# The Pima Indians/Technology/Artifacts/Basketry

The Food Supply - Domestication of Animals - Agriculture - Trade - Artifacts Wood · Stone · Fiber and Leather · Pottery · Basketry · Textiles · Architecture · Clothing
TECHNOLOGY
Artifacts
BASKETRY
The art of basket making is practised in nearly every Pima home. The more skillful basket makers produce wares that are useful, durable, Fig. 56. Willow tree. and handsome. The work, which is done by the women, requires much time and patience. Owing to the poverty of the tribe since the river water has been taken from them, some women have been induced to begin the manufacture of baskets without having received the necessary training in girlhood and without any pride in the finished product, as it is possible to dispose of them at once at a fair price, no matter how wretchedly bad they may be.
Materials
| a | b | c |
| Fig. 57. a, Willow splints; b, martynia; c, cottonwood. |
​The stems of the cat-tail, Typha angustifolia Linn., are used as foundation in the common baskets. They are gathered in July when green, and are split and dried. The stalks curl inward along the split surface while drying, so that they have the appearance of round stems with a mere line running along one side to show where they were split. These stalks are from 1 to 2 m. long and are kept in bundles, sometimes 25 cm. in diameter, but usually much less.
​The pods of the devil's claw, Martynia fragrans Lindl., furnish the third material necessary for the ordinary basket. The supply of wild plants is not large enough, and a few martynia seeds are planted each year by the basket makers. These are gathered in the autumn at any time after the plant has dried. They are made into bundles (fig. 58) Fig. 59. Martynia pod. for storing or for barter by tying a few hooks together and then pushing other hooks down into the center and allowing the pods to curve over one another. Each half of a pod is provided with one of these long recurved hooks, from 15 to 20 cm. in length (fig. 59). They are black on the surface, and hence desired for the purpose of contrasting with the white willow to form the designs. Their central portion is pithy, but the outside is very tough and woody. To prepare for use, the devil's claw is soaked over night and then buried in moist earth for a day or more. It is then dug out, usually by a party of women, who make a "bee" of it, and the outer fiber of each claw is removed by breaking the hooked end and holding it in the teeth while the split fiber is pulled off with the fingers. Figure 60 shows such a party stripping the fibers, which appear in a coil at the knees of the second figure from the right. In the foreground is a heap of stripped pods. A small board in front of each woman is to lay the splint on when thinning and shaping it. Instead of soaking and burying the devil's claw, some have begun to hasten the process by pouring hot water over it and proceeding at once to strip off the fiber. The strips are kept in coils (fig. 57, b) similar to those of willow. They are valued somewhat more highly than the willow splints, and ​hence a higher price is sometimes demanded for baskets in which a large amount of devil's claw is used.
Leaves of the agave are sometimes used, but baskets of this material are obtained chiefly from the Papagos. Wood from the slender branches of cottonwood is sometimes used to take the place of willow, but it is less durable and soon becomes yellow. It is prepared in the same manner and kept in the same sort of coils as the willow (fig. 57, c).
Wheat straw is extensively used in the manufacture of the jar-shaped grain baskets. It is of modern introduction, and has not fully supplanted the ancient style of grain bin.
The arrow bush (Pluchea borealis) was the principal material employed in the construction of storage bins or baskets. It is everywhere abundant along the river, and is one of the few shrubs of Pimería that is not armed with thorns, its slender, graceful stalks being easily manipulated (pl. XXXI, a).
Reeds, Phragmitis communis, were formerly common along the Gila, but continuous seasons of drought caused them to disappear. Sleeping mats were made from them, but such mats are now rarely seen, agave leaf being used instead.
Implements
The only implements used in the manufacture of the common baskets are awls and knives. The awl was formerly of bone or mesquite wood. Now it is of steel with a wooden or gum handle (fig. 22, a, b). Common case knives or light butcher knives, well sharpened, are used to trim the strips of willow at the time of use.
