Dispatches from Home: Baskets, Baskets, Baskets!

A few years ago, before I started working at the museum, I was wandering around Old Town and I stopped by to visit the Clarke Museum. I checked out the Main Hall and went into Nealis Hall, where I was faced with literally hundreds of baskets of all shapes, sizes, and colors. I walked through the exhibits but when I walked out, I felt like how one feels when they are walking through a forest that they aren't familiar with and someone asks them what kind of plants they saw. I once heard a professor somewhere over at HSU refer to a similar feeling as experiencing the "green blur" while driving down the road.

I knew I saw baskets, but the sheer numbers made it hard to comprehend what I had seen. It wasn't until I started working at the Museum and started learning more about the collections that I began to see the things that made not only different types of baskets different from one another, but recognizing individual baskets. I've come to a much greater appreciation and understanding of the baskets through learning more about them and their regional importance. Of course, there's always more to learn about them, their makers, and the context of their creation and use.

So here's a handy basic identification guide for the next time you come in the museum or visit another one of our local museums that has basketry on display. Keep in mind these are general guidelines- weavers definitely do new things with time, inspiration, and the influence of external forces so there are baskets out there that don't fit into the general identification criteria.

Baby Baskets

​Baby baskets are probably one of the most recognizable baskets in the collection due to their open weave structure (which also floats in water) , their slipper shape, and lifeline. Children would be tied into the baskets with fabric or furs, and baskets also frequently include an openweave dish that shades the child from the sun. they can be worn in a backpack like fashion for transportation. The lifeline is strip of leather or twine with beads, shells, obsidian, or other materials that goes above the baby to represent who the baby is, protect them, and offer some entertainment for the child while they are in the basket.  The basket even includes an option for a disposable diaper- moss goes in the pointed part of the “slipper” for use as a diaper.

Cooking Baskets

These typically medium sized baskets feature a raised band that goes around the center of the basket and designs that are typically in tan or light brown rather than red or black. They are made with spruce root, which expands when it comes in contact with water, making the baskets virtually waterproof.

Eating Bowls

​These bowls resemble the size of modern ceramic bowls, and also feature the strengthening center band from cooking baskets.

Cooking basket on left, eating bowl on right. This cooking basket may have been made for the trade, as it lacks a strengthening band.

Storage Baskets

These can range in size, much like how plastic tubs used for storage today range in size. The largest storage baskets may be 3 feet tall and 2-3 feet wide to hold acorns for storage or large items, while smaller ones may be around a a foot wide and a foot tall. Patterns and colors vary, but tend to be a bit more plain.

Hopper Baskets

Hopper baskets are used in processing acorns. They have a reinforced hole in the bottom, steep incline, a rock is placed underneath it. While they may appear to be broken baskets that are repurposed, they are made specifically for this purpose. 

Flour Trays

Flour trays are large and circular, and are used for leeching bitter tannins out of ground acorns. They can closely resemble gambling trays, and oftentimes it's hard to tell the difference between the two. Made for the trade flour trays are often incredibly detailed in their design work.

Gambling Trays

Gambling trays can come in different sizes and, as previously mentioned, closely resemble flour trays. They are circular and detailed in their design work.

Tobacco Baskets​

​Tobacco baskets can be identified quickly- they are usually egg or teardrop shape with a lid that ties on usually with leather straps. Designs can vary greatly. They are usually one of two sizes, small or large. Traditionally, small baskets were for carrying tobacco on the go and larger ones were for tobacco storage at home. The tobacco cultivated in this region is not the same as tobacco cultivated on the East Coast, it is a local variety.

Trinket Baskets

The term trinket basket covers a wide swath of sizes and designs of baskets. Structurally, they generally lack the strengthening band that appears on eating bowls and cooking baskets. The designs are usually more elaborate, can include innovative elements, and are sometimes not even circular but oval. They oftentimes include black work made from maidenhair fern, bear grass dyed with alder bark, or porcupine quills dyed with wolf moss. Some include open weave elements, lids or handles, especially on post-contact baskets.

Caps

​Basket Caps are frequently mistaken for overturned bowls- however they lack the strengthening band at the center of the basket but oftentimes have one near the lower rim. Design work is featured on the top, middle section, and lower sections of caps (particularly for fancy caps) while some caps are plain (like work caps). Fancy caps include detailed design work, and sometimes feature dentalium shells, beads, or woodpecker scalps. Some weavers interviewed in the 1980s said that porcupine quills dyed yellow with wolf moss were used for weddings, but that might not hold true for all weavers, families, or villages. Some work caps in the Clarke collection were made with spruce root that would swell when it came into contact with water, allowing the cap to be used to hold water.

Miniature Baskets

​Miniature baskets are simply identified by their size- small! They are oftentimes mini versions of larger baskets. They take a lot of skill and dexterity to make.

Carrying Baskets

​Carrying baskets can be identified a few ways. They are open weave- made of sticks and open- you can see through them. They can be circular and tall or circular and short with handles,  some are cone shaped and include a leather strap worn on the forehead. They are used in the collection of acorns, carrying supplies like firewood, and transporting other items.

Wall Mats

​Wall mats are decorative weavings usually hung on the wall. They provide weavers an opportunity to try new designs and an opportunity for new weavers to practice skills. The outer rims of the mats are usually arching sticks woven into one another.

Medallions

Medallions are small, circular woven pieces that appear typically on necklaces, but can also appear on hair barrettes and other personal adornments. 

Post-Contact Basketry Work

Basketry made post contact continues to use traditional designs, innovative weaving patterns, and baskets woven for the trade. This kind of work includes baskets made in the Victorian period that catered to Victorian-era purchasing habits and sentiments (Collecting Native-made items for curio cabinets). Weavers were also inspired by the changing world around them , incorporating post-contact materials into their weaving work.