Alaska's "I Voted" Stickers

This year, Alaska's "I Voted" stickers celebrate the women of Alaska using bright and fun illustrations.  There are four designs representing people of different areas and their regional dress. A southeastern woman wears a flowing button blanket as she drums; from the far north, a musher in a parka appears with her dogs and sled; a woman in a floral kuspuq (overshirt) throws her hands up in delight; and three pairs of legs, one in heels, one in mukluks, one in sneakers, represent urban women in a voting booth. These cheerful stickers can be found at https://www.elections.alaska.gov/Core/ElectionStickers.php

The patriotic stickers salute Alaska's Native languages too, as the "I Voted" script appears in Aleut, Alutiiq, Cup’ig, Gwich’in, Koyukon, Northern Inupiaq, Nunivak and Yup'ik, plus English, Spanish, and Tagalog.

According to the Election Website, "The State of Alaska Division of Elections (DOE) unveiled the 2020 'I Voted' stickers and the powerful significance behind the artwork. Created by beloved Alaskan artist, Barbara Lavallee, the stickers feature her stylized depiction of the diversity, strength, and power of Alaskan women." Lavallee is known for her children's book illustrations, including Mama, Do You Love Me and Papa Do You Love Me, which feature Inuit characters.

                                                                                                                

The website encourages Alaskans "to continue paving a way to justice and equality for all generations to come. And in 2020, the best way to do that is to vote."  It also describes the 'I Voted' stickers as "Significant. Powerful. Encouraging."  Perhaps in 2024 the "I Voted" stickers could be more significant and powerful if Native artists were encouraged to design them.

There aren't any baskets portrayed in these drawings, but I felt this was interesting and worthy of putting in the blog. My husband brought these stickers to my attention last week. I wrote this on 10/28/20, but didn't put on this blog until 11/6/20.

A selection of basketry on display at the Alaskan Native Medical Center, Anchorage. Photo 3-2-2019.

Baskets on the Big Screen: The Magnificent Seven

My son took college courses online while sheltering in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He was in a film appreciation class, and we turned watching his assignments into a family affair. Sundays were spent in our livingroom with a double-feature matinee, complete with popcorn, of course. The first movie of the day was guided by his assignment:  comedy, western, suspense, etc. We took turns picking the second movie of the day, from classics to computer animation.

This brought about some interesting film pairings, plus an interest in watching other old movies on the TCM channel - Turner Classic Movies.  And...the discovery of baskets on the big screen! 

A fun movie for basket spotting was The Magnificent Seven (United Artists, 1960). Granaries with basketry-style covers and basket-style bird traps hanging on a wall were diverse types of props in various scenes. Baskets behind the counter in the cantina, on a table in a home, and others used in maize (corn) processing were also featured. 

Baskets in a home.

Women using baskets for processing maize.

The Yaqui Deer Dance was part of a fiesta scene, complete with colorful masks and distinctive leg rattles made of moth cocoons. (I recognized the masks and rattles as the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles had a collection of them, and one day at work there, I wrapped the fragile cocoon-studded leggings in acid-free tissue paper for storage.) As the Yaqui people live in the Sonoran Desert on both sides of the border, and the story takes place in a Mexican village near the U.S. border, the use of Yaqui accoutrements seem to be culturally correct for the film props. 

 I was able to find some information about the movie's production in Elmer Bernstein's The Magnificent Seven: A Film Score Guide by Mariana Whitmer (2017). Whitmer writes, "The dances at the fiesta, which takes place the day after the Seven arrive in the village, were genuine traditional Mexican folk dances. The Yaqui Indian Deer Dance was. . . just as authentic; utilizing rattles and percussive instruments traditionally required to evoke the sounds of the forest." Whitmer reports the movie was filmed on sets in Tepoztlan and Oacalco, near Cuernavaca in central Mexico. Although filmed far from the border, the dance regalia was in fact correct for the border area. 

Now, what about those baskets?

First, I visited the pages of Mason (see 6/17/2020 blog), and found three Yaqui baskets on Plates 236 and 237, thus described as "made of palm-leaf strips in twilled weaving" (pg 526). 

Mason continues on pg 527: "The Yaqui of Sonora, Mexico, says Palmer, split the stems of arudinaria for basketry by pounding them carefully with stones. The reed divide along the lines of least resistance into splits of varying width, which are assorted and used in different textures." The reference is to Edward Palmer, "Plants Used by the Indians of the United States," American Naturalist, XII, October 1878, p. 653. I found the source online but could not find reference to Arudinaria on pg 653, nor anywhere in the Palmer article.

