192 BEPOKT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1902. 



This process of extinction has g-onc on with (litierinu- i-jipiditv in the 

 several areas. Nothing ancient in mechanical processes, in form, and 

 design can be predicated of the basketry sold atsiunnier resorts. The 

 trees are felled by the white man and the trunks divided into ribbons 

 by his latest machineiy. The Indian woman uses a steel gauge to 

 regulate t\w widtii of her weft, steel awls for sewing. Even in West- 

 ern ware the demand and influence of mei'ceiiary motives drown the 

 cry of the ancient spirit in the lowly artist. Plate 1 will sliow the 

 contiict for preeminence between the old and the new. Dogs and 

 horses are mingled with designs older than the Disc-overy. (See 

 also Plates 42, 16S.) 



But it is not alone the unrefined })ublic who eliminate tlu- delightful 

 classic from the decoration of basketry; men and women with the 

 most exalted motives have for centuries substituted Euroi)ean and 

 Asiatic forms for aboriginal in basketry. 



Plate 2 is worthy of notice in this regard. Eliminate the human 

 figures altogether as pictorial and realistic and without standing in an 

 art whose designs are pi-eeminently synd>olical. Tiie others are 

 divided into two series, thosi^ ))earing some suggestion of old patterns 

 and those covered with classical fretwork as the underlying motive 

 and then I'un wild with savage freehand. (See also Plates 50, 5S, 23o.) 



The reason for the genuine unspoiled art of the tribes in northwestern 

 California is given })y Carl Purdy. The Franciscan fathers who built 

 the missions in the central and southern portions of the State never 

 penetrated these wilds; the traders of tiie Hudson's Ba}' Company, 

 whose presence and traffic changed the arts of other Indians so pro- 

 foundly, did not come so far south, and Mexican soldiers were driven 

 out of the country. It was not until settlers in the middle of the last 

 century began to maltreat the Indians that bloody conflicts arose which 

 resulted in their present status, but, fortunately, these pioneers had 

 no interest in baskets and probably did not notice them. There are in 

 possession of old families in the Eastern States baskets sent home b}^ 

 the Forty-niners that now are worth their weight in gold. The forms 

 and designs on these are similar to many still made. This indicates 

 that the art has kept its old-time purity. 



It must be distinctly understood that many basket-making Indians 

 are not now in their priscan homes. Besides the migration occasioned 

 by the ordinary motives operating on the minds of savages, the rapid 

 intrusion of white settlers and the strong arm of the Government have 

 hastened these movements. For our purposes these compulsory migra- 

 tions must be noted specially in the case of basket makers. For 

 example, on the Round Valley reservations in northern California are 

 the Concow (Pujunan) ; and from the eastern side of the Sacramento Val- 

 ley, the Nomolakki and Wailaki (Copehan), Little Lakes (Kulanapan), 

 Ukie (Yukian), and Pit rivers (Palaihnahan), belonging to five al)so- 

 lutely different linguistic families. Now, in a collection of baskets 



