Native Basketry Bibliography

Traditional Pima path of life basket, willow rods, bleached yucca, devil's claw


This famous southwestern pattern -- originated by Pima-Papago (Tohono O'odham) people -- is called a "maze" basket. This name suggests ways of getting lost. But this is a lifepath basket. If you start tracing the path of the human figure at the north entrance, you will find there is one single path. That lifepath takes the person to the center-circle at each of the 4 directions: Youth (northwest), young adult (northeast), wise adult (southwest), elder age (southeast), and finally death (the south nub that closes off the path's continuation). All parts of the path are covered, it is one continuous line, representing a life lived following the Creator's instructions. All (non-Indian) writings about this pattern call it "maze." It's the opposite: a lifepath which (if followed) you cannot get lost.

This is a tribal symbol of community for the modern Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian community. Now follow a reading path traced in this bibliography. Find out more about traditional basketry and the artists who continue the traditions.


Atkinson's Country House. Lennon, MI, is a source of many basketry supplies for the hobbyist who can't dig and process traditional plants. Free catalog. 800/832-2071
Allen, Elsie; Pomo Basketmaking: A Supreme Art for the Weaver, Naturegraph Publishers, Happy Camp, CA: 1972
American Indian Art Magazine: Special Issue on Basketry, Autumn, 1979
Angulo, Jaime de; "The Reminiscences of a Pomo Chief: The Autobiography of William Ralganal Benson," 1935. American Philosophical Society Library, Boas Collection, Philadelphia, Penn.; manuscript no. H5.3
Angulo Jaime de, and William Ralganal Benson; "Stone and Kelsy 'Massacre' on the Shores of Clear Lake in 1849: the Indian Viewpoint;" California Historical Society Quarterly, 11, No 3, (September, 1932).
Bataille, Gretchen M (ed); Native American Women: A Biographical Dictionary, Garland, New York, 1993
Before the Wilderness: Enviromental Management by Native Californians, comp. and ed. T. C. Blackburn, and K. Anderson, 195-211. Ballena Press Anthropological Papers, no. 40. Menlo Park, Calif. 1993
Billy, Susan, "So the Spirit Can Move Freely," All Roads Are Good,, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994
Blue Cloud, Peter; Alcatraz Is Not an Island, Wingbow Press, Berkely: 1972
Brown, Vinson and Douglas Andrews; The Pomo Indians of California and Their Neighbors ed. A. B. Elsasser. Healdsburg, Calif.: Naturegraph Publishers, 1969
Coe, Ralph T.; Lost and Found Traditions: Native American Art, 1965-1985, Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1986
Cohodas, Marvin, "Dat So La Lee's Basketry Design," American Indian Art, , vol 1, No. 1, Autumn (1976).
Cohodas, Marvin, "The Breitholle Collection of Washo Basketry," American Indian Art, Vol 10, No 4, Autumn (1984).
Cohodas, Marvin; "Dat So La Lee and the Degikup," Halcyon (1982): 119-140
Collected Documents on the Causes and Events in the Bloody Island Massacre of 1850, ed.R. F. Heizer. Berkeley: University of California Archaeological Research Facility, 1973
Collings, Jerold; "The Yokuts Gambling Tray" American Indian Art, 1, No 1, (1975).
Dick, L.E. et al., Strands of Time: Yokuts, Mono and Miwok BasketmakersFresno, Calif.: Fresno Metropolitan Museum, 1988.
Hirschfelder, Arlene; "Dat-so-la-lee," Artists and Craftspeople (American Indian Lives series), FactsOnFile, New York: 1994
Kroeber, Alfred; Handbook of the Indians of California, Smithsonian Press, 1925, Dover Books reprint, 1972
Lamb, Frank; Indian Baskets of North America, Riverside Museum Press, Riverside, CA, 1972
Lobb, Alan; Indian Baskets of the Northwest Coast, Graphic Arts Center Publishing Co. Portland, OR: 1978
McKee, Barbara and Edwin, Havasupai Baskets and Their Makers, 1930-40, Northland Press, Flagstaff, 1975
Ortiz, Bev; It Will Live Forever: Yosemite Indian Memories, Heyday Books, Berkeley, CA: 1991
Ortiz, Bev; Ortiz, Bev. "Baskets of Dreams;" News from Native California, vol. 2, no. 4 (1988): 28-29.
Ortiz, Bev; entry on "Laura Somersal (Pomo)," in Native American Women: A Biographical Dictionary, ed. Gretchen Bataille, Garland: NY: 1991
Parrish, Otis and Paula Hammet, "Parrish: A Pomo Shaman," Native Self-Sufficiency, 6, 1981: 8-9
Porter, Frank W. (ed); The Art of Native American Basketry, Greenwood Press, New York: 1990
Potts, Marie; The Northern Maidu, Naturegraph, Happy Camp, CA: 1977. Potts was a Maidu elder, who weavs a personal account of the history and daily lives of Maidu people into her life story.
Ramo, Joshua; "A Tisket, A Tasket . . . Trends: Indian Baskets are Hot Collectibles," Newsweek, December 13, 1993; 79
Robinson, Bert; The Basket Weavers of Arizona, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 1954
Russ, Julie; "Lucy Parker Telles" in Native American Women, ed. Gretchen M. Bataille, Garland, New York: 1993
Sarris, Greg; Mabel McKay: Weaving the Dream, University of California Press: Berkeley, 1994
Sawiki, Lori; "Datsolalee" in Notable Native Americans, ed. Sharon Malinowski, Gale Research, 1995
Schlick, Mary Columbia River Basketry: Gift of the Ancestors, Gift of the Earth,University of Washington Press, Seattle: 1994

