Chapter XI

BASKETRY AND TEXTILES

The outstanding art of the Indians of California was their basketry. In fact the excellence of California basketry generally is not exceeded elsewhere in North America. Size varies from that of a pea to that of a bushel basket. Both weave and ornamentation were very diversified.

Basketry of the Lassen area, especially that of the Atsugewi and mountain Maidu, was of good quality. Both coiled and twined types of basketry (to be described below) were made by mountain Maidu, but the Atsugewi did not learn the art of coiled basketry from the Maidu until the early 1900’s. Yana and Yahi wove both types but twined baskets were by far the more numerous. This is due to the fact that these tribes were akin to the twining tribes of the north. Close contact with the neighboring Wintun tribes of the Sacramento Valley resulted in the addition of limited amount of coiling technique in their basketry making over the years.

Coiled basketry itself had some technical variations with which we shall not concern ourselves. The coiling technique was characteristic of the central and southern part of the California area. Mountain Maidu used three willow rods in a parallel group which ran as a core in a continuous spiral starting at the center of the basket. This was the warp element. The bundle of three willow ribs was lashed to the preceding basketry by a strand or weft (filler) of the inner bark of redbud. This was accomplished by poking an awl through the preceding row, and separating the stitches. In doing so, the awl was passed under the topmost of the core or warp of three coiling willow ribs. A redbud bark strand was then slipped through the awl hole, thus lashing the three loose willow ribs down by passing the strand around them and through the next awl hole in the preceding row. Recent Atsugewi coiled basketry technique is similar in all details, having been learned from the Maidu.

Twined basketry consisted of willow ribs radiating from a common center. These twigs were the warp. The weft of filling and binding stitches were split pine root strands. Dixon states that mountain Maidu sometimes dyed pine root black by burying it in mud mixed with charcoal. Pine root was tightly woven in to make the bottom of the basket which was normally undecorated. More and more willow ribs were added as the basket became larger. The willow ribs were curved up when willow rib additions were decreased. As the sides began to be built up on these twined baskets, each pine root stitch, both inside and outside, was covered with a whitish strand of bear-grass or squaw-grass. The tops of baskets were often left unfinished after the unused willow warps were clipped off. The basket did not unravel in use. However, the best baskets were finished by adding a marginal strengthening ring of choke cherry or willow which was bound to the basket body firmly and neatly, usually by wrapping with strands of redbud bark. During weaving willow withes were fastened inside of the basket to help it retain its shape, but these were removed upon completion of the basket.

_FOOD BOWL _STORAGE DIPPING COOKING_ GENERAL UTILITY_

_FOOD BOWL _STORAGE DIPPER COOKING_ GENERAL UTILITY_

_COOKING_ _STORAGE COOKING_

_FOOD BOWL _STORAGE DIPPER COOKING_ GENERAL UTILITY_

_COOKING_ _BURDEN_

_FOOD BOWL _STORAGE DIPPER COOKING_ GENERAL UTILITY_

_TRAYS or large BASKET COVER_ _TRAY or BASKET COVER_

Some utility baskets were undecorated, being made merely of pine root and willow, or, if coiled, of redbud and willow. However, most baskets bore some designs. They were all named and were inspired by the objects of nature about these outdoor peoples, and not the product of their imaginations. Nevertheless, the designs are quite stylized, often to the extent that recognition of the inspiration is difficult or impossible.

In the case of twined baskets the designs were made by substituting outer redbud bark for squaw-grass to produce a dull red instead of the white overlaid stitches of the rest of the basket. As a result of the double twining technique the designs were seen equally well on the inside and the outside of each basket. Black designs were of overlaid maidenhair fern (_Adiantum pedatum_) stems. However, mountain Maidu also used common bracken fern (_Pteris aquilinum_) for black designs. Indians to the north of the Atsugewi used roots and stems of certain sedges treated with charcoal and mud or with ashes and water to produce basketry materials of black and of warm henna-brown coloration respectively. These were used on occasion by Atsugewi. The bear-grass, redbud, and maidenhair fern decorative materials were most commonly used by all tribes of this area. Atsugewi are the only local Indians to have used feathers to adorn their baskets. They used the shiny iridescent blue-green feathers from the necks of male mallard ducks. This was not common, however, and by no means used as often nor developed to the fine art and diversity of the famous Pomo feathered basketry of the Clear Lake region of the California Coast Range. Atsugewi are also believed to have occasionally adorned some basketry work with shell beads and porcupine quills, but this must have been quite rare or more examples would have survived to the present day.

Outer bark of redbud almost always decorated coiled baskets.

