OREGON INDIAN BASKETRY 
TYPES AND DISTRIBUTION 
by 
MARY ELIZABETH DOUGLAS 
A THESIS 
Presented to the Department of Anthropology 
and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon 
in partial fulfillment 
of the requirements for the degree of 
Master of Arts 
June 1947 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 
The author wishes to thank Dr. L.S.Cressman and 
Dr. H.G. Barnett of the University of Oregon for their 
helpful criticisms and suggestions throughout the writing 
of this paper. 
Sketches of figures in the text were adapted from 
the literature by Mr. Robert C. Douglas . 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
Page 
INTRODUCTION 1 
Chapter 
I. CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM FOR BASKETRY ••• 6 
Woven Basketry 
Coiled Basketry 
Decoration Techniques 
Basket Materials 
LI. OREGON TYPOLOGY •••••• 30 
Lower Columbian Tribes 
Willamette Valley Tribes 
Oregon Coastal Tribes 
Southwestern Oregon Inland Tribes 
Klamath-Modoc Tribes 
Eastern Oregon Tribes 
III. DISTRIBUTION OF OREGON BASKETRY 79 
Ethnic Distribution 
Archeological Distribution 
IV. PROBLEMS OF RELATIONSHIP •••• 89 
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS • • • • . . • • • . • • • . 92 
BIBLIOGRAPHY • • • • • · • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 93 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
Figure Page 
1. Plaiting • , , • , • , •• , , • • • 7 
2. Wickerwork • . • • • • , • • • • • • 8 
3. Counter-clockwise spiral worked from 
convex suface • • . • • 10 
4. Counter closckwise spiral worked from 
concave surface • • • • • • • • • 10 
5. Simple twining, down to the left • 11 
6. Simple twining, down to the right 11 
7, Diagonal twined weaving 12 
8, Wrapped twine weaving 12 
9, Lattice twined weaving • 13 
10, Three strand twine 14 
11. Three strand braid' • • • 14 
12. Types of single foundation 16 
13. Multiple foundation types 17 
14, Multipl e variation 19 
15, Major methods of stitching coiled basketry 20 
16. Convex spiral worked from convex and 
concave surface 21 
17. False embroidery • • • ' 22 
18. Overlay twining 23 
19. Wrapped twine overlay 24 
20. Imbrication 25 
21. Beading 25 
Map of Oregon Indian Tribes 31 
INTRODUCTION 
The purpose of this thesis is to determine in as 
far as is possible, the types of baskets produced by the 
Indians of Oregon, their distribution and their affinities 
to those in adjacent areas. 
The problem is complicated by two main factors; one, 
the few ethnographic studies available for most of the Or e gon 
tribes, and two, the undocumented time range between the his-
toric a nd archeological horizons involved. The ethnographic 
studies are best for those tribes which border the California 
groups. This lack of information is understandable since by 
the time any systematic work was undertaken many of the North-
western Oregon tribes had been depleted or wiped out by the 
many epidemics which had swept the lower Columbia region in 
the early eighteen hundreds. The time range may be divided 
into two main divisions, that of pre-history, where the infor-
mation is archeological in nature, and that of historic times 
where the information is to be found in the early historic 
accounts and modern ethnographic studies of native groups. 
The time period between the archeological horizon and historic 
times is one which is undocumented. 
Since the earlist evidence, to-date, of the occu-
pation of the American continent is found in the Intermoun-
2 
taine flateau, it seems likely that Oregon would hold many 
clues as to the nature of these early peoples as it was in 
the pa~h of subsequent migrations into adjacent territory. 
Substantuating this hypothesis, recent archeological researches 
have revealed a culture a considerable antiquity in Oregon. 
Therefore, a study of the basketry techniques used by these 
early peoples should help in filling in one of the gaps in 
our knowledge of the affinities of the early cultures of 
Oregon to those of adjacent areas. 
I The existing knowledge of basketry techniques of 
I the Oregon tribes within the historic period needs organization. 
critism, and evaluation. Much of our knowledge comes from 
sources which are often vague as to exact meaning and indeed 
I 
so scanty that they are to a great extent a hinderance rather 
than a help in an ethnographic study. Among the Oregon 
tribes, especially along the coast, there was a system of 
1gift giving' in which baskets were passed from one group to 
another, thus, even baskets made by the California Indians 
found their way northward along the Oregon coast. This 
I 
custom was often ignored or left unnoticed by many of the 
early writers; thus a tribe was often accredited with a know-
ledge of various basketry techniques which did not exist in 
their culture. 
The sources for the study of Oregon basketry are 
of four types; one, the general works on American Indian 
3 
basketry, two, the anthropological monographs and texts, 
three, historical records, and fourth, actual specimens of 
basketry available in the museum collections. 
The most valuable of the general sources consist 
of Mason's Aboriginal American Basketry: studies in~ textile 
art without machinery,(1904), which serves as a point of 
reference for all studies of basketry techniques of the 
American Indian, and Gene Weltfish 1 s Prehistoric~ American 
Basketry Techniques~~ Distribution, (1930). Also 
within this class falls G.y.James 1 ~ Basketry,(1902), 
which could be called a layman's Mason and describes basketry 
as a collectors item. 
The anthropological monographs and texts fall into 
two classes, one dealing with historic and ethnic groups, the 
other with the prehistoric cultures. These ethnographic 
studies vary from notes to complete monographs. The more 
useful of the major ethnic studies are Leslie Spier's~ 
Ethnography, (1930), Isabel Kelly's Ethnography of the 
Surprise Valley Paiute, (1932), and H.G.Barnett 1 s Culture 
~ Distribution, VII, Oregon Coast, (1937). Lila 0 1Neale, 
in her monograph~-~~~• (1932), deals 
with basketry from the point of view of the weavee. Texts 
such as Melville Jacobs' Santiam Kalapuya Ethnologic ~ 
~ ~• (1945), and~ Narrative~ Ethnologic ~• 
(1939), are often of value as they give clues as to the 
4 
presence or absence of basketry and its function both within 
the historic period and the period in the past as indicated 
by mythology, although they lack any details of typology. 
The single source of prehistoric basketry techniques for 
Oregon is L.S.Cressman 1 s Archeological Researches in the 
Northern Great Basin, (1942). 
Of the historical materials the journals of Lewis 
and Clark and the Wilkes Expedition are the most valuable 
since the later reports of travelers, missionaries, and 
settlers are extremely fragmentary and unreliable. This, in 
all probability, is due to the circumstances under which these 
reports were written. Both Lewis and Clark and Wilkes were 
sent primarily to gather information on the country and its 
inhabitants and thus were more careful and scientific in their 
reports. 
In analysing Oregon basketry I propose the follow-
ing method of study. First the ethnographic literature on 
the tribes of Oregon should be searched for information on 
basketry, the form, use (or func~ion), techniques of con-
struction, methods of decoration, and materials used by 
each tribe or ethnic group. As has been noted previously 
the material available is very limited; so, secondly, much 
of the information will, of necessity, have to be obtained 
through observation and analysis of the specimelllj of baskets 
available in the Museum of Natural History at the University 
5 
of Oregon. 
With each basket selected for study, the following 
information will be noted. First, the catalog of museum 
specimens will be consulted for any information as to what 
ethnic group the basket has been attributed, the classifi-
cation which has been given it, and the catalog number as-
signed to the specimen. Second, the basket will be analysed, 
using the system of classification which I will set up in the 
succeeding pages. 
By this method of study I hope to be able to 
separate the basketry of Oregon into ethnically determined 
groups. The major part of this thesis will be concerned 
therefore with the types of basketry to be found in Oregon, 
and the geographic, as well as the historic, distribution 
of these types. 
In the final section of the paper I will discuss 
briefly the problems of relationship; the relationship of 
basketry types to linguistic groups, and the relationship 
of Oregon basketry with that of the Basin Plateau. 
CHAPTER I 
CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM FOR BASKETRY 
In any study of basketry one must set up a system 
of classification to serve as the basis for analysis and 
discussion of the types in the area involved. Therefore, 
before turning to a detailed analysis of Oregon basketry 
typology I wish to set up a general classification system 
based on (1) technique of construction, (2) technique of 
decoration, and (3) material used. 
Basketry may be divided into two main classes on 
the basis of construction techniques; woven and coiled, 
Woven basketry is comprised of vertical warp elements bound 
together by horizontal wefts which intertwine with the warps 
or cross over each other betw~en warps. Coiled basketry is 
comprised of a foundation which is arranged in a spiral and 
each successive coil is sewed to the previous coil by an 
. 1 
over and over stitching of the flexible element (or splint), 
1In connection with this problem Dr, H,G,Barnett 
has suggested that the term 'coiled basketry' might well be 
supplanted by the term •sewn basketry' as sewing applies to 
the method of joining not only a continuous circuit (coil) 
but also a series of circuits, such as is found on Thompson 
River coiled ware, By using the terms woven and sewn the 
method of manipulation is described for the active elements 
rather than the type of foundation used, as is done by the 
term coiled, 
7 
~ Basketry 
Woven basketry is composed of plaiting, wicker-
work and twining. Of these three, twining is by far the 
most often utilized. 
Plaiting. In plaiting (or checkerwork as it is 
often called) the warp and weft have the same width, thickness, 
and flexibility and are intertwined to form squares. (fig. 1) 
A variation of plaiting in which the warps and wefts cross 
over two elements instead of one is usually referred to as 
twilled plaiting. 
Wickerwork. The basic difference between plaiting 
and wickerwork is that in the latter the warp is more rigid 
than the weft, and often the weft is more slender than the 
warp. (fig. 2) 
a. b. 
Fig. 1 Plaiting 
a. Checkerwork b. Twillwork 
8 
Fig. 2 Wickerwork 
Some authors, namely Weltfish1 , object . to the 
inclusion of plaiting, wickerwork, and twining in the same 
group on the principle that in plaiting, and often in wicker-
work, the warps are indistinquishable from the wefts. Yet, 
since all three employ an interweaving of warps and wefts 
it seems logical that they may all be included under the term 
1 woven 1 without reference to the relative size or activity 
of either element. 
Twining. Twined basketry may be rigid, semiflexible, 
or flexible depending upon the materials and techniques used. 
The method of supporting the basket is not a determining 
factor since both rigid or semiflexible and soft baskets are 
made both in an inverted and the normal vertical position by 
various ethnic groups. The majority of modern twined baskets 
however have a vertical warp which is more or less rigid 
1Weltfish, Gene, "Prehistoric North American Basketry 
Techniques and Modern Distribution", American Anthropologist, 
n.s. XXXII (1930) p. 454. 
9 
held together by horizontal f l exible wefts which cross between 
the warps. 
In the literature there has appeared a distinction 
between bags and basketry which has led to the conclusion 
that the Basket Makers had no twined baskets, althoµgh, 
they did have soft twined bags, This inference is based on 
the assumption that twined baskets are rigid, or at best 
only semiflexible, whereas bags are very soft and flexible. 
It seems to me that a classification based on materials and 
texture of weave is not as valid as a classification based 
on the form the material and weave takes.l A basket is an 
integrated whole with a flat or rounded bottom and generally 
vertical sides. A bag or wallet is constructed either on a 
flat plane, then folded and the sides sewn, or the warps are 
folded at the midpoint and the weaving process proceeds as 
it does on the wall of a basket, Thus, using the above 
classification of bags and baskets, the soft twined bags 
reported for the Basket Makers are soft twined baskets. 
The relation of the weft elements t o one another 
and to the warp determines the different structural results. 
Along with this structural description of twining should be 
1This view is also held by L.S.Cressman, cf. 
Archeological Researches in the Northern Great Basin (Carnegie 
Institution of Washington75.c":"; Publication 538, 1942) p.33. 
10 
included the direction of the work in relation to the weaver, 
clockwise or counter-clockwise; whether the work surface is 
convex or concave; and, the pitch of the stitch, that is, 
the direction in which the wefts are twisted. The convex 
work side is the outer surface of the basket toward the 
worker (fig. 3), and the concave work surface is the inner 
surface at the far side of the basket (fig. 4). If the wefts 
Fig. 3 Counter Fig. 4 Counter 
clockwise spiral worked clockwise spiral worked 
from the convex surface. from the concave surface. 
are twisted toward the worker the result is downward pitch 
of the stitch on the work surface, whereas, if the wefts are 
twisted away from the worker an upward pitch of the stitch 
occurs on the work surface. Since the direction of work in 
North America is usually from the left to the right of the 
worker, the pitch of the stitch is usually referred to as 
down to the left or down to the right. 
