Coiling Culture: Basketry Art of Native North America
Saturday, September 10, 2016 - Sunday, February 18, 2018
Mink (an animal creator spirit) wished for a mountain, so he gathered spruce roots, split them, and made a basket. Filling his basket with gravel from the beach, he walked far inland where he emptied the basket to make his mountain.
—Kwakwa̱ka’wa̱kw (Kwakiutl) of British Columbia
Baskets are one of the oldest art forms in Native North America. Archaeologists have found tiny fragments of baskets over 9,000 years old in California and the Southwest. For millennia, Native Americans have been using baskets as hats, mats, storage jars, cooking vessels, serving dishes, wedding gifts, and even baby cradles. Baskets have even been integral in building construction: the largest mound in Native North America, over 100 feet high and nearly 1,000 feet long at Cahokia in Illinois, was made of baskets filled with earth as the foundation and core—totaling 22,000,000 cubic feet! At the foundation of many Native North American beliefs, baskets are remembered as the place of origin and givers of life and abundance.The Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) recall that the first people were released from a burden basket to populate the world by the creator spirit Coyote. The Yokuts (Mariposans) say that man was made from clay and his mate from a bit of the man placed underneath a basket, magically transforming overnight into woman. A Yana tale recounts a sister’s wish for “a basket with every kind of nice food in it,” which was answered by a basket dropping down next to her filled to the rim with pine nuts and roots. In most Native American nations, women are the basketmakers and begin learning their culture’s distinct basketry style as toddlers. Each basket is said to have its own story to tell, encompassing its materials, how it was made, and the meanings behind the final form and decoration, and beyond to the life of the basket once it is completed. Basketry artists find happiness in making each unique work:
“At first my basketry had to be perfect, and then I let it all go and that’s when I found true joy.”
—Lisa Telford, Haida, Alaska, b. 1957
—Kwakwa̱ka’wa̱kw (Kwakiutl) of British Columbia
Baskets are one of the oldest art forms in Native North America. Archaeologists have found tiny fragments of baskets over 9,000 years old in California and the Southwest. For millennia, Native Americans have been using baskets as hats, mats, storage jars, cooking vessels, serving dishes, wedding gifts, and even baby cradles. Baskets have even been integral in building construction: the largest mound in Native North America, over 100 feet high and nearly 1,000 feet long at Cahokia in Illinois, was made of baskets filled with earth as the foundation and core—totaling 22,000,000 cubic feet! At the foundation of many Native North American beliefs, baskets are remembered as the place of origin and givers of life and abundance.The Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) recall that the first people were released from a burden basket to populate the world by the creator spirit Coyote. The Yokuts (Mariposans) say that man was made from clay and his mate from a bit of the man placed underneath a basket, magically transforming overnight into woman. A Yana tale recounts a sister’s wish for “a basket with every kind of nice food in it,” which was answered by a basket dropping down next to her filled to the rim with pine nuts and roots. In most Native American nations, women are the basketmakers and begin learning their culture’s distinct basketry style as toddlers. Each basket is said to have its own story to tell, encompassing its materials, how it was made, and the meanings behind the final form and decoration, and beyond to the life of the basket once it is completed. Basketry artists find happiness in making each unique work:
“At first my basketry had to be perfect, and then I let it all go and that’s when I found true joy.”
—Lisa Telford, Haida, Alaska, b. 1957
