Object name: Burden basket / Collection place: Van Duzen River, Humboldt County, California / Materials: Conifer root - Hearst Museum Portal Search Results

Start Over Object name Burden basket Collection place Van Duzen River, Humboldt County, California Materials Conifer root

Hearst Museum object titled Burden basket, accession number 1-10528, described as Old, mended. Grimy and worn, in fragile condition. Hoop broken. Newer coarse twined bottom sewn on with buckskin thong. White overlay, 2-faced. Horizontal diamond bands. 2 rows of triangles like sawteeth just below rim. All plain weave. Label "Nongatl". Per Ralph Shanks: Close-twined conical burden basket, used. No starting knot due to repair. The base is an added on separate basket, made of willow (Salix), tied on with leather lashing. The main basket is probably willow warp with conifer root (Pinophyta) wefts and beargrass (Xerophyllum tenax) weft design overlay. There is a reinforcing rod at the interior rim that is a shoot that is attached to the upper weft rows, using a leather cord, with up to the right slanted leather lashing going through the basket every inch or so. Starting after the base repair there is plain twining to the rim. Starting at the base there is about 3 1/2 inches of vertical lines of beargrass followed by five beargrass horizontal diamond bands, with one plain beargrass band separating every two diamond bands. At the rim there are two rows of beargrass triangles separated by a row of plain conifer root. The rim is trimmed. The basket undulates. The workface is on the exterior. The basket has a rightward work direction and an up to the right slant of weft twist. The overlay is two sided, with the primary design on the exterior. The basket has a flattened side, probably to go flush against the carrier's back. The lashing technique and the undulation of the body of the basket are probably Southern Humboldt Athabaskan characteristics and the conical shape with a narrower flat bottom is Southern Nongatl characteristics.