|
|
Basketry |
|
|
|
Three basic techniques were used: coiling, wicker, and plaiting.
Designs included complex geometric patterns and on occasion life forms of
humans, birds, plants, and animals. While the Pueblo people relied on pottery for containers and
vessels, the more mobile Apache utilized baskets and animal skins for
household utensils and as carrying devices.
"Mission" is the cultural description frequently used for baskets from the Southern California region. Tribes of the region, which include Diegueno, Luiseno, Serrano, and Cahuilla, made similar styles of coiled baskets. Characteristic baskets from this region are globes and bowls, both shallow and deep, made of juncus rush and epicanipes grass. Like Apache basketry, geometric designs are favored, but some baskets have representational designs of animal figures, flowers, and plants. |
Millicent Rogers Museum
Native
Americans in the Southwest have had a long tradition as basket weavers.
Archaeologists date this craft to several centuries before the time of
Christ. One of the region's important prehistoric cultures is called "Basketmaker."
In historic times, virtually all of the Southwestern tribes made baskets
including the Apache.
The
Apache created basketry bowls, burden baskets, canteens and jars (almost
always covered with piñon pitch), trays, and other forms. They were
assembled using native material such as sumac, yucca, willow, and devil's
claw (martynia). 