Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-09-20
NEW BASKETS FOR OLD
SOME OF THE FINE ONES IN.
CREASE IN VALUE.
Especially Those in Which Cooking
Has Been Done by. the
Indians.
Written for The Evening Star.

Written for The Evening Star.
If you happen to possess few old Indian
baskets it might be as well to look them
over, because if, on account of their faded
colors or dust-begrimed condition, they do
not seem very artistic ornaments, you can
easily exchange them for several new ones
or perhaps for a surprising sum of money
The baskets chiefly referred to are not
those turned out now with praiseworthy
industry to supply the eastern tourist de-
mand, but those made years ago by the In
dams for use rather than ornament. And
it is wonderful to what a variety of pur-
poses the Indians put their baskets before
tin and china ware found their way to the
reservations. They used, them as cooking
utensils water bottles, cradles and even as
agricultural Implements and it is these
baskets which have done actual service
which are now considered so valuable.
AS cooking pot the basket was first
baked around with wet clay. Then the in
terror was filled with hot stones, leaving a
space in the center for the meat. The
whole was then covered over with clay, and
the meat permitted to bake slowly. Those
who have tasted chicken baked in this
manner say there is no other way in which
a chicken ought to be baked. The inside of
the basket, of course, became incrusted
with cinder, but the basket itself was not
otherwise damaged. In fact, one of these
baskets, stoutly made, would outlast one
of our metal pots, provided it did not come
in actual contact with fire.
The finest basket water bottles were so
closely woven that there was percola-
ton of the contents, but some of the cruder
kind were plastered on the outside with
clay. Scoops or shovels. made of basket
ware for agricultural purposes, were in use
among the Indians of the northwest until a
recent date, but they are now becoming
rare.
But apart from the signs of actual use,
9TH dist, ,;cl,ip ,rlr,
tween the old and modern Indian baskets.
For decorative purposes the Indians for
merly used vegetable dyes manufa ctured by
themselves, instead of the mineral colors
now purchased at the trading posts. AS
consequence the tinting in the modern bas-
ketS Is cruder and less durable.
In the weaving of the old baskets, too, su-
perstition and custom played a not incon-
siderable part. A piece of bright cloth or a
ribbon interviewer in the willow denoted
that the basket was made by an unmarried
woman, while circles in the pattern were
never completed, as it was believed to do
SO meant a speedy death for the maker.
Among few tribes the baskets of a chief
were marked by row Of fine beads around
the rim at the top.
But even while these old baskets are fast
becoming priceless, those made today as Gu
rios sell for dollars where a few years ago
they could have been exchanged for a
means of livelihood opening up to them,
the Indians are discarding their basket
making in the far west, and in spite Of the
fact that the demand is far in excess of the
supply 1t Is believed the art will soon be
numbered among those which are lost