This document discusses the traditional practice of basketry among Indigenous groups in Southeast Alaska. It describes how spruce root was collected and prepared for weaving. Different twining techniques were used to create diverse basket types for purposes like storage, cooking, and ceremonies. The oldest known basket in the region dates back over 5,000 years. Basketry traditions included legends about the practice's origins. While baskets were once essential tools, they later became artistic works for tourists. Contemporary artists help maintain the tradition.

1. Archaeology of Southeast Alaska
BASKETRY OF THE NORTHWEST COAST

2. COLLECTING SPRUCE ROOT
 Must go out during
the spring or early
summer
 The best spots were
near sandy shores
 A digging stick was
used to help get the
roots

3. PREPARING FOR STORAGE
 Spruce roots would be
held over the coals of a
fire until the bark starts to
peel
 The roots would then be
pulled through an éena, a
split stick or board stuck
into the ground, to remove
outer bark
 They would then be split
once and then coiled

4. PREPARING FOR WEAVING
 Before weaving, the
roots from storage
would be split
additional times
 The split roots would
be divided into warps
and wefts

5. WEAVING WITH SPRUCE ROOT
 With the weft, the
weaver would
begin twining
around the warps
 Different twining
techniques were
used for the
different types of
baskets

6. DECORATIVE ELEMENTS
< Skip Stitch
(Alaska State Museum
2001-7-1)
False Embroidery >
(Alaska State Museum
II-B-1696)
< Painting
Isabel & Charles Edenshaw
(Alaska State Museum II-B-
811)

7. TLINGIT & HAIDA BASKETRY DIFFERENCES
(Alaska State Museum II-B-1696)

8. BASKETS IN EVERYDAY LIFE
Baskets were used for:
 Storage
 Food gathering
 Serving food
 Cooking
 Ceremonies
 Cradles
(Alaska State Museum II-B-480)
“A hole was dug in the ground, and in
this the cooking basket was placed...
After the pot had been thus secured
against accident, the food and water
were placed in it, and with a pair of
wooden tongs the stones which had
been heated were dropped into the
(Alaska State Museum II-B-311)
cooking.” (Shotridge 170)

9. BASKETS NOT IN USE
 Baskets that were
not being used were
dampened and
folded away and
stored.
(Alaska State Museum II-B-420)
(Alaska State Museum II-B-1324)

10. THORNE RIVER BASKET
 Oldest basket found
on the Northwest
Coast
 Dates to be
approximately 5,400
years old
 Found in 1994 by
archaeologist David
Putman

11. Reconstruction
drawing of the
Thorne River
Basket by
Margaret Davidson

12. Interpretation of
the Thorne River
Basket made by
Delores Churchill

13. (Alaska State Museum 2004-17-1)

14. BARANOFF ISLAND BASKET

15. BASKETRY ORIGIN LEGENDS
Tlingit Legend: Haida Legend:
There was once a girl with so much In early spring when everyone was
beauty that everyone desired her, hungry and there was little food, a
even Sun. So Sun took her as his little girl took some food when she
wife and they lived in the Sky-Land was not supposed to. Her mother
for many years and had many caught her and scratched her face,
children. But the children were of so the girl and her older sister ran
Earth, and the mother worried for away. They came to a place to rest,
them. One day in the field while she and there met a young man. They
was worrying, she idly and told him what had happened. He told
unknowingly wove a basket. Her the older girl to weave a small basket
husband knew she was worried, so around her thumb and to fill it with the
he took the basket and made it food growing in that area. They did
large enough to hold his wife and so, and as they filled the basket, it
children. In this basket, they were kept growing larger and heavier with
lowered back to Earth (to the all of the food. They went back to
Yakutat area). This is where the first their village to get help to bring back
basket came from. their basket full of food. Everyone
feasted and celebrated.

16. KÁKW TLÁA – MOTHER BASKET
 The Mother Basket is
an at.óowu of the
Whale House of the
Gaanaxteidí clan of
Klukwan, Alaska.
 Honors the story of the
“Mountain Dweller”

17. CHANGE IN BASKETRY
 Around the mid-
1800s, basketry was
no longer needed for
utilitarian purposes
 Basketry became
popular among tourists
and collectors
 The women no longer
made baskets for
use, but to sell

19. BASKETRY TODAY
 The high demand for
basketry died out during
the Great Depression
 The knowledge of
basketry almost died out
as the elders started
dying out
 Basketry was revitalized
by Selina Peratrovich
and her daughter
Delores Churchill
 Today, basketry is an art
(Alaska State Museum 90-5-1)