Method
The ordinary baskets are made by the process known as coiling. The center is of devil's claw, which is generally started as a coil, but is sometimes made by the process called checker weaving for a few centimeters before beginning the coil. The half stalks of the cat-tail are again split before being used and about a dozen of these splints are taken to form a foundation. The other two materials, willow and devil's-claw splints, are kept in water at the time of use to render them flexible. One end of each splint is held in the teeth while the knife is rapidly scraped along the rough side and while the edges are trimmed smooth and made parallel. Upon this part of the operation depends much of the evenness and fineness of the finished basket. The details of the work do not differ from those of coiled basketry everywhere, which have been so fully and entertainingly described by Professor Mason. The margin was left with the splint wrapped smoothly around it until a few years ago when "some man," supposed to have been a Papago, "told them to braid it;" the tops of baskets are therefore usually finished by passing a single devil's-claw splint in and out and backward and forward over the margin, to which it gives a braided appearance. When the weaving is completed the ends of the splints project on the exterior surface, making it very rough. It is also soiled and stained from having been lying about during the intervals when it was not in the maker's hands for the weeks or months that have elapsed since it was begun. By means of a knife the longer and tougher ends are cut away, while the others are broken and the stains are removed by thoroughly rubbing the surface with leaves and twigs of the saltbushes, Atriplex lentiformis, A. canescens, A, polycarpa, etc.
Basket Bowls
This term may be accepted in lieu of a better one, for the tray- or bowl-shaped baskets, which are shallow and have their sides sloping at a low angle from the horizontal. They range from a perfectly flat disk to a bowl with rounded bottom having a depth of 20 cm.
The designs upon these old-style baskets are often very pleasing and even remarkably good. When questioned as to the meaning of the elements of these patterns, the basket makers invariably replied: "I don't know; the old women make them in this way. They copied ​the patterns long ago from the Hohokam pottery." While these statements are true in the main, some of the elements will be seen to be of wide distribution and some are peculiar to the Pacific coast. There are three common designs: Those embodying the fret, the equal-armed cross, and the spiral. Nearly all that do not represent these directly are more or less evident modifications of them. The fret, which the Pimas probably with truth called the oldest motive, leads almost directly into the swastika and suavastika pattern, as shown in the illustrations. The flower design based upon the cross is apparently the same as that on the necks of water jars made by the Hohokam, and such vessels are similarly decorated to the present day by both Pimas and Papagos. On the pottery the design is laid upon a convex surface, while in the baskets it is worked upon the interior, or concave, side. The elements of the design are, first, a series of four radiating arms of black separating the petal-like areas which are usually in the shape of spherical triangles. The second element is a series of encircling lines that lie parallel to the radiating bars and follow their outline entirely around the basket, having also rectangular enlargements where they change direction to cross the ends of the bars or to follow along their sides. It is just such a design as might easily originate in pottery decoration where a complete line may be traced continuously, but it is not one that can be easily explained if it is assumed that it originated in basketry, especially when it is remembered that these people prepare no pattern whatever beforehand, but develop the designs upon the baskets as previously conceived in the mind.
The volute, or whorl, is a common motive in primitive art, and is especially frequent in Southwestern basketry. As the angular weaving necessitates irregularities in the lines of curvature, they are not infrequently modified by terrace-like enlargements. Terraces are used in combination with nearly all the other elements known to the basket maker.
It will be observed that the decoration of Pima baskets is in black on a white ground for the most part, yet the proportions vary greatly. Brown, and more rarely some other color, may be seen in perhaps one basket in a thousand. Occasionally a basket is made with a dozen or more blue glass beads fastened on the border at equal intervals by weft splints passing through them. Rarely, work or trinket baskets are made to sell that have open spaces in their sides.
Description of Plates
The fret is a common motive in Pima basketry. In the small—and usually badly made—baskets it is commonly single and of uniform width. In the first of our series (pl. XXII, a) it appears as a double line with five folds. Had there been but four the effect of the whole ​would have suggested the swastika. The large basket, b, has three parallel lines, a larger number of folds, and an unusually large center of unrelieved black. Baskets c, d, and e exhibit slight modifications of the fret, in c the parts of the inner circle being four in number and in e five. The design in f is a fret of four folds, and the fret is the principal motive also in some of the upright baskets shown in plates XXIX and XXX. Basket g shows an equal-armed cross in white and a series of four broken lines that pass, in the form of a whorl, from near the center to the margin after each taking one and a half turns around the basket. Basket h combines the fret and whorl, there being seven radiating lines that reach the margin after half a turn each.