Twined weaving may be either functional or decorative 
(non-functional) and, as these non-functional techniques will be 
fully described in the section which deals with the techniques 
11 
of basket decoration, I wish at this point to discuss only 
the functional techniques of twining. 
The main varieties of twining are as follows: 
1. Simple twined weaving. There are two wefts 
which cross each other between single warps in a half twist. 
(figs. 5 and 6) 
Fig. 5 Simple twining Fig. 6 Simple twining 
down to the right. down to the left, 
2, Diagonal (twill) twined weaving. Two wefts 
pass over two or more warp elements at each half twist. Warps 
must be odd in number as in the next row the same pair of 
warps are not included in the half twist, (fig. 7) Although 
this technique has become standardized in the literature as 
diagonal twined weaving, it is really only due to an illusion 
created by crossing two warps instead of one, Thus it might 
well be classified as a variety of simple twining which places 
two instead of one warp between each half-twist of the wefts, 
12 
Fig. 7 Diagonal twined weaving. 
3. Wrapped twine weaving. Two wefts are emplo~ed, 
one of which is placed at right angles to, and on the inside 
of, the warps and the other is flexible. The flexible weft 
is wrapped around the crossing of the warp and the stationary 
weft. On the outer surface of the basket the wrapped weft 
is diagonal, while on the inner surface it is vertical, lying 
between the two adjacent warps. (fig. 8) This functional 
technique is almost identical with the decorative technique 
of wrapped twine overlay. 
Fig. 8 Wrapped twine weaving. 
13 
4, Lattice twined weaving, Lattice twined weaving, 
often called tee, · is an extension of the wrapped twining tech-
nique, Three wefts are utilized; one of which is stationary 
and the other two are flexible, The stationary weft is laid 
at right angles to the warps on the outer surface and is held 
in place by the regular twined weaving of the two flexible 
weft elements, This technique is indistinquishable from the 
plain twining on the inner surface of the basket but the outer 
surface has a decided ridged appearance, (fig, 9) 
Fig, 9 Lattice twined weaving 
5, Three-strand twined weaving, This technique 
makes use of three weft elements to form either three-strand 
twine (fig, 10) or three strand braid, (fig, 11) In the 
twined type each weft is always on one side of the other two. 
In the braided type each weft is always between the other 
two, Both look like plain twine on the inside of the basket, 
14 
Fig. 10 Three strand twine. 
Fig. 11 Three strand braid. 
Coiled Basketry 
As was previously stated, coiled basketry is pro-
duced by an over and over sewing of the coil foundation 
arranged in a spiral. Classification of coiled basketry is 
made on the type of foundation used, the method of stitching 
employed, the direction of work, and the work surface. 
Foundation. Foundations used may be divided into 
15 
two main categories; (1) single, and (2) multiple foundation. 
There is also coiling without foundation, or netting. Mason, 
however, indicates that in netting the fioundation was re-
moved after the completion of the basket. 1 
Single foundation consists of single rod, bundle, 
or rod in a bundle, (fig. 12, a,b,c,d,e,) all of which are 
treated as a single unit. They may be sewn by interlocking 
stitches or non~interlocking stitches, the latter may or may 
not split the rod. 
Multiple foundation consists of three varieties; 
(a) vertical series, (b)tviangular formation, and (c) multi-
ple variation. Vertical series consists of two, three, or 
four rods forming the foundation. Four rod is rarely used as 
it results in a very coarse basket and because of the diffi-
culty of controlling the technique. The rods which form the 
foundation are arranged vertically and the splint passes over 
the coil foundation and incorporates the top rod of the pre-
ceeding coil. The triangular formation of the coil results 
in using either three or five elements in a triangular position. 
These elements are held in place by the splint passing behind 
the foundation coil and coming up under and incorporating or 
splitting the top rod of the previous coil.(fig.13,a,b,c,d,e,f.) 
1Mason, O.T., "Aboriginal American Basketry; studies 
in a textile art without machinery", ~.~.Museum, annual report, 
(1904) p. 248. 
16 
... b . 
~ 
d. 
Fig. 12 Types of Single Foundation. (a) Sin~le 
rod interlocking stitches; (b) Single rod, rod split; (c) 
Bundle with interlocking stitches; (d) Bundle with non-
interlocking stitches, bundle split; and (e) Rod in bundle, 
bundle split. 
17 
Fig, 13 Multiple Foundation Types, (a) Two rod 
vertical, rod incorporated; (-b) Three rod vertical, rod in-
corporated; (c) Three rod triangle, top rod incorporated; (d) 
Three rod triangle,top rod split; (e) Five rod triangle, bop 
rod incoporated; (f) Five rod triangle, top rod split, 
18 
Aside from the vertical and triangular series there 
are varieties of coiling which appear to be horizontal types 
of coiling but due to their problematic origin, I have chosen 
to group them under the heading of multiple variation. There 
are two types which I wish to include here; the two rod Hori-
zontal and the slat and rod. (fig 14 a,b.) 
Stitches. Stitches are of three main types; (1) the 
stitch may interlock with the stitch of the preceeding row, 
(2) the stitch may not interlock with the stitch of the pre-
ceeding row. In the interlocking stitch, the splint passes 
around the foundation coil and comes up under and incorporates 
the splint of the preceeding coil. This results in a diagonal 
appearance of the stitches which fails to occur in other 
methods of stitching. In the non-interlocking stitch the 
splint either splits or incorporates the top element of the 
foundation coil at a point between two stitches of the previous 
coil. The split stitch is caused by the splint passing 
around the foundation coil, and in splitting the foundation. 
while being brought to the work surface, it passes through .. 
the splint of the previous coil either on the work surface, 
the non-work surface, or both. (fig. 15. a,b,c.d,e.) 
To describe coiled basketry completely the direction 
in which the work proceeds and the surface from which the 
basket is worked should be noted. Essentially this is the 
19 
a. 
b. 
Fig. 14 Multiple variation. 
(a) Two rod horizontal, larger 
rod split. 
(b) Slat and two rod, slat split. 
20 
Fig, 15 Major methods or stitching coiled basketry. 
(a) Interlocking stitch; (b) Non-interlocking stitch; (c) 
Split stitch on work surface; (d) Split stitch on non-work 
surface; (e) Split stitch on both work and non-work surface. 
21 
same in principle as it is in twining. Direction of work 
may be either clockwise or counterclockwise and the work 
surface may be either concave or convex. Determination of 
the direction of coiling can be done easily by observing the 
interior of the basket bottom, or, by tracing the last coil 
at the mouth of the basket to the end. (fig . 16 a,b.) 
Fig. 16 (a) Clockwise spiral worked from convex 
surface. (b) Clockwise spiral from concave surface. 
Decoration Techniques 
Having surveyed the techniques of functional ba sket 
construct i on I wish now to turn to the techniques employed 
in basket decoration. Es sentially there are three decorative 
techniques; (1) a non-functional element woven into the 
basket, (2) a design applied to the surface , or (3) a comT 
bination of both. These techniques are supplemented by the 
use of colored wefts or splints in functional construction 
for decoration. 
Those decorative elements which are woven into 
22 
twined basketry are false embroidery, overlay twining and 
wrapped twining, 
1. False embroidery. This technique is applied to 
simple twined baskets and consists of wrapping the outside 
weft with colored material (usually grass) during the pro-
cess of weaving, (fig. 17) 
Fig. 17 False embroider y. 
2. Overlay twining. This technique consists of 
laying one or two additional strands over the functional 
wefts. When twining without a twist or with a full twist 
occurs the decoration appears only on the outer surface of 
the basket. Overlay with a half twist of the wefts has 
the result that the decoration is exposed on both sides of 
the basket. If the overlay strand is placed only over one 
weft an alternating pattern results, (fig. 18 a,b.) whereas, 
when placed over both wefts a solid all over decoration 
results. (fig. 18 c,d.) 
23 
d . 
c . 
Fig. 18 Overlay twining. (a) Overlay one strand 
twining, (b) Overlay half twist one strarld twining, 
(c) Overlay two strand twining, (d) Overlay two 
strand half twist twining. 
3. Wrapped twine overlay. This technique differs 
from the functional wrapped twining in that it is a result or 
wrapping a decorative strand over and over simple twining. 
(rig. 19) On the outside or the basket the wrapping is dia-
gonal whereas on the inside it is horizontal. At first 
glance the functional and non-functional techniques appear 
the same except ror the ridged appearance on the inner surface 
24 
of functional wrapped twining which is caused by the hori-
zontal weft element. 
Fig. 19 Wrapped twine overlay 
The two main non-functional techniques which are 
added to coiled ware at the time of manufacture are imbri-
cation and beading. 
1. Imbrication. This technique resembles the over-
laping rows of tile or shingles, hence the name. To start, 
the end of the material used for the decoration is bent under 
and bound down by the structural stitch, t he strip is then 
bent back on itse_lf, then bound down by the next structural 
stitch; pulled foreward to the desired length, then bent 
foreward a gain. The process is continued till the area to 
be decorated is covered. (fig . 20) 
25 
~ 
Fig. 20 Imbrication 
2. Beading. This technique ·is a simplified form of 
imbrication. It is a strip of decorative material laid along 
the foundation coil and held in place by the over and over 
stitching of the splint. (fig. 21) 
Fig. 21 Beading 
Designs may also be applied to basketry by paint-
ing, however this is fairly rare. Another form · of decoration 
is the addition of beads, feathers, and other materials sewed 
or fastened by some other means to the basket. These and the 
26 
other techniques for decorating both twined and coiled 
baskets are applied to basketry in various forms, Actual 
designs and patterns which these techniques take will be 
discussed in detail for Oregon baskets. 
Basket Materials 
Since the type of material used in the manufacture 
of basketry is related to form (or shape) and function (or 
use), it is important in any method of classification to note 
the material employed, 
American Indians have, as Mason puts it, "ransacked 
the three kingdoms of nature - mineral, animal, and vegetable", 1 
for the materials with which to make their baskets. Minerals 
are used as dyes and paints or cut as beads and pendants, 
Leather, feathers, shell and porcupine quills are the im-
portant items from the animal kingdom to be utilized, How-
ever, it is upon plants that the American Indian depended 
most, They made use of almost every part of a plant, the 
root, stem, bark, leaves, and in w~terproofing baskets they 
even used the resin, Since a complete list of the plants used 
would be beyond the scope of this paper I will confine my-
self to the more common forms which were used by the Oregon 
Indians and their neighbors. This plant material may be 
27 
divided into two classes, those employed for construction. 
and, those employed for decorative dyes. 
The most common and widely used plant for basketry 
among the groups west of the Cascades, is Corylus californica, 
hazel. It is particularly useful in the manufacutre of the 
coarser forms of baskets. Among the eastern Indians Salix, 
willow, was used much as the west coast . tribes employed 
hazel. 
Among the Klamath and Modoc the principle material 
is Scirpus lacustris, or tule. The surface of the stem is 
cut into narrow strips which are twisted into long cords and 
used in the manufacture of fine twined baskets. In coarser 
baskets the stems are used whole or split and used without 
twisting. The fine roots of the tule are also used. When 
dried they are maroon in color and are often used to make 
the design pattern in the fine twine baskets. The Klamaths 
also make use of twisted strands of Typha latafolia, cattail, 
leaves in much the same manner as tule. Whereas natural 
tule results in green and brown shades the cattail produces 
an ashy white basket. 
Xerophyllum tenax, squaw grass, is the material 
most used for wrapped twine overlay. Occassionally it is 
dyed, but in its natural state it is a yellowish white. 
Xerophyllum ~ is limited in its distribution to the high 
altitudes of the Cascades and the high areas of the coastal 
28 
range in Curry county. Among the decorative materials 
employed by the Klamath and Modoc Indians was Phragmites 
phragmites, or reed. The shiny surface of the stem, like 
cattail, was used in making the white patterns which appear 
on twisted tule baskets. Another decorative material used 
by the coastal groups is Adiantum pedatum, maidenhair fern, 
the slender, shiny, dark brown stems of which are split 
before use. 
Aside from the leaves and stems, the roots of 
many plants were used. The split roots as well as the 
bark of the Thuja plicata, giant cedar, and Picea sttchensis, 
spruce, are widely employed by the coast tribes in the 
manufacture of storage baskets. Several species of pine 
are also valued for their roots. These roots are prepared 
by steaming and splitting while warm. They are made into 
coarse V-shaped carrying baskets by the tribes along the 
California-Oregon border. The roots of~~• the 
red alder, is used primarily as the weft element to give 
strength to the basket bottoms of many southern Oregon and 
northern California tribes. 
