I have just returned from a trip to the Southwest, and the experience has taught me a little about the baskets made by the Native Americans that live there. The Tahona O’Odom people, previously known as the Papago, are masters of basket weaving and have been for many centuries.
The Tahona O’Odom baskets come in three materials. The primary material and size of baskets are those made from split yucca or other local fibers, with darker fibers contributed by the cat’s claw acacia seed pods. The basic color of these baskets, when new, is a pale green, but they dry out and turn a pale yellow. The acacia seed pods are dark brown and the decorative patterns made with this materials remain dark over time, so the basic color scheme of the baskets are pale yellow and dark brown. This contrast allows the basket weavers to add geometric patterns to the baskets made in the traditional ways.
New colors have been added to the baskets, including a dark red. This material is used on the slope-sided baskets made with saguaro cactus on the sides, the red being used as the red fruits at the end of the saguaro’s arms. This basket also features a somewhat darker green material to depict the cactus, but whether it will stay this color or not is a good question.
The Tahona O’Odom basket makers also make miniature baskets from horsehair and very finely split plant leaves. These are like the larger baskets, usually round and fairly flat, with geometric patterns. They also make horsehair baskets in the form of turtles, whose round shapes are perfect for adaptation into baskets. Some of these small turtle baskets are shaped so they can be worn as pendants.
The third form the Tahona O’Odom baskets take is a wire basket woven in a very loose curl stitch. These can be flat, or made with convex sides with a matching top. The wire may be any colors of normally occurring metal, like copper or aluminum, and even some fine sterling silver baskets are made in the miniature scale of the horsehair baskets.
The variations of shape and patterns of baskets made by the Tahona O’Odom people are somewhat dictated by tradition, although new forms and materials are also used. The man and maze motif is one of the traditional patterns seen in the Tahona O’Odom baskets with fancier patterns than the usual star or ray patterns. There are examples of all these types of baskets available for sale at the Kitt Peak Observatory gift shop.
The photos on this page are by the author.
Go to the Table of Contents to see all the topics covered so far.
Click American collectibles to go to the latest entry on this site.