BASKET MAKERS OF ARIZONA

The weaving of baskets is the oldest of the textile arts known to mankind.

In his most primitive state man was a roving hunter, living and fighting for survival with other wild beasts. But, in time, he slowly emerged from his savage state and approached a culture or what is today called civilization. One of his first steps in this direction was the establishment of a fixed place of abode for himself and family. This created his first transportation problem.

As his diet consisted of the flesh of other animals and of wild fruit, nuts, berries, and the seeds of some plants, he found the need for a container for these wild foods to transport them to his home. He fashioned together leaves and twigs from the trees and the reeds from the marshes and along the river banks into what we today call baskets. This was an important step in his advancement. The earliest period of development of the primitive people in America is called "The Basket Maker Period."

Our American Indians, who are the successors to these early cave people, have not only carried on their craft of basket weaving, but have developed it to a degree unsurpassed by any other race of people. An interesting factor in the development of this craft is the wide range of material used. An Indian weaver seldom imports material for her basket. Instead she accommodates her craft to the materials that are at hand. This accounts for the baskets made by the Indians at Point Barrow, on the northernmost tip of America, being made from whalebone taken from the mouth of the black whale of the Bering Sea. Farther down the west coast, the Thlingits and the Makaws dig spruce roots for their baskets. In Minnesota, the Chippewas fashion baskets from the bark of young birch trees and decorate them with dyed porcupine quills. In the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina, the Cherokee Indians make a very durable basket from split cane, as do the Chitemachas of Mississippi. In the Everglades of Florida, the Seminoles make baskets of wire grass and palmetto leaves. Many other tribes might be mentioned, but in almost every tribe the material, the technique or decorative designs are different. Seldom do we find the crafts of any two tribes alike.

In Arizona, there are fourteen tribes that make up the greater part of our Indian population of the state. Eight of these are basket-weaving tribes which we might divide into three groups. In the south, we have the two desert tribes, the Papagos and the Pimas. Through the central and eastern part of the state, we have the Yavapai and Apaches, who are mountain people, and a third group includes the four small tribes, in the northern and western part of the state, the Hopi, Havasupai, Hualpai, and the Chemehuevi.

The Papagos specialize in this type of novelty weaving.

The most southern member of our Arizona basketweaving group is the Papago tribe.

In the older Papago baskets, willow and devil's claw coiled around a bundle of split cattail stems were the materials used. The newer craft has developed the use of yucca leaves and bear grass, which are abundant in the foothills of the mountains of the southern part of the Papago country. The yucca is a much coarser material than the finely shredded willow twigs when prepared for weaving, and therefore many of the old and intricate designs used in the older craft do not lend themselves to the coarser weaves of the yucca material. In place of the squash blossom or many of the beautiful fret designs of the old craft, more simple designs have been created by the weavers.

In many instances, the decorative pattern of the basket is original with the weaver, and this brings up an interesting point of ethics that is observed by the Papago women. One weaver will not use another weaver's design. They simply say, "She might not like it."

The Papagos have probably commercialized their basket craft to a greater degree than any other of our Arizona tribes. The coarser yucca material works up much faster than a finer material would do and this enables the weaver to complete a basket in much less time. Since this yucca craft is primarily for commercial purposes, the weavers have adopted certain types and sizes of baskets popular with tourists. This includes small and large bowls, scrap baskets, wastepaper baskets, and covered baskets. Some reach hamper size in proportion. It must not be construed that the use of the coarser yucca material indicates that the Papago baskets are coarse or roughly woven. They are exceedingly smooth and the background is always the clear white bleached leaves from the terminal bud of the yucca, with the design executed in either the natural pale green of the yucca leaves or the jet black of the devil's claw. Altogether, they are very attractive and an interesting memento of the desert country from which they come.

North of the Papago country, along the Gila River, are the Pima villages. The Pimas have adopted the white man's ways, his religion, and his culture to a greater degree than most of the other Arizona tribes. But they still retain some of their old customs and crafts, especially basket weaving.

This craft remains unchanged as it has been handed down through countless generations. The technique, the materials used, and the decorative designs are still the same as they have always been and are distinctive to the Pima tribe.