The second class of plant materials are those 
which are used as dyes. The more common types included 
Alnus rhombifolia, white alder, which produced a orange or 
red-brown dye when the bark is infused with water; Barberis 
~• Oregon grape, which produces a yellow dye when 
29 
the twigs and bark are steeped; and Evernia vulpina, wolf 
moss, a yellow tree lichen also produces a yellow dye which 
is extracted by boiling. The Modoc and Shasta use this dye 
only for porcupine quills. The seed shells of the~-
~ polysepalus, water lily, were employed by the Klamath 
to make a black dye. 
CHARTER II 
OREGON TYPOLOGY 
For convenience, in the following discussion, I 
will consider the Oregon Indian tribes in the following order, 
based on geographic location; the tribes at the lower end of 
the Columbia and the Willamette Valley, the tribes southward 
along the coast, the Klamath-Modoc, and northward through 
the tribes in eastern Oregon. To show more clearly the 
position of these tribal groups, they have been indicated on 
the accompanying map. 
Since the basketry, at least information about 
basketry, of the archeological horizon is limited to eastern 
Oregon, the following discussion of Oregon typology is that 
of the historic period, approximately 1800 to 1850. 
Lower Columbia Tribes 
The Clatsop, occupying the south bank at the mouth 
of the Columbia, and the Kathlamet, occupying both the north 
and south banks of the Columbia east of the Clatsop to Puget 
Island, form a single ethnic group. Dialectically the Kathlamet 
belong with the Upper Chinook; ethnically they belong with the 
Lower Chinook; the Clatsop, the Chinook, and the Shoalwatar. 1 
lRay, Verne,F., Lower Chinook Ethnographic Notes 
(University of Washington Publications in Anthropology, VII, 
no. 2, 1938), pp. 37-38. 
3 1 
-·-·-·1 
l 
i 
' 
I 
' 
I 
32 
Lewis and Clark were greatly impressed by the 
Clatsop baskets which they describe as follows: 
their baskets are formed of cedar bark and 
beargrass so closely interwoven with the fingers 
that they are watertight without the aid of gum or 
rosin; some of these are highly ornamented with 
strains of beargrass which they dye of several 
colours and interweave in a great variety of figures; 
this serves them the double perpuse of holding their 
water or wearing on their heads;and are of different 
capacities from that of the smallest cup to five or 
six gallons; they are generally of a conic form or 
rather the segment of a cone which the smaller end 
forms the base or bottom of the basket. these they 
make very expediciously and dispose off for a mear 
trifle. it is for the construction of these baskets 
that the beargrass becomes an article of traffic 
among the natives this grows on their high mountains 
near the snowy region; the blade is about 3/8 of an 
inch wide and 2 feet long, smoth pliant and strong; 
the young blades which are white from not being ex-
posed to the sun or air, are those most commonly 
employed, particularly in their neatest work.l 
It appears from the evidence available that the 
use, of cedar bark in the manufacture of water-tight baskets 
declined as spruce root became more popular. Ray2 failed 
to obtain any baskets of waterproof construction made of 
cedar bark, but those using spruce root were plentiful. 
Aside from the finely twined baskets the Clatsop 
and the Kathlamet also made openwork baskets of spruce roots 
1Thwaites, Ruben G., (ed.) Original Journals of the 
Lewis~~ Expedition (7 vols., atlas, New York, 1905/ 
III, P• 353. 
2Ray, .21:t•cit., pp. 132-133. 
-102072 
33 
which were used as clam baskets and for storing dried salmon. 
An open twined basket (L2-106),which served as a 
clam basket, was made of split spruce root. The base is 
composed of 27 warps held by 8 rows of twining, 7mm. apart. 
The wefts become the warps at the ends of the basket. A 
design is executed on the front and back of the basket by 
overlaying natural Xerophyllum ~ on the warps in seven 
columns on each side. Each column consists of three strands 
separated by two undecorated warp strands. At the border 
four rows of the grass are beaded in. The braided border 
is formed by plaiting the warp strands upward for 2 cm. then 
horizontally for a double row. 
Twilled (diagonal) plaiting is utilized in a 
storage basket (1-2491) which may be of Clatsop origin. 
Split spruce splints 7mm. wide are used as the warp and weft 
elements. The bottom was woven first and the splints bent 
upward to become the warps of the sides. The weft splints 
pass over two and under t wo warps. The rim is finished by 
binding it down with cordage. The scal l oped decoration on 
the rim is made of twined ce dar bark. Two strands are used, 
the middle is looped under the rim and both pairs of ends are 
twisted into a twine. One twine is put through the other 
and then doubled down under the rim to repeat the process 
sixteen times around the rim. The basket is trapizoidal in 
shape and 38.1 cm. in height. Mason depicts similar baskets 
34 
for the Nutka and Clallam. 1 
Rushes were used to make the storage baskets with 
lids in which berries were stored. Occassionally they also 
made checkerwork baskets from rushes. 
Willow(~) may also have been utilized for 
the manufacture of large storage baskets. Boas• Kathlamet 
Texts, in the myth of AQjASXE.'NAS XE:u~ records the follow-
ing: "Now they brought her more willow bark and she made a 
large basket". 2 
Swan reported that the Lower Chinook occassionally 
made hats of the white grass. 3 The technique implied here 
was in all likelihood functional wrapped twining. 
Two baskets (L2-343, L2-347) 1 from the Patterson 
~oan collection, are examples of Clatsop wrapped twining. 
There is a possibility that these wrapped twine baskets are 
trade ware passed southward along the coast, although they 
are not part of the Makah tradition as they lack the checker-
work base. However, other Chinookan groups, including the 
Wasco, used wrapped twining as a decorative technique. One 
1Mason, .2;2.cit., p.432-433. 
2Boas, Franz, Kathlamet Texts (Smithsonian Institution 
Publications of the Bureau of AmerTcanEthnology, Bulletin 26, 
1901), p. 17. 
3swan, J,G., The Northwest Coast; or Three Years' 
Residence in Washington"""'rerritory (New York,""TBm-;-p. 163. 
35 
basket is an elongated cup, 9.5cm. high and 12.7cm. wide at 
the mouth, and the other is a shallow bowl-like basket, 8,3cm, 
high and 20.3cm, wide at the mouth. The design on the former 
was executed in natural and yellow and black dyed Xerophyllum 
~- The pattern on the bottom utilized blue wool. Around 
the border a black dog design was worked in a yellow back-
ground. The dogs faced the right, The pitch of the wrapping 
was also down to the right, The shallow bowl-like basket 
made use of natural and brownish-red dyed Xerophyllum tenax 
which alternates in a horizontal band design. Small tri-
angles are worked in the dark bands with the light element, 
Aside from the wrapped twining a row of three strand twining 
occurs at the joint of the base and sides, The pitch of the 
twining is down to the left, 
Spruce root was prepared by steaming before split-
ting into strips, When the weaver was ready to use these 
strips she soaked them in water to make them pliable, Cedar 
bark was scraped, then dried, before splitting into strips. 
For dyes they employed the root of Barberis~• Oregon 
grape, Alnus rhombifolia, white alder, and mud, Swan noted 
that the "black is produced by burying the willow bark or 
grass in the black l!llld of the Bay for a few weeks; the red 
by the bark of the black alder; and the yellow by a mixture 
of nettle roots with some shrub they procure from the North-
36 
ern Indians".1 
From Swan also comes an indication of what design 
elements were employed by the Lower Chinook. The twined spruce 
root baskets were "woven with figures of horses, dogs, and 
birds depicted on them by means of different colored grass-
es". 2 Lewis stated that the designs on the Chinook twined 
baskets were usually vertically arranged. 3 However, the 
designs on the majority of the baskets I have examined were 
horizontally arranged. 
Among the Upper Chinook tribes, about which we 
know very little are the Skilloot, Multnoma, Willamette 
Falls (Clowewalla), and Clackamas. 
The Skilloot spoke the same dialect of Chinook as 
did the Kathlamet, and evidently acted as traders between 
the upper and lower Columbia river tribes. Lewis and Clark 
mention that they had "small neat bags of rushes" 4 which 
they used to carry tobacco. 
The Multnoma, Willamette Falls, and Clackamas 
linguistically fall into the same group, termed Clackamas 
1Ibid., pp. 162-163. 
2Ibid., p. 163. 
3Lewis, Albert B., Tribes Ef ~ Columbia Valley ~ 
~ Coast of Oregon~ Washington (Memoirs, American Anthro-
pological Association, I, Part 2, 1906), p. 175. 
4Thwaites, .21:•ill•• p. 293. 
37 
Chinnok. These groups were early reduced in numbers and 
died out before any ethnographic work was done among them. 
The Cascade Indians along with the Hood River tribe 
vonstitute a transitional dialect between the Clackamas and 
the Wasco, the latter being the furtherest east of the Oregon 
Chinook groups. The Cascade Indians seemed to have depended 
to a great extent upon hunting. They had only scattered 
settlements along the Columbia as they were drawn inland by 
hunting and gathering. After the epidemic of 1829, during 
which they were reduced to a single band, they came to live 
at the Cascades. About the Hood River Indians Lewis and Clark 
report that they had food bowls made of cedar bark and grass. 
Possibly the reason for the scarcity of settlements 
by the Cascade and Hood River Indians aleng the south bank 
of the Columbia was due to fear of Snake raids.1 Since the 
inhabitants of the area were scattered and pushed north 
and west by the incroaching Northern Shoshone or Paiute, 
information, of an ethnographic nature is lack~ng. 
The Wasco, although they linguistically belong 
with the rest of the Columbia Chinooks, will be included 
with the tribes of eastern Oregon, as their basketry falls 
1Teit, James H., The Middle Columbia Salish (Univer-
sity of Washington Publications in Anthropology;-ILno. 4, 
1928), p. 107. 
38 
largely within the type typical for the Basin Plateau area. 
The Wasco might well be considered the focal point for the 
Oregon tribes as they engaged both in the east-west trade 
along the Columbia and the north-south trade of eastern Oregon. 
Willamette Valley Tribes 
The tribes who inhabited the Willamette Valley are 
known collectively as the Kalapuya Nation. They have been 
separated into the following tribes: Tualati, Yamhill, Lucki-
mute, Mary's River, Long Tom Creek, Kalapuya, Yoncalla, 
Santiam, and Pudding River, Although many of the early 
sources indicate that the Kalapuyan tribes were once numerous 
and powerful, epidemics had rendered the Willamette Valley 
almost uninhabited by the time the white settlers arrived, 
The information on the Kalapuyan groups is limited largely 
to the unpublished material gathered by Gatschet in 1877, 
the bulk of which was linguistic material, and the •text• 
material gathered by Jacobs, 
In Jacob's~ Kalapuya Ethnologic Texts, 1 
he records the following information: 
The soft bag ( a pack-sack basketV that they 
1Jacobs, Melville, Kalapuya Texts, Santiam Kalapuya 
Ethnologic ~ (University of Washington Publications in 
Anthropology, XI, No,l, 1945) 
39 
had was always for their packing (carrying things 
on their backs). Whatever they picked ( e.g. acorns, 
hazelnuts, camas, tarweed seeds, pussy ears) they 
put into their soft-bag. When they dug camas they 
put them into their soft bag. (1) When they gather -
ed acorns they put them into their soft-bag too. 
For everything that they did they always carried 
along with them their soft bag. The soft-bag was 
the woman's thing for packing (for general carry-
ing). That is the way they always did so it is 
said. (2) And another one (basket) in addition they 
named their storage-basket (of hard splints). Still 
another one ( was made) like the storage-basket 
indeed ( i.e. hard, shaped like a shallow pan, 
tightly knit; Eustace Howard said it is more like 
the soft bag in technique of weaving), (with) it 
they prepared tarweed seeds. I do not quite well 
know what its name (was), (3) I do not know how 
they did it ( wove it) when they manufactured them. 
But I myself only saw (some old ones used) when 
they prepared tarweed seeds (with them). They had 
them (they were made) rather like storage baskets 
indeed (like the soft bags, according to Howard). 1 
Unfortunately information on the techniques employ-
ed is lacking since the informant used by Jacobs was a man. 
