A wide pliable basket with oval bottom, and rye woven handles on opposing sides. Basket body of tule with five bands of purple and slate-colored wild rye woven or twined around the body. Top rim is finished with a braid. The base is rigid, sides are flexible. Design/Pattern: Vertical rows of split ceder with horizontal twined bands., height: 10"; Width at Top: 15"; Width at Bottom: 12", William Manning organized his collection by categories listing this basket in the category: Baskets - Soft Weave and noting as a "Modern Colville Indian basket." Source: Accession record 1, Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 1926 W. M. Manning Indian Collection inventory.
A finely made cedar basket.
This is twine and could be Indian hemp too. The purple color could be lilac, they used different ones to dye them and the darker ones they did in the mud. My mom would use the elder wood to seal the baskets, she’d put it all in a big tub and boil it and then put the baskets in and stir them around and I asked her why she did that and she said it was to seal them, so they may have done that for their hats too. Elaine Emerson