Gallery Guide - The Arizona...

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Gallery Guidearizona state museum

an arizona centennial heritage project

2 BASKETRY TREASUREDThe Living Legacy of an Ancient Cultural Art

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Basketry: a treasured Cultural art

In Native North America basketry

has cradled infants, protected feet,

secured food, transported goods,

and served in rituals for countless

generations. Basketry was and

continues to be treasured for its

functionality, beauty and deep

cultural significance.

arizona state MuseuM’s ColleCtion:

second to none

The basketry traditions of the Southwest, surrounding

region and other parts of North America are nowhere

better illustrated than here at the Arizona State

Museum. The museum cares for 25,000 baskets and

other fiber works that date from 6,000 years ago to

the present.

The significance of Arizona State Museum’s basketry

was spotlighted in 2011, when the collection received

the prestigious designation as an American Treasure

through the federal “Save America’s Treasures” program.

Funding from this source and other donations will allow

the Museum to build a state-of-the-art visible storage

and interpretive facility.

As you are introduced to the Museum’s peerless bas-

ketry and fiber work in this gallery guide for Basketry Treasured, an exhibit mounted in honor of our Save

America’s Treasures award, take some time to ask

yourself where basketry fits into your own life. You may

be surprised at the answers!

Diane Dittemore Basketry Treasured Exhibit Lead Curator

September, 2012Background:

Western Apache girl with tus (basketry water jar) roosevelt dam,

aZ, photographer Walter Lubken, c. 1907 (Pix-611)

ToP: Navajo (Diné) basket dancer

aSM Southwest Indian art Fair, 2007

BoTToM: Remalda Lomayestewa (Hopi)

Heard Museum fair, 2012

noTe: unless otherwise noted, all photographs by Jannelle Weakly,

aSM Photographer

ToP: Coiled Olla With Human

And Animal FiguresYavapai or Western apache, c. 1905

Probably San carlos reservation, aZ, height 105 cm, gila Pueblo collec-

tion, collected by edward Ledwidge (gP4308)

BoTToM: Coiled Bifurcated Burden Basket, ancient repairs, Pueblo III anasazi,

kayenta Province, c. 1100-1300 ce Tsegi-ot-Sosi canyon, apache co., aZ, length 50.8 cm, Byron cummings gift,

1937, Hoskinini collection (21970)



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sandals: Footwear in Fiber Ancient Southwest footwear was made using both basketry and weaving techniques. The Arizona State Museum holds more than 1000 examples; most are from the Prayer Rock area of northeastern Arizona. Today’s sandal wearers might recognize similarities to their Chacos© and Tevas©!

an ancient Granary: connectinG the ancient and recent pastA granary from McEuen Cave that is at least 1500 years old (see p. 9) bears a striking resemblance in shape and open stitch coiled technology to granaries made by O’odham weavers in historic times using straw from introduced wheat and mesquite bark stitching.

ancient baskets The Museum curates around 25,000 perishable Southwestern archaeological objects. These include sandals, baskets, textiles and cordage. A majority of these items were originally collected by some of the key figures in Southwestern archaeology: Byron Cummings, Earl Morris, and Emil Haury and his students. Many of these items are fragmentary and have special stor-age needs that will be met in our new climate-controlled basketry storage vault.

What is Basketry?

Basketry is a technique for making rigid or semi-rigid objects by intercon-necting strips of leaves, grasses and twigs. It is similar to textile weaving but differs in that no loom is employed and the materials used are not highly processed–the fibers are not spun together as with weaving yarn for example. Related techniques include cordage, netting, bending and lashing.

Basketry’s Deep roots

North American basketry’s roots extend far back in time. The earliest known coiled basket is from Cowboy Cave, southern Utah, and dates back roughly 8000 years. Basket-ry therefore predates the Southwest pottery tradition by 6000 years! The oldest known cordage, a related fiber technology, has been found preserved in a Florida bog and dated to 8000 years ago as well. Archaeo-logical basketry includes examples of plaiting, coiling, wicker and twine weaving—all techniques that are still in use today.