   Arundinaria gigantea (Ted  Bodner, USDA, https://www.feis-crs.org/feis/)

Donkey carrying what could be cane; men in sombreros; basket on the ground.

Arundinaria is cane; Palmer's quote in Mason was not specific to species. Sometimes Arundinaria is called giant cane, river cane, or bamboo. The Yaqui baskets illustrated in Mason have the look of woven cane. Likewise, so did some of the baskets in The Magnificent Seven. 

Is cane bamboo? A quick Google search found this: "River Cane, An American Bamboo," Guest post by Alex Rajewski on the Plant Scientist blog by Sarah Shailes, posted January 28, 2016. "Although the majority of bamboo species are found in Asia, River cane (Arundinaria gigantea) is the only species of bamboo native to the United States." 

Searching online for Yaqui baskets led to Holden's Studies of the Yaqui Indians of Sonora, Mexico (1936), wherein tortilla baskets are mentioned three times, and Plate 3, image 7, page 23, has a poor illustration of a basket. The most useful information is on pg 69: "Every kitchen we visited had from one to ten baskets each. There was always a tortilla basket from ten to fourteen inches in diameter and six to eight inches deep. Then there was usually a larger basket in which the eating utensils were kept. This basket, when the utensils were not in use, was kept near the hearth, or hanging on a wire attached to a log in the roof. There might be other baskets, of varying sizes and shapes, for storage purposes."  The Magnificent Seven showed what seem to be plaited cane baskets, maybe some of them could be considered tortilla baskets. 

Another mention of  Yaqui basketry comes from Spicer in Pascua: A Yaqui Village in Arizona (1984): "One man and his son make a living during a part of the year by the manufacture of baskets. The type of basket is a deep, straight-sided kind with a lid, made of willow twigs in wicker weave. It is probably not aboriginal."  As willow basketry is common throughout western North America, and as I was not able to find an example of a willow Yaqui basket online nor in my library, Spicer's note on 'non-aboriginal' basketry is unsubstantiated. For further study, Ugent has a good discussion of Mexican basketry and weaving materials, which include willow in "The Master Basket Weavers of the Toluca Market Region," Economic Botany, 2000:54(3).

Men in the cantina with baskets behind them.

To conclude: The Magnificent Seven was a classic western film. There is a good lesson on tolerance and positive race relations at the beginning, when characters played by Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen make sure that a deceased Native American man is buried in the cemetery. The set was meant to imitate a village near the U.S./Mexican border. The use of Yaqui dance regalia and basketry seems appropriate for this locale. If you watch the movie, see if you can spot the baskets.

I wasn't able to spot any baskets in the 2016 re-make of The Magnificent Seven. In this version, the setting is the town of Rose Creek, a generic town in the Great Plains. Perhaps it is meant to be in Colorado, as portions of it were filmed there; most of the movie was filmed in Louisiana.  Settings differ, as does the leading cast. Director Antoine Fuqua commented, “There were a lot of black cowboys, a lot of Native Americans; Asians working on the railroads. The truth of the West is more modern than the movies have been.”  Again, the story is about good guys saving the day.  

Virtual Basketry Workshop with Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village

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As COVID-19 had destroyed my birthday plans, I was looking for something innovative to do to help me celebrate at home. I discovered an interesting option online, of all things, when I was buying some pizza seasoning. The Shakers of Sabbathday Lake, Maine, have been growing, packaging, and selling herbs and spices since 1799. I had visited the Shaker Village, museum, and shop in 2006, and have used their products for years. They also sell a variety of handmade items, including baskets by local artists including Carolyn Kemp and Michael Silliboy (Micmac).  https://www.maineshakers.com/shop/

Photo: Courtesy Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village

In July of 2020, their website discussed the Village's response to COVID-19, which was to remain closed for the year, and to move some of their craft workshops online  Wouldn't you know it, when I was looking for herbs, they were promoting a virtual workshop to make a "tulip basket."  Participants would create a plaited basket, decorated with a ceramic tulip emblem in a Zoom class led by weavers Pat Libby and Kathy Libby.  It looked like fun, but the timing was tough, starting at 9 a.m. in Maine. Being on the west coast, I had a three hour time difference, and didn't relish getting up early on a Saturday.

Kit materials, tools, and laptop ready to go.

I signed up, as did a friend of mine. Our kits arrived in the mail, and the Zoom meeting code was emailed to us. The night before class, we prepared our work spaces, readied our tools, and promised to call each other at the break of dawn to make sure we didn't sleep through our alarms.