In plate XXIII, a, is shown a rare form—a flat disk, ornamented with a whorl of six broken lines, an intermediate form between the fret and the whorl. In b there is an unusual treatment of the dark center, elsewhere invariably a solid disk of black. It looks as if the maker had changed the design after starting the six rather irregular bars of black from the center. In c the six radiating lines advance toward the periphery by the interpolation of an independent motive that will be seen later in upright shapes. Baskets d and e are ornamented with five pairs of whorled lines that contain squares of black, which may also be regarded as an independent motive. In f the number 5 again reappears and also the simple motive of e, but this time in white on a black ground. This is called by some the "coyote track." It is well shown in plates XXIX and XXX.
Plate XXIV, a, illustrates a combination of the broken whorled lines of the preceding plate with a pattern obtained by the children at school in an early stage of their instruction in drawing. At the margin is the diamond pattern that has the effect of netting. In b, although the lines do not radiate from the center, they have something of the whorled effect, and they unite with the fret of the preceding illustrations a new element—the terrace—which is so common on the ancient pottery of Arizona. The parts are in five, there being two reduplications of the unit in the outer row to one in the inner. In e the parts are again in six. The central portion is difficult to analyze, but the outer repeats the terrace, together with a fret that by its breadth of line at the center suggests the form of the cross known as the swastika. Basket d has the fret combined with the terrace, being similar to the first basket in the last figure. The parts of the design in this plate are in four, five, and six.
Plate XXV, a, depicts a form of equal-armed cross that we shall later see passes into another type of design that is complicated, yet pleasing, namely, the flower pattern. Baskets with the design shown in a are quite common. In b the attenuated arms may be likened to the limbs of some giant spider. They will seem to be nearly the reverse of the white arms of the design in basket c. Basket d represents a ​variant that was seen in a few shallow baskets and which occasionally appears in the upright forms, as in plate XXX, j. It resembles a gigantic pictograph upon an ancient altar near Sacaton, the largest pictograph the writer has seen in Arizona. Baskets e and f, and also a, b, and c, plate XXVI, contain designs that are perhaps the most abundant Fig. 61. Basket with scroll decoration. to be found in Pima basketry. The patterns are whorled frets with many modifications. The decorative effect is enhanced by the addition of the triangular element, to which the same name, mo’ûmvĭtcka, "triangle," is applied as to the terrace. It is seen to be an independent element completed by an extended hook. In plate XXVI, a, c, the triangle at the margin is relieved with white, but in b it appears in its more common form. In plate XXV, f, the mode of origin of the triangle is seen in the terminal enlargement of a segment of the terrace. The triangle gives color balance to the whole, as in b, and also fills space due to the elements of the main figure being carried as a whole nearly straight to form an equal-armed figure on a spherical surface. These designs are usually in fours, though sometimes in threes and fives. Figure 61 includes two designs with dissimilar elements which adapt equally well rectangular designs to a hemispherical Fig. 62. Basket with scroll-feet decoration. surface. The design, while clumsily made and unsymmetrical, is yet pleasing by the at least partial harmony of design and form. The motive in this design will be recognized by students of Californian basketry. The basket shown in figure 62 is a rarely beautiful one, having simplicity of design pleasing by its rhythm or repetition and colors well proportioned.
Plate XXVII contains several examples of good baskets. The second has many triangles, those along the margin suggesting a mode of origin of what is known as the "top-knot" design. The outer band on this basket has the appearance of having been added as an afterthought, but such was not the ease, as the device is not uncommon and occurs in the unusually fine basket shown in c. The latter is the ​largest basket in the collection, yet it is so well proportioned, notwithstanding the reduction of the number of repetitions to three, that an artistic design is produced. The warp coils grow successively narrower from the center, thus making the walls thin and flexible. Figures d and e contain modifications of the equal-armed cross, with an apparently new element in d, which is shown in e to be a derivation of the triangle. These two baskets are examples of one of the oldest designs. It is also seen in the upright basket, plate XXXII, c. The white in f suggests the rattlesnake rattle design.
Plate XXVIII introduces a new design which the Pimas call si’sitcutcufĭk, "very much figured" or "complicated." Analysis shows c and d to be much simpler than they appear at first sight. The elements in d are an equal-armed cross and parallel lines around it, with enlargements wherever they change direction. The effect of the whole is suggestive of a flower with four petals. In a the petals appear largely in white. This flower design is said to be of recent origin. Sala Hina, who is perhaps 70 years of age, declares that it was unknown in her girlhood days.
