The book I read to research this post was North American Indian Art by David W Penney which is a very good book which I borrowed from the library. Native Americans didn't think of themselves as Native Americans prior to Europeans settling in the USA. They always thought of their identity as being a member of a tribe. There were over 170 languages spoken in America by these tribes at one time & often the word that referred to the tribe they belonged to merely meant the people in their language. Most of the names we know the tribes were given to them by Europeans. Art in the west is often individualistic but art to these people by contrast was often very social. Often things like could be seen as a form of art. There clothing also which was often made by themselves could be seen as a form of art although a tribe would often have a dress code which everyone would stick to. A lot of their art was carving animal bones & wood & if you were a good artist you would be quite sought after in the tribe also they often got to marry the nicest women. When the Europeans arrived many Native Americans got notebooks often by way of trade. They then started drawing things like if they went hunting & killed a buffallo. The vast majority of these people obviously had no training in art & their pictures are quite simplistic. If you had a notebook from a tribal chief from this period it would probably be worth a lot of money. Nowadays many of these people are highly trained in art & this is reflected in their pictures. They also often have things like pow-pows which people can go along & watch.