A trilobite fossil is used as a weight.

Instructors Kathy Libby and Pat Libby are seen on the screen.

We joined the Zoom meeting early on Saturday morning. Our group included instructors Pat and Kathy, Jamie Ribisi-Braley of the Shaker Village and her sister, and participants from Maine and California. This was the first basket ever attempted by some, while others had woven baskets previously. We got right down to business. Pat and Kathy walked us through the steps, demonstrated the plaiting technique, held their baskets up to the camera to show detail, and shared a variety of baskets that they'd made. 

The time flew by as we chatted and wove. By the end of the six hour class, each of us had a finished basket.

I placed my tulip emblem to strategically cover a goof.

Participants showing off their creations.
 Photo: courtesy Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village.

The basketry kits were made in North Carolina by Suzanne Moore's NC Basket Works. According to Suzanne, the splint material in the kit is called "reed," which is actually rattan grown in Indonesia. It is then sent to China, where it is processed (cut and sized) into flat reed, and is commercially dyed. The basket kits are designed by Suzanne, who also writes the patterns. The handles, made in their workshop, are of red oak, a tree indigenous to the Carolinas. The materials for the kits are gathered and packaged in their warehouse. Suzanne notes that due to the pandemic, the warehouse is currently closed to shoppers, but their extensive inventory is available online, both kits and various materials.    http://www.ncbasketworks.com/

We were able to personalize our baskets by the placement of the purple splint, the ceramic purple tulip, and the green round rattan used for the flower stem and leaves. Jamie took a screen shot of us with our finished baskets. With the success of this endeavor, the Shaker Village's first virtual workshop, they will be offering more basketry (and other craft) classes. We west coasters petitioned for a later start time. And wouldn't you know it, the next basket workshop that is being offered begins at 11 a.m. in Maine, which makes it a reasonable 8 a.m. for me. Yes, I signed up!

Okinawan Basketry

75 years ago today, my father earned his Purple Heart during the Battle of Okinawa in WWII. He was an Army Signal Corps Combat Photographer.  In November 2019, I was able to do some research at the National Archives, Still Photographs Division.  While I was looking for photos of him (there were three, but that's another story), I was also finding photos that he took.  And while I was looking, I found baskets.  Hopefully, I will be able to return to do more research in coming years.

Caption:  "A pretty native woman carries a basket of sweet potatoes, that she has just harvested upon her head at the Okinawa Agricultural Experimental Station. 12 Aug 1945. Signal Corps Photo #CPA-45-14118 (Roberts)."  SC 370927
Roberts is the photographer.

One plant identified as used in basketry in Okinawa is Flagellaria Indica "Whip Vine," an Okinawan native plant.  Wikipedia says it is: "A strong climber, it grows often up to 15 m tall, with thick cane-like stems exceeding 15 mm in diameter." 

Below: detail of baskets on the ground. They look as if they could be made of thick cane-like stems of whip vine.

Also known as False Rattan, Flagellaria Indica "is often gathered from the wild for local use, mainly as a source of material for making baskets etc, but also as a food and medicine."
http://tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Flagellaria+indica

Joseph Barabas, Signal Corps Cameraman, holds onto his  camera while being evacuated for medical treatment. Okinawa, 6/20/1945,  3233 Signal Corps  Photo, photographer unknown. SC 209740

Otis Mason and More Blogging

While obeying "shelter in place" orders for COVID-19, I thought I'd get a lot of blog entries written. That didn't happen, but I did make a list of basket subjects to write about. I am eking some out.

My problem is not getting an idea, but writing up my story and then hunting for references to legitimize what I've said. Working with baskets for decades leads to what seems like intrinsic knowledge, but if I'm going to put something on my blog, it should be supported, and not be there just because I said so.

For me, conducting internet research is time consuming, as there are so many rabbit holes that need to be explored, and tangents occur; thus, I haven't written many blog entries lately.  For instance, eking. I thought it might be eeking, Spellchecker said no. Merriam-Webster says eking, and it is archaic. Eeking relates to leg hairs in the Urban Dictionary. I didn't need to know that for this blog, but that's why my blogging is educational for me yet labor intensive.  When I consult my physical basketry library instead of the internet, I am met with a similar fate - I pull a few books and get lost in them, and generate more ideas for blog posts....


Someone asked me about good books to have if you are interested in basketry.

This is Mason, an early and excellent resource for any basketry scholar.