Plates XXIX, XXX, XXXI, and XXXII include a series of baskets from photographs representing basket collections in Sacaton. Many have the upright waste-paper basket form, and are recent. Nearly all the Pima baskets made during the winter of 1901–2 were of these shapes. Many are decorated with simple motives that depend for their effect upon repetition. A notable feature of the ornament is the introduction of badly executed human figures. Certain traders urged the basket makers to put as many human and animal figures as possible on the baskets. Truly we need a society for the protection of American art. The most successful of these designs seen by the writer is the Gila monster shown in plate XXX, n. However, it is but a sorry substitute for the old-time simple motives. These baskets serve also to illustrate the varied treatment of the geometric elements met with in the shallow baskets as applied to the convex surfaces of the upright forms.
In conclusion, it is believed to be advisable to add the names of the elements of the designs which the Pima basket makers regard as distinct. But two in the list refer to natural objects, namely, numbers 3 and 7 below. It is worthy of note that the continued inquiries of visitors have aroused the interest of the natives to such a degree that they have begun to devise plausible interpretations to symbols the meaning of which is absolutely unknown to them.
| 1. | Atc’uta, the black center of all baskets. |
| 2. | Ka’kiopĭns, "crossed lines" (pl. XXII). |
| 3. | Kâmʼketcĭt, "turtle," applied to a square design (pl. XXII). |
| 4. | Mav’spĭtchita, "locked together," the interrupted fret (pl. XXVI, e). |
| 5. | Mo’ûmvĭtcka, "triangular," all triangles and terraces. ​ |
| 6. | O’pûmusult, "parallel lines doubled on themselves" (pl. XXIII). |
| 7. | Pan ikâ’kĭta, "coyote tracks" (pl. XXIX). |
| 8. | Sâ’-âĭ, "figured," plain design with radiating black bars (pl. XXVIII, e). |
| 9. | Si’hitalduwutcĭm, "spiral," whorled or spiral designs (pl. XXIII). |
| 10. | Si’sitcutcufĭk, "very much figured," the flower pattern (pl. XXVIII). |
| 11. | Stoa, "white," having a few narrow lines. |
| 12. | Sûp’epûtcĭm kakaitoa, "striped with black and white," a general term for designs in alternating black and white lines. |
| 13. | Ta’sita, "set" or "prearranged," the swastika and suavastika. |
| 14. | Tco’ho-otcĭlt, "crooked lines," the fret. |
Kiâhâ
In the Golden Age of Pimería all burdens were borne by the women, either upon their heads with the aid of the head ring or upon their backs with the unique contrivance which they call kiâhâ (fig. 63), a name that it may be well to retain for the purpose of precise description, as the term "carrying basket" suggests the conical receptacle of other tribes, which is an entirely different affair. The kiâhâ, though unwieldy in appearance, is very light and strong, and heavy loads of wood and other bulky articles may be piled upon the framework, as may be seen in the series of pictures (pl. XXXIV a, b, c, d), which illustrate the manner in which the kiâhâ is loaded while set on the ground with the two long front frame sticks and a separate helping stick (fig. 64), forming a tripod. After loading the kiâhâ, the old dame is seen in b rising to her feet with the aid of the helping stick. Had she had to carry a baby in its cradle she would have ​placed it in a horizontal position on the top of the heap of mesquite wood; as it was, her lead weighed nearly 100 pounds, yet she knelt down, engaged her head under the carrying strap, and struggled to her feet without assistance (c). The method of unloading is shown in d, where, by bending forward, the entire burden is thrown off clear of the head. Figure 65 illustrates the manner in which a kiâhâ net is mended.
As the kiâhâ is distinctively a woman's utensil, so is it closely associated with her life history. The young girls of 8 or 10 begin to Fig. 64. Helping stick. use small kiâhâs made especially for them or that have been cut down from old ones. They learn the methods of loading so that the burden may be stable and of proper bulk, they acquire the necessary nerve and muscle coordinations that enable them in later years to lift loads weighing more than do they themselves, they become inured to the fatigue of long journeys, and they learn to preserve their kiâhâs with care from rain. The maiden must have long and gaily-spotted frame sticks at the front of her kiâhâ, which are wound with long hair cords. She uses a helping stick that is ornamented with a long deerskin fringe pendent from the binding at the crotched end (fig. 64). As she walks along with the sharpened end of the stick thrust into the load the fringe hangs above and forward of her head, swinging at every step or fluttering with every breeze. It is indeed a conspicuous object, and it is not surprising that it should have caught the attention of every passing traveler, whose illustrations of it are uniformly bad.