The major Southwestern archaeological cultures (in roughly chronological order) include the Paleo-Indian, Archaic, Basketmaker, Anasazi (Ancestral Pueblo), Mogollon, Hohokam, Salado, Sinagua, Patayan, Casas Grandes and Trincheras. All of these cultures used plant materials to make cordage and basketry as well as textile items.

The arid climate of the Southwest since the end of the Pleistocene Era (about 11,700 years ago) has contributed to the preservation of a wide range of objects made of plant fibers. The Arizona State Museum’s ancient basketry and fiber collection includes sandals, netting, contain-ers, burden baskets, cradles, and matting.

LeFT: Yucca plant, leaf fiber,

cordage and tump strap strap length, 51 cm,

Basketmaker III, Prayer rock Province, c. 450-650 ce

atahonez canyon, apache co., aZ, carnegie Institution of Washington Transfer, 1957 (a-14783, a-13947 a-13998)

rIgHT: Pearl Kootswatewa (Hopi) forms a wicker border for a plaited piki tray, Sipaulovi,

aZ, 1991 (c-27446)Photograph by Helga Teiwes

(1.) Coiled Seed Jar, Late archaic-early Mogollon, c. 500 Bce-550 ce, Mceuen cave, aZ, national Park Service Permanent Loan (a-4267)

(2.) Wicker Plaque Fragment, Mogollon Pueblo, c. 1300-1350 ce,canyon creek ruin, aZ, gila Pueblo Foundation gift (gP-17217)

(3.) Twined Yucca Bag, Lowland Patayan, c. 1275-1400 ce, Trigo Mountains cave, aZ, Haskell Yowell gift, 1961 (a-22152)

(4.) Coiled Bowl, Basketmaker III anasazi, c. 450-750 ce Vandal cave, Lukachukai Mountains, aZ, diameter 44.5 cm (15940)

(5.) Twill Plaited Mat (Petate) Fragment, Prehistoric Southwest, Byron cummings collection (26441-X)

(6.) Twill Plaited Ring Basket, Pueblo III anasazi, c. 1100-1300 ce, Tsegi canyon, apache co., aZ, Byron cummings collection, 1938 (26357)

Twill Plaited Yucca Sandals LeFT: Pueblo III anasazi, c. 1100-1300 ce rIgHT : Pueblo II-III anasazi, c. 900-1300

ce gourd cave, coconino co., aZ,Byron cummings, ua archaeological

expedition, 1916 (2729, 2980-X-2)

Tapestry Weave Yucca and Leather SandalBasketmaker II anasazi, c. 250 Bce-450 ce,

atahonez canyon, aZ carnegie Institution of Washington Transfer, 1957 (a-14149)

Twill Plaited Yucca Sandal FragmentLate archaic-early Mogollon, c. 1500

Bce-550 ce, Mceuen cave, aZ Museum of northern arizona exchange (a-113)

rIgHT: Hugh Norris, Tohono O’odham, stands next to a granary basket. San Xavier

Indian reservation, aZ. Photographer, William dinwiddie, 1894 (Pix-2051)

Major Southwestern archaeological cultures , c. 1250. (Paleo-Indian and archaic cover entire region, Basketmaker

essentially overlays ancestral Pueblo). Map by catherine gilman, courtesy desert archaeology, Inc.

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the Changing role of Basketry in native life

Among virtually all of the indigenous people of North America, baskets have been indispensable for a wide range of purposes: gathering, cooking, serving, carrying and other household and ritual functions.

After European contact, basketry was gradually replaced by manufac-tured goods for many of these uses. This process accelerated toward the end of the 1800s. A reduced internal demand for baskets coincided with the imposition of the reservation system and subsequent introduction of trading posts, where baskets could be bartered for food and supplies. In the early 1900s a tourist industry spawned by railroad and automobile travel, and a nationwide basketry craze provided further impetus for Indian women to expand their basketry trade.

