Hopi

Using both wicker and coil techniques, the Hopi have created baskets and plaques in an almost endless variety of colors and designs. Some of those more easily recognizable include Kachinas of several types, an Eagle, Mud Head, Shalako, Sun God, Clown, Corn, Etc. Experts have said that, over the past one hundred years, Hopi weavers might well be the only basket makers to have actually improved their techniques and workmanship.

THE CLASSIC EDITIONS OF INDIAN BASKETRY

The accompanying information has been selected from the "Rio Grande Press Classics" edition of authoritative source books.

We wish to thank publishers Robert McCoy and John Strachan, Rio Grande Press, Glorieta, New Mexico, for making the valuable editions available to us.

Mason, Otis Tuffon ABORIGINAL INDIAN BASKETRY

James, George Wharton INDIAN BASKETRY - AND HOW TO MAKE BASKETS

By the pool - Tule River Reservation. Photograph by Edward Sheriff Curtis.

Kissell, Mary Lois BASKETRY OF THE PAPAGO and PIMA INDIANS

Barrett, S. A. POMO INDIAN BASKETRY

Roberts, Helen H. BASKETRY of the SAN CARLOS APACHE INDIANS

The original editions from which the Rio Grande Press Classics are reproduced are rare, out of print and valued collector's prizes.

The Rio Grande Press Classic Special Editions are available from most book stores or direct from the publishers.

BASKETRY from page 6

In times of scarcity they searched every hiding of fat grub or toothsome bulb; or with a tough stick drove the angle worms from their holes and with the addition of a few wild onions and acorn flour converted the mess into an appetizing soup. They made petticoats of tule and other wild grasses for summer use, and winter garments of rabbit and squirrel skins. And while all these accomplishments added to the market value of the women, it was invariably the most expert in basketry who brought the highest price, viz.: two strings of shell money, or one hundred dollars."-Mrs. Jeanne C. Carr. Indian basketry is almost entirely the work of Indian women, and therefore, its study necessarily leads us into the sanctum-sanctorum of feminine Indian life. The thought of the woman, the art development, the acquirement of skill, the appreciation of color, the utilization of crude material for her purposes, the labor of gathering the materials, the objects she had in view in the manufacture of her baskets, the methods she followed to attain those objects, her failures, her successes, her conception of art, her more or less successful attempts to imitate the striking objects of Nature with which she came in contact, the aesthetic qualities of mind that led her to desire to thus reproduce or imitate Nature-all these, and a thousand other things in the Indian woman's life, are discoverable in an intelligent study of Indian basketry.

To the uninitiated a fine Indian basket may possess a few exterior attractions, such as shapely form, delicate color and harmonious design, but anything further he cannot see. On the other hand the initiated sees a work of love; a striving after the ideal; a reverent propitiation of supernatural powers, good or evil; a nation's art expression, a people's inner life of poetry, art, religion; and thus he comes to a closer knowledge of the people it represents, a deeper sympathy with them; a fuller recognition of the oneness of human life, though under so many and diverse manifestations. Fine baskets, to the older Indian women, were their poems, their paintings, their sculpture, their cathedrals, their music; and the civilized world is just learning the first lessons of the aboriginal melodies and harmonies in these wicker-work masterpieces.

Basket making as a fine art among the Indians is rapidly dying out. True, there are still many baskets made, and on a recent trip to the High Sierras of California I found a number of first-class basket makers at work, and, more pleasing still, some of the young girls were learning the art. But in almost every case the basket maker of to-day is dominated by a rude commercialism rather than by the desire to make a basket which shall be her best prized household treasure as the highest expression of which she is capable of the art instinct within her. Hence the rage for old baskets. A true collector does not wish a basket made to sell, and as the old baskets were comparatively limited in number, the opportunity to secure them is rapidly passing away, if it has not already disappeared. By this, of course, I do not mean that old baskets may not be purchased. Collections now and then are for sale, which are rich in rare old specimens of the weaver's art; and occasionally, but, now, alas, very occasionally, the indefatigable collector may pick up an ancient basket in some far-away Indian hut. These will be described at length in the proper place. In basket-making there are several characteristics to be observed which will enable one to classify the objects and to refer them to their several tribal manufacturers. These characteristics are the material, the framework, the methods of

KINDS OF WOVEN BASKETRY

KINDS OF COILED BASKETRY

weaving, the coiling or sewing, the border, the decoration, the use, etcetera.