As the age of the owner advances she becomes careless of the appearance of her kiâhâ, the spots on the frame are less frequently renewed, the cordage grows short and worn, and the foresticks of the frame are cut down in length. However, her burdens do not diminish, and the woman here photographed, though her age exceeds the scriptural allotment, is yet able to carry more than 100 pounds at a load.
​Agave leaf serves for the front matting or apron that rests against the back. Between the front and the frame a roll of bark or cloth is usually placed to prevent chafing. The headband is of the same material as the apron. It is really a circular band that is flattened out and doubled across the forehead.
Human hair is used to attach the hoop to the frame sticks. It is of 2-ply 4-strand cord, which is made fast to the hoop and, after drawing the hoop as high as possible to tighten the net, wound from 10 to 50 times around the frame sticks.
The maguey, Tasylirioni wheeleri, furnishes the fiber for the net (fig. 38). Yucca elata is also a valuable fiber plant and it is probable that the Papagos obtain netting material from Agave heteracantha. The first two of these plants are found on the higher hills and mountains of Pimería, whence they are gathered by parties who go especially for them. Pits are dug and fires are built in them as the maguey is gathered. After the fire has died down it is cleared out and the pits are lined with small stones. The maguey is spread on these, covered with earth, and allowed to roast over night. After it has been removed from the pit the pulp of the roasted plants is scraped away with a deer's scapula, leaving the fibers a foot or two in length. These are dried, and when they are long a roll 6 inches in diameter will be sufficient for a kiâhâ net. Such a roll of fiber is easily transported, and is a recognized article for barter between Pimas and Papagos. The spinning of kiâhâ thread is a social event, and the women gather for the purpose and gossip merrily as they twist the 2-ply twine, which is rolled into bails that may also be bar​tered or kept for some time before being made into the nets of conventional pattern (fig. 63).
* ↑ "They are highly prized by their owners, as they are very useful to them, and are made with much labor. For the only specimen I could obtain I was obliged to give goods to the value of $10." Bartlett, Personal Narrative, II, 236.
* ↑ For detail of the weaving see Mason's Origins of Primitive Culture, 251; also Report National Museum, 1894, 471, where Professor Mason makes the statement that the kiâhâ net, worked in what is "commonly called the buttonhole or half-hitch stitch, finds its most northern extension among the Piman stock. Nowhere in the Pueblo tribes is it found, according to the collections in the U.S. National Museum. But south of the Piman it occurs in Central America, in Latin South America as far south as Tierra del Fuego, where it will he found to be the only attempt at textiles." This is another link in the chain of evidence that separates the Pimas from the Hohokam and other Pueblo peoples.
​After the net has been bound to the hoop by a spirally wound cord that completely covers the latter, it is colored with red and blue dyes in such a manner as to emphasize the outlines of the pattern.
Maguey fiber, or horsehair, may be used for the cord which extends from the headband to the frame. It is about 8 mm. in diameter. When of maguey, it is often so well made as to pass readily for machine-made cordage until we examine it closely.
Storage Baskets
​The former type is furnished with a bottom of willow branches. The sides are built up by twisting rolls of arrow bush with the butts thrust into the coil beneath to bind the whole together. This type is used for storing mesquite beans on the tops of the houses or sheds (fig. 4). They are also built on the ground in groups, which are inclosed by a low fence to protect them from stock. They are made before the harvest begins, and as the coils are large and there is no close work required a large bin may be built up in half a day.
The straw baskets have their coils fastened with strips of willow bark about 5 mm. in width. The stitches pass through the upper margin of the last coil and are about 20 mm. apart. The coils are from 1 to 2 cm. in diameter. The baskets are from one-half to 1½ meters in height. They are covered by a circular disk of the same material or, more frequently, by a section of the bottom of an old worn-out basket.
