Floor Paintings-Native American Sand Painting

 The Native Americans tribes of Navajos practice a form of floor painting. The Medicine Man of the tribe paints patterns loosely upon the ground. He lets colored sands flow through his fingers with control and skill and voila a beautiful sand painting is ready. On some occasions these paintings are made on a buckskin or cloth tarp. 

 The colors of Native american Sand Painting are usually made with naturally colored sand, crushed gypsum (white), yellow ochre, red sandstone, charcoal, and a mixture of charcoal and gypsum (blue). Brown is made by mixing red and black; red and white make pink. Other coloring agents include corn meal, flower pollen, or powdered roots and bark 

 These paintings have great religious significance, and since they are sacred they are made and destroyed within 12 hrs. 

 The figures depicted in these paintings are Navajo spiritual beings, and they are called yei. These paintings are created to invoke the spirituals beings. The painting ritual is generally accompanied with rhythmic chants of the medicine men.