Native American Baskets

Native American Baskets

• Across the entire North American Continent Native people have traditionally woven basketry for use as containers, hats, clothing, and agricultural tools. Each culture produces unique styles and forms made from the indigenous materials of their area. In the Eastern U.S. birch bark is a popular material usually being woven in a plating technique, the Navajos of the Southwest use yucca with a stitching technique, and the Tlingit tribe in South Eastern Alaska weave wonderful baskets of spruce root and bear grass using a twining technique to name a few examples. Native American basketry is recognized worldwide for its incredible variety of form, exquisite execution, and wide array of design motifs. Here we focus on the finest examples from the Southwest but never neglect a great basket from any Native culture.