514 



REPORT OF I^fATIONAL MUSEUM, 1902. 



This .specimen, Catalogue No. 21493 in the U. S. National Museum, 

 was collected in Arizona by Dr. J. B. White, U. S. Army. 



Plate 227 represents a jar and a plaipie by the Mescalero Apache 

 Indians of New Mexico, collected by Dr. Walter Hough, Catalogue 

 Nos. 204651 and 204646 in the U. S. National Museum. Especial 

 attention is directed to the width of the coils in these baskets. It 

 will be remembered that the Fraser River tribes in British Columbia 

 obtained an economical result of widening coils by the introduction 

 of narrow strips of wood instead of the roots or bundles of grass for 

 the foundation. These Apache Indians have also discovered that using 

 two or more rods, one lying on the top of the other, would give the 

 same result. The stitches in yucca also, instead of passing underneath 



another rod in the coil be- 

 low, are simply interlocked 

 with the stitches under- 

 neath. The ornamentation 

 is produced l)y dift'erent 

 colors of thesame substance. 

 The outside of the leaf is 

 green in diti'erent shades, 

 l)ut the inside of the split 

 leaf is perfecth' white. ]^y 

 exposing the inside or the 

 outside the angular orna- 

 mentation results. In such 

 wide foundation the designs 

 must be verj" simple. The 

 dark lines in the lower figure 

 are produced by using the 

 small roots of the same i)lant 

 in sewing. This fiber is very 

 nnich more bj'ittle than the 

 leaf. Comparing these two 

 examples with the plaipies of the Plopi Indituis (hmionstrates better 

 than any other figures yet employed the limitations of the basket maker 

 in the very elements of ornamentation. Kach separate part of the 

 mosaic is a long stitch, set vertically in the jai' and radially on the 

 platpu^ or bowl. From this the basket maker can not (>scape. 



Fig. r.).") is labeled coiled basket of the Navaho. On the authority 

 of C. M. O'Leary, of Abbottsford Inn, Los Angeles, California, the 

 Navaho do not manufacture baskets; but they use a ceremonial basket 

 that is made by the Apaches and comes from Arizona. Other observ- 

 ers attribute these curious pieces to the Ute; but old Navaho women 

 still understand the art. 



Fig. 194. 



coiled basket bowl. 



Apache Indians. 



Collected hv .1. B. White. 



