ABORIGINAL AMERICAN BASKETRY. 423 



They boil the cedar root until it becomes pliable to l)e worked by the hand and 

 beaten with sticks, when they pick the fibers apart into threads. The warj) is of a 

 different material — sinews of the whale, or dried kelp thread. 



They also are expert in weaving the inner bark of the cedar. 



It is not astonishing that a material so easily Avoven should have 

 found its way so extensively in the industries of this stock of Indians. 

 Neither should we wonder that the checker pattern in weaving should 

 first appear on the west coast among the only people possessing a 

 material eminently adapted to this form of manipulation. It is only 

 another example of that beautiful harmony between man and nature 

 which delights the anthropologist at every step of his journey. 



Farther south in British Columbia a Salish people demanding care- 

 ful attention are those formerly called Couteau or Knife Indians ])y 

 the Hudson Bay Company's people. Their home is the southern 

 interior of British Columljia, mostly east of the Coast Range, and is 

 about 100 miles long and 90 miles wide. Their basketrj^ is described 

 by James Teit of Spences Bridge, British Columbia." The basket 

 work above L3'tton is of birch bark, spruce bark, and willow twigs, 

 and the rims ornamented with stitches made from the bark of Prumis 

 deinism. The Indians on the lower division of the Thompson River 

 and on the Upper Fraser make beautiful coiled and imbricated baskets 

 of cedar roots (77/7yrtj>>//cc<to) This type of basketry is also made by 

 the Chilcotin and Lillooet, and Shushwap, who are said to employ 

 spruce root. 



William Arnott, of North Bend, gives the following Thompson River 

 Indian names for baskets: Tsai, ordinary ol)long style; spanach, 

 small oblong and square; spa panach, very small; nikwoeten, round; 

 spanikwoeten, small round; sklokw, very large. 



Wallets are made of a twined weaving, the character of which is 

 shown in Teit\s tig. 132. Designs on these fal)rics are in embroidery 

 or by weaving colored grasses or bark twine into the fal)ric, as 

 shown in the same figure. This style of weaving seems to have been 

 acquired recently through intercourse with the Sahaptin. 



The Lower Thompson Indians weave mats of strips of cedar bark of 

 the same style as those used by the coast Indians (Teit\s tig. 133). 



At the present day rag mats or rugs are often made from scraps of 

 cloth, calico, etc. The patterns on these are mostly the same as those 

 on basketry. 



The Thompson Indians also practice twined weaving in coarse bag- 

 ging and in matting from tule {Scirpus), bulrush {Ty2)ha latifolia)^ and 

 the twined weft of the bark of Apoci/n urn connahinum. These Indians 

 also knew how to make mats by stringing them. The reed or stick is 

 perforated at two or more places and a cord passed through the holes. 



It is interesting to find among them also blankets made from twisted 



"Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History, II, 1900, i)p. 103-392. 



