Source D

Basketry: Weaving Traditions

Introduction

For thousands of years, women made all kinds of baskets for gathering, cooking, and ceremonial use. When the Spanish missionaries arrived, some missionaries allowed basket weavers to return to traditional plant-gathering places for basket materials. The process of gathering materials for baskets is an important part of weaving. Songs and prayers are offered while gathering. Special care is given while digging and trimming to keep plants healthy and thriving. This way of giving back and caring for the land remains an important part of Native basket weaving today.

Artist Leah Mata Fragua (yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini Northern Chumash) shares an important connection she feels with this Chumash basket created at Mission San Luis Obispo:

The moment I saw this basket I couldn’t help but smile, appreciating our community’s knowledge of our used to create some of the world's finest baskets. When I look at this basket, I imagine the maker gathering the materials while smelling the heavy damp greenness of the while it’s put out to dry. It calls to mind the relationship to place, and the power of our communities and the ever-evolving stages of our lives as caretakers of our communities and cultural knowledge.

What makes this basket so compelling? Is it the shape, design, or color? Or perhaps it's the deeper connection it forges with our past, with relatives who crafted similar baskets. When we gather materials for such baskets today, we are retracing the steps of those who came before us, keeping alive our relationship to the land and our unique worldview. . . .

The motifs on this basket reveal the yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini people’s worldview. While some might see a religious cross in its design, I interpret it differently. . . . Interpreted through the lens of a Chumash woman, these designs come as representations of the four directions, the four of seasonal shifts, and the pivotal North Star, all central to our .

Likely crafted for food-related purposes, this basket served as a vital tool for community . Today, while its original purpose might have faded, its cultural significance remains . It nourishes our collective hearts by reminding us of our relatives and their timeless stewardship practices.¹

Source

Woven basket with pattern visible on the interior and exterior

juncus rush basket created by an unknown Native weaver at Mission San Luis Obispo.

Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian 12/4405

Source Analysis Questions

In addition to weaving techniques and designs, what other important cultural knowledge and traditions are a part of basketry?
Did the Spanish mission system change basketry traditions for California Native weavers? If so, how?

Learn More

Map of southern California highlighting the San Luis Obispo mission, established in 1772 in a region where Native people at the time spoke Chumash language.

Museum Collection Connection

Native Californian basketry expert Dr. Yve Chavez () writes, “Spain dominated California for nearly seven decades and left a lasting impact on the first peoples of California, but Native weavers managed to keep their traditions alive. At the missions, weavers preserved their art form that they conducted in the privacy of Indian .”² California Native basketry survived the mission period and continues to thrive today.

Brown woven
basket with intricate pattern and design including
symbols and letters

Basket tray made of sumac, juncus, and mud dye. This basket by Juana Basilia Sitmelelene (Chumash), created 1815–1822 at Mission San Buenaventura, incorporates Spanish coin designs with traditional Chumash basketry. Juana Basilia Sitmelelene was born in her mother’s Chumash village of , located in the Santa Monica Mountains. She grew up learning the skills and methods of basket weaving. Mission records show that she and her husband arrived at Mission San Buenaventura in 1804 when their newborn daughter was baptized.

Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian 23/132

“I can only imagine the circumstances Sitmelelene lived and worked in. I cry for her family, living in the midst of irreversible destruction. . . . She remained true to herself as an artist perpetuating a glorious tradition. Sitmelelene sings to me a song of resilience through her basket. She lives.”³

—Nicolasa I. Sandoval (Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians) Educator, University of California, Santa Barbara

Contemporary bag woven with handspun fiber or string, decorated with ceramic and abalone-shell disc beads, with additional bone needle used to make the bag. Created by Julia Parker () between 1990 and 1992.

Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian 23/7307

“I have learned from many gifted women. I learned from the real true teachers. And they have given me some part of their life that was woven in the basket. When you think about it, it is more than making a basket. . . .There is here that should be carried on no matter what. It is a story that should not be forgotten. It is a story that goes on and on, like the basket.”⁴

—Julia Parker (Coast Miwok/Kashaya Pomo), Renowned basket maker

Leah Mata Fragua (yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini Northern Chumash), M.A. Cultural Sustainability, M.F.A. Studio Arts, email message to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, August 25, 2023.

Yve Chavez, “Basket Weaving in Coastal Southern California: A Social History of Survivance,” Arts 8, no. 3 (2019): 94, https://doi.org/10.3390/arts8030094. M. Senkewicz (Santa Clara, CA: Santa Clara University, in conjunction with Heyday Books, 2001), 186.

Nicolasa I. Sandoval (Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians), “Juana Basilia Sitmelelene coin basket,” Infinity of Nations, Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (website), https://americanindian.si.edu/exhibitions/infinityofnations/california-greatbasin/230132.html

Deborah Valoma, Scrape the Willow Until It Sings: The Words and Work of Basket Maker Julia Parker (Berkeley, CA: Heyday, 2013), 227.