Baskets And Vintage Photos Of First Nations Weavers

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Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas!

I've been showing some of the favorite basket designs that I ran across while doing research for my series on Herman, the white Indian boy.

I'm so amazed with the intricacy of the designs and even more so when I see vintage photos of the basket weavers doing their work in primitive conditions... practically in the dirt, and yet they're producing fantastic works of art!

But them I'm just a simple country boy so I reckon I'm easily impressed. lol.

The secrets of their methods were passed down from mother to daughter for centuries and families would compete with each other to see who had the best designs. The best of the master basket makers were highly honored.

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Sometimes they beaded over the baskets although I've only seen a couple of those. Here's one on Ebay that is vintage and they're asking $700 for it, it's real small, like 4 inches across.

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Here's a lady from the Karuk tribe weaving baskets, this is probably in the 1880's:

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The tribes made what is commonly known as "burden baskets." Some tribes like the Pima made them with a strap that went around the shoulder as these two women demonstrate as they go out to gather seeds.

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The Apache style had a strap that went on your head like so:

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Or like on this woman. Her's has a great pattern but it kinda gives me a headache looking at it but she looks like she can handle it!:

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As you can see, they used baskets all the time in their everyday life and work. Here's a woman grinding corn into meal and she uses three styles of baskets. And look, she must be enjoying her work because it's only the second time I've ever seen an Indian female smile in a photo:

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This is a Paiute woman basket weaver in Yosemite National Park, September 16, 1933. What a magnificent piece of artwork!

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Here's another magnificent vintage basket in excellent condition:

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This is such an interesting old photo. There wasn't a date on it but I noticed the Lucky Strikes Cigarettes box in the left hand corner and those cigarettes came out in 1905 so this photo was taken after that.

I'm guessing it's from the 1910's or 20's. But look at that big basket on the right hand side, I wish I had a better view of that one.

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This is a Havasupai basket weaver, 1800's:

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An Apache basket weaver, probably late 1800's:

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Another great piece:

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There ARE a few modern day basket weavers like this lady, but not many:

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Sally Black is a Navajo basket weaver and you can purchase her amazing baskets and trays at hoelsindianshop.com. Here she is with one of her trays. This particular one sells for $1,200.

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It was a dying art but it ain't dead yet thanks to a few great artists still working their magic.

Thanks for reading folks, God bless you all!
-jonboy
Texas

I'll close with one of my favorite Western artists, Zhou Shu Liang, who painted a basket weaver, of course:

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