THE OREGON NATURALIST. 



outwardly— in and about the radiating 

 sticks — no ornamentation nor other material 

 than hazel being employed. Also, as in all 

 basketry, the sticks, grass and other materials 

 are kept in water, when not in the hands of 

 the worker; during the time of construction. 

 The liazel is not intricate and is rapidly made, 

 as I have seen pretty and useful ones brought 

 in while the early country breakfast lingered, 

 and the worker offered hers wares and begged 

 us to remember her needs, as she had begun 

 the^basket "tenas sun" — when the sun was 

 gtj^all_the day was new. There is only 

 utility here, though it assumes a variety of 

 shapes and sizes. The fine slicks are used in 

 the small handle and useful work or darning 

 baskets. The sticks increase in size with the 

 basket, until we have the market, laundry, and 

 lastly the great clothes hamper . 



We now come to the tribes inhabiting the 

 country drained by the Klamath and Sacramento 

 i-ivei-s— Southern Oregon and Northern 

 California, and known as Klamaths, Rogue 

 River, Galice Creek, Coquille, Umpqua, 

 Shasta, McCloud, Pitt and Trinity Rivers and 

 Hoopa Valley. Correctly speaking, they are 

 of the Athapascan linguistic stock. llieir 

 work is a most excellent example of the twined 

 basketry, in which grass stems and fibres are 

 deftly twined, lapped and woven in and out, 

 the strong radiating roots beginning always in 

 the center of the bottom and .^working out. 

 wardly— adding more of the radiating roots or 

 foundation as the sizes increases. 



The Indians about Klamath lake and the 

 marshes make the large round trays_or plaques. 

 The women thrust their feet into the rude 

 sandals made of tules, wade in the water, 

 gather the wild water lilys or wocus and throw 

 it into the deep, conical burden basket at their 

 backs, and trudge away to camp. Here it is 

 tossed in the plaque until the friendly breezes 

 winnow the chaff; live coals are then thrown 

 in and it is vigorously shaken, to prevent 

 burning, until the grains are a rich l)ro\vn. 

 These are poured into a flaring, shallow 

 basket, minus a bottom, placed on a flat rock, 



and with a stone pestle the patient woiket 

 reduces this to meal. The meal is poured into 

 a watertight basket — the aborigine's boiling 

 pot — water added, then very hot stones are 

 thrown in, and the shaking and stirring 

 continues, until the gentle savage places before 

 her lord a most toothsome dish. The women's 

 hats and various baskets of the Klamaths 

 proper are pliable or flexible, of white grass 

 and the black of the maiden's hair fern stem, 

 in zig-zag and geometric pattern, and some- 

 times a suggestion of the V-shaped flight of 

 water fowl. 



Those tribes living in the more westerly 

 part of Southern Ortgon and California — we 

 usually, for convenience, speak of them as 

 Shastas — continue to make fine baskets, as 

 well as many other tribes in California and 

 Arizona, though 1 do not know if the young 

 girls are taught the industry. It is more likely 

 to be the old women, and the trader has taught 

 them the value of their vvares. Their cooking 

 baskets are sliallow, dull grayish brown, ami 

 an ornamentation of the white grass. The 

 wocus shakers and burden baskets are more 

 elaborate, and the buckets, ornamental baskets 

 for sale and the women's hats are finer and 

 more beautiful still. 



The fine white grass, like ivoi7 in smooth- 

 ness and tint, is obtained at great elevations, 

 their excursions leading them to the summer 

 snow line of Mount Shasta. The brown is 

 obtained by dyeing with extract of alder bark; 

 combined with the maiden hair fern stem, of 

 unfading black and enduring beauty, in 

 geometric and intricate zig-zag jiatteins, the 

 effect is most pleasing. The ornamentation 

 appearsonly slightly in the inside, and the ends 

 are concealed and the finish is exquisitely neat. 

 Those of Klamath iiave all the pattern show- 

 ing on the inside, and the ends of grass are 

 exposed. 



Lastly we come to the baskets of Mendocino 

 county, California, exhibiting the gieafest 

 variety of shape, size, weave, beauty of 

 construction, materials employed, nt'd 

 commercially of the highest value in baslxeiry. 



