3 Native Baskets Help

Hi,
These belong to a friend of mine and trying to figure out if they are Makah or by someone else.
They range in size from 4 1/2" to just over 1" for the little one. There was also a piece of paper in the little one that reads "Guaranteed Made by Indian Woman of the Pacific Coast. The material used call 'Bear Grass' grows in marshy places"

 

Yes, Makah twined cedar and beargrass "trinket" baskets.

They could be Nootka, as well, from the neighboring Canadian tribe (now called Nuu-chah-nulth). Their baskets are virtually identical. Some say the Nootka baskets tend to have less cedar plaiting showing on the bottom. But you'll generally see these identified as "Nootka/Makah."

 

Thanks taupou!

 

An easy way to tell them apart....with some exceptions ....

Nootka base flows in a spiral direction with a very small thin cedar start.


Makah base fans out in 4 different directions, with thick cedar band plaiting ..



Usually the less cedar strips you see on the base of a Makah basket ...( not covered by grass weave..) the older the basket will be.

 

The University of Washington's Burke Museum has an online database, where you can browse their collection of Makah and Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka) baskets (as well as their extensive collection of other baskets). If you click on the small photo by the entry, it will take you to a page with other views of the basket, usually including the bottom:

http://collections.burkemuseum.org/ethnology/browse.php?ID=135728

They also have a page about dating Makah baskets:

http://www.burkemuseum.org/static/baskets/artists/trinket.html

 

Traditionally, the Makah pukwu baskets differed from those of the Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka) ones in that the Makah generally used cedar bark as a weft and employed a plaited cedar bark start.

The Nuu-chah-nulth people used Three Corner Grass (Schoenoplectus olneyi),as a warp (Gogol 1981). S. olneyi, known as Toh-toh to the Nuu-chah-nulth people, is also often termed “American Bulrush” or “Sweetgrass.”

It grows in tidal flats, as well as in wet meadows, ditches and marshes. It is gathered between July and early August. To process “Sweetgrass,” the outer layer was traditionally removed using a mussel shell or deer’s leg bone and running it along each strand with the thumb positioned beneath (Thompson and Marr 1983).

 

Thanks very much for the links and examples Taupou and Komokwa! The Burke Museum has some amazing pieces in the collection. Yes, having different views of the pieces is a great help.

 

If anyone is seriously interested in Nootka/Makah baskets, the essential reference is Volume 1, Number 4 of American Indian Basketry Magazine published in the 1980's by John Gogol (quoted in some of the above posts.) It is devoted to "The Twined Basketry of Western Washington and Vancouver Island," and includes not only Gogol's article, but also an interview with Mabel Taylor, including detailed photos and closeups of her in the process of weaving one of these baskets.

The issues are out of print, but copies generally can be purchased from sources on line, and most major libraries should have copies. It's always better to read the actual reference cited, rather than depending on the relay of information through several sources, which sometimes get important points changed a little somewhere along the line.

One thing Gogol does talk about is the close association between the tribes. He mentions, for example, that although bear grass doesn't grow on Vancouver Island, "even today some Nootka and Nitinat weavers buy or trade for bear grass or dyes at Neah Bay, and one can see Nootka baskets being sold by Makah weavers there."

Which pretty much means, unless you actually know the name and tribal affiliation of the weaver of a particular basket, it may not be possible to label it one or the other. Which is why they are often referred to simply as "Nootka/Makah."

 

Never rely on just one source , no matter how essential ...or serious one may be.

 

I was going through Taupou's links and Chinook/Puyalluo loomed out at me. I have a smidgen of Chinook blood running thrrough my veins.

 

That can be fixed !!!

Heeheehee !!!!!!