Puget Sound Salish Basketmaker
Welcome | Salish Art and Culture | Overview of the Exhibition | About Native Teaching | Resource List | Acknowledgments
Tree People | Skokomish Basket | Song For the Moon | Bone Game
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Skokomish basket (t’cayas) ca. 1910 Beargrass, cattail
leaves, red cedar bark Gift of John H. Hauberg,
86.91 Cedar
work song Sung
by Dobie Tom Recorded
by Katie Jennings, 2004 The
Klikitat Basket story Told
by Vi taqwsheblu Hilbert Recorded
by Katie Jennings, 1995 |
About the Work
This basket has the
characteristic design and form associated with Skokomish basketry. A
band of wolf figures with down-turned tails, facing right on a solid baseline,
decorates the top area below the rim of the basket. This type of four-legged animal—either a wolf
with a down-turned tail, or a dog with an upturned tail—is a common design
element used by Skokomish weavers. On
the body of the basket the double zigzag or v-shaped pattern called “salmon
gills” and “spread out (like a sword fern)” divide the lower portion into
alternating, opposite triangles. The
design is done in two colors, brown or black and red, on a natural
background. The technique used is overlay
twining, where two colors of weft—the horizontal element—are carried along and
twisted between the warps—the vertical
elements—allowing the weaver to vary the colors by alternating the colored
wefts.
Twining is one of the most
ancient forms of weaving, and has been in practice among the Puget Sound Salish
for several thousands of years. Soft twined baskets served as storage containers
for household goods such as clothing and other valuables. After the Euro-American settlement of
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Skokomish Woman known as Big Ann or Satsop Ann,
Basketmaker Near South Bend, ca. 1903 Postcard by D. M. Averill & Co. |
Learning from this Work
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One of the most important
artistic expressions of Native American culture is the living art of basket
making. Baskets are markers of
cultural pride and inheritance. Most
raw materials, including beargrass and cedar root used in weaving, are
harvested or gathered at specific times of the year. This ensures that the materials are
collected when they are best suited for weaving. Weavers understand the growing cycles of
the natural materials they use and recognize when a tree or plant is ready
for harvesting. ca. 1900 Anders B. Wilse, photographer |
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Beargrass (Xerophyllum tenax) A member of the lily
family, beargrass in bloom has a plume of small white flowers. Its strength and durability make it a
particularly appealing material for weavers.
The leaves are gathered during the summer, placed outside to dry and
bleach, and stored in a dry place.
Beargrass can also be dyed yellow with bark from the Oregon grape
plant, or black with a special mud.
Weavers also began to experiment with other colors with the
introduction of commercial dyes. |
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Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata) Cedar roots and bark are
used in the creation of baskets in the |
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Cattail (Typha latifolia) Cattails grow in shallow
fresh water throughout the |
Often, special prayers are
said or songs are sung by the weaver while they gather and process the
materials. Cedar weaving, like wool
weaving, is a transformative act in which raw materials are turned into
“wealth” through the intervention of a spirit power guiding the weaver. Cedar work songs are prayers to the
Grandmother Cedar for her gifts and to keep the artist focused and respectful.
Weaving is historically a
woman’s art form, but today many Native men, including Bruce subiyay Miller (who
is featured in Teachings of the Tree
People), are accomplished weavers.
Techniques in the weaving tradition are learned by observation and
imitation, and are often passed down through families from one generation to
the next. Designs, such as those seen on
this basket, are often conceived mentally and created in the process of weaving
row by row, not measured out beforehand on paper. Some designs are related specifically to a
story and represent the oral tradition in visual form. Skokomish weavers use many designs, often
relating to the natural environment including “flounder beds” and “crow’s
shells”.
Contemporary basket weaving
is a way of reclaiming Native forms and heritage.
Classroom Activities
Goals
Students will explore
artwork and stories that demonstrate:
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How lessons are
transmitted through stories and through personal perseverance
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How basketry
designs often relate to the natural environment and to stories
Suggested Pre-Tour Activities:
Listen to the story of the Klickitat
Basket.
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How did you
feel after hearing this story?
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What do you
think the girl learned?
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What qualities
or virtues did the girl possess?
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What qualities
do you possess that make you an individual?
Ask
the students to think for a moment about something they have had to practice
many times, or for a long time, to learn.
