Creation Date

1931 – 1955

Description

A flat, bowl basket, 18 inches in diameter, with the sides slanted upwards from a small circle base. The basket, made by the Pima Indians of Arizona, is of a very fine coil weave. The squash blossom design is worked in shades of dark and light brown, the dark material coming from devil's claw, and the light material from willow. See 66.1.151; and .152 for matching bowls.

This basket has 4 coils per inch. The coils are made up of bundles of split cattails. (Other groups used a three rod coil.) There are 23 stitches per inch. It is coiled counterclockwise. The black that forms the black part of the design is taken from the split seed pod of the devil's claw (Martyana louisana) plant, harvested in late summer but before the first frost. The willow that forms the light part of the design is harvested in March as the new shoots form. The bark is removed immediately and it is split into slender, uniform splints.