However, in all likelihood the soft carrying basket was 
twined whereas the storage basket may possibly have been coil-
ed but probably was a rigid twined basket. The single 
basket (1-2490) in the Oregon Museum of Natural History which 
is attributed to the Kalapuya, is evidently a small storage 
basket. It is an undecorated coiled basket made of willow 
and according to the collector!s note was made 'by Old Lucy, 
1Ibid,, pp, 37-38 . 
40 
the last of her tribe'. The basket was not to carefully 
constructed1 as indicated by the inconsistency of stitching. 
The foundation is basleally three rod vertical, top rod in-
corporated, occassionally however, only two rods are used. 
The stitch is /!Plit both on the work and non-work surface 
and sometimes is not split at all. The rim is finished by 
coiling over a single rod. The basket is 8.9cm. high and 
10.2cm. in diameter at the mouth. 
The Tualitins, according to the texts recorded by 
Gatschet and Frachtenberg, also had a basket made of rushes 
which they used to catch trout.2 
The Kalapuya, from the limited information available 
evidently used both coiled and twined technique, employing 
willow, and rushes to make their baskets. They in all 
probabilities also made use of cedar bark and ash bark. 
The Clatskanie were the only Athapascan tribe in 
northwestern Oregon. Although mention of their existence by 
Lewis and Clark as well as other early travelers gives a 
clue as to their habitat, their hostility to the white 
settlers and early extinction (only eight survivors in 
lThe careless construction of the basket may be 
due to the age of the basket-maker, or it may be that coil-
ing was a technique introduced by some Sahaptin group,or 
individual,and therefore not we ll made as it was not a native 
trait. 
2Jacobs, .2£.Cit., p.188. 
41 
1857) by the epidemics of disease has precluded any ethno-
graphic account of them. They supposedly carried on trade 
with the Tillamook and were hunters and traders, unlike the 
Chinook fishermen. 
For information, other than actual specimens availa-
ble in the Museum, about the basketry made by the coastal 
tribes in Oregon I have relied heavily on H.G.Barnett•s trait 
list for the Oregon Coast. 1 
The Tillamook, who along with the Siletz comprise 
the Salish speaking population of the Oregon coast, occupied 
an area from the southern border of the Clatsop to a few miles 
north of the Siletz River. 
The techniques employed by the Tillamook, were 
simple and three strand twining in both close and open twin-
ing and twilled plaiting. 
The main basketmaking materials were hazel and 
conifer roots. For decoration Xerophyllum ~ was employ-
ed either in its natural state or dyed red (Hemlock) 2 and 
1Barn~tt, Homer G., Culture Element Distributions; 
VII,Oregon ~ (University oTcaITrornia, Anthropological 
Records, I, no. 3, 1937) 
2rn all probabilities what the informant meant by 
hemlock dye was an undetermined species of moss which was 
found on the Hemlock, as Hemlock itself was utilized by the 
Tlingit to produce a green dye. 
42 
black (mud). The shiny black stems of Adie.tum pedatum, 
maidenhair t ern, are also used for decoration. 
They made coarse burden baskets, carrying baskets, 
storage baskets, water-tight baskets, and a few flat plate-
like baskets. According to the information gathered by 
Barnett they also had twined tule sack-like baskets and a 
"wedge shaped, tight weave, flexible carrying basket". 1 
A carrying basket, (1-895) equipped with carrying 
strap is a good example of Tillamook technique in open 
twining. The base is comprised of 24 warps which are also 
the warps of the front and the back of the basket. These 
warps are held together by eleven rows of twining. The weft 
elements of the bottom become the warp of the sides of the 
basket. The rows of twining are 5mm. apart. The pitch of 
the stitch is down to the right. At the border two rows of 
Xerophyllum tenax are plaited in. The border is made by 
braiding the warp elements together. They are braided vert-
ically for 1cm. then are topped by two rows of horizontal 
braid. 
The Tillamook also made twilled carrying baskets 
(L2-116). The warps were laid out parallel to each other and 
held at their midpoints by a single row of simple twining. 
The pitch of the stitch is down to the left. Twilling then 
proceeds till the base is completed. At the joint of the base 
43 
there are four rows of simple twining to give the basket firm-
ness. The warps of the sides are overlaid with Xerophyllum 
~- For the first sixteen rows Adiantum pedatum forms the 
weft strands, whereas the split root weft strands are_ used for 
the rest of the basket. One row of simple twining, down to 
the left, occurs at the mid-point on the sides of the basket. 
The border decorat ion is made oy grass overlay on the last 
two weft strands and wrapped into place with Adiantum strands. 
The basket is finished with the double row of braids as the 
carrying basket previously described. The double row braided 
border i s character istic of Tillamook carrying baskets. 
Another Tillamook basket, in all likelihood a 
storage basket,(L2-108) is an example of close t wining. It 
is 17,7 cm, high and 20,3 cm. wide at the mouth, and is 
constructed with split conifer root, The base is made in 
simple and diagonal twining; at the juncture of the sides 
and the base there is one row of three strand twining, a 
device which serves to strengthen the basket, An alternating 
pattern is accomplished on t he body of the basket by placing 
natural Xerophyllum ~ over one weft and twining with a 
full twist. Every two rows the weft covered wi th . overlay sis 
changed, At the border the design is made by a solid row or 
Xerophyllum tenax tallowed by a row Qf; split root, then a 
solid background of n!ltural grass on which a dog design is 
made by the root v. eft s. The dogs face the left in contrast 
44 
to the Clatsop basket referred to earlier where the dog faced 
the right. The rim is finished by braid. 
Baskets similar to the one just described were also 
made water-tight with the addition of pitch. 
A bowl-shaped storage basket (L2-337) is made of 
hazel. The basket is started by laying eight warps in two 
groups of four warp stems each, at right angles to each other. 
The warps are held in place by two rows of wrapping by the 
weft elements and then radiate out, in pairs. Extra warps 
are added in pairs as they are needed. The twining on the 
base is quite frequently diagonal. Nine centimeters from the 
center of the basket is the row of three strand twining so 
characteristic of the coast baskets. The warps are U$ually 
of two, and often three hazel twigs, a device which adds to 
the rigidity of the basket • . As the function of the basket 
was strictly utilitarian,decoration consists of two rows of 
twining near the rim with weft strands which had been dyed 
in mud. At the border another row of three-strand twining 
occurs. The border was made by plaiting the warp strands 
together. The basket is 19cm. in height and 32 cm. in width 
at the mouth. 
The designs on Tillamook baskets were normally 
arranged in bands. An alternating pattern which results 
from using Xerophyllum overlay only on one weft is widely 
used. The conventionalized dog seems to be the only attempt 
45 
to copy the designs of their Chinook neighbors, the Clatsop. 
The Siletz, the Salish speaking neighbors of the 
Tillamook groups, occupied the area drained by the Siletz 
River and the adjacent coast. They manufactured basketry 
in much the same technique as did the Tillamook. There are, 
however, several features which distin©Iish Siletz basketry 
from that of the Tillamook. 
The materials which they used were conifer root and 
hazel, as did the Tillamook. The Siletz also made some use 
of tule. In the matter of decoration they depended more upon 
variation of weaving techniques than upon color. Yet in the 
instances where color was used they dyed tule and hazel with 
~ rhombifolia and mud. 
The most distin@.lishing feature of Siletz basketry 
is the use of double handles which are superimposed one upon 
another. Although all the baskets of the coastal area with 
this doubling of handle are called Siletz, they are not 
necessarily made by the Siletz tribe. The have become known 
as Siletz from the name of the reservation on which the 
remnants of many of the Oregon coastal tribes live. 
Most of these baskets, that is, the small hemi-
sherical carrying baskets, are twined openwork. They often 
vary the appearance of the basket by crossing the warps. One 
basket of this type (L2-94) i s interesting in that i ~stead of 
crossing the warps, the appearance of doing so is obtained by 
46 
catching first one warp of a pair and then a warp of another 
pair by the twining stitch, a technique which is ©ften called 
zig-zag warp. Often baskets of simple open twining are 
decorated by two rows of twining near the border where the 
warps are crossed. 
The rim is finished by braiding the warp pairs. 
The handles are made by braiding three groups of three 
splints each, together. 
Three strand twining is utilized for reinforcing 
the base and the rim. The typical start for Siletz basketry 
is accomplished by placing eight warps, laid out in two groups 
of four each, at right angles to each other held either by 
. three strand or diagonal twining. Other warps are added 
later as needed, 
Since the material utilized for basketry is very 
often hazel most of the baskets are rigid. Another feature 
which adds to the rigidity of Siletz basketry as well as the 
basketry of the other coastal tribes, is the use of double 
warps. Baskets made of tule are semi-flexible. 
The southern neighbor of the Salish speaking 
Siletz was the Yakonan linguistic family which consisted of 
two tribes, the Alsea and the Yaquina. The Alsea and the 
Yaquina were very similar not only in language but also in 
culture. Since they were almost identical in culture I 
shall discuss them together. The Alsea occupied the drainage 
---
47 
basin of the Alsea River and the Yaquina lived on the Yaquina 
River and Bay as well as along the adjacent coast line. 
As did the other tribes along the coast the Alsea 
and Yaquina made use of hazel twigs and conifer roots. 
Decoration was the typical overlay twining utilizing Xero-
phyllum tenax. The informant used by Barnett1 denied the 
use of Alnus dye so it may be possible that the Alsea and 
the Yaquina utilized the moss found on the Hemlock as their 
source of red dye as did the Tillamook. Mud was used to pro-
duce black dye. Xerophyllum was frequently used in its 
natural state. 
They made carrying baskets, much like those of the 
Tillamook, and storage baskets in open weave. Some storage 
baskets as well as water tight baskets were made of close 
twining. Simple twining with the normal direction of the 
pitch of the stitch being down to the left is supplemented 
by diagonal twining at the start of the basket and three 
strand twining used for reinforcing. 
South of the Alsea the coastal area around the 
Siuslaw and Umpqua River is occupied by the Siuslaw and 
Lower Umpqua tribes. These groups spoke g laµguage known as 
Siuslawan, These two groups were so reduced in numbers that 
by 1840 only a few survivors remained. The few survivors 
48 
were moved to the Siletz reservation. 
Materials and techniques are similar to the other 
coast tribes. Hazel twigs and conider roots were employed 
f'or warps and wef't s. Xerophyllum ~ was the chief' deco-
rative material but Adiatum pedatum was also utilized. Xero-
phyllum was used in overlay twining whereas Adiantum had 
enough substance to be used as the wef't element. ~ 
rhombif'olia and mud were used as dyes. 
They made a f'lat sif'ter, of' close twining, coarse 
burden baskets and conical carrying baskets of' open twining. 
Storage baskets were of'ten treated with camas adhesive to 
make them waterproof' . 1 Water cups were also manuf'actured. 
Aside f'rom the hazel and conif'er roots the Siuslaw 
and Lower Umpqua also made use of' tule f'or basketry. Tula 
was used in semi-f'lexible sack-like baskets. 
The Siuslaw and Lower Umpqu~ used simple twining 
down to the left, and three strand twining which was used 
f'or reinf'orcement as well as the basket start . 
De signs were ordinarily arranged in banding. How-
ever one small storage basket (1-5544) has an all-over 
decoration, the predominant zig-zag design of' which is arrang-
ed vertically, The basket however may well be an attempt to 
copy a Klamath or similar type of' basket, 
1 Ib1d., p.172. 
49 
South of the Siuslawan groups are the Kusan speak-
ing peoples. These people are usually divided into two tribes, 
the Lowe r Coquille and Coos, on the basis that they spoke two 
separate and almost unintelligible dialects. Culturally, how-
ever, they are undifferentiated, except by minor variations. 
Coos baskets utilize the same materials, hazel and 
conifer root, as do the rest of the coastal tribes. Xero-
phyllum ~ was the ma in decorative material. 
Techniques employed by the Coos basket-makers were 
simple and three strand twining, the latter being used for 
reinforcing. Pitch of the stitch is normally down to the 
left, however in a large proportion of the Coos baskets in 
the museum collections the pitch of the stitch is down to the 
right. The number of cases in which the pitch of the stitch 
is down to the right is greater than the number which might 
be expected due to the occurance of left-handed basket makers. 
One storage basket (1-9778), which I examined, is of particular 
interest, as t he pitch of' the stitch is changed several times 
in the course of construction. 
Another f eature which tends to set Coos basketry 
apar t from the rest of the coast tribes is the rim finish 
to be found on the majority of the baskets. After the last 
row of twining the warps cross, then are bent along a 
stiffening rod and wrapped to it by a split conifer root. 