The tool almost universally employed in the manufacture of coiled ware is a bone awl or pricker. Of the manipulation of the material previously to the weaving little is known.

With a few exceptions the makers of baskets are women. In the division of labor belonging to the lowest stages of culture the industrial arts were fostered by women, the military and aggressive arts by men. It is a well-known rule in these first stages of progress that, with few exceptions, the user of an implement or utensil was the maker of it. There are people on the earth among whom the men are the basket makers.

Indeed, for ceremonial purposes our own Indian priests or medicine men are frequently the makers of their own basket drums.

VOCABULARY OF BASKETRY

So much is said and written on the subject of Indian basketry that a vocabulary is desirable. On some terms all are even now agreed. All things considered, words in common use should be adopted. There are, as before mentioned, two absolutely different kinds of technic employed, dividing basketry into woven and coiled. The former leads to the loom, the latter to the needle. It is not correct to speak of warp and weft in the latter, only in the former; the parts of coiled basketry are the foundation and the sewing. The following terms and definitions are suggested, not arbitrarily, but subject always to amendment and common consent. Words from Indian languages are purposely omitted. A few of them, however, ought to be retained, such as "tee," for the Pomo twined weaving: Basket. A vessel or receptacle in textile material; a technic product resembling this.

Basketry. A general term including (1) basket making, the process or art; (1) basket work, the technic or stitches, any textile motive resembling work in baskets; (3) basket ware, a collection of finished products.

Beading. A strip of bark or a splint run in and out through the spaces in woven or among the stitches in coiled basketry.

Braidwork. Fabric in which three or more elements are braided, as in some three-strand twined basketry. See False braid. Preferred to the word plaited. There may be flat, round, or square braid. The term sennit is also allowable.

Buttonhole stitch. A series of half hitches, as in Fuegian coiled basketry.

Check. Where warp and weft cross.

Checkerwork.-Basket work in which the warp and weft are equally flexible and the checks are square, or at least rectangular.

Chevron.-V-shaped ornament, in which two or more colored lines meet at an angle; for example, the device on the sleeve of a non-commissioned officer. (See Herringbone and Zigzag.) Chinking. Soft materials between hard stems in the foundation of coiled basketry.

