TH1-: OREGON NATURALIST. 



tact concerning this little handful of 

 peopK, coming down from the Wakashan 

 stock, and settled about Cape Flattery: 

 The young girls, though intelligent pupils 

 in the government school, are proficient 

 basket makers. The early specimens are 

 in browns, though now a beautiful white 

 grass is used (the same may have been 

 used in the former times, but age has 

 given it the tender brown), and, like the 

 Alaskan basket of the present day, has 

 suffered sad degeneracy in form and color- 

 in^;. Th.^ v.cious and persistent aniline 

 dyes have pei.etrated these remote places; 

 the Indian of today loves not the labor of 

 securing her own inimitable dyes, but she 

 does love color, and so we buy no more 

 lovely old browns from Alaska and Neah 

 Biy. 



These tribes also make cedar bark mats 

 of the checkerboard weave, that fnid many 

 uses, as covering for household effects, 

 carpets, protection from the weather, and 

 not infrequently a winding sheet, when 

 their dead are laid to rest. 



It is not necessary to speak of the 

 Klickitats at length. Of all known 

 basketry it is the most arduous, difficult 

 and skillful of construction, as has been 

 explained in a previous paper, in detail. 

 It is of two-fold weave, the coil or inner 

 one, and the imbricated external or 

 ornamental one. White is the color of 

 this strong grass, which is Zerophyilum 

 Lenex, or "squaw grass." it is dyed 

 ■ yellow, brown and black, by lying in 

 water, extr.-ct ct willow bark, and earth 

 and charcoal. There are fine specimens 

 of this enduring work said to be seventy- 

 five years old. Though old age, berry 

 juices and much usage have robbed some 

 of all thtir beauty, one detects a trace of 

 the fine design in the ornamentation. We 

 cannot refrain from calling attention to 

 two rare ones here, because of unusual 

 shape, age and association. The tine 

 round one was purchased by the late 



Captain John H. Couch, when he visited 

 these shores in the Chanamic, in 1847. 

 It was taken to Massachusetts, and has 

 since doubled Cape Horn a second time 

 on its return to Oregon, and now belongs 

 to Mrs. F. A. Beck. The other, a small 

 oblong one, belonging to Mrs. Ankeny, 

 was purchased in Oregon City by her 

 .mother in 1845. 



There are three other fine baskets from 

 over the border in British Columbia, the 

 handiwork of Indians of the Shahaptain 

 stock, differing though, from the 

 Klickitats, principally in shape. One is 

 beautifully round, as an apple, and the 

 others like a slightly oblong box, flared 

 at the corners. They are quaintly 

 ornamented with two or three rows of the 

 imbricated stitch, and then two rows of 

 the coil left exposed. 



The Cayuses, Umtillas, Nez Perces and 

 Wascos, and other tribes east of the 

 Cascades, do not make stiff baskets, but 

 being much in the saddle their baskets, 

 being really pouches, both round and flat, 

 and of the strongest, most durable work- 

 manship and quite flexible, are suited to 

 use when the owner rides. 



The materials are often split corn husks 

 and the wild hemp of the Walla Walla 

 valley. Sometimes a fine grayish green 

 appears, but here too the color-loving 

 savage introduces gay worsted threads. 



The hazel stick is very interesting,, 

 yet we who are so accustomed to its home- 

 ly place in our domestic economy fail to 

 appreciate its beauty. Only the Indians 

 of the Athapascan stock, known to us as 

 Shastas, excel in this work. The sticks 

 are gathered in great quantities, the best 

 ones from ground denuded by fire of its 

 natural growth of fir and hemlock, where 

 they spring up straight and strong from 

 the rich soil The teeth play no small 

 part in peeling off the bark. 



As in twined basinet making, these are 

 worked from the ce iter of the bottom 