Minor Types
Rectangular trinket baskets (fig. 68, a) are made of agave leaves, but nearly all are obtained from the Papagos, as the Pima women seldom make them. They are deeper than broad, somewhat enlarged at the bottom, and are provided with lids. They are of the twined Fig. 68, a. Trinket basket. style of weaving. At a distance of 1 cm. from the interior margin of the lid the warp splints (so termed for the sake of clearness in description—they are exactly like the weft) are cut and the ends show on the inside of the lid. The weft is continued to the margin, turned back on itself at right angles to form what looks like a separate ring around the lid; at a height of 5 or 6 cm. it is again folded in and the ends of the splints are cut about 1 cm. from the last fold, so as to be concealed from view.
"Medicine" baskets (fig. 68, b) are of the same material and style of weaving as the trinket baskets. They have a characteristic shape—long, square cornered, with rounded margin. They are made in two nearly equal parts, one of which slips over the other as a lid.
Food bowls of remarkably fine workmanship and graceful shape were carried by warriors on the warpath. They were used to mix ​pinole in and also served as drinking cups. They were light and indestructible. They are no longer made and but two were seen on the reservation.
Head rings of agave leaf (fig. 36, b) are occasionally seen, but they are supposed to have been adopted from the Papagos (see p. 113).
Oval sieves were made of willow rods, and were very useful in cleaning seeds,and in separating juice from pulp in a variety of plants ​(fig. 69, a). They have been supplanted by a wire sieve made by building a coiled basket rim around a piece of wire netting that has a mesh of 1 mm. (fig. 69, b).
* ↑ The remains of a basket of this type were found by the writer in June, 1901, when examining the two large cliff-houses about 4 miles south of the Salt river, opposite the mouth of the Tonto. Bandeller gives the ground plan of these structures in Papers of Archeol. Inst., Am. ser., IV, pt. II, 426. This would suggest relationship with the Pueblo cliff-dwellers (assuming that the place had not been occupied recently by Apaches or other invaders), were it not for the fact that this type of bins, as well as the arbors on which they are built, prevails among the southern California tribes.
* ↑ The collection contains a specimen of average size, which measures 19 cm. in height, 17 by 18 cm. at the base, and 16 cm. square at the top.
* ↑ The collection contains one very old medicine basket which is 29 cm. long, 10 cm. wide, and 9 cm. deep.
* ↑ Twenty-six cm. in diameter at the top and 22 at the bottom. There are 7 coils in the rim, making it 4 cm. deep.
* ↑ The willow sieve in the collection was made on request by Sala Hina, as there are now none of the old style to be found. Is is 32 cm. long, the ends of the rods projecting 3 cm. beyond the hoop to form a sort of handle. The hoop is 26 cm. wide. There are 4 cross-twisted strands to hold the rods in place. The willow rods are 2 mm. apart and 2 mm. in diameter.
| b | a |
| Fig. 69. a, Old sieve; b, modern sieve. |
​Bird traps, house doors, shelves, bird cages, and the like verge upon basketry, but these have all been described in connection with other objects of wood.
The hoods of cradles (described on p. 103) must be included in the list of articles of basketry in use by this people. They are of willow bark cut into strips about 5 mm, wide and woven in the simplest checker style. They are light and flexible, and thus better adapted for their purpose than if made of willow and devil's-claw splints. At the bottom of this hood or shield the strips are gathered into two wrapped bundles, which slip into place on each side of the first transverse bar beneath the baby's head. The convexity of the rolls prevents the hood from slipping past the bar and the weight upon them insures stability, while at the same time the hood may be readily detached.
Sleeping Mats
Fig. 71. Detail of sleeping mat. Mats were formerly made by the Pimas of the cane, Phragmitis communis, that grew in abundance along the Gila until the water supply became too scant for the maintenance of this plant. They are now made of agave leaves by the Papagos, who barter them to the Pimas (fig. 70). They are woven in a diagonal pattern, each splint passing under three others before appearing again, and the wrong side being rough. The splints are softened by soaking at the time of weaving and become somewhat stiff when dried. The warp and woof are alike, ​and extend in a direction oblique to the sides of the mat. At a distance of about 7 cm. from the margin of both sides and ends the warp and weft splints are woven separately to form a double border, which is held together by single splints occurring at intervals of about 15 cm.