The rim thus resembles coiling with a rod in a bundle of 
50 
of warps. 
The Coos - basket-makers made some use of false 
embroidery as well as overlay. Design patterns are arranged 
in bands. A typical decoration is the placement of triangles 
of natural Xerophyllum ~ on a dark reddish-brown back-
ground band. 
Another feature which sets the Coos basketry apart 
is the shape of their baskets. Instead of the typical round 
bottom bowl-like shape so caommon along the coast they often 
make a truncated cone shaped basket, both in close t~ined 
and in open twined baskets. This shape is closely allied 
with the Shasta-Karok and Klamath basket shapes. 
The Coos basketry is often very fine, that is , 
finely split roots are utilized. On the whole, the quality 
of workmanship of Coos basketry is higher than that of their 
neighbors, and they have a large number of very carefully 
made baskets. 
According to the information gathered by Baraett1 
they also made a flat cap, referring in all probabilities to 
the type of hat similar to those made by the Klamath-Modoc 
rather than the round bowl-shaped hat of the Shasta and 
Karok. 
In the southwestern corner of Oregon are a number 
1Barnett, £E.•Cit., p.171. 
-
51 
of Athapascan tribes which occupied the upper valleys of 
the Umpqua and Coquille Rivers and along the coast south 
of the Coquille River into northwestern California, 
The tribal life of the Indian population of this 
area, like most of the native groups in Oregon, disintegrated 
so rapidly after white contact that information concerning 
their culture must be obtained from the few survivors, most 
of which reside on the Siletz reservation. 
The tribal units within this area are usually re-
ferred to as Upper Umpqua, Upper Coquille, the Tututni .groups, 
Shasta Costa, Galice Creek, Chetco and Tolowa, Galice Creek 
and Applegate Creek are isolated islands of Athapascan people 
surrounded by the Lowland Takelma, 
The basketry of this area was fairly well standard-
ized, Hazel was used primarily as a warp element and split 
conifer roots were used for wefts. Decoration was applied 
by overlay twining using Xerophyllum in a natural state or 
conifer roots dyed red by Alnus rhombifolia, or black by mud, 
The shiny black stems of Adiantum pedatum are also used in 
the the same manner. 
All of the groups made cooking and food baskets , 
flat caps, flat sifters of close twining , circular winnowing 
trays, coarse t wined burden baskets, water-tight baskets, a 
cylindrical storage basket which was made both~in close and 
open twining, and water cups. 
52 
The Tolowa "and Chetco made tobacco storage baskets 
but the others (at least from information available) did not 
produce this type. The Towala, according to Driver's in-
formant, 1 made open twine burden baskets with pointed base. 
Three strand twining, used for reinforcing may have 
been utilized by all groups as it is a typical western Oregon 
trait but according to Barnett 2 only the inrormants from the 
Galice Creek group and the Sixes River subdivision of the 
Tututni indicated the use of this type of twining. 
Design patterns seem to be geometric, horizontally 
banded. Realistic designs were reported from the Towala 
storage baskets and the water baskets of Galice Creek. 
Within the museum basketry collections there are 
no baskets designated as being from any one of these groups. 
This is understandable in the light of their early disintegra-
tion and because many of the baskets collected from these 
groups and other tribes along the coast by the early collectors 
were designated only as Oregon coast as it was difficult to 
differentiate tribal differences in the basketry. 
Southwestern Oregon~ Tribes 
The Takelman Indians occupied the middle and upper 
1Driver, Harold E,, Culture Element Distributions:X 
Northwest California (University of California, Anthropological 
Records, I, no. 6, 1939) p. 334. 
2Barnett, £1?.,cit,, p, 172. 
53 
Rogue River. The Takelman are divided into two groups; the 
Upland Takelman who lived on both sides of Bear Creek and 
along the Rogue in the Jacksonville and Table Rock region, 
whereas the Lowland Takelma claimed the middle Rogue, the 
upper courses of Cow Creek and southward into northern Calif-
ornia. There are conflicting sources as to whether the Up-
land Takelma bordered on the Klamath, or whether the Shasta 
claimed territory between them. 
Generally speaking, the Takelma had as neighbors on 
the north and west, the numerous Athapascan tribes of Oregon, 
and on the south, the Hokan speaking Karok and Shasta. Their 
neighbors on the east may have been the Sahaptin speaking 
Klamath. The Takelman were extremely hostile and thus were 
almost wiped out by the early white settlers and gold prospec-
tors. In 1884 the twenty surviving members of the tribe 
were transferred to the Siletz reservation. 
Although the Upland and Lowland Takelma were 
reported to d~ffer , somewhat culturally, Sapir 1 s ethno-
graphic report 1 does not separate them in his discussion of 
material culture. 
Basketry was utilized to a large extent for making 
cooking and food containers. They had a funnel-shaped basket 
1sapir, Edward, "Takelma Indians of Southwestern 
Oregon", American Anthropologist, n.s. IX (1907) pp. 2s;i,-275. 
54 
which was placed on a flat pounding slab, a trait which is 
characteristic of the tribes in southwestern Oregon and 
northwestern California.1 Coiled hopper baskets were made 
by the Sahaptin tribes of northeastern Oregon. The Takelma 
also had a circular basket which was used for sifting acorn 
meal. Hazel and conifer roots were employed in closely 
twined cooking baskets. 
The Takelma made open work burden baskets of hazel 
or willow, and close twined basket-like eating plates, storage 
baskets and drinking cups. Rushes were used for manufacturing 
a large bag-like carrying basket. 
According to Sapir the method of starting a basket 
was by using "four short hazel twigs perpendicular to four 
cross pieces, and the twining was done with some root or 
grass on a warp generally of hazel or willow". 2 
Alnus rhombifolia and mud were the only dyes used. 
Xerophyllum was often used in its natural state for white 
designs. 
The Shasta and the Karok are the two members of 
the Hokan linguistic family. Although the territory claimed 
1Kroeber indicat es that this use of a hopper basket 
resulted from a need which was brought about by the change 
from a hollowed out mortar to ,a pounding slab. Kroeber, A.L., 
Handbook of the Indians of California. (Smithsonian Institution. 
Bureau of-AmericanEthnology. Bulletin 76, 1925) p. 413. 
2sapir,.Q,E.cit., p, 261, 
55 
by the Shasta l ies largely within California they also claim-
ed the area around the upper Rogue River, east of the Klamath 
River, 
The Shasta, unlike their neighbors, the Karok, did 
not put any great emphasis on basket making, They used 
baskets extensively and possessed the knowledge of their 
manufacture, still they preferred to obtain them to a large 
extent from the Karok and Wintu, 1 
Shasta basketry employed twined techniques with the 
possible exception of the wrapping, which resembles coiling, 
used in incorporating the strengthening rod in mortar baskets, 
The materials utilized by the Shasta were hazel 
(Corylus californica) or t he willow (Salix) for the warps, 
Split pine roots were used for the weft strands. Xerophyllum 
and the stems of Adiantum pedatum were used as the overlay 
material for the fine basket caps, (L2-171, L2-298) 
The Shasta produced, or at least had a variety of 
types and forms, baskets which were to all practical purposes 
idential with those made by the Karok, 
Close twining was employed in storage baskets, cook-
ing baskets and small trinket baskets, Large conical burden 
baskets and flat plate-like baskets were made in open twining, 
1Holt, Catherine,~ Ethnography (University of 
California, Anthropological Records, III, no. 4, 1946) p, 303, 
56 
The basket start, especially in the manufacture of 
hats was very neatly done. Ei~ht warps ~ere held,in two 
groups of four warps each at right angles to each other, by 
an over and over wrapping six times of the weft element. The 
warps are then held in a radiating position by several rows 
of diagonal twining before the simple twining proceeds. 
Additional warps are added as needed at regular intervals. 
Like their Athapascan neighbors the Shasta used 
three strand twining to reinforce the joint of the bottom 
and side of the basket as well as near the rim . 
The warps of the open work baskets are often cross-
ed just below the rim. The rim is usually the typical braided 
rim accomplished by bending the warps over and twining them 
in. The rim of Shasta hats consisted of a row of very tight 
simple twining with the warps cut off flush with the top. 
The pitch of the stitch on Shasta basketry was 
down to the left, like the coastal groups. 
Overlay twining was utilized for decoration. Over-
lay was used on both of the wefts and the design may or may 
not appear on the inner surface of the basket, depending on 
whether a half or ~ull twist was given the weft elements. 
Alnus »hombifolia was used to dye the split roots reddish -
brown for decoration. Yellow was used only to dye porcupone 
quills by the Shasta. Evernia vulpina was the traditional 
source of this yellow dye. Split Adiantum pedatum and Xero• 
57 
phyllum ~ were utilized in their natural state. 
Design patterns are similar to those of the Karok 
and I ~ill discuss it more in detail in connection with the 
Karok, It will suffice to say, at this point, that the 
simple triangular elements of the coastal basket makers have 
been expanded. While the coastal tribes usually decorated 
their baskets in bands the Shasta and their Karok neighbors, 
except on strictly utilitarian baskets used an all over 
pattern of decoration, 
The Karok, although primarily a Californian group, 
claimed a small part of Oregon within the region of the head-
waters of th, Illinois River. The Karok belong to the Hokan 
li~uistic family. Culturally they are indistinguishable 
from their southern neighbors, the Yurok, who speak e dialect 
of Algonquian, 
The Kerok were makers of a greet variety of baskets 
which were of excellent quality. Lila M. 0 1 Neale hes an 
excellent study1 of the basketry of this group in which 
she approaches the study of basketry by "investigation of 
the subjective attitude of the weaver" and to determine 
"individual reactions to craft aspects 11 • 2 She attempts 
to study basketry designs by relating the basket maker "to 
1o•Neale, Lila, M,, Yurok-Karok Basket Weavers 
(California Publications in AmericanArcheology andEthnology, 
XXXII, no, 1, 1932) 
2Ibid., P• 5, 
58 
the conventions, or whatever variations seem to have taken 
place in form or pattern, and to let her define in terms of 
the tenets of her craft relative importance of its aspects, ,,;i_ 
In the discussion which foliliows r have relied heavily 
on the above mentioned study as I did not have the opportunity 
to observe, first hand, Karok baskets in any number, 
A greater variety of basketry materials are used 
by the Karok than by most Oregon tribes, For foundation warps 
Corylus californica, hazel, was considered to be the best, 
however many weavers also utilized willow, According to O1 Neale 
the most skilled workers favored myrtle for f'oundation2 and 
this material reportedly was utilized to a great extent in 
previous times, Conifer roots were used as weft elements, 
The Karok made use of' spruce and pine roots, and roots of' 
the redwood, In the more rigid baskets they used hazel or 
willow twigs for the wefts, Not only were twigs of' hazel, 
willow and alder utilized but also the small roots of' these 
plants for very fine baskets, such as gift baskets and hats. 
The Karok utilized much the same overlay mater!. als 
as did the basket makers along the Oregon Coast, that is, 
Xerophyllum ~• Adiantum pedatum, Woodwardia radicans 
and occasionally porcupine quills, Adiantum was always used 
in its natural state, shiny, black. Xerophyl lum was usually 
2 
libid., pp. 6-6. Ibid,, p 17. 
59 
left in its natural state, Red overlay was always Woodwardia 
dyed with~ rhombifolia. Yellow was produced preferrably 
by~ vulpina and was originally limited in use to 
porcupine quills, however, in recent times Xerophyllum ~, 
dyed yellow by using Barberis Kervosa roots, has been substi-
tuted. Mullein was also used to produce yellow but only 
if the other dyes were unobtainable. Mud dyed conifer roots 
were occasionally used for dull black patterns . 
All Karok baskets were twined. Storage baskets, 
for wood and fish, and plaques and plates were made of coarse 
open twining. Cooking and food baskets, dippers, water baskets, 
storage baskets for seeds, hats, and ceremonial baskets were 
all made of close twining. The hats, fancy gift baskets, and 
ceremonial baskets were all very carefully made and it is 
here that the extremely fine quality of workmanship among the 
Karok manifests itself. 
The Karok began their baskets on eight warps, placed 
in two groups, each of v.hich conaisted of four stickes, 
at right angles to each other. The warps were then bound to-
gether by an over and over wrapping by the weft. The warps were 
then radiated out and held in place by about 2cm. of three 
strand twining. Other warps were added as needed throughout 
the manufacuture of the basket. Three strand twining also 
occurs as reinforcing especially on hats and food baskets. 
