Inverted Flags in Plains Indian Art: A Hidden Transcript

Abstract

During the late 1800s Plains Indian women produced a vast amount of beaded art and many of the items created and used by the Lakotas and Cheyennes of this day were embellished with American flags. This seemingly paradoxical tradition, one where subordinated peoples employed the preeminent symbol of their oppressors as a design element in their expressions of ethnic identity, has attracted the scholarly attention of several anthropologists and art historians. While much has been published on this practice, no one to date has systematically explored why so many native artists of the past chose to render the flag in an inverted position. Historic photographs of this period also reveal scenes of daily life where Indian peoples displayed flags upside down. Contrary to what some authors have claimed, such occurrences were not accidental. Rather, they arose as a hidden transcript through which Plains Indians could safely convey their deep displeasure with U.S. Indian policies that so adversely affected them.