One interesting feature of the decorative patterns used in Pima basketry is that the design is a complete unit within itself. It is very seldom that one sees two baskets of identical size and contour. The size of the weaving material, the closeness of the weave, and the contour of the basket all go together to determine the final size of the basket.

Pima baskets are of the coiled type. They are made of devil's claw and willow coiled around a bundle of warp which consists of split cattail stems. In this type of weaving, the warp is made up of several sections or strands of material of various lengths. As the weaving progresses and one section in the warp is covered by the coiling material, a new section is added. In this way the bundle of warp remains uniform, avoiding joints or weak spots. The coiling material is looped around the bundle of warp and, with the aid of an awl, it is passed through the top of the coil just underneath and then drawn tight. A small awl, such as a shoemaker uses, and a knife with which to split the material are the only tools used by the weaver. All materials must be kept wet and pliable during the weaving process. When we consider that these baskets are woven a single thread at a time, involving the tedious process mentioned above, we can realize the infinite amount of time and patient labor that goes into the making of an Indian basket.

Willow twigs are gathered during the summer and split into fine sections and stored away for future use. The Martynia, or devil's claw, is a plant somewhat like a cocklebur and grows along ditch banks and fence rows where there is plenty of moisture. The jet black seed pod has two tentacle-like claws, eight or ten inches long, protruding from the tip end of the seed pod. Strips of the weaving material are shredded from these tentacles and make up the black material used in the Pima basket. The background of the basket is usually made of the white willow material with the design being worked in black devil's claw.

The decorative designs used in Pima basketry are Piman in origin and are undoubtedly centuries old. These include geometric designs such as the numerous Pima frets which decorate so many of their baskets. Others are symbolic designs such as squash blossoms, butterfly wings, sunflowers, and others. In each case the design is a complete unit. One may find a basket with the squash blossom design in the Gila Crossing district and one in the Blackwater district sixty miles away with the pattern in the two baskets being identical. The same is true of all Pima designs. The Pima fret, with its numerous variations, is the most popular design among the weavers, with the squash blossom ranking second. The oldest type of basket made by the Pimas is the Giho. This is a peculiar-shaped burden basket and, according to the old legend, it at one time could walk but in doing so was so ungainly that the people laughed at it. Angered at this, the Giho declared that thereafter it would have to be carried. These baskets have not been made for the past forty or fifty years and are now almost extinct. I have one that I prize very highly. When I came to this reservation thirty years ago, it was hanging in the Nuns' parlor in one of our missions. When I could not find a specimen among the Indians, I asked the mission people to let me purchase it if and when it was ever for sale. As years passed, I would occasionally see it, but the old Mother Superior was very fond of the Giho and would never part with it. When she was called to her great reward, a younger group coming in were not so partial to this old basket, and one day the Father called me and said they wanted to give me the old Giho for my collection. I was pleased, indeed, for I had waited twentyfour years to get it.

From a financial standpoint, the story of my acquisition of some of my baskets is quite different to that of the Giho.

I recall that a certain woman on the reservation had a number of fine old baskets. Among them was an old olla that I wanted very much but she would never sell it. Over a period of twelve years, I made numerous attempts to buy it but the answer was always no. One day her husband came to me and said he thought his wife would sell me the basket if I would offer her twenty-five dollars for it. That was a lot of money for an Indian basket in those days, but I wanted the basket and told him to convey my offer to his wife. The next day he brought me the basket and collected the money, and I am still wondering whether or not this was a case of a little family collusion or perhaps a little high-jacking on the part of the husband. I had this happen one time. A man purloined one of his wife's baskets and sold it to me and immediately invested the proceeds in bootleg liquor. When he sobered up, he confessed his guilt and the wife promptly made me give the basket back to her. In the case of the old olla, the purchase was made nearly twenty years ago and nothing has happened so I am beginning to feel fairly safe.

I have lived with the Pimas for thirty years and during that time have collected more than two hundred specimens of their basketry, and I have very few duplicates in my collection. Nevertheless, I continue to occasionally find patterns that I do not have.

Star designs of Yavapais.

