Savannah morning news., 1886-01-02
BAsK urs AND BAsKETRY.
The Best Work Done hy Our North
American Indiana.
Fr9m Me Neto YORK. Courier.


Fran Me Nelo York Courier.
There remains a large department of
basket-making lore in the work Of barba-
rous people, to whom this art serves mani
fold purposes, and has sometimes reached
great perfection, as can be seen BY an eX-
animation Of the very large and complete
collection OF basketry brought together
at the National Museum at Washington.
A study of this series Of specimens
shows that some OF the best makers are 10
be found among our North American In
dians, the most skillful OF whom are those
dwelling on the Northwestern coast. me
AaKahs, for example, VINO live on cape
FlRttery, at the entrance to the STRAIT OF
Fuca, turn out wide variety, adapted TO
many purposes. The largest. which VIII
mold bushel or so, are made OF spruce
roots. or Of cedar tWigs, woven quite
loosely, and much larger at the top than
at the wedge-like bottom-a torn as
sumed in order to facilitate carrying Ia
them a load held well up on the shoulders
by strap passing across the forehead.
small baskets are made OF bark ana
grass, dyed with native vegetable eX-
tracts, or, more lately, with glarlng anllne
colOrs, which never equal the artlstlc eX-
ceilence of the older work. Into some are
woven designs intended to represent
birds or animals, into others, simple
checks. Small ones are made OF bark, ana
of a species Of eel-grass that ble2ches
brightly white. The making of mats OF
rushes and shredded cedar bark (Out of
which, also, are knit handsome water
proof clOaks, now growing very rare are
c0stly) forms large part Ol the winter
work of the squaWs.
NATIVES OF OREGON AND CALIFORNIA.
The natives races OF Oregon and Calitor-
MIA appear to have been almost equally
expert basket-makers. though their pro-
duCtions are decidedly unlike those Of
the British Columbian and Alaskan peo-
pie Just noticed. From willow twigs ana
pine rooms they weave large round mats
for holding acorn -four; various sized,
iattish squash-shaped baskets, water
tight; deep cOnical ones to be carried on
their backs, and others TO be used at
pleasure as drinking-cups or skull-caps
by the squaws, the men going bareheaded.
The Yurok OF Northern California are
among the cleYerest wOrkmen. Ihey or
nament their baskets with some ingeuul-
ty by weaving in black rootlets or bark in
squares, diamonds, and zigzag lines, but
they never attempt to curve, which, II has
been said, marks the transition from bar
barrie to civilized art.
AE hDI4pC WOhlNA diOAAAo - ltNtiA hN va
lake, with conspicuous painstaking,
weave very pretty trough-shaped baby
basket of fine willows, intended to be sci
up against the wall OF to be carried on the
back. The infant is lashed perpendicu-
larly IN it, his head covered by the con
cave upper end of the basket, which over.
hangs like a small parasOl, and in some
cases is gayly decorated. Let mother
/ blacken her whole face below the eyes, IN
.E,s a. IL raA
goose-quill three inches long through the
septum OF her nose, don her close-fittlnQ
skull cap, and start to town with her baby
basket dashed to her back, and she feels
the pride of maternity strong within her
The little fellow is wrapped all around
like a mummy, with nothing visible but
his head, and sometimes that is bandaged
back tight, so that he may sleep stand
ing.n
VARIOUS APPLICATIONS OF BASKETRY
In addition to ordinary baskets the
southern CalifOrnians weave gaming
tables, rims for their acorn m0rtars
which are hollows dug in solid rock y
trsh traps, and many other applications OIL
basketry, which among those tribes
largely replaces the pottery In the mould
ing OF which they are deficient, The long
straight grain OF the red bud, split up into
thread-like spiints, IS the favorite tol
filling in the willow frame work OF Cali
fOrnia basket.
The Pah-Utes, Of the Utah and Nevada
! dry lands. likewise make gre at use of bas
1 kerry. Mai. Powell describes, in his ami
mated way, the service Of the conical bas
! hets to be seen in the collection from tha
I locality
The women carry them on their backs
suspended from their foreheads by broat
Z nd wit h a GF19o ilar ~ tho lgf
! hand and a wilIow-w woven fan in the righ
/ they walk among the grasses and sweel
/ the seed into the smaller basket, which j,
emitted now and then into the larger
until it is full OF seeds and chah; theI
I they winnOw out the chat and roa thl
/ seeds.N
Everywhere from the southern Rockies
/ to the Pacific, as a glance at the c0llec
/ tions shows, occur the lars and bowls o
! varied shape made OF willow tightly
woven aud pitched so as TO be water
tight. These are not only available al
canteens, but cooking is done in many o
/ them. Regular baskets are elsewhere
used as cooking utensils, water bein;
boiled In them by the immersion of beatet
+ stones, or By being held over ire out 0
reach of the blaze. the Micmacs 0
Nova Scotia made kettles 0
4 birch bark, and the kutchil
4 tribes OF the MchenZle river. out o
/ tamarack roots, ornamented Gas we SCI
them here) with pOrcupine quills.
basket Of exceedingly close weaving from
British Guianan Will be observed so sc
In a framework as TO serve the purpose o
dish; but all the sayages along the Or
InOco and Amazon make water-tight bas
kets. Some similar Jars, once belonging
TO Apache ARIZONA families viii hoh
ten or fifteen gallons of water, and wer
buried in the ground. The baskets Of th
Kunis and Moquis are rude bent-twi
affairs, as might be expected of so GOO
pOtters as they.