"Aboriginal American Basketry: Studies in a Textile Art Without Machinery" by Otis Tufton Mason. Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution for the Year Ending June 30, 1902. Report of the U.S. National Museum. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904. Mason was a Curator, Division of Ethnology.

 My copy is a "Rio Grande Classic" printed in 1970 by The Rio Grande Press.  I found it in a used bookstore in 1987, and it continues to be well-used and well-appreciated.


Thank you for your patience as I eke out my blog posts, and take care as we weather the COVID-19 storm.

Rattlesnake at the Cowboy

In response to closed museums during the COVID-19 pandemic, Tim, head of security at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, has become an internet sensation with his tweets from around the museum.  You can read about Tim here:

https://www.boredpanda.com/national-cowboy-museum-head-of-security-twitter/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=stickybar&fbclid=IwAR03rjxDWOhRS9FNxUHK7AWsH-7KGdC-b7wUUlG_qSj0a4ytpL7lLAtajzI


A tweet from Tim on March 20 said, "There's a snake in my boot!"  When I read that, there was only one thing I could think of....

In 2017, I was touring the storage of the Cowboy with wonderful Oklahoma friends. The curator knew I wanted to see the baskets. When he opened the storage cabinet, my eyes immediately went up to the juncus basket, and I said with glee, "Rattlesnake!"

Well, when you're with Oklahomans and say snake, they jump back and look for a weapon.
"Oh," I quickly amended, "not a snake, a basket with a snake!"  We all had a good laugh, and then I had a closer look. This was the beauty that I had spotted on an upper shelf.

Interesting design - two heads, one tail!

Basket storage cabinet, rattlesnake top left.

There it is, I couldn't reach it, but I could point at it!

 It is coiled of natural golden orange-colored juncus (probably Juncus textilis, a type of rush), and juncus that has been dyed black. The light material at the basket's oval start is sumac (Rhus trilobata). The interior foundation of the coil is deer grass (Muhlenbergia rigens). These three materials are used in basketry throughout southern California.

This basket could have been made by a weaver from one of several tribes, but my guess is that she was probably Cahuilla.

Detail of the corners. It's hard to make rectangular baskets when using the coiled technique.
 Coiled baskets are almost always round or oval in shape.
This basket is catalog number 1983-06-67.

Cahuilla basket weaver Rosemarie Salinas "recounts a story about the rattlesnake design that has been told many times. 'A lady was making a basket. A rattlesnake kept coming and bothering her. She kept shooing it away and it kept coming back. Finally she wove it into the basket.' Among the Cahuilla, the mesaxim (rattlesnake) design is a strong symbol, and rattlesnake baskets are widely admired."
["Cahuilla Basketry: An Enduring Legacy" by Bryn Barabas Potter, First American Art Magazine, Issue #4, Fall 2014.]

Charlotte Jensen Native Arts Market 2019, Anchorage

http://firstamericanartmagazine.com/charlotte-jensen/A year ago at this time, end of February/start of March 2019, I was heading home from Anchorage, Alaska and the 84th Annual Fur Rendezvous. What began as a fur trading event has morphed into Rondy, a ten-day celebration of all things Anchorage and Native Alaska, including the ceremonial start of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race.  What had drawn me northward was the Charlotte Jensen Native Arts Market, where I would eventually chat with about two dozen artists.  Most were weavers, as the primary reason for the trip was to research Alaska Native basketry.

John Jensen, Mathew Skaga Dewitt, Bryn, Marilyn Skau

Market co-chairs John Jensen and Marilyn Skau gave me a warm welcome on Thursday morning, day two of the five-day Market. Then Marilyn proceeded to walk me through the maze of tables at the Dimond Center, introducing me to various artists and all of the basket weavers who were at their tables when we passed by. All but one were happy to be interviewed; the one apologized because her eyesight was going and she no longer wove, so she did not feel that she could contribute. Of course she could have! It would have been wonderful to hear her stories, but she was reluctant and I was not pushy.  The next three days were spent talking with as many weavers as I could, sharing tangerines and Sunkist candies which I had brought from California. Regrettably, I was not able to spend time with all of the weavers, and hope to some day return to this event, which is a very important sales venue for Native Alaskan artists.

Marilyn Skau sits on Jeff Swan's carved wooden chair, "The Throne."

