Also used in some baskets. The modern girl's basket is made in the old way. She balances it as gracefully as her ancestresses. But the modern girl appears in an ad for the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Tribe's tourist museum and craft shop. Her basket's a prop, not a survival tool.
B asketmaking is the traditional Native art-craft that has the most difficult problems of survival.
Unlike beadwork, clothing or jewelry, baskets traditionally were not luxuries of dress and decoration, but tools of living. Lightweight, portable, sturdy containers for gathering, harvesting, storage, cooking, and serving food. Baskets are made for show, not use. Beyond the problem of community is an even greater one. E nvironmental change is the biggest problem confronting those basketmakers who are motivated by cultural pride to keep the tradition going.