These factors contributed to an especially ripe environment for South-west basket weavers to draw upon the deep basketry legacy of the region and make spectacular works that became an important source of income for themselves and their families. Weav-ers active in the 1880-1920 period produced extraordinarily fine baskets that were admired and collected around the world.

The number of basket weavers has starkly declined since this classic period despite efforts by tribes, schools, religious organizations, federal, state and local governments, and others to reverse this trend. Yet throughout the decades of the 20th century and into the 21st, there have remained gifted basket makers dedicated to keeping this priceless cultural tradition of our region alive.

left: Linette Anderson (San Carlos

Apache) at her puberty cer-emony. Burden baskets are filled with food to be shared

with attendees. photographer, helga teiwes, 1981 (54973).

right: Basketry matriarch Cecilia

Henry twines a burden basket. San carlos apache

indian reservation, 1985. photographer, helga teiwes,

1985 (c-20843)

top center: Yavapai or Western Apache

jar used as umbrella stand and bowl holding newspaper, Dermont home “the pines,”

Williams, az, 1910 courtesy cline library,

northern arizona University, flagstaff

right inSet: “A Moki [Hopi] Basket

Weaver,” Detroit photograph-ic company, 1902 (pix-9)

ethnographic Basketry Beginnings at arizona state Museum

Arizona State Museum’s ethnographic basketry collection has been assembled over the last century with help from dozens of donors and collectors. Three major collections received from 1916 to 1920 formed the foundation from which the collection has grown to its current count of over 4000 baskets.

These three collections were made during a time of “canastamania,” (from the Spanish word for basket), a word coined around the turn of the last century to describe the Indian basketry fad that was gripping the country. Baskets filled “Indian Rooms” and “Cozy Corners” in homes from coast to coast. Along with other Native

arts, basketry fit the philosophy and aesthetic of the Arts and Crafts design movement that arose as a counter-force to the Industrial Revolution.

Although not immune to such national design trends, early Euro-American newcom-ers to the Southwest often had more practical connections to Indian basketry and the weav-ers who made them. Residents of towns near Indian communities bought or traded baskets that became not only home décor, but held sewing, laundry, mail, firewood, umbrellas and pocket change.


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perry merrell williams: early arizona entrepreneurIn 1886 Perry Merrell Williams arrived at the railroad junction town of Maricopa, south of Phoenix and adjacent to today’s Ak-Chin Indian Community (Tohono O’odham). Williams and his brother Cyrus operated a hotel and saloon. They bought and sold O’odham baskets out of the hotel along with wildcat kittens, scorpions, cacti and other “desert-iana.” Williams loaned a collection of over 300 baskets to the Arizona State Museum in 1917. His son, Perry M. Williams, Jr., turned the loan into a gift to the Museum in 1968.

rIgHT: Campaign poster for Governor Hunt, c. 1925, courtesy gila county Historical Society

BoTToM LeFT: Western Apache or Yavapai oval basket, c. 1900. central arizona, length 33.4 cm. gov. Hunt collection (1574)

BoTToM rIgHT: Pima bowl basket with beads at rim, let-tering includes arbuckles (“The coffee that Won the West”), c. 1900, central arizona, length 25 cm. gov. Hunt collection (1578)

nelle and william dermont: their best “indian room” ever!Nelle A. Dermont (c. 1872-1937) and her lumber executive husband, William J., came from Michigan to Williams, Arizona in 1901. They shared a passion for Indian art, with which they filled to the rafters (including the ceiling!) a “pretty Indian Room” in their home, “The Pines.” After her husband’s death, Mrs. Dermont desired that their collection, which included over 200 baskets, remain in Arizona. The University of Arizona purchased the collection in 1920. Upon installation of the collection at the Arizona State Museum, Nelle Dermont addressed the University president, Museum Director Byron Cummings, and other assembled dignitaries:

“It certainly is delightful and very gratifying to see the Dermont collection in the University of Arizona for the first time and to find it so artistically and attrac-tively arranged. I fondly hope it will give as much pleasure and information to this, and coming generations, as it has to the Dermonts in collecting it.”