The direction of work is from left to right with 
60 
the outer surface of the basket next to the worker. The 
pitch of the stitch is down to the left. 
Another twining technique which was formerly employ-
ed to strengthen cooking baskets was the addition of two rows 
of roots laid at right angles to the warps and encircling 
the outside of the basket at its mid-point. This technique 
resembles very closely and results in the same rigded 
appearance as does lattice twined weaving. 
The rim was finished on most Karok baskets by simply 
cutting off the warps after the last row of twining. In a few 
baskets this last row was three strand rather than simple twin-
ing. Rarely the baskets were finished by coiling over the 
bent warps, a technique which is identical with that of most 
Coos baskets. 
Methods of decoration, design elements and colors 
were determined largely by the form and function of the 
basket. Among the Karok Xerophyllum ~ was the tradition-
al decorative material used in food baskets to contrast with 
the natural brownish color of the conifer roots, In hat 
designs black and white could be used either with yellow 
quills or red dyed giant fern but to use red and yellow on 
the same basket was considered very poor design. 
The designs were chosen to compliment the type of 
basket, Thus big baskets had big designs, utility baskets 
or work hats had plain designs, and storage baskets had ele-
61 
mentary patterns of dots and stripes. Tall storage baskets 
usually had a vertical design pattern rather than horizontal. 
Designs are geometric as realistic ones, especially 
men and animals are not considered proper for basket patterns. 
Designs, at least concepts of what constitutes good or bad 
patterns have become more or less standardized, although a 
weaver is free to vary a standard pattern into what may be 
termed a new design, however a radical deviation will be 
looked upon with distaste by other weavers. 
A few of the frequently used design patterns may be 
described as follows. A flint design which resembles a parallel-
ogram slanted up toward the left, a divided flint, or triangle, 
is often used as a main design. Snake marks or zig-zags are 
lines used to supplement designs and should never be used alone. 
A desi~n known as the Wax 1 poo Mark is also frequently used. 
It consists of a trapezoid topped by an inverted isosceles 
triangle. 
Designs are often copied from old baskets and those 
baskets which are considered to be especially well decorated 
will be kept to use as models for several generations. 
The Klamath and Wodoc speak similar dialects of 
the Lutuamian dividion of the Sahaptin lir11,Uistic stock. The 
Klamath occupy the territory in the shallow basin on the high 
62 
plateau of southwestern Oregon around the lakes which give 
rise to the Klamath River. The Klamath center around Klamath 
Lake, Klamath Marsh and along the connecting Wiliamson River. 
The Modoc lived around Lower Klamath Lake and Tule Lake and 
extended southward into California. 
Culturally the Klamath and Modoc were so much alike 
that even some of the neighboring tribes did not differentiate 
between them. Thus, I will discuss the basketry of the 
two groups together. 
Up to this point the tribes discussed have lived 
west of the Cascades and their basketry belonged within the 
coastal tradition. With the Klamath and Modoc begins the 
discussion of types of basketry to be found east of the 
Cascades and, as will be shown later, belongs to the Basin-
Plateau tradition. I have chosen to treat the Klamath-Modoc 
in a separate section rather than with the rest of the east-
ern Oregon tribes,as the Klamath-Modoc lacked coiled ware, 
a technique employed by the rest of the tribes of the Basin-
Plateau. 
The study of the Klamath basketry available in 
the Museum collections was supplemented with the publ ished 
ethnographic reports on the Klamath and Modoc by Barnett1 and 
1Barrett, S.A. Material Culture of the Klamath Lake 
and Modoc Indians(University of CaliforniaPublicilloris"i_n_ _ 
American Archeology and Ethnology, V, no. 4, 1910). 
63 
Spier1 • 
There are several features which distinguish Klamath 
basketry from that of the coastal groups. Perhaps the most 
diagnostic trait is the predominant use of twisted tule, 
Scirpus lacustris accidentalis, warps in the place of the 
hazel and conifer roots which were the principal materials 
of western Oregon tribes. In fact Kroeber makes the state-
ment that "the material culture of the Modoc is disting~ished 
by the almost infinite use made of tule and bulrush". 2 This 
is an example of use well adapted to the availability of the 
material. 
The materials used by the Klamath for the 
manufacture of basketry were extremely varied although tule 
was basic. The warps and occassionally the wefts of soft-
flexible baskets are made of twisted tule. This twisted tule, 
often referred to as two-ply tule cord, is made by cutting 
narrow strips from the stem surface and, "doubling a length 
of material, rolling the strands side by side down the thigh 
under the palm, then, without raising the hand, rolling one 
strand around the other by a quick movement up the thigh". 3 
In the coarse storage baskets unsplit tule is used. 
1spier, Leslie, Klamath Ethnography (University of 
California Publications in American Archeology and Ethnology, 
XXX, 1930). 
2Kroeber, _£E.cit., p.323. 3spier, _£E.cit., p. 179. 
64 
Typha latifolia, cattail, was prepared in much the 
same manner as tule, and these twisted neutral colored cords 
were used as wefts in the majority of the small bov,ls and 
hats, 
The fine tule root, which when dried is reddish-
brown in color is used widely as a weft element to produce 
the designs on hats in contrast to the neutral colored Typha 
latHolia, 
The rims of fine cooking bowls, hats and often 
storage baskets are bound by a single row of twining, the 
weft strands of which are made of the gray twisted bark of 
~ 11allii, nettle, This same weft is also used at the 
start of the basket to bind the warps together and for 
approximately 2 cm, of the diagonal t wining on the basket 
base. 
Phragmites phragmites, or common reed, was also 
used in the manufacture of the finer baskets, The peeled 
strands from the surface of the stem and split them "till 
they have a width of commonly 2 to 3mm. 111 These strips of 
cane are creamy white and shiny smooth. 
Young willow shoots, stripped of their bark, were 
used for rigid openwork carrying baskets and sifters. 
1coville, Frederick V., "Notes on the Plants Used 
by the Klamath Indians of Oregon", Contributions from the 
U,S,National Herbarium,V(l.!B97-1901) pp. 87-108, p, 91, 
65 
Xerophyllum ~ does not appear on Klamath baskets1 
however Kroeber reports its use by the Modoc in California as 
follows, "Xerophyllum is used chiefly on caps and seems some-
times to be overlay11 , 2 
The sources of dye for Klamath and Modoc basketry 
were~ rhombifolia which produces reddish-orange, and 
mud or the seeds of Nymphozanthus polsepalus, yellow water 
lily, for black. The Modoc dyed porcupine quills yellow with 
Evernia vulpina. Coville3 states that the Klamath obtained 
their quills from the Modoc, however Spier4 sees no reason 
why the Klamath should not have obtained their own, 
The baskets of the Klamath and Modoc may be divided 
into two groups. Into one group fall the flexible and semi-
flexible clos·e weave baskets and into the other group fall 
the rigid open work baskets. 
Among the first group are the twined bowls, hats, 
gambling and sifting trays, circular baskets and bags used 
for both carrying ahd storage. The baskets which belong to 
the latter group are carrying baskets, storage baskets and 
1coville, _QE,cit., does not list Xerophyllum as 
being a plant used by the Klamath Indians. 
2Kroeber, _QE,cit., p. 331. 
3coville, ~.cit., p. 88, 
4Spier, .2P• cit., p. 191. 
66 
winnowing baskets . The Modoc made a mortar basket, unlike 
the Klamath. 
Apart from the twined basketry of the Klamath, 
Spier reports the presence of a coiled water basket, but 
suggests that it is "a recent intr,oduction in imitation of 
Northern Paiute technique, although their baskets have 
constricted necks". 1 This coiled water basket is described 
as follows : 
This is a bucket-shaped affair, poss ibly 
twelve inches high, with a mouth diameter of 
ten inches. It lacks a bail. The coil has a 
two-rod foundation of split tamarack twigs (wa'ku 
emwa 1wuk). Stitching is on the nearer face, pro-
ceeding from left to right, working from the out-
side. That is, the coil is counterclockwise to 
one looking into the mouth of the basket. This 
bears no designs, nor is it painted. It receives 
a coating o~ pitch on the outside to render it 
watertight. 
Simple twining with the pitch of the stitch being 
down to the right is by far the most common technique 
employed by the basket-weavers. Diagonal twining is often 
used at the start of the basket. Three strand twining was 
used to reinforce the base and rim of the simple twined 
baskets. It was also used as a means of decoration. This 
technique was used to make storage baskets more rigid. 
The direction of work was from left to right the 
outer edge being the work surface . 
1spier, ££•ill·• p. 190. 2Ibid ., p. 190. 
67 
The way in which the Klamath started their close 
t wined baskets is one of the characteristics which sets the 
basketry of this area apart from their neighbors west of the 
Cascades. A number of twisted tule wefts are laid side by 
side. The weft strand, usually the twisted bark of~ 
lyallii, is wrapped around the midpoints of the warps several 
times then weaving begins. At first the wefts are woven 
across the warps in diagonal twine, each stitch of which 
passes over a bundle consisting of a number of twisted warp 
strands. At the end of the row the end bundles are caught 
together so as to begin the radiation of warp. Diagonal 
twining continues often to the edge of the basket base where 
simple twining is begun . The bundles are progressively 
divided and subdivided until single warps are woven together 
by simple twining . Additional warps are added when needed, 
the end of the warp being caught in the twine stitch. 
The typical Klamath rim finish is described by 
Spier as follows: 
To finish the edge a1·round of diagonal twine 
crossing warps in pairs is woven; the ends of the 
warps are caught in this in the following way. 
Alternate warps are left standing, ultimately 
to be trimed off close under the rim. The other 
warps are each carried to the right and forward 
over the edge of the rim where they are caught under 
the next succeeding twine stitch. As they pass 
forward they are twisted around the succeeding 
warp but one, passing back into the interior of 
the basket, The ends of these are then trimed 
short.l 
lrbid., p. 181. 
68 
According to Spier "in former days hats were the 
only baskets decorated by the introduction of designs", 1 
but today since much of the basket weaving is done for sale 
to the whites, decoration has been transferred to other baskets, 
The design patterns on Klamath baskets consist 
largely of "large unconnected units, leaving much background 
space", 2 These units of design are usually in the form of 
triangles or rhomboids, Either vertical or horizontal lines 
are also used, The basic pattern of Klamath designs were 
arranged in horizontal bands which often slanted diagonally 
up toward the left, Design elements are related bµt not 
combined, with the exception of the narrow horizontal band 
at the rim and around the base, 
~Oregon~ 
East of the Klamath and Modoc were the Northern 
Paiute who occupied the southeastern part of Oregon, and the 
adjacent territory in California and Nevada, that is to say, 
the northern part of the Great Basin, The Paiute were 
divided into hands, however, their material culture was much 
the same, 
The Northern Paiute comprise the Shoshone speaking 
1 Ibid., p. 19il. . 
69 
population of Oregon. In much of the literature on the 
tribal divisions within eastern Oregon many of the Shoshonian 
peoples were formerly called Snakes and Bannocks, an error 
which originated with Lewis and Clark. 1 
The Paiute made both coiled and twined ware. Tha l-
basic material repbrted · t~ have been used in the manufacture 
of basketry was willow, ~.2 It may be that sagebrush bark 
was also used in the twined baskets.3 It was used both for 
coiled and twined baskets. Peeled willow shoot rods were 
used for warps and foundation whereas these rods are split 
into two or three pieces for wefts or splints. 
Mud or crushed ripe currants seem to be the only 
method used to dye basket-making material by the Paiute. 
Northern Paiute coiled ware has either one, two, 
and rarely three rod vertical founda t ion and plain stitches. 
The usual direction of work is clockwise on the convex 
surface of the basket. Most Paiute coiled ware seems to be 
oval in shape, a feature which KellW believes is a result 
lstewart, Omer c., The Northern Paiute Bands (Univer-
sity of California, Anthropological Records, II, no. 3, 1939) 
p. 144. 
2Kelly, Isabel, Ethnography of the Surprise Valley 
Paiute,University of California Publications in American 
Archeology and Ethnology, XXXI, 1932) p, 120 
31owie, Robert H., "The Northern Shoshone". Anthro-
pological Papers of~ American Museum of. Natural Hisbory, 
II, 1909, pp, 165-306, p. 179. 
70 
of an unconscious attempt to use an easier starting technique.l 
Almost all of the coiled ware has a footed base which is made 
by joining a row of three rods to the juncture of the base 
and the wall. 
Twining was used for a variety of baskets; conical 
burden baskets, cooking baskets, food bowls, and water jars. 