Coil. An element in basketry ornamentation. The varieties are plain coil, reversed coil, loop coil, continuous loop coil. Coiled basketry.-Type of basket work in which a foundation of hard or soft material, arranged in a spiral, is held together by means of over-and-over sewing. Crossed warp.-Type of basket work in which two sets of warp cross each other at an angle-for interlacing weft, for seizing or wrapping (Makah), or for twined weaving, common in Attu wallets. Decussations. Crossing of warp at acute angles. Diagonal weaving. Passing weft over two or more warp elements, but not the same in adjoining rows. Used here chiefly of twined weaving to distinguish it from twilled weaving with single weft element; also running the weft at an angle, as in matting. Diaper. A surface decoration which shows a pattern by the relief or direction of warp and weft. Designs. Figures and patterns used in the ornamentation of basketry. Must not be confounded with Symbol. Embroidery.-Ornamentation added after the basket is finished. (See False embroidery.) Fagotting. Same as Hemstitch. False braid. An appearance of braid work on the margin of a basket made with a single splint in ball stitch or rackingseizing. False embroidery. An appearance of embroidery made on Tlinkit and other twined ware by wrapping the strands on the outside with colored material in the process of weaving. Fiber. A flexible substance composed of filaments such as cedar bark, wild hemp, etc. Frap. To bind one element about another. Fret. The Greek ornament occurring in endless variety on basketry. Furcate. Said of stitches in coiled sewing intentionally and symmetrically split-bifurcate, trifurcate, etc. Fylfot. Ornament imitating a Greek cross with arms extended at right angles, all in the same direction; called also Swastika. Gorrita. The shallow basket bowl of the Pimas and other southwestern tribes. Hemstitch. Drawing warps together in groups of two or more and holding them by twined weavings. Seen in Aleutian openwork wallets. Called also fagotting. Herringbone. Basketry designs in which chevron patterns are in parallel series. Herringbone border. On coiled basketry a finish in which with a single splint the appearance of 3-ply braid is given. (See False braid.) Hitched weft.-Basket work in which the weft makes a half hitch about each warp element. In coiled work it would be hitched sewing, same as buttonhole stitch. Hurdle. A coarse form of basket work in brush and trees for hunting and fishing purposes. Imbricated ornament. Coiled basketry in which a strip of soft material is folded back and forth over the stitches, overlapping like shingles on a roof or the folds in knife plaiting. Klikitat and Fraser River basketry are imbricated. Impacted.-Driven close together, as the weft or stitches in basketry. Inset. A pattern worked separately into a basket. The Chilcat blankets are thus woven. Interlacing. The crossing and intertwining of parts, as in woven baskets and borders. Interstices.-Open spaces left in weaving. Knife plaiting. See Imbricated ornament. Lattice weaving. Basket work in which a frame of rods crossing at right angles is held together by wrapping the intersections with a single splint or ribbon, as in Makah basketry, or by a twined weft, as in the Pomo Tee weaving. Multiple coil. The foundation of coiled basketry made up of filaments, grass stems, or splints. Muskemoot.-Loucheux netted bags of babiche. Coiled work without foundation. Meander. Crossed frets in basketry ornament. Oblique weaving. Chiefly in matting, where the weaving begins at one corner. Osier.-Basket materials prepared from small stems of willow or similar plants. Shoots of dogwood (Cornus stolonifera) are called red osier. Overlaying. Laying a split straw or other colored material on a tough weft splint or sewing material in basket making, to take the place of colored bark. If the two are not twisted on each other, the figure does not show inside the basket. Padding. Soft material in the foundation of coiled basketry, helping to make the structure water-tight. (See Chinking.) Pentacle. In basket ornament a 5-pointed star, whose lines inclose a pentagon. Pierced warp. The form of weaving in cat-tail and other soft material when the weft strings pass through the warp. The warp stems are strung on the weft strings. Radial warp. The arrangement of warp elements or spokes in the bottom of a cylindrical basket. They may be (1) crossed, (2) cut away, or (3) inserted. Radial patterns or designs are such as proceed from the central portion of a bowlshaped basket outward to the border. Scroll work. Imitation of art scroll on basketry. It is usually angular. Sewing. The joining of parts with an awl and splint. Coiled basketry is sewed, not woven. Shoots. The young and pliable growth of plants in the first year. Rough shoots, prepared shoots, and split shoots are used. Shreds. Irregular strips of plants used in foundations of coiled baskets. Spiral. Term applied in basket making and decoration: (1) To the whorled coil, wound about a center and receding, as in Hopi plaques, flat spiral; (2) to the helical coil, winding on a cylinder, cylindrical spiral, as in coiled jars; (3) to the conical coil, rising in a cone, conical spiral. Splint. In basketry, a long strip of split wood, uniform in width and thickness for weaving or sewing materials. Often the term is more loosely applied to the split pieces that make up the foundation of coiled work. Spoke. Term sometimes applied to each of the elements in radiating basket warp. Stalk. The stems of reeds, grass, cattails, etc., for basket materials. Stitches. The separate elements in sewing coiled basketry. They may be close or open, whole or split (furcate), and interlocked. Strand. One of the elements of the weft in twined basketry, which may be two-strand, three-strand, etc. Strip. A narrow ribbon of leaf or other thin basket material answers in function to the harder splints. String. Two or more small yarns twisted together. The warp of twined wallets is of strings. Symbol. The meaning of a design on a basket. Care must be exercised in the use of this word. Only the maker of the design knows the symbol or meaning. Tesselate. Inlaid, as in checkered mosaic. The checks and stitches as well as the designs in baskets have a tesselate appearance. Twine. To bend something around another object. In basketry, to make twined ware in any of its varieties, plain, twilled, wrapped, latticed, three-strand, etc. Warp. The elements of woven basketry on which the fabric is built up: may be parallel, decussated, latticed, radiated, zigzag, etc.; also a single one of these.

Wattling.-Coarse fence or fish weir in wicker or twined basketry.

Weft.-The filling of woven basketry, same as woof.

Weftage. The texture of woven basketry.

Whip or whipstitch. To sew with an overcast stitch, with long wrapping stitches. The sewing of coiled basketry may be so called. Borders of baskets are often whipped on.

Wickerwork. Weaving in which the warp is rigid and the weft flexible.

Wind. To wrap one element about another. Same as Frap. In Thompson River wallets the twined weft is wound or wrapped with corn husk.

Wrapped weft.-Basket work in which the plain or twined weft is wrapped with soft decorative material.

Waterproofing. Resin of the pine and mesquite for cov-ering and lining basket jars, rendering them waterproof.

Woof. See Weft.

Yarn.-Fibers twisted together, as in receptacles made from native hemp.

Zigzag. A broken line of equal angular portions applied to structure or decoration in basketry.