Schneider, Richard C.; Crafts of the North American Indians: A Craftsman's Manual, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York: 1972. Schneider was professor of Art (ceramics) at University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, a college many Wisconsin Indians attend. He developed this book for a course where culture was learned (or relearned) both via creation of artifacts and historical-cultural studies. He shows how to make old-style tools (such as a crooked knife), how to gather and prepare materials. Clear diagrams and materials lists. Great How2 book for adult beginners. Beading, tanning and leather, ceramics, birch bark as well as splint and sewn-woven coil baskets.
Siegel, Beatrice (illus. William Sauts Bock, Lenni-Lanape) ; The Basket Maker and the Spinner, Walker, 1987. YA fictionalized, using a Wampanoag girl as a focus for Eastern basketry-and-life and a fictionalized colonist woman for the contrasting spinner-woman. Illustrations are disappointing.
Tanner, Clara L ; Indian Baskets of the Southwest, University of Arizona Press, Tuscon: 1983
Underhill, Ruth; Papago Woman: Biography of Maria Chona, Holt, Rinehart, Winston, New York: 1979
Wade, Edwin.; "Louisa Keyser [Dat So La Lee]" in The Arts of the North American Indian: Native Traditions in Evolution, Hudson Hill Press: New York, 1986
Whiteford, Andrew H.; "Basketry" entry in Native America in the 20th Century: An Encyclopedia, Garland: New York, 1994-96
Winther, Barbara. "Pomo Banded Baskets and Their Dau Marks."American Indian Art Magazine, vol. 10, no. 4 (1985): 50-57
Yamane, Linda (Rumsien Ohlone), photos by Dugan Aguilar; Weaving: A California Tradtion, Native American Basketmaker, A Western Mono Girl, Lerner: Minneapolis, 1997. (Middle School Social Studies: "We're Still Here" Indian series.) Very highly recommended.
Yamane, Linda (Rumsien Ohlone),drawings by Yamane; When the World Ended and Other Rumisen Oholone Stories, Oyate, Berkeley, CA,1995.

ON LINE -- Book Sources

Kashaya/Pomo bibliography on-line.
Miwok bibliography on-line
Yosemite bookstore with relevant Native basketry and culture books on-line
Videos on California Native basketmakers for rent or sale

 Continue -- Links: other Native basket sites


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CREDITS: Pima Maze basket from Musum of the American Indian/Heye Foundation, New York, photographed in Images of American Indian Art, Jozefa Stuart and Robert Ashton, Walker, 1977. Colorized by me from other examples.

Webmistress --Paula Giese. Explanatory text and graphics copyright 1995.

Last Updated: Sunday, November 03, 1996 - 9:30:09 AM