Old Native American baskets are more than just storage vessels. They’re windows into ancient cultures, steeped in tradition, often built with remarkable skill and craftsmanship, and decorated with designs reflecting long-standing tribal heritage. 

The work of each tribe often reflects the use of materials indigenous to their own region. Baskets from the Northeastern USA and Canada, by tribes such as the Mi’kmaq, Abenaki, Algonkian, Mohegan, Iroquois, Passamaquoddy, Penobscot and many others, often use natural materials such as ash splints, sweetgrass, birchbark, and cornhusk. Often they’re decorated with material including porcupine quills, moose or deer hair, sea shells, bone or animal teeth. Colors could be applied with natural dyes such as black walnut, sumac, or pokeberry.

In baskets from the Southwestern USA, one will often find works with distinctive geometric patterns, such as stair steps, stars, humanoids and animal figures. Peoples such as the Apache, Tohono O’Odham (Papago), Pima, Navajo, and Havasupai frequently worked with material such as coiled martinya or devil’s claw, willow, jatropha shrub, cottonwood, and yucca.

From the northern and northwestern climates one can often find basketry by peoples such as the Aleuts, Chukchi, Kuskokwim, Salish, Tlingit, Inuit, Eskimo, and many other peoples. Frequently they can be found made with cedar strips and bark, sinew, spruce root, bear grass and other materials.

Age, patina, size, origin, condition, and function all are important in determining value. If you’d like help with your baskets or other Native American artifacts, such as clothing, tools, and weaponry, we’re here to help. Just click on the link and we’ll get on the case!

www.siscoantiquesappraisals.com

This interesting Tohono O’Odham basket, thoroughly decorated with dyed feathers, resides in the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History in California.