Concerning Maidu basketry Dixon states that the vast majority of the articles are of the coiled type, twining technique being used only for burden baskets and hopper or grinding baskets. For the radial ribs of the former they used shoots of hazel (_Corylus rostrata_ var. _californica_) when available. He points out too, the frequent use of the feather, quail-tip, and arrow-point designs not only among the mountain Maidu, but among all Maidu. A characteristic of this group of Indians also, in contrast to other local tribes, is the tendency to confine one design to a basket rather than combining designs. Maidu employed a wide variety of designs. Many of them represent animals and plants. A considerable number of Maidu patterns exhibit a more or less obscure realism which becomes apparent only after one is informed as to what the design means. The Maidu show a tendency also toward arrangement of design elements in spiral or zigzag lines.

Dixon noted that “mussel’s tongue” (the fresh water mussel) is one of the unique and peculiar basketry designs used by the Atsugewi. Representation of intestines and deer excrement are also worthy of special mention for this tribe. Other common Atsugewi designs in basketry decoration are lizard, deer rib, owl’s claw, and flying geese, as well as arrow-point. Two or more different designs are often combined on a single basket. Among Atsugewi and Achomawi there seems to be no restriction of certain patterns to baskets intended for special uses. Like mountain Maidu, zigzag and spiral arrangements are preferred, horizontal bands being rare. Curiously an Atsugewi design is often given different meaning by different individual Indians. This is in contrast to the uniformity of interpretation of a given design by all the Maidu individuals, normally.

Yana tribes frequently substituted another material for willow ribs. The identity of this warp is not certain. Reliable students believe it to be hazelnut twigs, but to my knowledge that plant is scarce indeed even in the foothill territory. Yana and Yahi had some other peculiarities in their basketry. Designs were sometimes wrought in a negative way, that is by merely leaving off overlay so that the design was thereby defined in exposed pine root weft. Sapir and Spier found that these tribes also used alder bark for dying basketry decoration materials a red-brown. A reddish color was produced on peeled shield fern stems by passing them through the mouth while chewing dogwood bark. They dyed pine roots, too, on occasion with a red soil or with the powdery filling of spores from the inside of a fungus obtained from certain coniferous trees. These variations of basketry decoration do not seem to have been used by the Atsugewi and mountain Maidu.

The basketry described above was all close-woven. In fact, so closely were the twined baskets made that they held water with little or no leakage even without linings of pitch or any other substance. There was no pottery of any kind in central or northern California.

The art of basketry included also a third type—loose or open weaving, sometimes of tules. The latter were also used extensively for making mats for a variety of purposes. Open weaving at other times was done with willow withes, split juniper twigs, or of another material tentatively identified as hazel. Fish traps, carrying baskets, some storage baskets, and bags were not infrequently of this type of construction.

All basketry materials had to be well soaked in water, as they were brittle when dry. After weaving and upon drying these materials set in place, making the basketry firm, strong, and resistant to unraveling.

Collection of basketry materials was more arduous and required greater know-how than might be suspected. Willow withes were only taken from the particularly strong and supple shoots from Hinds or valley willow (_Salix hindsiana_) which grows along stream banks up to 3000 foot elevations and also from the similar sandbar, river, or grey willow (_Salix fluviatilis_ variety _argyrophylla_) which also lines streams, often growing in sandbars. These species are recognized by their long very narrow silvery leaves and a grey bark, furrowed when mature. Willow twigs were collected when the leaves were off of the stems in the spring and in the fall. At other times the twigs were more brittle. Spring picked willow withes “slipped” their bark easily, but those collected in the fall had to be scraped to remove the bark. The willow ribs were further dressed by scraping to uniform size.

Pine roots of either ponderosa pine (_Pinus ponderosa_) or digger pine (_Pinus sabiniana_) were usually used. However not all trees had roots of suitable strength and flexibility, so that it was necessary to “shop around” for good roots. This involved digging holes to reach the roots and then testing these by tugging on small strands until suitable roots were located. Roots three or four inches in diameter were then cut off with a small obsidian axe, if the individual were so fortunate as to possess this rarity, or by using a sort of bone pick, or, more commonly, by slowly burning through the green root with a small fire. Root lengths of about four feet were gathered, taken home, and there roasted in hot ashes. This made the pine roots very soft. They were then split into quarters with digging sticks or stone choppers and finally were pulled apart into thin strips using hands and teeth. The resulting half inch wide strips were tied into bundles for storage. In use, these strips were well soaked in water. Pine root strands of proper width were easily split off by hand. The finer and smaller the basketry to be done, naturally, the narrower was the material split for making it.

