In the Park's Permanent Collection

From time to time Tohono Chul Park will showcase pieces from the Park's Permanent Collection. Our Collection houses more than 250 mostly Native American fine crafts, including pottery, baskets, weavings and carvings.

Burden Basket
artist: unknown, Western Apache
acquired in 1951
Donated by Agnes and Don L. Smith
H:11” W:14” dia
98.1.38 (S#60)

The burden basket was an essential tool in the Apache way of life. Carried on the back, burden baskets were used to collect firewood, water, transport materials, and carry babies. The burden basket and doll shown depict the tribe of Western Apache, the name of the Apache tribes who live in Arizona . There are five subgroups of Western Apache: the White Mountain, San Carlos , Cibecue, Northern Tonto, and Southern Tonto . The burden basket in our permanent collection hails from the San Carlos tribe who are much more influenced by their Western Pueblo neighbors than their Apache counterparts who have settled in other parts of the United States .

Traditionally, 75% of food was acquired by hunting/gathering and 25 % was acquired by agriculture. Because of this, Apache groups moved around in every season but winter, when men would raise cattle and corn for food and women would tan hides, sew clothing, and weave baskets. They began to weave baskets for trade, and by the late 1880’s, most of their baskets were woven with customers in mind.  Today, many San Carlos Apaches are farmers and ranchers, who also still hunt and gather wild produce. Burden baskets were never viewed by the Apaches as a just a simple container. It was a means of transporting items easily in their nomadic lifestyle. Today, a burden basket can fit easily on a horse, but they are still a woven tradition. They also continue to weave basketry that is finely constructed and attractive, but the traditional symbols are usually left out. Many baskets are made to be sold, so their symbolism is not of a religious or cultural theme. The burden basket plays an important role in cultural ceremonies such as the Sunrise Ceremony, a rite of passage for young girls. Western Apaches made little pottery, preferring baskets for transportation of food and other items. Baskets were also used at meal times, holding the food and storing grain for later use.

To begin making a basket, the weaver must first gather the materials. This burden basket is made of the fibers from the willow and cottonwood trees as well as from the devil’s claw, a plant found in the Tohono Chul Park ’s own Ethnobotanical Garden . After the plants had been gathered, they must be processed. This involves removing the bark and then removing strands of the remaining piece by securing one end in your front teeth and pulling it apart with your thumb and index finger. After the sections have been processed, they are soaked in water for flexibility. At this time the dyes are introduced to the fibers; traditional dyes were all organic, but many weavers today use commercial dyes.

There are three techniques of basket making: plaiting, coiling, and the most ancient of all, twining. Burden basket weavers almost exclusively use twining, which involves two wefts, the woven fibers, arranged in a “one over, one under” pattern, and twisted over each other between the warps, the stationary fibers; the fibrous strips of willow shoots and cottonwood most common for everything except decoration. The woods in time will turn a yellow-tan color.

At the top of the basket, the coiling technique is used to create a finished look. The weaver uses a sharp tool called an awl to punch through the tightly woven basket on the right side. It is pulled through the other side, and brought back to the right to start again, finishing only when the lip of the basket is completely coiled. Left handed weavers may work the coil the opposite way, but most of the time coils are worked from right to left. The thicker the coils are, the thicker the basket walls and the sturdier it will be. Burden baskets are shaped like deep buckets, cylindrical with straight sides, and a slightly rounded base and usually embellished with buckskin. 

This burden basket was acquired in 1951, at a time when Apaches no longer depended on the burden basket for daily use. The weaver is therefore freer to be stylistic in design, rather than focusing on its function. This basket was clearly made for tourist trade. There are no dyes on the basket, except on the strap. The shape is made by cottonwood shoots spiraling down to the right, covered in the twining technique. The basket was donated to the Park by Agnes and Don L. Smith in 1998.

Doll with Burden Basket 
artist: Arlene Cast, Western Apache
acquired in 1989
Donated by Richard and Jean Wilson
H: 22” W: 10” D:81/2”
89.2.2

The use of burden baskets is demonstrated by the doll. She carries the basket with  buckskin and tin decorations on her back. The figure is carved of wood and meant to be shown in profile. Her long black hair is made of yarn and her burgundy skirt is a patterned material with small flowers on it. This is accented by a yellow rick-rack trimming.  This is the artist’s vision of how her ancestors would have used to burden basket; the woman stands tall, is proud of her traditions, and is undeniably beautiful.

The doll was made in 1989 and is intended to be a decorative object. The basket she carries is made of devil’s claw, yucca root and willow; like the larger basket, it has not been dyed. It was donated to the Park in 1989 by Richard and Jean Wilson, who bought it at the Museum of Northern Arizona from artist Arlene Cast.

Sources:

Dalrymple, Larry. Indian Basketmakers of the Southwest. Santa Fe : Museum of New Mexico Press, 2000

McGreevy, Susan Brown. Indian Basketry Artists of the Southwest, Deep Roots,New Growth. Santa Fe : School of American Research Press, 2001

Whiteford, Andrew Hunter. Southwestern Indian Baskets Their History and Their Makers. Santa Fe : School of American Research Press, 1988

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