It is remarkable that so many of these decorative patterns have been handed down through the many generations and yet there has never been a sketch or drawing made of them. The weavers tell me they learn the patterns from their mother or grandmother and then they just remember them. However, there is a question as to how much longer they will be remembered. In olden times, it is said that about six out of every ten women wove baskets. Today, there are not one-half of one per cent of the Pima women who are weavers, and I know only one girl under twenty years of age who weaves baskets. Every encouragement possible is being given to continue this craft, but the compensation for the time used in weaving a basket is the lowest of any occupation I know. As a result, this craft will soon be a lost art among the Pima people.

About fifty miles across the Salt River Valley to the north of the Pima country lie the rolling foothills of the Mazatzal Mountains. This the home of the Yavapai Indians. These are mountain people and in many ways quite different to the Pimas and Papagos who live in the desert country. The Yavapai are not inclined toward agriculture but lean more toward stock raising. In this they are limited by the poor condition of their range and the small acreage of their reservation. The Fort McDowell Reservation contains only twenty-six thousand acres. At one time their tribal holdings amounted to twenty thousand square miles, or about thirteen square miles per person. The Yavapai are generally known as Mojave Apaches which is very confusing as it causes them to be regarded as an Apache band. As a matter of fact, they are a member of the Yuman family and are unrelated to the Apaches.

In the early history of Arizona, they were closely associated with the Apaches with whom they were friendly.

They were hostile to the coming of the white man into Arizona and fought along with the Apaches to prevent it. In 1875, they were confined with several Apache bands on the Military Reserve at San Carlos and they were not released until 1900. In the olden times, the Yavapai were foragers who depended on wild food for their subsistence. In the summer they gathered and dried cactus fruit from the southwestern part of their vast domain. In the autumn they picked walnuts and piñon nuts in the higher elevations of the northeastern part of their country. All these foods they stored in caves in the Mazatzal Mountains where they lived during the winter months. From the above, it will be seen that they lived a more or less nomadic life.

The Yavapai had no horses so all their household effects had to be carried when they were on the trail. Their baskets formed a most important part of their equipment. Some of them were used for cooking. This was done by placing the acorn meal or meat with water in the basket and then dropping in heated stones until the food was cooked. These old cooking baskets are now extinct. They have been replaced by a more modern craft that is identical to that of the Apaches who live across the mountains to the east. I have asked the weavers of both tribes to account for this similarity in not only material and technique, but also in the decorative designs. The present-day weavers can offer no explanation but, apparently, the craft was developed during a time when the two tribes were closely associated. Whether or not this was during the period when both tribes were confined at San Carlos is not known to the Indians of either tribe.

Yavapai baskets are of the coil type similar to those of the Papagos and Pimas; however, there is one marked difference in construction. Instead of the warp consisting of a number of sections of split material, it consists of three small willow twigs. These twigs taper from base to tip and, to maintain a uniform size to the bundle of warp, they are staggered so that only one twig is added at a time. This type of warp is commonly known to the basket craft as the “three rod foundation” and is used by several other tribes. The shredded willow material is used for the background and devil's claw for the decorative design.The whole scheme of decorating these baskets is characteristic and distinctive to the Yavapai and Apache weavers. The designs used by these tribes and the arrangement of these designs are such that it is difficult for the weavers of either tribe to distinguish the tribal origin of the baskets. There are no fixed patterns and no designs that are a unit within themselves. Instead, they have a number of geometric figures and lines together with characters and symbols which go into the decoration of their baskets. Triangles and diamond-shaped blocks of black on the white background of willow are supplemented by figures of men, women, deer, horses, dogs, and sometimes eagles. Swasticas and coyote tracks are also used to give balance to the decorations and to fill in space. While the above-mentioned figures enter into the decorations of the baskets, their arrangement is wholly left to the will of the weaver. This accounts for there rarely being two baskets that are identical. The shallow bowl or tray is the most popular type, with ollas ranking next. The Indians no longer use these baskets in their homes and they are made primarily for sale. I might add that these weavers are good salesmen and usually drive a good bargain in disposing of their wares. I was purchasing a basket from one of them and when she quoted me her price, I mentioned that it was reasonable; and then went on to comment on the superior workmanship and the beauty of the design. She was quick to see that I was impressed and began to tell me how much she thought of her basket and how much it hurt her to part with it. She went to some length to impress me, and finished by saying that she thought if I paid her three dollars more she would not “hurt so bad” and could stand to part with her basket. I had talked myself out of three dollars but the basket was worth it.

