bushnell: textiles from ozark caves 



319 



of Osage origin. However, one piece from the ashes in the cave 

 on Little Sugar Creek probably came from the far Southwest, as 

 there is no evidence of coiled basketry having been known to the 

 Osage or neighboring tribes. This is shown in figure 1. (U. S. 

 N. M. 230,529). It is a fragment of a coiled basket or shield, 

 probably the former. The average diameter of the outer edge 

 is about 20 cm. The diameter of each coil is about 1 cm. The 

 coils are formed of bunches of grass which, on account of the con- 

 dition, cannot be identified. The other element, which serves 



Fig. lb. One-halt nat- 

 ural size 



Fig. la. One-fourth natural size 



to bind the coils, is black or a very dark brown, very hard, and 

 with a glossy surface; it resembles the fiber obtained from the 

 seed pods of Martynia louisiana, known commonly as the unicorn 

 plant or Devil horn. This often attains a length of 35 cm. and 

 was used by the Apache and other tribes in basket work.^ 



The finding of this example of coiled basketry far from its 

 probable place of origin may be accounted for by the fact that 

 the tribes of the southern plains carried on an extensive trade 

 with the Pueblo Indians, while the Osage were their neighbors 

 to the eastward. The trade between the various tribes occupy- 



^ Coville, F. v., Plants used in Basketry; in, Aboriginal American Basketry, 

 by O. T. Mason, in Report of the United States National Museum for 1902, ^^ ash- 

 ington, 1904, p. 207. 



