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  Baskets 

 Genuine Tohono O'odham (Papago) geometric, pictorial, and effigy baskets, and intricately detailed miniature horsehair baskets are all handwoven in the same traditional manner and of the same materials as woven by their ancestors. The materials are gathered, carefully prepared and then woven into articles of true artistic beauty. Authentic Navajo Indian baskets are handmade from the fibers of sumac plants. Genuine Tohono O'odham baskets are handmade from the fibers of yucca plants, devil's claw, banana yucca root, and beargrass with some made from the branches of the desert willow tree. The Tohono O'odham are also well known for their miniature baskets made of horsehair.

Coil basket by Ernestine Juan   $42.00  (SOLD 11/10)                                       Open weave basket by Sanfinio Pablo   $18.00

Members of the Tohono O'odham tribal nation (formerly known as Papago Indians), live along the Arizona, Mexico border. Their present tribal lands, established in 1874, consist of a three parcel reservation of 2,854,881 acres (approximately 5,000 square miles), in the Sonoran Desert in south central Arizona and into Mexico, an area comparable in size to the state of Connecticut, but with a population of 27,500 members. Basket making is a long-honored tradition of the Tohono O'odham people who make baskets from various materials such as willow, yucca (most common today), and horsehair. Traditionally, the men harvested the materials and women were the basket makers. Some families began making the natural material harvesting a family event leading to a transition where now there are some men who are basket makers in their families as well.
Decorative basket patterns include fret designs, turtle back designs, coyote tracks, dragging coyote tracks, cross designs, stars, squash blossoms, dust-devils, human figures, saguaro fruit picking scenes, the well-known "man in the maze" pattern, and representations of antelopes, bats, bees, ducks, humming birds, rattlesnakes, and turtles. Some designs are done in the negative using devil's claw as the the background and yucca or willow for the design.

Covered basket $150.00 (weaver unknown)           Oval basket $16.00 (weaver unknown)

Covered basket by Katie Sickler  $150.00 (actually Oneida Tribe)                         Tall basket by Ida Jose  $39.00