Old. Stick lashed to inside of rim with buckskin, strap put through a hole in basket. Worn and dirty; large rip, partially sewn together. Pointed bottom has worn out, patched with stiff piece of leather. Part of a lattice-twined shoot remains inside, near bottom. Basket covered with designs, in white 2-faced overlay: stripe just below rim, then a narrow zigzag stripe; the rest is an all-over stepped design of equidistant lines. The bottom 5 cm are 3-strand twining, not overlaid. Conical shape. Native name "tot". Two tags "Wailaki". Fragmented tag "11". Per Ralph Shanks: Twined conical burden or gathering basket, used. The basket is flattened on one side, flaring less than the usual Wailaki burden basket. The basket has a leather strap. There is a twined peeled shoot and cotton string patch on the side of the basket. The basket start is missing, and has been replaced with a lashed on leather patch. The warps are a peeled shoot and the wefts are conifer root with a beargrass design overlay. There are 1.25 inches of wide three strand twining at the base followed by a single weft row of plain twining, followed by three weft rows of three strand twining, plain twining continues to the rim. The rim is trimmed. There is a reinforcing rod held on at the rim by leather lashing, in Southern Humboldt Athabaskan style. The design is in amplified contours, common in the Southern Humboldt Athabaskan area and north of there to Washington. The overlay is irregular, with the primary overlay on the exterior. The workface is on the exterior. The basket undulates. The basket has an up to the right slant of weft twist and a rightward work direction.
Donor:
Samuel A. Barrett
Collection place:
Round Valley, Mendocino County, California
Verbatim coll. place:
California; Mendocino; Round Valley
Culture or time period:
Wailaki
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)
Dimensions:
length 40 centimeters
Comment:
Photo: "15-8622" Remarks: "For materials see Supplementary Cat. 1 Page 59" Samuel A. Barrett "field notes, p. 53: tot Wailaki burden