Governor GeorGe w.p. and duette hunt: arizona’s First “First couple”In 1916 Arizona Governor George W.P. Hunt (1859-1934) donated 85 Western Apache and Pima (Akimel O’odham) baskets to the Arizona State Museum. Hunt had come to Globe, Arizona in 1880 and in 1890 began working at the Old Dominion Mercantile, a mining company store. Two years later he was elected to the Territorial Legislature and in 1912 was elected first governor of the 48th state. Gover-nor Hunt was to serve in this office, with the exception of several years, until 1932.

No collection history came with the Hunt donation, nor has any reference to the gift been found in his extensive archives. One theory was Hunt might have traded for them during his stint at the Mercantile. Recent conversations with heirs, however, point to their having more likely come via Hunt’s wife, Duette Ellison. Her parents, the J.W. Ellisons, operated a trading post just west of the Ft. Apache reserva-tion beginning in the 1890s, trading for “beads, sugar, coffee and calico.” (Camp Armer, Ellison descendent, 2012). Such baskets would have been common exchange items.

While still a Legislator from Globe in 1893, Hunt intro-duced a bill creating the Arizona Territorial Museum at the University of Arizona. Today this museum is known as the Arizona State Museum.

LeFT: Pima basket with seed bead trim, c. 1910, central arizona, diam-eter 18.8 cm, Perry Merrell Williams collection (819)

cenTer: Oldest example of Pima man-in-the-maze at aSM, c. 1910, diameter 48 cm, Perry Merrell Williams collection (781)

rIgHT: Perry Merrell Williams with pet wildcat, c. 1900, photographer unknown, courtesy Maricopa Historical Society

aBove: The Dermonts’ Indian Room in their

home, “The Pines,” Williams, az, 1915. photographer, thomas Bates

(pix-1677-x-9)

BeloW: nearly identical installation of the

Dermont indian room in the Basketry Treasured exhibit


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a Basketry Gallery: Highlights of arizona state Museum’s Basketry Collection

ToP roW:

Pima Bowl, c. 1910gift of Miss Bertha Herring (13916)

Western Apache or Yavapai Bowl, c. 1900 gift of glenn Wilson and Harold cranswick (e-2805)

Cahuilla Bowl, c. 1931Frank Pinkley collection (e-593)

Hopi Eagle Plaque, c. 1930 gila Pueblo collection (gP52655)

Second roW:

Pima beaded Jar, c. 1930Frank Pinkley collection (e-562)

Tohono O’odham Dog by Lucy andrew, 1961aaHS discretionary Fund (e-4645)

Haida Painted Cylinder, c. 1910 (26498-x-8)

Pit River Bowl, c. 1900 nelle dermont collection (e-3991)

Havasupai Plaque, c. 1920 elsa Mae Sweeney collection (91-57-19)

Navajo Spider Woman Cross Bowl, c. 1900,nelle dermont collection (8021)

Tohono O’odham Hat, c. 1950ethel alvira Stone estate (e-4288)

THIrd roW:

Mikmaq Canoe, c. 1900 gift of Mrs. g.e. Burl (3306)

Seri Manta Ray/Butterfly Plaque by Lupe Herrera, c. 1950 James Manson collection (e-8412)

Tohono O’odham Squash Blossom Tray By Loretta Saraficio, 2011, Friends of aSM collections Hartman Lomawaima Memorial Purchase (2011-148-1)

Hopi Katsina Bowl, c. 1960 estate of richard and nathalie Woodbury (2011-250-104)

Ojibway Hamper, c. 1910, gift of Mrs. albert e. Hamilton (e-7602)

Tohono O’odham Figure, c. 1945, gift of Mr. John and norbert o’Mara (e-4693)

Yavapai or Western Apache Jar, c. 1910 aZ. gift of Susan Small (2011-542-1)

BoTToM roW:

Yavapai or Western Apache, c. 1905gila Pueblo collection; collected by edward Ledwidge (gP4308)

Jicarilla Apache Hamper, c. 1900, nelle dermont collection (8096)

Imbricated Klikitat Basket, c. 1890, James Manson collection (e-8489)

Late Archaic-Early Mogollon Granary and Lidc. 1500 Bce-550 ce, Mceuen cave, aZ Byron cummings, ua archaeological expedition (20906) (see reference to this basket, p. 5)



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new strands: a look at Contemporary Weavers Beyond the southwest

eriC otter BaCon (Passamaquoddy) merges Passamaquoddy weaving techniques and Northwest Coast designs in his work bringing a unique perspective and innovative style to his baskets. “The creative process of making a basket allows me to sepa-rate from the realities of life and go into a place I feel is part of my soul.”

Carol eMartHle DouGlas (Arapaho/Seminole) employs traditional coil techniques with wax linen thread and silk to create detailed images with novel textures and colors. “I look for inspiration in designs that catch my eye, whether it is on a powwow dancer’s dress, pottery, jewelry, or in everyday life—a landscape or even modern architec-ture. I am constantly looking for designs to challenge me.”

lisa telforD (Haida) By weaving shoes and bodices in addition to traditional hats and other cultural items, Telford adds a playful dimension to her fine twined and plaited cedar work. “Haida basketry was essential for survival years ago. I continue the tradition, celebrating the beauty of nature.”

Gail treMBlay (Onondaga/Micmac) weaves with materials such as film celluloid to create a new world of baskets as modern art. “My work is concerned with using non-traditional materials to explore conceptual ways to use indigenous stories and traditional Onondaga and Micmac basketry forms as a commentary on indigenous life in the 21st Century.”

Untitled covered containerBirch bark and ashBy eric otter Bacon, 2010calais, Maineon loan from Terrol dew Johnson

Untitled coiled bowlWaxed linen and hempBy carol emarthle douglas, 2011Bothell, Washingtonon loan from Terrol dew Johnson

Untitled Shoescedar bark and spruce rootBy Lisa Telford, 2011ketchikan, alaskaon loan from Terrol dew Johnson

Indian Girl in HollywoodFilm strips and metallic thread By

gail Tremblay, 2006, olympia, Washington

on loan from Terrol dew Johnson

other Contemporary southwest Weavers featured in Basketry Treasured

terri Goode (San Carlos Apache) is one of very few Apache weavers still making coiled basketry. She continues the tradition learned from her grandmother of naming each of her baskets. The pictured basket is titled “The Hunt”.

elsie Holiday (Navajo [Diné]) of Mexican Hat, Utah, weaves colorful sumac baskets with design inspira-tions reflecting her Navajo roots as well as the modern world.

lola Mae thomas (Tohono O’odham) weaves fine willow min-iature baskets, and is dedicated to making sure that this basketry tradition remains vital.

annie antone (Tohono O’odham) of Ajo, Arizona weaves yucca baskets displaying a com-mand of pictorial represen-tation that is nothing short of phenomenal.

Basketry treasured today

“today’s contemporary weavers are using their cultural history, weaving skills and artistic inspiration to bring basketry into a new, exciting era. to me, contemporary basket weaving is a fusion of two worlds, using traditional techniques with new materials, shapes and sizes. Contemporary weavers are step-ping out of their traditional realm and incorporating new ideas, while keeping the vital tradition of weaving alive.”

Terrol Dew Johnson, (Tohono O’odham), Exhibit Guest Collaborating Curator

LeFT To rIgHT: Terri goode holds “The Hunt,” 2012. Friends of aSM collections purchase, height 40 cm (2012-231-1), elsie Holiday with “Mates,” 2012. Friends of aSM collections purchase, diameter 57 cm (2012-238-1). Lola Mae Thomas; InSerT, miniature willow plaque, 2012, arch and Laura Brown/kate Seemann Fund purchase, diameter 6 cm (2012-201-1), annie antone, 2012; InSerT, Hohokam dancer basket, c. 2005, arch and Laura Brown/kate Seemann Fund purchase, height 18.5 cm (2007-605-1).