The chief overlay material—already mentioned—was what we call bear-grass or squaw-grass. In truth this is not grass, but the leaf of a lily, the well known bear-grass of Mount Rainier National Park, scientifically known as _Xerophylum tenax_. This grows only in limited areas in this region, hence Atsugewi had to make long trips on foot to obtain it. In recent years, at least, bear-grass was to be found only in the territory of the Shasta and of the mountain Maidu: a few miles west of Mount Shasta and near Greenville in Plumas County. Bear-grass could be collected only during about two weeks in mid-July. Earlier it was too tender; later it was too brittle “like hay”. Only new central leaves of each plant were plucked. The heavy mid-rib had to be removed from each leaf with an awl before use.

Maidenhair fern frond stems were picked in August.

Redbud twigs collected in the spring would “slip” the red outer bark easily in a thin layer. This was used for overlay pattern making on twined baskets. The white inner bark, or, more properly, sapwood was then stripped off for binding material and as the white lashing weft for coiled baskets. In the case of fall-collected redbud twigs the red outer bark adhered to the sapwood. This was used as the lashing strand or weft where red designs were desired on coiled baskets.

Apwaruge, the eastern division of the Atsugewi, often made baskets of tules. These were more flexible, softer baskets than those made by the westerners, the Atsuge, and so there was considerable exchange of baskets between the two divisions of the Atsugewi.

Atsugewi occasionally made openwork baskets from split juniper too, especially for low scoop-shaped, round, or oval baskets for fishing, root cleaning, et cetera, but as indicated earlier, willow ribs were used for this purpose also.

Basket styles varied little among the several tribes of the Lassen region. Bottle shapes were never made until after the coming of white man. Cooking baskets were bowl-shaped with high, convexly curved sides, sometimes nearly globular in form. Baskets from which food was eaten individually and general utility baskets were similarly shaped but smaller. Boiling baskets were sometimes without decoration; their dimensions of height and width were about equal. Storage baskets also had about the same shape, curving less, sometimes, but were large, being three feet or more in size. Some were of open work, but usually they were of close or tight weaving.

Flattish bowls or somewhat curved trays were used for food platters as well as for winnowing, parching, and cleaning foods by chafing. Some were of open weave made of willow or hazel (?) only while others were closely woven.

Basketry acorn grinding hoppers also called milling baskets or pounding baskets, were usually regular twined baskets of suitable size and shape: wide mouthed bowl or funnel-shaped. Having no central point from which to start the warp, because of the open bottoms, hopper baskets were started by twining three pine root wefts about the bases of many willow warps to make a circle about five inches in diameter. Additional warps were built up on the radiating ribs, proceeding then in the normal manner of twining. Twined hopper baskets were usually reinforced by lashing one or two strong rings of willow or serviceberry withes. They might also be bound with buckskin along the bottom edges for improved strength and durability as well as to decrease loss of acorn meal during the pounding process. In recent years both mountain Maidu and Atsugewi, also used coiling technique in making hopper baskets, for which purpose it is well suited.

A recent innovation among Atsugewi has been the covering of bottles with basketry and also the weaving of oblong shaped closely twined and coiled baskets, as well as goblet shaped creations.

According to Garth, the seed beater “... was a paddle-shaped implement from one and a half to two feet long with a willow warp and open work twining, also of willow (spaced at three quarters of an inch between rows) across the blade. The handle was wrapped either with willow strips or with buckskin.”

Another important use of basketry was in the construction of cradle boards, or more properly, basket cradles. These are generally known to present day Americans by the incorrect term papoose baskets. The cradle basket is discussed under the heading “Birth and Babies”.

Beautifully made basketry caps for women, finely twined, spreading bowl-shaped affairs were made by all tribes of the Lassen area. These were nicely decorated on the bottoms—or rather tops—as well as on the sides, a feature lacking on all other types of local baskets. Another unique feature of the basketry cap was the fact that the inside of the hat was abraded by rubbing so that none of the pattern remained visible because all of the overlay on the inside had been worn away. It is suspected that this made the inside of the hat less slippery on the hair so that it did not slip off the head so easily. Removal of the decoration from the inside of the basketry cap in no way altered the appearance or permanence of the outside decorative patterns.

Mats were woven of viscid bulrush, more commonly called tule stalks (_Scirpus lacustris_ or _acutus_). According to Voegelin, Atsugewi sometimes sewed these together by piercing them with bone needles. However the more usual method of manufacture was that of lashing together the ends of parallel tule stalks laid next to each other. This was done with double cords or strands in the regular simple twining manner which shows up well in the sketch of Atsugewi tule leggings. Such mats were extensively used as bed mats or mattresses, as earth wall coverings, as doorway and ventilator hole hangings, and so on by all of the tribes of the Lassen region. Mountain Maidu also employed broad-leaved cat-tail (_Typha latifolia_) or narrow-leaved cat-tail (_Typha angustifolia_) for such purposes on occasion. This tribe also appears to have used a string weft in making at least some of the mats.