ABORIGINAL AMERICAN BASKETRY, 



251 



tshai by Carl Piirdy. These specimens are in the collection of C. P. 

 Wilcoml); the foundation is of willow rod, the sewing material of 

 sedge root, the design in the cereis splints, the decoration with shells, 

 heads, and partridge plumes. The method of sewing is on all of these 

 baskets the same as shown in tig. 41 C. 



Plate 26, Cat. No. 89801 U.S.N.M., is from Point Barrow, Alaska, 

 and was collected ])y Capt. P. 11. Ray, U. S. Army. Tlu^ material is 

 shoots and roots of willow, and the specimen was secured from Eskimo 

 people living at the extreme northern [)oint of Alaska. It had evi- 

 dently been procured, however, from Indians near b3\ On the bot- 

 tom small rods are used for the foundation and the sewing is in straight 

 lines l)ackward and forward until this portion is finished. Here the 

 foundation rods are somewhat larger and the sewing splints wider. 

 Comparing this specimen, then, with a great many others from the same 

 area, the uniformity in size of the foundation rod is noticeable. It 

 will also be noted that the stitches arc 

 not driven home closely, a feature which 

 occurred over and over again in coiled 

 basketry between Point Bai'row and the 

 Republic of Mexico. 



I). Two-rod fomiddtlon. — One rod in 

 this style lies on top of the other; the 

 stitches pass over two rods in progress 

 and under tlie upper one of the pair 

 below, so that each stitch incloses three 

 stems in a vertical series (fig. 47). A 

 little attention given to fig. 41 D will 

 demonstrate that the alternate rod, or 

 the upper rod, in each pair will be in- 

 closed in two series of stitches, while the other or lower rod will pass 

 along freelv in the middle of one series of stitches and show on the 

 outer side. Examples of this two-rod foundation are to ))e seen among 

 the Athapascan tribes of Alaska, among the Pomo Indians of the 

 Pacific coast, and among the Apache of Arizona. An interesting 

 or specialized variety of this type is seen among the Mescaleros of 

 New Mexico, who use the two-rod foundation, l)ut instead of passing 

 the stitch around the upper rod of the coil below simply interlock the 

 stitches so that neither one of the two rods is inclosed twice. This 

 Apache ware is served with yucca fiber and the l^row^n root of the same 

 plant, producing a l)rilliant ettect, and the result of the special technic 

 is a fiat surface like that of pottery. The U. S. National Museum 

 possesses a single piece of precisely the same technic from the kindred 

 of the Apache on the Lower Yukon. (See figs. 44 and 45.) 



E. Rod and 'in<M foundation. — In this kind of basketry the single- 

 rod foundation is overlaid by a splint or strip of tough fiber, some- 



FlG. -J". 

 FOUNDATION OF TWO KoDS, VERTICAL. 



