Basketry was used by the primitive Indians in carrying water.
Instinctively they recognize the true intrinsic value of the work and that they are real workers, but also it is the beauty and the surprises in basketry development that has its strong and attractive appeal for them.
Her patience was without limit in her experiments in materials, dyes and weaves, with the result that her basketry is the peer of any in the world.
The importance and influence of basketry is being recognized now and the work is being carried on in earnest.
Serious study of Indian basketry would serve both as an inspiration and stimulation to better work: its intricacy, its poetry and its artistry would be a revelation, and give a fuller understanding of a people so sadly misunderstood.
It seems quite impossible to me to write on basketry without mentioning the Indian and his connection with it, for we can very safely call him the master artist of basket work.
The desire to construct and create is strong in childhood, and here in basketry will be found an astonishing aid in inspiring such desire and in developing constructive ability.
The color work in basketry plays a very important part as well as a fascinating one.
He next adjusted the skin carefully over a basketry head-frame and placed the latter securely upon his head.
This shoe was made of woven basketry held between two hoops and so arranged that the foot went between the two sections, which were attached directly to the costume.
This was woven entirely in one piece and so arranged as to completely cover the wearer from head to foot, including the basketry helmet just mentioned.
The evolution of this pattern from plaited basketry has been ably discussed by Holmes and Nordenskiöld, whose works have already been quoted in this memoir.
The great number of terraced figures and their use in the representation of animals seem to me to indicate that they antedate all others, and I see no reason why they should not have been derived from basketry patterns.
It is remarkable that in Sikyatki we found no fragments of basketry or cloth, the fame of which among the Pueblo Indians was known to Coronado before he left Mexico.
Infolded triangles] The material at hand adds nothing new to the theory of the evolution of the terraced ornament from basketry or textile productions, so ably discussed by Holmes, Nordenskiöld, and others.
Until ten years ago the native art of basketry was preserved by the Scatticooks, and some specimens were then collected during several visits.
The designs themselves in the field of basketry decoration are pre-eminently floral, the figures being highly conventionalized.
Footnote 7: 'Basketry of the Scatticooks and Potatucks,' Southern Workman, vol.
The right-hand design strongly resembles a course of the twisted fibre of basketry when removed from the upright osier-sticks.
While the growth of the gourd was restricted to limited areas, the materials for basketry were anywhere at hand.
The same holds good for nearly all forms of matting and basketry which is made of strips of one material, but the constructional surface marking may be rectangles of various shapes and sizes instead of simple squares.
For example, their basketry work, for domestic and sacred purposes, and their bows and arrows, were of very superior workmanship and fine finish.
Most of the ornamental figures and designs worked into the finest basketry are symbolical in character, and of so ancient an origin that Indians of the present day do not know what many of them are intended to represent.
These articles, being generally light and portable, and constructed of delicate parts, can as well be classed with basketry as with wattle work.
Basketry includes a number of groups of utensils distinguished from one another by the use to which they are devoted.
Traces ofbasketry are rarely preserved either by charring or by contact with copper.
The basketry is worthy of inspection for the ingenuity and skill displayed in the manufacture of such articles.
Many of the simple lace stitches described in a preceding chapter prove very useful in basketry work.
The Indians are famous for the various kinds of fancy stitches, which they have used in making basketry articles.
The basketry of the Zuñians is usually made of small round willows and the stem of the yucca, the leaves of which attain a long slender growth in that region.
This specimen is a good representation of thebasketry manufactured by the Zuñians, used for carrying peaches.
The objects of basketry or wicker-work are quite varied in form, construction, and decoration.
The basketry of the Shinumos is of a finer and more finished quality.
This class of water jug basketry all show evidences of age, and it is possible that they were manufactured by the Apaches or other tribes skilled in the art.
It is quite certain that the basketry used for holding water is not manufactured by the Zuñians, and probably not by the Shinumos, though many are found with them.
Many of their textile designs suggest a derivation from basketry ornamentation, which originally came from nature.
In this as in basketry and pottery, the answer is found in nature.
Basketry and pottery in large quantities were found, all showing ability in manufacture, also artistic skill, anti-aesthetic conception in the form of the articles and the designs portrayed upon them.
Its chief characteristic is the roughening of its surfaces with the marks of twisted cords and somewhat later with those made by a plaited basketry fabric.
Evidence has also been found to show that they manufactured and used basketry and a simple twined weave type of cloth fabric.
Illustration: The woven basketry fabric which produced these impressions is among the earliest recorded in eastern North America.
Dunlap, on the other hand, is the name of a family which had long owned a large part of the Ocmulgee area, while the type designation refers to the use of a piece of woven basketry used in finishing the vessel.
They spend one hour in basketry study, making in all three hours away from their individual trades each week.
The bases of the cabinets contained the remainder of the written work, neatly bound in volumes and labeled; specimens of basketry and woodwork, and a collection of zoological and botanical specimens.
Some basketry is still made, and most of the Indian groups do tanning and very good beadwork.
The Indians' color-sense in their basketry is perfect, as also in their blankets, and I see no reason for the assumption that they should demand of us what is manifestly so contrary to their own natural and normal tastes.
Miscellaneous Records Where there are materials furnished for any camp activities such as raffia and reed for basketry there should be a separate record kept for this department.
In basketry the Pomo Indians of California found an outlet for the highest conceptions of art that their race was capable of.
The relation ofbasketry to symbolism and religion is best observable among the Hopi or Moqui of Arizona.
In many places the relation of ceramic art to basketry is in evidence.
The most exquisite and artistic basketry in the world comes from an utterly uncivilized tribe in California.
In North America basketry is "the primitive art," and here "the Indian women have left the best witness of what they could do in handiwork and expression.
The appreciation of white men for the products of Indian skill and genius in basketry finds full expression in G.
On the Pacific coast of America the efflorescence of basketry in every form of technic was known.
The forming of bird skins, rabbit skins and feathers into robes, and all basketry technic, existed from Vancouver Island to Central America.
The principal occupations of the natives have always been fishing and hunting, and the women weave basketry of exquisite fineness.
A peculiar type of coiled basketry is found at the Strait of Magellan, but the motives are not American.
There was apparently not much basketry along the river, the place of the baskets being taken by the birch-bark dishes of the Indian and the kantág or ingeniously made wooden dish of the Eskimo part of the river.
It was found later, in fact, that the Alaskan Indians, with the Aleutians, compare well in basketry with those of Arizona and California.
There is, however, no check stamp decorative design that is applied with a paddle by the Eskimo nor evidence that pottery vessels had been built up about a basketry base.
This type of basketry is widely distributed towards the north and with grass foundation is even found in Siberia.
Some similar basketry of a finer technique was found with this fragment.
In the Nez Perce region to the east, basketry funnels were used in connection with flat stones for mortars.
Commonly the coiled basketry in the Nez Perce region to the east was made with bifurcated stitch,[78] by means of a sharpened awl which was the only instrument used in weaving it.
On my recent trips I have come in contact with many fair specimens, both in basketry and blanketry, and when I have asked for an explanation of the design the reply has been: "Me no sabe!
Those of Oraibi are of willow and approximate as nearly to the crude willow work of civilization as any basketry made by the aborigines.
In my book on "Indian Basketry" I have described in detail the basketry of the Hopis.
Many of the women are expert basket makers, and in my book on Indian Basketry I have fully explained their methods of work and the charming nature of their designs.
In this, as in basketry and pottery, the answer is found in nature.
The time necessary to train clumsy fingers can hardly be taken from the regular work in grades where basketry is a prescribed course.
