Water Basket

Description: 

Watertight basket with a broad base and narrow opening, made of dark cedar root with vertical stripes of light willow root interwoven. Flared lip opening, rawhide thong handle. Five strands of blue (and one white) pony beads hanging from top. Design/Pattern: Vertical tan color stripes of light willow root woven into coiling., Width at Bottom: 5 3/4"; height: 4 15/16"; Width at Top: 2 15/16", William Manning organized his collection by categories listing this basket in the category: Hard Weave Baskets and described this item as a "Basket Pot for boiling water." Source: Accession record 1, Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 1926 W. M. Manning Indian Collection inventory.

Cultural Narrative: 

This is old. It has coiled cedar root, small stitches, bear grass design and a buckskin handle.Those beads are old, they are the kind that came along from Lewis and Clark when they first came in and the Indians picked them up and used them. They look like that, I might be wrong but they look like that or they could be a replica. The bottom is so flat, they used to make the water cooking bowls with the real tiny stitches like this, they didn't coat them because if you use it for cooking the residue from the inside will plug the holes. They may have used this for water or food, it looks used inside. Elaine Emerson