Sadly, Marilyn passed later in 2019. She was a well-respected powerhouse, always on the move, cheerfully dealing with the artists' registrations and making sure the Market flowed smoothly. In honor of Marilyn, John, and the Ashlock family who provide the Dimond Center as a service to Native artists, I'd like to share my "Charlotte Jensen Native Arts Market Report" from First American Art Magazine Blog:

http://firstamericanartmagazine.com/charlotte-jensen/

Yosemite and California Baskets at the Heard Museum

Baskets by Tina Charlie (Mono Lake Paiute, 1869 - 1962)

Last autumn, I was thrilled to be able to do a little research on baskets in storage at the Heard Museum. At the same time, it was opening weekend for: David Hockney’s Yosemite and Masters of California Basketry   https://heard.org/hockney/

My time spent in the galleries culminated in the exhibition review in the current issue of First American Art Magazine,  http://firstamericanartmagazine.com/current-issue/

The baskets are on loan from Yosemite National Park, various museums and private collectors, plus a few from the Heard's own collection. David Hockney's (British, b. 1937) works include digital art and photographic collages.

Showpiece basket by Mary Benson (Pomo, 1877-1930)

Carrie Bethel baskets (Mono Lake Paiute, 1898-1974)

Heard Museum Basket 818BA-a&b from
the Fred Harvey collection

Heard Museum curators put together an outstanding companion exhibition Beyond Yosemite: California Basketry from the Heard Museum Collection. I snapped a few photos here, including my only selfie.

A few weeks later, I was working on another project, and was reviewing some of the online Southwest Museum Collection items on the Autry Center of the American West website.  Imagine my surprise when I spotted this beauty:

http://collections.theautry.org/mwebcgi/mweb.exe?request=record;id=M205587;type=102

Sorry I can't post the photo here, I am trying to slog through the Autry's "Terms and Conditions: Terms of Use" and hope to be able to add it in the future.  For now, click on the link to see that it is absolutely the same basket (verified by Heard curators when I sent them the link!).  The postcard photograph is identified as P.445, George Wharton James Collection, from the Braun Research Library/Southwest Museum. Postcard identifies it as a Hupa basket, made between 1895-1923.

As I continue my blog, I am learning about what I can post without permission, copyrights, and personal permission before including names and circumstances.  It's a work in progress.

In the meantime, if you are in Phoenix AZ before April 20, 2020, I urge you to see these incredible baskets. And the David Hockney art is spectacular as well, but it's not the focus of my basket blog. 

Apache Baskets at Rockhound State Park

Rockhound State Park Visitor Center, NM

The other day I was in Rockhound State Park, a bit southeast of Deming, NM. Delightedly, I found a trio of Apache baskets in the small visitor center.

Among the Apache people, basketry was a part of everyday life. Their utilitarian baskets, such as water bottles and gathering baskets, are made by twining. In the twining technique, a fiber or weft is twisted over and under a stable base material or warp. Sumac (Rhus trilobata), willow (Salix nigra and S. lasiandra), and devil’s claw (Proboscidea, in the family Martyniaceae) are the three primary types of plants used by Apache weavers.

The exhibit photo here depicts a pair of Chiricahua women. From the left, there is a fringed gathering or burden basket on its side, then she is holding what looks to be a tus, a small water bottle. These two baskets are made by twining. The woman on the right has a basketry tray to the right of her knee, and a large olla just behind her. These two baskets were made using the coiled technique. In coiling, the weaving material or weft is stitched around the foundation, or warp. Among the Apache, most coiled basketry is made of willow with the design work done in black devil’s claw.

Chiricahua Apache Camp circa 1885, photo Ben Wittick, courtesy Museum of New Mexico

1   "Modern Mesalero Apache Basket"

2  "Mescalero Apache Burden Basket"

3   White Mountain Apache Burden Basket"

The three baskets on display were hard to see up close and photograph due to some wicked glare in the visitor center. They are twined of split sumac with a sumac rod as their foundations. 

Basket 1 is diagonally twined of sumac, the color used in the design is the bark of the sumac, the white is peeled sumac. Basket 3's design is made the same way, yet it is plain twined. Basket 2 is diagonally twined on the lower part, with several rows of plain twining at the top edge. The bright orange and black banded design is achieved through the use of commercial dye on the sumac. All of the baskets have leather (deerskin?) trim and fringe. 

Baskets 1 and 3 have metal tinklers. The purpose of the decoration is to add audio and visual pleasure to those within ear-shot and eye-view, while also serving to scare away rattlesnakes from food-gathering areas in the desert.  At the visitor center, the volunteers said that there were four types of rattlesnakes in the immediate area to watch out for: diamondbacks, Mojave green, blacktail, and banded rock rattlesnakes. Luckily, I didn't see any snakes while hiking.