WHO MADE THIS, A ?BASKET.?PLATE. T IA

Am going through some baskets, Have been told this is Pagago and also was told it could be Navajo

 

@komokwa

 

thank you @Bronwen, would appreciate it if someone could give an approx age also

 

Think by Pagago you mean these people:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tohono_Oʼodham

 

that covers it.....maybe 50's...

 

could be earlier but there's no size , no rear pics...

Navajo wedding baskets , used for corn mush , where made by the Utes, and always had the same design..

 

If you plan to post more baskets for identification, it will be helpful if you include a view of the complete shape, good views of the center/start, front and back, and the rim. These are usually the most diagnostic features of baskets.

 

I think you meant Paiutes. There are now Navajo weavers as well.

 

Deseret News...1996

For centuries after learning the skill from neighboring tribes, Navajo women wove baskets. The baskets were made for carrying and storing food or other household items as well as for use in various sacred ceremonies. However, near the end of the 19th century, trading posts were established and the Navajo found modern containers like canteens, tin plates and cups more practical than woven baskets.

Unlike the utilitarian baskets, writes Carol Edison in her book "Willow Stories," production of ceremonial basketry was governed by formal rules and taboos. "During weaving there were dietary and sexual restrictions, rules about physical contact for both weaver and weaving materials and special, ceremonial cleansings required both before and after making the basket. To make matters worse, Navajo weavers were much more interested in weaving rugs than baskets because the same trading posts that brought modern containers to the reservation opened up the outside market to Navajo-made goods, especially the popular wool rugs."

Because of the strictness associated with weaving ceremonial baskets and the attraction of trade goods or cash for rugs, basket weaving went into decline.

Eventually Navajo ceremonial baskets were produced by neighboring Ute and Paiute weavers who weren't subject to the same restrictions and taboos. They traded or sold these ceremonial baskets to the trading post, which in turn traded or sold them to the Navajo.

 

Komokwa is right, both the Utes and the Paiutes have been the source during most of the 20th century for nearly all the "Navajo wedding baskets" on the market. They were purchased by the Navajo for their ceremonies, as well as by tourists and collectors. (And more recently, "Navajo wedding baskets" made in Pakistan have replaced those!)

Despite all the claims on line, there are very few actual Navajo-made baskets. It wasn't until the latter part of the 1980s/1990s, when Mary Holiday Black began to defy the cultural restrictions and started a revival of basket making in the Douglas Mesa area of Utah, that a few more women started making baskets for the market. Most of them are related to Mary.

The baskets are made of sumac, not yucca, and are colorful and expensive works of art, nearly always accompanied by a photo of the maker. They look nothing like Tohono O'odham baskets, nor do they look anything like the wide range of so-called "Navajo" baskets one often encounters on line.

Thank you, Komokwa, for the documented references, and for helping get the word out!