Twined basket. Adiantum fern stem design material. Tag: "Klamath R. Tribes att.". Per Ralph Shanks: Twined woman's basket hat. Crossed warp starting knot. The warp material is probably hazel or willow. The weft material is conifer root. The weft overlay design has a maidenhair background with beargrass designs. Black string was used to tie down the last weft row. Starting at the starting knot, there is three strand twining for 1/2 inch, followed by 1 inch of plain twining, followed by one weft row of three strand twining. Plain twining continues to 1/2 inch below the rim, where there is one weft row of three strand twining. The rim is trimmed. The main design is six elements comprised of triangle surrounded by six triangles. The basket has a rightward work direction, with an up to the right slant of weft twist. The workface is on the exterior. The overlay is single-sided, with the design on the exterior. The basket is from Northwestern California, possibly Wiyot based on the extensive use of black maidenhair fern background, or Yurok based on the comments on the catalog card. There is a hair woven into the basket near the start.
Donor:
Kathleen Morehouse
Collection place:
Crescent City, Del Norte County, California
Verbatim coll. place:
California; Del Norte; Crescent City
Culture or time period:
Wiyot and Yurok
Collector:
Emma Lang Morehouse and Herbert Harrison Morehouse
Collection date:
1904
Object type:
ethnography
Object class:
Basketry (object genre), Caps (headgear), and Twined weaving
Function:
2.4 Fine Clothes and Accoutrements not used exclusively for status or religious purposes