The Yavapai tribal holdings extended up the west slope of the Pinal and Mazatzal ranges, and beyond was the wild mountainous country of the Apaches. They were the last of the hostile tribes to surrender to the white man and his civilization. Then followed a period of terrific adjustment to their new way of life. In the old days, an Apache man was a warrior, probably the best trained of his race, and to him work in any form was degrading. Today, his descendants are preferred workmen in construction gangs, lumber mills, reclamation projects, and mines. As a warrior, he was a supe-rior horseman and now he has turned that talent toward cattle raising. Last year the Apaches sold over two million dollars worth of beef cattle. They are not inclined toward agriculture and they have very little land on their reservation suitable for farming. From a hungry, beaten, and dejected people they have risen to a thriving, self-reliant and selfsustaining community; and, through the sale of cattle andtimber, they contribute materially to the economy of their section of the state. In their adjustment, however, they have lost much of their old culture. Their work in white buckskin is practically extinct and their basket craft is fast approaching extinction. From about 1895 to 1930 this craft flourished, but during the past twenty years it has been on a steady decline, and on my last trip to the Apache country I could not find a single coil-type basket in any of the trading posts.The Apache weavers were most famous for their large olla-type baskets. Some of these reached four and five feet in height and diameter. These baskets are no longer made in the Apache country. There is only one type of basket now being woven to any extent. This is the tus (pronounced Toos), or water jug. This is a basket roughly made of split willow twigs which form a foundation for a coating of piñon pitch. This is a resin that collects on the branches of the piñon trees. The Indians gather these small deposits and the pitch is heated and a thick coating applied both inside and outside the willow basket. The weavers tell me that they always heat this pitch at a safe distance from their homes for it is very likely to catch fire. A piece of cowhide with the hair acting as a brush is used to apply the hot pitch. There are no wells in the Apache country and all domestic water must be carried from springs and streams, so the tus continues to be an important piece of equipment in most Apache homes.

Hopi Second Mesa baskets are popular with tourists.

About one hundred and sixty miles to the northwest of the Apache country are the Hopi Mesas. The Hopi are a Pueblo people and have maintained themselves by agriculture under conditions that few people could survive. They have an average rainfall of eleven inches and a mean temperature of 55 degrees. Their average yield of corn and beans is about five bushels per acre, grown under the most trying conditions. In spite of this, they are a happy, friendly, and altogether interesting people.

While the three Hopi Mesas are only a few miles apart, each has a separate craft that does not compete with the other. On the First Mesa, only pottery is made. These people are very artistic and produce some of the most beautifully decorated pottery that comes from the Indian country. On the Third Mesa, baskets of rabbit brush and wild currant are woven. The technique used in their construction differs from that of the other tribes previously mentioned. Third Mesa baskets are of a wicker weave. The framework of the basket is made of branches from the wild currant bush, with the weft being of the stems of the rabbit brush. The whole twig is dyed in bright colors with native vegetable dyes. For instance, blue dye is obtained from sunflower seed, yellow dye from saffron flowers, and purple from the purple maize, etc. Each color comes from a local plant and is prepared in a unique manner known only to the Hopi. They are beautiful soft colors, lacking the harshness of aniline dyes. The decorative designs range all the way from geometric figures to birds and numerous characters or kachinas which represent deities in the Hopi religion. The flat plaque is the most common type made and was the basket formerly used in the household and in the religious life of these people. To meet popular demand, many types of deep baskets are now being made for sale to traders and tourists. These are the most highly colored of Arizona baskets. There are no set color schemes, but the whole decorative plan and color combination are subject to the will of the weaver.

Ten miles away on the Second Mesa, one will find an entirely different basket craft. The baskets here are made of yucca and are of the coil type somewhat similar to the Papago weaves, the main difference being that the shredded vucca is dyed in the same manner as the rabbit brush in the Third Mesa baskets. The most distinctive feature is the large soft bundle of split yucca leaves or Galleta grass around which the dyed yucca material is coiled. This makes the coil larger than that of other Arizona baskets but the weaving material is very fine and the finished basket is a very smooth and beautiful specimen of the weavers' craft. The decorative designs are somewhat similar to those of the Third Mesa but tend more toward conventional faces of deities and geometric figures.