The conical burden baskets are made either in open 
t~ine or in close diagonal twine depending upon the function 
which the basket is to serve. The construction of an open 
twine burden basket is described by Kelly. 
The start is on a pair of warp sets, each consist-
ing of eia;ht rods. The first few rows are tv,ined 
on .double warps. At the start the twine is solid; 
after two or three inches it becomes simple open 
twine with the rows spaced an inch or more •••• 
A willow hoop is lashed to the turned down warps and 
another h~9p applied on the interior about half 
way down. 
Warps were bound in as they were needed. 
Cooking baskets and food bowls were made in tight 
weave. The water jar of the Northern Paiute had pointed 
bottoms and constricted necks. Close diagonal twine was 
used in construction and the outside as well as the inside 
was coated with pitch. 
Twining proceeded from left to right and the work 
surface was the convex _side. The pitch of the stitch was so 
1Kelly, op.cit., p. 122. 
2Ibid., p. 125. 
i 
71 
varied and irregular ttia.t Kelly felt that it could be due to 
"carelessness and an inattentiveness to detail 11 • 1 
The design, if any, on Paiute basketry was limited 
to a band in which a color darker than the material used for 
the rest of the basket was employed. 
North of the Northern Paiute are a number of 
Sahaptin speaking tribes; Molalla, Tenino, Umatilla, Cayuse, 
and Nez Perce'. 
There has been much controversy over the relative 
territories claimed by these groups. The Molalla, according 
to Berreman; around 1750 occupied the area east of the 
Kalapuya groups, south of the Wasco, west of the Northern 
Paiute, and extended southward to the Klamath. Murdock3 
states that the Tenino were more powerful and by 1850 had 
driven the Molalla west of the Cascades and Berreman indicates 
that the Molalla were split into two groups by the Northern 
Paiute. 4 
1Ibid., p. 130. 
2Berreman, Joel v., Tribal Distribution.!,!:! Oregon 
(American Anthropological Association. Memoirs. no. 47, 1937), 
p. 7.0 . 
3Selection by Murdock 'Notes of the Tenino, Molala, 
and Paiute of Oregon' in the article by Ray,Verne,F., and 
Others,"Tribal Distribution in Eastern Oregon and Adjacent 
Regions", American Anthropologist,n.s. XL (July-September 1938) 
p. 397. 
72 
The Tenino, according to the inf'ormation collected 
by Murdock, occupied the banks of the Columbia between the 
Upper Chinook (Wasco and Wishram) on the west and the Umatilla 
on the east, as well as the lower reaches of the Deschutes 
and John Day Rivers, 1 
Although the Tenino and the Molalla spoke dialects 
which were not understandable to each other as ~e ll as being 
on unf'riendly terms, they resembled each other closely in 
culture, So, although the succeeding discussion of basketry 
is based on Tenino material it is also applicable to the 
Molalla, 
The following inf'ormation on Tenino basketry is 
adapted from Ray's material in his Culture Element Distribution: 
XXII, ~.2 His informant believed that coiled ware was 
present only as trade ware and that twined basketry was the 
only kind manufactured by the Tenino, 
Close simple twining was the predominant technique. 
Openwork was rarely used, Wrapped t wining and overlay were 
employed for decoration techniques, Twilled work was also 
found among the Tenino, 
Materials used by this group were Salix, Cedar bark, 
and Xerophyllum ~- Rushes were used in checkerwork 
1Murdock, op.cit,, p, 395, 
2Ray, Verne, F,, Culture Element Distributions: XXII, 
Plateau (University of California, Anthropological Records, 
VIII no. 2, 1942) pp, 159-161, 
73 
baskets. Wi llow was the material employed in the manufacture 
of twined storage baskets. 
The Umatilla and Cayuse, although speaking variant 
dialects of Sahaptin, were very similar in culture. The 
Umatilla occupied the territory west of the Tenino, along 
Willow Creek and the Umatilla River near the Columbia. The 
Cayuse, east of the Umatilla, did not border on the Columbia 
but occupied the drainage area of the Umatilla River, the 
Walla Walla River and the upper reaches of the Grande Round. 
According to Ray's informant, coiling was the prin-
ciple basketry technique, however twining was also extensively 
used for soft baskets. 
Basketry materials included willow, rushes, and 
cedar bark. Xerophyllum tenax and corn husks were used for 
decoration. The Umatilla and Cayuse made use of a large 
number :c of dyes; Alnus rhombifolia, Barberis ~,maple, 
~ vulpina, crushed huckelberries and mud, both black 
and white. 
In the coiled basketry the Umatilla used splint and 
bundle foundation, with either round or oval cross-section 
shape. The two coiled Umatilla baskets (1-789 and 2-2115) 
which I examined had a wi llow rod and split wi llow splint. 
The foundations were sewn with non-interlocking stitches 
which were split on the non-work surface. 
Mason describes the twined work of these groups 
74 
as i'ollows: 
The Cayuse (Waiilalpuan) and Umatilla (Shahaptin) 
made soi't baskets in twined weaving . They ~re 
horse Indians and use their wallets i'or saddle bags. 
The material ' is rushes, wild hemp, corn hUsks, and 
worsted. The bottoms and undecorated portions are 
plain twined work. In the i'igured parts the husks, 
split into narrow stips are administered in i'our ways-
by overlay, not showing on the inside, by overlaying 
and t~ining so as to show on the inside; by i'alse 
embroidery, wrapped about the wei't twine elements 
on the outside, and by i'rapping the t~ined wei't as 
in the Thompson River work .l 
A soi't twined bag oi' this type (1-5338) is unusual 
in that it uses strips oi' cloth as warps. The wei't is some 
type oi' cordage which is probably connnercial rather than 
native. The basket has the typical bundle - warp start 
used by the Klamath. The pitch oi' the stitch is down to the 
right. The basket is decorated with dyed corn husk strips 
applied in i'alse embroidery. The corn husk was dyed red, 
yellow and purple. The design was banded with broken spaces. 
Ray alone indicates that the Umatilla decorated 
coiled basketry by imbrication,2 however, it is doubti'ul ii' 
this technique was used to any extent, ii' at all, by the 
O~egon Umatilla. 
The Nez Perce' are primarily an Idaho tribe, who 
occupied the northeastern corner oi' Oregon. They shared the 
l Mason, .Q_E.cit., p. 439. 
2Ray, Culture~ Distribution:XXII, ~• 
op. cit.,p. 160. 
75 
Grande Round Valley with the Cayuse and their boundary line 
in Oregon "ran north along the crest of the Blue Mountains 
to a point on Snake river near the mouth of Tukanon creek. 111 
"There are no traditions of migration, and, as far as can be 
determined, the tribe has dwelt within these boundaries from 
time beyond memory." 2 
The Nez Perce• used both twining and coiling although 
twining was the principle technique. 
Salix, willow, and Apocynum cannabinum, Indian hemp, 
were the two principle basketry materials. The former used 
for coiling and the latter for twining, The hemp was made 
into cordage which was used as the warp elements in all of 
the flexible baskets. Xerophyllum tenax and corn husks were 
used for decoration. 
The Nez Perce' made twined flat v,allets, carrying 
baskets and hats, Coiling was used for making water-tight 
cooking vessels, food bowls, cups, mortar baskets, and 
winnowing baskets. 
The wallets of simple twining were decorated by 
false embroidery, Functional wrapped twining appears on the 
soft cylindrical carrying baskets, Although this technique 
seems to be used to carry the de sign pattern it is often used 
1spinden, Herbert J., "The Nez Perce' Indians", 
American Anthropological Association, Memoirs, II (1907-15 ), 
p. 173. 
2 
~ •• p. 173 
76 
throughout the band carrying the design. The pitch of the 
stitch is down to the right. The basket start was similar to 
that of the Klamath. The rim on carrying baskets was usually 
covered with a strip of leather. 
The Nez Perce' also made basket hats using natural 
or brown dyed Xerophyllum tenax in design patterns which 
were "almost entirely arranged in zig-zags, with three points 
at the top and three at the bottom", 1 
These basket hats were shaped much like the flat-
topped Klamath-Modoc hats, and Spinden states that it was in 
these hats that "the textile art of the Nez Perce' reached its 
highest development" ,2 
Coiled ware was a technique which the Nez Perce' 
copied from the Yakima and Klikitat basketry, The foundation 
normally consisted of rod and splint or two rod vertical, 
The funnel shaped mortar baskets were rather crudely made 
with a varying number of rods in the coil. The stitches of 
the cooking baskets were split, 
Spinden indicates that the Nez Perce' had formerly 
taken over the technique of imbrication from the Klikitat 
but that at the present time only a few old women could 
duplicate it, 3 In all probabilities however, the technique, 
1Ibid,, P• 193, 
3Ibid,,pp, 193-194. 
77 
as an accepted pattern, was not accepted as far south as the 
Oregon Nez Perce' except as trade ware. 
The Was co, the fartherest east of the Chinookan 
groups which inhabited the banks of the Columbia, had villages 
along the river from Celilo Falls to the mouth of the Deschutes 
River. Tait says that the Wasco also laid claim to the 
country as far east as the John Day River, but never occupied 
it. l 
Although the Wascos had both twined and coiled 
basketry, the coiled baskets, in all likelihood, were trade 
ware from the Klikitat. The coiled basket was known as a 
1Klikitat berry basket" and also the Klikitat believed that 
the Wasco did not make coiled basketry. 2 
The Wasco made several types of twined baskets. 
They had soft twined baskets, which came to be known as 
Sally bags in an attempt to say saddle bags, coarse open 
twine used for large carrying baskets, and a circular twined 
basket for storing pulverized salmon. They also made twined 
basket caps of grass. 
Diagonal twining was used at the start of most 
twined baskets and sometimes continued on the edge of the 
1Teit, Middle Columbia~., op. cit., p .107 . 
2Haeberlin, H.K.,James A.'reit, and Helen H.Roberts 
(under the direction of Franz Boas), Coiled Basketry in 
British Columbia and Surrounding Region, {Forty-first Annual 
Report, Bureau of American Ethnology, 1928, p.119-484), p. 136 . 
78 
base but occured on the sides only as an occassional diagonal 
line across the plain twined bands separating the decorative 
bands, and near the rim, For the most part however simple 
twining is used, tl:!e pitch of the stitch being down to the 
right, 
Basket making materials consisted of~• willow, 
and~ Engelmanni, cedar bark and roots, Xerophyllum tenax 
and dyed corn husks were used occassionally for functional 
wrapped twine decoration, The decoration was applied in 
bands and since functional wrapped twining was used in 
the actual design, the Wasco, like the Nez Perce' often used 
the technique throughout the decorative band, The rim of 
Wasco basket s is almost always bound with buckskin or cloth, 
Design elements are arranged both in horizontal bands and in 
I 
vertical columns, the former being the more common. Both 
geometric and realistic designs are present, The realistic 
patterns depict men, horses, fish, birds, and dogs. 
CHAPTER III 
DISTRIBUTION OF OREGON BASKETRY 
Ethnic Distribution 
As has been illustrated in the preceeding discussion 
of the typology of Oregon basketry, the basketry of Oregon 
may be divided roughly into two classes, t One class to be 
found west of the Cascades and another east. Thus the Cascades 
can be treated as a line of demarkation, 
It is indeed strange that the Columbia River which 
acted as a trade way for east-west traffic also acted as a 
barrier for basketry types coming down from the north. The 
chief illustration of this is the decorative technique of 
imbrication. This technique was utilized and highly develop-
ed among the Salish tribes of the northern Plateau. The 
knowledge passed southward as far as the Klikitat tribe, 
The Wishram on the north bank and the Wasco on the south 
bank of the Columbia, were in contact with the Klikitat and 
often obtained imbricated baskets in trading, yet, they did 
not copy the technique. The possible explaination for this 
negative attitude toward imbrication may be in the fact that 
basically coiled basketry was not one of their crafts. Since 
they did not manufacture coiled basketry they had no basis 
80 
on which to adapt a technique of decoration applied to that 
kind of baskets. 
Although the Northern Paiute and Sahaptinr,speaking 
peoples who had coiled basketry traded with the Wasco the 
contact was so intermittant that the knowledge of imbrication 
did not diffuse. Another contributing factor may lie in the 
negative attitude which the Northern Paiute and Sahaptins had 
toward decorating strictly utilitarian baskets, most of which 
were coiled. 
