File:Bulletin (1907) (20238364910).jpg

Title: Bulletin
Identifier: bulletin3011907smit (find matches)
Year: 1901 (1900s)
Authors: Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology
Subjects: Ethnology
Publisher: Washington : G. P. O.
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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FORMS OF BASKETRY WEAVING. a, CHECKER; 6 TWILLED; c, wicker; (I, wrapped; e, twined; /, cross-warp twined, g, WRAPPED TWINED; h, IMBRICATE made water-tight for holding or carrying water for cooking. The chief use of baskets is as recep- tacles, hence every activity of the In- dians was associated with this art. Basket work was employed, moreover, in fences, game drives, weirs, houses, shields, cloth-
Text Appearing After Image:
Paiute Gathering Bask ing, cradles, for harvesting, and for the disposal of the dead. This art is inter- esting, not only on account of the tech- nical processes employed, the great deli- cacy of technic, and the intinite number of purposes that it serves, but on account of the ornamentation, wliich is effected by dyeing, using materials of different colors, overlaying, beading, and plaiting, besides great variety in form and technic. This is always added in connection with the weaving or sewing, and is fur- ther increased with decorative beads, shells, and feathers. In forms basketry varies from flat wattling, as in gambling and bread plaques, through trays, bo wis, pots, cones, jars, and cylin- ders, to the ex- quisite California art work. The geometric forms of decussations and stitches gave a mosaic or conventional ap- pearance to all decoration. The motives in ornamentation were various. No doubt a sense for beauty i n articles of use and a desire to awaken admiration and envy in others were uppermost. Imitation of pretty objects in nature, such as snake skins, and designs used by other tribes, were naturally suggested. Such designs pass over into the realms of symbolism and religion. This is now alive and in full vigor among the Hopi of Ari- (^4,, zona. The Indian women have left the best witness of what they could do in handiwork and expression in their basketry. In E. United States almost all of the old-fashioned methods of 1 lasket making have passed away, but by taking impressions of pottery Holmes has been able to reconstruct the ancient processes, showing that they did not differ in the least from those now extant in the tribes w. of the Rocky mts. In the southern states the existence of plia- ble cane made possible twilled weaving, which may still be found among the Cherokee and the tribes of Louisiana. The Athapascan tribes in the interior of Alaska made coiled basketry from the roots of evergreen trees. The Eskimo

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