Divide the class into small groups; give each of the students a
designated teaching method. For example,
there may be five groups of five students; each person in the small group will
have a different method to teach the other people in the group. Each student
will teach or describe to the others how to do something new.
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Model
behavior without the use of words.
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Tell a story.
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Have each
person imitate the action.
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Give each
person a different job and work together to learn, using the different skills.
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Use a process
of question-asking.
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Use
repetition as a way of learning.
After
the exercise ask the students how they felt about learning from the different
approaches. Have the students write
about their experience.
Suggested Post-Tour Activities:
Introductory discussion
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Name different
types of containers we have in our homes.
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What are some
things we keep in these containers?
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What are some
things the Coast Salish might have stored in baskets? (Food: clams, berries,
roots, and so on; clothing, valuables, tools for fishing, weaving, etc., and materials for sewing, weaving, or other
domestic needs.)
Discuss the natural
materials used to make this basket (beargrass, cattail leaves and red cedar
bark), bringing in examples if possible.
It is important to understand the work and time involved in the
gathering and processing of weaving materials. Some of the materials require
extensive travel, digging, peeling and preparation. Listen to the type of song the women may sing
while gathering and processing the weaving materials. (Play the video to hear the Cedar Work Song in this
module). How can song help ease the burden of hard work?
Explain the method of
twining used to make the basket (See Burke Museum Website http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/baskets/index.html)
Design Discussion and Activity
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How would you
describe the designs on the Skokomish basket?
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Can you guess
what animal is depicted on the top of the basket?
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Look at some
other designs used by Coast Salish basket makers
From Crow’s Shells: Artistic Basketry of Puget Sound. By
Drawing basket designs of animals and plants on graph paper).
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What is the
difference between the designs for the dog and the wolf?
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Why would
salmon designs be important to the basket makers?
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Why would the helldiver
designs be important?
Cut out a piece of graph
paper in the shape of a basket. Draw the designs from the handout on the graph
paper with colored pens or pencils.
Traditional colors are in the brown and black ranges.
The Coast Salish created
designs that depicted the plants and animals that were important in their
lives. What animals, plants or objects
are important to you? Create your own basket design(s) on graph paper. Name your designs. Write a story
incorporating the animals, plants or objects you have chosen to use in your
designs.
Vocabulary
Skokomish—In the mid-1800s,
nine subgroups (Skokomish, Hoodsport, Duhlelap, Quilcene, Vance Creek, Tahuya,
Dabob, Dosewallips, and Duckabush) were moved onto a single reservation located
near Shelton, Washington, and became known as the Skokomish tribe. The name Skokomish means “People of the
River.” The Skokomish were renown for
their weaving skills.
Warp—the vertical elements
in weaving, which provide structure to the basket, and are often invisible.
Weft—the horizontal
elements in weaving, which provide structure and decoration on the outside of
the basket.
Overlay Twining—a
decorative weaving technique that involves the use of extra strands laid on top
of the structural weft, to contrast in color and texture, creating complex
patterns of different colors.
Bibliography
Books
Brown, Steve. The Spirit Within:
Kuneki, Nettie, Elsie
Thomas and Marie Slockish. The
Heritage of Klikitat Basketry: A History
and Art Preserved.
Lobb, Allan. Indian Baskets of the Pacific Northwest
and
Marr, Carolyn J. and
Schlick, Mary Dodds, Arthur
Erickson, Mariana Mace, and Kaye Van Valkenburg. Woven History: Native American Basketry of the
Stewart, Hillary. Cedar: Tree of Life to the
Wright, Robin (ed.). A Time of Gathering: Native Heritage in
Websites
Cannibal Basket Woman
Defeated by Clever Kids. A traditional
http://www.kstrom.net/isk/stories/hilbert.html
On-line Burke Museum of
Natural History and Culture exhibit Entwined
with Life: Native American Basketry.
http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/baskets/index.html
In June 1996 the Northwest Native American Basketweaver's
Association was formed. The main event for NNABA is its annual Gathering
where over 100 weavers meet to share skills, stories, materials, and each
other's company.
http://www.arts.wa.gov/progFA/nnaba/faBasketGa04.html
http://www.nmai.si.edu/exhibitions/baskets
Audio Tape
Hilbert,
Vi. Coyote and Rock and Other
Lushootseed Stories - The Parabola Storytime Series.