Pitch Basket

Here's another interesting basket that is pitch covered.
When I was young, I remember my grandfather telling me that these were for carrying water. The note inside the basket is similar to his other note.

I wasn't able to find any more info about it. AI says maybe Paiute. Anyone else have ideas?

 

Absolutely stunning...what a Treasure!

 

I suspect this is a type of Navajo basket, as described in Andrew Hunter Whiteford's book - Southwestern Indian Baskets: Their History and Makers -

"Pitched jars, most of which have sloping sides and little or no neck, are among the most common modern baskets on the western reservation. They are popular with basketmakers because they are easy to make. Some traders discourage their production because they do not sell well: one remarked that he buys them only to encourage the weavers, hoping they will do something else. These baskets have little relationship to traditional Navajo water bottles besides the use of pinon pine pitch and stacked rod construction, but they do resemble early and contemporary baskets of the Southern Paiutes." (pg.43)

Here is a gallery of older Paiute water baskets held in the National Museum of Natural History, which you can see are quite different in shape -

Unfortunately, I have not found a way to copy a link to a particular search. A link just sends you back to the starting page. But I did an advanced search using Object Name or Type: "basket water", and Culture: "Paiute".
https://collections.nmnh.si.edu/search/anth/#new-search

According to Whiteford, the Southern Paiute stopped making these older style baskets in the 1930s, but at the time of his research in the 1960s-80s, they were making pitch covered baskets again for sale to tourists and collectors.