NO. l8 HILLERS-POWEIX INDIAN PHOTOGRAPHS STEWARD / 



seed basket, water jug, circular trays, and receptacles — though other 

 Kaibab Indians used twining for many of these vessels. 



The Uintah Ute baskets in these photographs resemble those in a 

 large collection at the University of Utah. All are coiled, being 

 extremely crudely made and limited in range of forms. A problem 

 still to be solved by anthropology is whether the Ute had, in prehorse 

 days when they depended more upon seed gathering than upon hunt- 

 ing, the full range of basketry forms known to the other Shoshonean 

 tribes. It seems certain, though it has not been proved, that the radical 

 change wrought in their economy by the introduction of the horse 

 would have caused them to abandon many traits connected with seed 

 gathering in favor of things pertaining to hunting. 



Basketry forms are clearly shown in the photographs. They include 

 hats, conical seed or burden baskets, seed beaters, winnowing or 

 parching trays, flat trays, water jugs or ollas, and receptacles or 

 bowls. (Cradles, though often made with a basketry technique, are 

 treated separately.) The distinction between twining and coiling is 

 usually clear, especially if the photograph is examined with a glass. 

 Illustrations of the uses of baskets are in most cases probably accurate, 

 though posing the subjects seems to have misrepresented a few. The 

 woman in plate i, c, for example, is gathering seeds in a basketry 

 hat, a dubious procedure. 



Hots. — Basketry hats, which are widespread throughout the West 

 and on the Pacific coast, are shown in all groups here except the 

 Uintah Ute. All hats appear to be twined. Two somewhat distinct, 

 though similar, forms are illustrated. One is hemispherical, either 

 with a rounded top, like the Moapa Paiute specimens (pi. i, c, 3, b) 

 and the Las Vegas hat (the girl on the right, pi. 6, c) or with a 

 pointed top, like the Kaibab specimens (pis. 10, b, n, 15, b, 16, b) . 

 The other form is a somewhat truncated cone, the Las Vegas example 

 (pi. 6, b, c). These hats are either undecorated or bear one or two 

 bands of geometric figures (pis. 1, c, 3, b, 6, b). 



Among Shoshonean tribes, basketry hats were worn only by women, 

 serving the double purpose of protecting the head from carrying 

 straps attached to burdens and from pitch when gathering pine nuts. 



Conical baskets. — These are large, conical baskets used by women 

 both for gathering seeds and for carrying burdens. Powell G states 

 that for gathering seeds, "they have large, conical baskets, which 

 hold two or more bushels. The women carry them on their backs, 

 suspended from their foreheads by broad straps, and with a smaller 



5 Op. cit., p. 127. 



