras represents Canada at the Venice Biennale, with Gerald McMaster curating.
1999: Native American Arts Alliance, curated by Nancy Mithlo sponsors Native American artists Harry Fonseca, Bob Haozous, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Kay WalkingStick, Frank LaPena, Richard Ray Whitman, and poet Simon Ortiz in the Venice Biennale
2000: Mapuche printmaker Santos Chávez is granted the Altazor award and named "illustrious son" of Tirúa, Chile

21st century

2004: National Museum of the American Indian opens its doors in Washington, DC
2005: Rebecca Belmore represents Canada and James Luna represents NMAI at the Venice Biennale.
2006: Chile hosts its first Biennial of Indigenous Art and Culture in Santiago, featuring over 120 artists from Chile's nine indigenous groups.
2006: The first Bienal Intercontinental de Arte Indigena is held in Quito, Ecuador
2009: Pottery by Jereldine Redcorn, who singlehandedly revived her tribe's ceramic tradition, is exhibited in the Oval Office of the White House
2022: Cynthia Chavez Lamar is appointed the new director of the National Museum of the American Indian, and is the first Native American woman to serve as a Smithsonian museum director.