Object Story: Basket

Baskets are carriers of culture. Making a basket is a way to understand important cultural teachings. Basketmaking skills were, and are, passed down from generation to generation within Indigenous families. Basketmaking skills can now be learned in Indigenous community museums and cultural centers.

Ash splint baskets like this one are made by tribal groups who lived in the Northeastern woodlands region of North America for many thousands of years. Today this region includes over forty different tribal groups and at least sixty distinct languages. For Indigenous people, baskets serve many functions and purposes and historically were often decorated. There is significant variation in baskets by both region and cultural groups demonstrated in types of materials used, the form and proportion of the basket, and the decoration technique. Cultural differences can also be seen in a more detailed study of the types of production, the width of the basket materials, the construction of the rim and handles, and the primary and secondary design elements and decoration.

Basketmaking in the Northeastern region of what is now known as the United States went through many changes over time. Beginning in the seventeenth century, the arrival of white colonists to North America led to the destruction of Indigenous people and their cultures through disease, enslavement, warfare, removal from homelands, and environmental degradation, which changed traditional basketmaking and traditional ways of life. Selling baskets continues to be an important economic industry in many communities where basketmaking traditions continue to this day.

Very few baskets exist from the time before contact with the Europeans. As more settlers arrived, things began to change. Europeans, including the Dutch, Swedish, and English, also had their own basket-making traditions. Through trade and other interactions, the Europeans brought new tools and techniques that Indigenous groups gradually adopted to make their basket splints.

As early as 1659, Indigenous people in the area were moved off of their lands by colonists through various acts by the government of Connecticut. Once they lost the use of their lands and were forced to give up traditions, many Indigenous people fell into poverty. Indigenous people lived on the outskirts of towns on very poor land and were not able to hunt and fish as they had for hundreds of years. By the year 1850 only about 400 of the original Indigenous people remained.

While it may look like a simple basket, every basket has rich symbolism and cultural importance. Making baskets for trade was a way for Indigenous cultures to survive and maintain their traditions. In the early 1800s, the basket makers adopted the use of wooden blocks that they could use as molds to make baskets faster. They changed the baskets' color and decorations. Instead of plant dyes, they adopted commercial dyes that are brighter. Indigenous people would often make baskets with designs and decorations that were preferred by the Europeans. Sometimes baskets had traditional styles mixed with European-inspired designs.

Making baskets was traditionally a craft for women and required significant technical skill and artistry. Often women would go from town to town to sell their baskets. There was a high demand for baskets because of their utility. They could be used in all parts of the household and have been recorded in household inventories.

By the end of the nineteenth century, tourists were very interested in buying “Indian” made objects. In the late 1800s, Victorian resorts in the Northeast created markets to sell to tourist families; later mass production was facilitated by non-Indigenous middlemen. Although it almost died out at the end of the nineteenth century, basket making continues to be an important art that has survived and continues to evolve into new forms. Today, native basket making has reached new heights of creativity and innovation because it is being passed down from generation to generation. However, the trees used to make the baskets are under severe threat by an invasive insect, the emerald ash borer beetle, which has devastated forests of ash trees in New England and across North America.

Questions for Discussion

• Each basket is unique: What are the similarities and differences of these baskets? How or why might this be?
• What might have been stored in these baskets?
• Why might someone put a design on a basket? How might a functional item also be a thing of beauty?
• What are some ways you might imagine that baskets changed over time?
• How can an object like this basket show evidence of cultural survival?