The Hopi continue to use their baskets in their religious rituals and other ceremonies. The most colorful of these is the wedding ceremony. This is quite an elaborate affair and extends over a considerable period of time, so much so that these thrifty farm people have their wedding ceremonies during the winter when they are not busy in their fields. After the young people have been united, according to the sacred law of the Hopi people, and the groom and his bride have moved in with his mother-in-law, as tribal custom decrees that he must do, then at a prearranged date his bride and her people form a procession to visit the groom's mother. Each carries a flat or shallow bowl-shaped basket heaped with ground corn which the bride and her relatives have ground by hand on a flat grinding stone. The groom's mother may keep the ground corn and all the baskets with the exception of the one which the bride carries. This basket is given to the groom and in the olden times he was buried in a sitting position on it. On a visit to the Hopi country, my friend and guide, who had recently witnessed a Hopi wedding, took me to the home of the groom's mother. She was very gracious and permitted us to take pictures of the baskets that had been given to her in the wedding ceremony.

Hardly less picturesque than the Hopi are their neigh-bors to the west, the Havasupai. Long ago this small band of farm people descended to the bottom of Cataract Canyon and have since maintained themselves on little farms along Havasu Creek which runs through the Canyon and then plunges in three great falls into the Colorado River of the Grand Canyon. Cataract Canyon might be called a side canyon or spur of the Grand Canyon and while not as deep as the great gorge, its floor is 3300 feet below the surround-ing territory. In many places it is only a quarter of a mile in width and the Havasupai Village is accessible only by two narrow trails that wind along the steep canyon walls. There There are no traffic problems in the Havasupai Village for all traffic is either on horseback or by foot. There is a Government school, post office, and other buildings which, together with their equipment, have all been carried into the canyon on pack animals. I am told that the lumber was all cut into eight-foot lengths in order that the pack animals might negotiate the sharp turns in the trail. The Havasupai tribe is another member of the Yuman family and is closely related to both the Yavapai and Hualpai tribes. Their little canyon is sometimes called the "Land of the Willows" because this tree lines the little stream that flows through the canyon. Their baskets, which are the principal craft of the Havasupai, are made from the twigs of the trees and the devil's claw which they cultivate on their own farms. Their craft is very similar to that of the Yavapai and Apache. They use the same three rod foundation, with their coiling material being split willow and devil's claw. The arrangement of the decorative figures in Havasupai baskets differs somewhat from the Apache and Yavapai but the characters themselves are similar. These include animals, birds, lines and triangles, and other geometric figures. The star as the main symbol in the decorative pattern is quite common. Generally speaking, Havasupai baskets are not as well woven as those of the mountain people.

The rolling range land of the Hualpai reservation lies immediately south of Havasupai Canyon. The Hualpai are another member of the Yuman family and are closely related to the Havasupai. The two tribes associate freely with each other to the extent that intermarriage between the two is not infrequent. According to an old legend, after the great water that covered the earth had drained away through a hole in the ground, two divine beings came up from the underworld and climbed to the top of a mountain in the Hualpai country. The younger of the two was Tedjupa and it was agreed that he should rule all the land that lay before him, but there were no people on the land so he went down to the river and brought some stalks of cane and broke them into short pieces. He laid these on the ground and they imme-diately became living people. For a long time, Tedjupa and his people lived around the base of the Hualpai Mountain, but in time dissension sprang up and Tedjupa decided to separate them. He gave each group some corn, beans, and squash seed. He sent one group to the south and told them to plant their fields along the great river (Colorado River). This was the Mojave Tribe. Another group he sent north across the river. They were Piutes. Another group was sent down into the canyon along the "River of the Sky-Blue Water." These were the Havasupai. For a time the rest of his people continued to live at Hualpai Mountain. Trouble started one day when children at play began to throw mud at each other. Then they started throwing stones and a child was hurt. Some of their parents took up the fight and after