“Sweet Sensation”By Terrol dew Johnson

Tohono o”odhamFriends of aSM collections purchase

(2007-130-1)



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the ins and outs: Basketry techniques

There are four basic technologies for weaving baskets:

Plaiting: Strands of equal-sized material are passed over and under each other at right angles. Finished patterns include checkerboard, diamond, stepped, and herringbone-twill designs.

twining: Two or sometimes three strands (wefts) alternately pass over and under stiff vertical rods (warps). The wefts are twisted, or twined together in the space between each rod.

wicker: Finer weft fibers pass over and under stationary rigid warp spokes. Unlike twining, wefts are not twisted together.

coiling: An inner foundation of grass or twigs is wrapped and stitched with split leaves or twigs, beginning with a central start and spiraling outward.

Gathering Materials: shoots and leaves

Basket making is year-round, labor-intensive work. It requires seasonal

rounds to find and sustainably harvest required plants. A few of the most

commonly-used basketry plants in the Southwest include:

top left: Laura Cooyama (Hopi)

makes a large wicker bowl new oraibi, third Mesa, az photographer helga teiwes,

1974 (c-6932)

top MiDDle: Beatrice Kenton (Western Apache) twines a burden

basket, San carlos, az photographer helga teiwes,

1990 (c-25576)

right: Annabelle Nequatewa (Hopi)

twill plaits a yucca sifter Shungopavi, Second Mesa, az

photographer helga teiwes, 1991 (c-28416)

BottoM-left: Seri woman uses a bone awl

to stitch a coiled a basket Sonora, Mexico photographer,

james Manson, 1961 (25153)

Beargrass (Nolina spp.) A clumping, perennial, grass-like plant used in coiled foundations by Tohono O’odham, and for plait-ing by Tarahumaras.

cattail (Typha spp.) Pimas (Akimel O’odham) use split cattail stalks as the foundation for their coiled baskets.

cottonwood (Populus fremontii) Twigs are used in the foundation and as splints for Apache, Huala-pai, Havasupai and Yavapai coiled baskets.

Devil’s claw (Proboscidea parviflora) Many Southwest, California and Great Basin weavers use the claw-like seed pods of this annual to make the black designs in coiled and twined baskets.

dune Broom (Parryella filifolia) Hopis use dune broom for the rigid spokes in Hopi wicker plaques.

galleta grass (Pleuraphis jamesii) Galleta grass forms the foundation for Hopi coiled baskets.

limBerBush (Jatropha cuneata) Seris of Sonora, Mexico use this flowering desert shrub in their baskets. Sonoran O’odham basket-makers used limberbush as well.

raBBitBrush (Ericameria nauseosa) Hopi basket makers use rabbitbrush as weft material for wicker, dyed with either vegetal or commercial dyes.

sumac (Rhus aromatica) Also known as skunkbush and “Indian Kool-aid” (the berries are used to make a tea), the very white shoots are used in twining and coiling by Navajo, Southern Paiute, Apache, Yavapai, Hualapai and Havasupai.

willow (Salix spp.) In the Southwest, O’odham, Apache, Pee Posh (Maricopa), Havasupai, Hualapai, and Yavapai Indians have all made use of wil-low for stitching and foundations of coiled baskets.

Yucca leaf (Yucca spp.) Tohono O’odham use yucca elata and Hopis use yucca angustissma to stitch coiled baskets; Hopis also wrap the rims of wicker baskets with this flexible material.

Banana Yucca (Yucca baccata) The red roots are used for design highlights in O’odham, Apache, Havasupai and Yavapai coiled baskets.

BeloW: Julia Francisco collects

cattail used as the founda-tion in pima baskets. gila

river indian reservation, az. photographer, helga teiwes.

