Symbols come from experience, visions, and Spirituality and have become individualized and memorialized through the creative process of the arts.  All American Indian Symbols hold deep meanings. Symbols may be decorative, symbolic or combinations of both, and their meanings may vary  from Nation to Nation. In one Nation, a symbol may have deep meaning relative to their beiefs and/or Spirituality; in an adjacent Nation,  it may be used entirely as a decorative element. When a symbol is unique to one Nation, and interpreted by another, its meaning is far more often obscured than clarified.  Over the years, American Indian symbols (a sign representing an idea, a quality or an association) have been subject to "interpretation" by non-American Indians. Often, these interpretations are explained in terms of Anglo-European concepts that were nonexistent to the American Indian. The result frequently bears little or no relationship to the true meaning of Our symbols.