As was mentioned in the preceeding discussion of 
typology both the Umatilla and the Nez Perce' were accredit-
ed with imbricated baskets. It is indeed possible that the 
knowledge of this technique was not wide spread b~t was 
limited to a few basket makers who had been captured from 
the northern Salish tribes and had married into the Nez Perce' 
and Umatilla. 
Since slave traffic throughout much of Oregon ~as 
extremely common it is no wonder that basketry forms and 
techniques should be so wide spread in distribution. 
The main distinction between the basketry of the 
western coastal tribes and that of the tribes living east 
of the Cascades is the manufacture of coiled ware by the 
eastern tribes. The only example of coiled basketry west of 
the Cascades in Oregon is the possible manufacture of coiled 
baskets by the Kalapuya in the Willamette Valley. Even here 
81 
the appearance of coiled ware can be traced to the influence 
of the Sahaptin peoples who passed through the Willamette 
Valley on their way to trade at The Dalles on the Columbia. 1 
The types of baskets which were manufactured in 
western Oregon utilized only twining techniques. The major-
ity of these baskets were made of simple twining, with the 
pitch of the stitch being normally down to the left. Diago-
nal twining occurs frequently especially at the start of the 
basket and occasionally as a method of decoration. Three 
strand twining used as reinforcement at the point of juncture 
between the base and the sides of the basket and again at the 
rim is a distingutshing feature of the basketry made by the 
coast peoples. Functional wrapped twining was used only by 
the Chinook and was not typical for the coastal groups. 
The majority of the West Coast basketry was manu-
factured of either hazel or split conifer root, the ,· choice 
of materials depending upon the function the basket was to 
serve. Large semi-flexible carrying baskets were made entire-
ly of split conifer root, whereas hazel was employed chiefly 
for rigid storage baskets. Twining was either close or open; 
close twining v,as employed for food baskets, for water-tight 
baskets, whereas, open twining, in which the twining was 
lTeit, .QE_ • .£.!!.,pp.120-121. 
82 
spaced leaving open spaces between the warps which may or may 
not have been crossed between each row of twining, was employ-
ed in the manufacture of carrying baskets, coarse wood baskets, 
some storage baskets, and clam baskets, 
The techniques used for decoration were overlay 
twining and occasionally false embroidery, The materials 
utilized were normally Xerophyllum tenax, however, conifer 
roots and tule were often dyed black by mud, and red, either 
by Alnus rhombifolia or Hemlock Moss, The split stems of 
Adiantum pedatum were used for shiny black decoration. Although 
Xerophyllum ~ was utilized only as overlay both dyed 
conifer root and tule, as well as Adiantum pedatum, more 
often replaced the usual weft element. Since Xerophyllum 
was restricted to the higher altitudes and thus had to be 
traded for, a few of the coast peoples resorted to means 
of decoration other than overlay. The Siletz especially, 
turned to variation within the weaving teehniques, such as 
crossed amd zig-zag warps in their open twine baskets. 
Generally speaking the designs of the coastal 
basket-makers were arranged in horizontal bands. This band-
ing of design was not always in the form of solid str.ipes. 
Triangular elements were often arranged in horizontal 
patterns. All over patterns were not made to any great 
extent. The Clatsop were the only group to make all over 
83 
patterns and then only in their functional wrapped twine 
baskets. This concept of complete decoration of basketry 
was adopted after white contact by the other coastal basket 
makers in order to make them more s a lable to white buyers, 
The walls of the modern food baskets of the southwestern 
Oregon tribes are sometimes decorated in an all over pattern, 
a concept which they obtained in all probability f rom the 
California basket making groups. 
Another aspect of this problem concerning the con-
cept of all over decoration is the high degree of skill need-
ed. O'Neale in her study brought out that there are two very 
different types of technical proficiency involved in the 
manufacture of clese twine decorated baskets and open twine 
baskets, and that no weaver is expected to be equally pro-
ficient in both types.1 Thus those groups who depended on 
the use of wood or bark for their cooking vessels were not 
skilled enough in close twining, as they specialized in open 
twining for carrying and storage baskets, to handle an all 
over decorative pattern with any degr ee of accuracy, Where 
there was a necessity for close twining, such as in south-
western Oregon, the greater proficiency in close twining led 
to the ability to handle all over de s ign patterns. 
Among the eastern groups c ciled ware supplemented 
1o•Neale, ££• cit., pp. 166-167. 
84 
twined baskets. There were three types of foundation used in 
coiling; one rod, rod and splint, and two rod vertical. Three 
rod vertical was rarely used. The foundation coil was held 
by non-interlocking stitches which were frequently split on 
the non-work surface. The irregularity which occured in the 
split stitches and the variation of the foundation within 
a basket indicated the coiling was not too carefully done, 
a fact which might indicate either that the coiling was a 
new technique or that with the use of leather, a trait adapted 
from the Plains groups which were being pushed int·o~ the 
Plateau area, that interest · in basket making declined. I 
am inclined to believe that the latter is the case . 
In contrast to the twining on the western baskets 
the pitch of the stitch on eastern baskets is usually down 
to the right. Diagonal and simple twining were both used. 
Diagonal twining was widely used in the tightly woven water 
jars. Near the Columbia functional wrapped twining, was 
used originally only on the design pattern, later however, 
it came to be utilized throughout the space to be decorated. 
The eastern tribes made several types of baskets 
which were distinctive to the area; the conical twined carry-
ing basket, the close twined pointed water jar, and coiled 
martar basket. 
The most widely used materials were willow and 
Indian hemp. The tribes along the Columbia utilized Xero-
85 
phyllum ~ and dyed corn husks applied either in wrapped 
t wine or false embroidery for decoration. The tribe s within 
the Basin Plateau usually limited decorat ion on basketry to 
bands of contrasting color. 
It would appear that the basketry made along the 
Columbia and that made by the tribes along the California 
border ave the most highly developed in Oregon. 
Within, or just prior to, the historic period (1800-
1850) the movement of basketry techniques seemed to be moving 
into and ~ithin Oregon by several routes. Functional wrapped 
twining seems to have moved southward along the coast into 
Oregon and was carried by the Chinook up the Columbia. In 
eastern Oregon the techniques, especially the bundle warp 
start of the Klamath-Modoc, were working northward. Imbri-
cation seems to have been penetrating down into Ore gon to the 
Nez Perce' and Umatilla. Before any generalizations are 
drawn as to the importance of these distributions and move-
ments it would be well to glance briefly at the archeological 
distributions. 
Archeological distribution 
Informat ion on basketry belonging to the archeological 
horizon is available only for that portion of Oregon ~!thin 
the Basin Plateau. Since the basket specimens which were 
found are analysized in detail in Cre s sman's publication 
86 
I will only sumarize the techniques which were used, 1 
Examples of both twining and coiling were present. 
In the twined pieces, twisted, two-ply Scirpus lacustris, tule, 
was the material used. Simple twining with the pitch of the 
stitch down to the right occurs just as in the modern baskets 
of the area, Diagonal twining occurs also, but only a few 
specimens were found. One type of woven basketry which is 
not used by present day tribes but is represented by a single 
specimen is wickerwork. Twined overlay, wrappe d twine over-
lay, and false embroidery were the methods of decoration. 
Xerophyllum tenax appears to be the main d~corative material . 
The rim finish was accomplished by cutting the warps off even 
with the last row of twining. 
The type form of twining which is found in the caves 
of eastern Oregon has been called Catlow ·tv.ine. 
The type is a close twine on a two-ply twisted warp. 
The pitch of the stitch is usually down t o the 
right, •• , • The type form is alv.ays semiflexible, 
intermediate between the rigid basket and the soft 
bag or basket ~f the Columbia Plateau and the 
Basket lllakers . 
The basketry found in the Eastern Oregon caves is 
similar to the archeological specimens found from south 
lcressman, 2£• cit,, pp. 33-51. 
2Ibid., p. 33 . 
87 
central Washington to Lovelock Cave, Nevada and the San Juan 
area, however, there are many gaps between. Stratigraphically 
fragments of twined basketry are found at the earliest level 
at Catlow I, which places it at an earlier geologic time 
than that found at Lovelock Cave, Nevada, 
The basic aspects of Catlow Twine are still carried 
on by the Klamath , 
In the Columbia Plateau the twining process in-
cludes not only many of the traits of the foundation 
but decorative techniques and basic design patterns; 
on the northwest coast the Tlingit basketry is 
striking in the number of traits shared with the 
Columbia Plateau and the Oregon caves . 1 
As for the few coiled fragments of baskets found in 
the Oregon caves the foundations are one, two, and three rod 
vertical, three rod triangular, and two rod horizontal. One 
rod with interlocking stitch seems to have a wide distribution 
both within the archeological horizon and among modern groups 
extending as it does northward into Asia. 
Both the scanty archeological and ethnic evidence 
would indicate that coiling may have had its origin some where 
north of the generally accepted southern Basin area, although 
it did reach a high point of development within the Anasazi 
area. 
88 
Returning to the problem of the possible routes of 
diffusion which basketry techniques may have taken, the 
archeological evidence , at first glance seems to contradict 
the historic pattern. However it is entirely possible that 
instead of the in1'luences coming in from the Southwest that 
the center was in the northern part of the great Basin and 
twining techniques were passed northward through the Columbia 
Plateau to the groups along the northwest coast where they 
reached a high point of development and then during the period 
just prior to the historic period the movement was southward 
along the coast. 
CHAPTER IV 
PROBLEMS OF RELATIONSHIP 
As has been seen from the previous discussion of 
the typology of Oregon groups and the distribution of these 
types both within the historic and archeological horizon that 
there are problems of possible relationship patterns involved. 
First there is the possible relationship between basketry 
types and ling_uistic groups and secondly, there is the re-
lationship of eastern Oregon basketry of the archeological 
horizon and that of the Basin Plateau. 
In the section dealing with Oregon typology it was 
shown that g11 those groups which spoke dialects of the same 
linguistic stock manufactured baskets which were similar in 
form and function as well as technique of weaving and sewing. 
The most notable instance of the correspondance 
between basketry types and linguistic stocks is the Sahaptin 
groups (Klamath-Modoc, Molalla, Tenino, Umatilla, Cayuse, 
and Nez Perce') who, although spread from the California 
border to the Columbia, present, underlying local variations 
a fairly consistant pattern. The occurance of the flat topped, 
fez-shaped hat worn by the women throughout the Sahaptin area 
is but one of the traits which they shared. The neighbors 
of the Klamath, the Hokan speaking Shasta and Karok made 
90 
round bow-shaped hats. 
This correspondence between linguistic groups and 
basketry types may be due to a number of causes. One reason 
lies in the fact that all peoples that share a native language 
in all probabilities share a common origin and thus a more 
or less common culture. Another basic cause is the ability 
to communicate, which adds to the speed with which diffusion 
can take place. 
The basketry specimens of the archeological hori-
zon within the Basin Plateau, both twined and coiled, are 
basically the same with local variations. The same holds 
true for the few specimens available fro the Columbia Plateau 
area. 
Essentially the Basin and Columbia Plateaus are 
much the same culturally. Early writers considered these 
areas to be marginal and the culture of the area to be 
characterized by transitional Plains ,. culture. However, 
the more recent studies of the area indicate that although 
the cult ure has an overlay of Plains culture it deserves a 
place of its own. 
The basketry of eastern Oregon, especially within 
the archeological horizon, shows the individuality of the 
Northern Great Basin and from it on the basis of present 
stratigraphic studies probably developed the basic twining 
complex of the Columbia Plateau with the change of climatic 
91 
conditions in the Basin and the shift of cultural centers 
following the influences of westward pressures and Coast 
influences, the Columbia Plateau developed its distinguishing 
features. 
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 
I have set up a system of basketry classification 
and have applied it to a study of Oregon basketry both within 
the historic and archeological horizons. It has been shown 
that basketry types are usually standardized within linguistic 
groups and also that basketry types are similar, with local 
variations, within a culture area. 
The main conclusion which may be drawn from this 
study is that Oregon can not be considered as an ethnic whole 
but is divided by the Cascade Mountains into two main culture 
areas; one consisting of the coastal tribes and the other 
belonging to the Basin Plateau cultures. 
On the basis of the evidence available from a few 
but diagnostic basketry traits, I believe that Oregon was 
not a cultural vacuum, an area peripherial to the higher 
centers of development around it, but prior to the historic 
perios, during which the breakdov,n of the native cultures 
was rapid, Oregon was an active participant in and possibly 
a center of influence for the coastal as well as interior 
diffusions. 
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