1973. (c-7739)


Basketry Materials at risk

Native Americans throughout North America have used plants to produce baskets for everyday and ceremonial purposes for millennia, and this tradition continues today. For some contemporary basket weavers, obtaining plant materials has become increasingly difficult. Reasons for the shortage include restricted access to and management of traditional gathering areas; spraying of pesticides; and loss of natural habitats due to development. Native American consultants to the Basketry Treasured project reported their challenges. One group of Tohono O’odham went home empty-handed when a commercial broom company clear-cut the field of beargrass they’d hoped to for-age. The damming of the Gila River and the subsequent ecological and economic disaster experienced by the Akimel O’odham (Pima) downstream led to the near-collapse of their celebrated basketry tradition. Droughts have made it difficult for

Apache basket makers to find wild devil’s claw, and the invasive tamarisk (salt cedar) is crowding out willows and cottonwoods in riparian areas.

the Woven Wonders project

The Museum’s peerless basketry and fiber work collection faces serious risks to its long-term preservation because of its fragile nature and sensitivity to climatic fluctuations. Funds raised through a basketry preservation initiative titled “Woven Wonders,” beginning with a $400,000 grant from Save America’s Treasures, will provide a new visible a new climate-controlled storage and interpretive facil-ity to care for and share Arizona’s treasured basketry collection. From our largest basket to the tiniest miniatures, the oldest to the new, ASM’s basketry will be well preserved yet accessible so that it can be treasured for many generations to come.

This exhibit guide is dedicated with great fondness to the memory of Professor Clara Lee Tanner (1905-1997), University of Arizona anthropology professor who throughout a 50-year career taught, lectured and published books and articles drawing upon the Arizona State Museum’s basketry col-lections. She introduced a wide swath of students, collectors and the public at large to the riches of Southwestern Indian cultural arts, especially baskets. Professor Tanner most assuredly would have been delighted to see the Muse-um’s basketry and fiber arts collections comfortably housed in the new storage facility that is currently under con-struction. There they will be infinitely more accessible to future generations from all backgrounds who share a love of and reverence for this ancient but

abiding technology.

InSeT: Professor clara Lee Tanner in

arizona State Museum basketry storage room, c. 1970,

photograph by Helga Teiwes

Background: aloisa Juan (Tohono o’odam) coils a large yucca basket. Bigfields, aZ, 1979, photograph by Helga Teiwes

(51274)

dedication

BeloW: Tiny miniature Pomo

baskets (under the shadow of museums largest olla, see p. 10), c. 1900-1920. various sources: gifts of

adela van horn (e-396) and Mrs. h.K. estabrook (e-2381),

and purchase from nelle a. Dermont (8172).

“i avoid the plants along the sides of roads where car exhaust and chemical sprays get on it, so i have to walk further and further to get my rabbitbrush and my plants for tea.”

Ruby Chimerica, Hopi, exhibit consultant.

2.5cm (1”)

acknowledGementsThe Arizona State Museum thanks the following organizations and individuals for their support of and contributions

to Basketry Treasured: The Arizona Humanities Council; The Southwestern Foundation for Educational and Historical

Preservation; Tohono O’odham Community Action (TOCA), Executive Director and CEO Terrol Dew Johnson (Tohono

O’odham), Guest Consulting Curator

consultants: Terrie Goode (San Carlos Apache), Lola Thomas (Tohono O’odham), Ruby Chimerica (Hopi) and Elsie

Holiday (Navajo[Diné])

Basketry Treasured exhibit committee: Diane Dittemore, Davison Koenig, Mike Jacobs, Andrew Higgins, Beth DeWitt,

Jannelle Weakly, Dr. Nancy Odegaard, Gina Watkinson, Teresa Moreno. All contributed to the content of the exhibit

and this publication.

Dr. Beth Grindell, Director, and Dr. Patrick Lyons, Associate Director, for institutional support.

Photo credits: Unless otherwise noted, photographs by Jannelle Weakly, Arizona State Museum Photographer

www.statemuseum.arizona.edu

demonstrator at arizona State Museum’s Southwest Indian art Fair 2012

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