Burden basket, "upper half made by Wailaki; lower half made by her, therefore Yuki." Worn and grimy from use; hole in bottom patched with stiff leather, now cracked. Plain twined, conical shape; white 2-faced overlay; 4 different horizontal stripes on upper area. Hoop rim firmly sewn to top of basket. Strap consists of buckskin braided with 2 strands of twisted cotton gauze. 3-strand twining occurs at bottom, and single rows about 14, 22, 30, and 30.5 cm from top. 5 tags attached to rim, 3 say Wailaki catalogue card says basket is Yuki and Wailaki Per Ralph Shanks: This basket is very significant in that the upper portion is apparently a Yuki burden basket. Yuki burden baskets are extremely rare and often not well documented so that this basket is important for the study of Yuki basketry. Because Yuki burden baskets are even rarer than Wailaki burden baskets, it is recommended that this basket be placed in the Yuki section of baskets. Burden basket, heavily used. Weft is conifer root and warps are peeled shoots. Starting knot is missing as the bottom of basket has a hole which is capped with leather. 3 strand twining is visible at the edge of the leather, it is unknown if it extended to the starting knot. 3 strand twining is followed by 3.5 inches of plain twining followed by 1 row of 3 strand twining, followed by one row of plain twining, followed by one row of 3 strand twining, followed by 3 inches of plain twining, followed by one row of 3 strand, followed by 4 inches of plain twining, followed by 1 row of 3 strand twining, followed by 4 inches of plain twining, followed by 1/16 inch of exposed warp sticks, followed by a wrapped rim. The rim contains a reiforcing rod and splint-like weft units. The splint-like weft units are wrapped around the exposed warps in certain places below the rim wrapping. The Wailaki work direction is rightward and up and to the right slant of weft twist. The Yuki portion also has a rightward work direction with a rightward slant of weft twist. Approximately 9.5 inches from the start there is a clear transition from the Wailaki weaver's hand to the Yuki weaver's. The Yuki stitches are not as wide as the Wailaki stitches. The entire basket is undulating with the Yuki portion of the basket having more undulation than the Wailaki. The Wailaki section is undecorated, in the Yuki portion there is bear grass overlay. In the middle of the basket, at the start of the Yuki section is a checkerboard pattern over 3 weft rows of conifer root. The next row up is vertical bands of beargrqass 5 weft rows high alternating with undecorated weft rows to make vertical stripes. The next band is a checkerboard pattern for 3 weft rows. The uppermost row is the striped pattern again for 3 weft rows. Beargrass design is heavily worn especially where it was worn against the body. The strap is 2 pieces of rope or gauze braided with leather. It is attached to the rim and the reinforcing rod.
Donor:
Samuel A. Barrett
Collection place:
Round Valley, Mendocino County, California
Verbatim coll. place:
California; Mendocino; Round Valley
Culture or time period:
Wailaki and Yuki
Collector:
Samuel A. Barrett
Collection date:
July 1907
Object type:
ethnography
Object class:
Burden baskets and Twined weaving
Function:
1.5 Household
Accession date:
1907
Context of use:
Burden basket.
Department:
Native California (archaeology and ethnology)
Comment:
Samuel A. Barrett "field notes, p.22: tot!" Remarks: "For materials see Supplementary Cat. 1 Page 59.