488 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1902. 



Grande, on the Mission Lidiiin Reservation, in southern California, b}' 

 Mrs. Watkins, the Government teacher there, and sent to the National 

 Museum by Miss Constance Goddard DuBois. The dark threads are 

 said, l)y Mrs. Watkins, to be made from the inner bark of A^elepim 

 "iieHtttd and the lighter threads, in which the decorative bands are 

 worked, from Asdcpias ascicularis. It is a very ancient piece, the 

 only one that had been seen in those pai'ts. Narciso Lachapa. whose 

 father owned it, says it was old when he was a boy. 



The majority of baskets from the Mission region are in coiled weav- 

 ing, A few examples of twined weaving- from this area have been 

 seen in collections, but none equalling this in size and beaut3\ Its 

 height is 20 inches. 



THE INTERIOE BASIN REGION 



Not the hands, but reason teaches mankind arts; but the hands are the instruments of arts, as the 

 lyre is of the musician and the forceps are of the mechanic. — Galen. 



Leaving now the Pacific slope we ma}^ examine the l)asketr3' of the 

 Great Interior Basin, bounded on the east l»y the Siouan, Kiowan, and 

 Caddoan families be^'ond the Rocky Mountains. The Siouan tribes, 

 together with the western Algonquian and other tribes wedged in 

 among them, borrow coiled gam])Iing l)askets and substitute the con- 

 venient butl'alo hide for textiles; but the Caddoan (see tigs. 124, 125) 

 were excellent workers in twilled weaving. 



On the north, this l)asketry ai'ea merges into the Fraser-Colum])ian 

 group, Salishan and Shahayjtian tribes chiefly, who are especially skill- 

 ful in twined work of peculiar t3'pes. The soft hat in wrapped twined 

 work and most of all the twined wallet overlaid predominate with the 

 Shahaptian, but the kSalish have a wide range of technic. 



On the west there is no sharp boundary line as will be soon shown, 

 the Interior Basin area and the Oregon-California fitting into and 

 invading each other as shore and w^ater line on an irregular coast. 

 This will l)e especially noticeal)le with coiled work, the three-rod 

 foundation of California being adopted l)y some Ute tribes. 



The same is true of the southern ))oundar3', the linguistic families 

 dovetailing into those of Mexico. The Apache cross the boundary 

 southward, the Yuman and Piman tribes also reaching northward and 

 excelling in coiled ware with fine grass foundation. 



The tribal or ethnic groups in this area are chiefly the Shoshonean 

 and the Athapascan. The first named is a vast linguistic famil}' reach- 

 ing from near the forty-ninth parallel to Costa Rica, the latter, (juite 

 as widespread, extending between 30° and 70° north. Care must 

 again ])e taken to separate the classific <'oncept of language from that 

 of ])lood kinship or of arts. Where peoples live contiguous and have 

 the same speech, their blood becomes mingled as a matter of course. 

 Arts will also be communicated. Especially is this true of the one 



