BASKETS AND BASKET-MAKING 4* 



the manufacture of many Indian articles has now almost ceased, the 

 production of baskets continues uninterrupted. 



The Coahuilla basketry is of one type throughout, a type peculiar 

 to the Indians of southern California, Diegenos as well as Luisenos 

 and Coahuillas, a variety of narrow coiled ware. Some fragments of 

 similar weaving have been found in the graves of the Santa Barbara 

 Channel. 1 But the ordinary basket of these Indians was made of 

 reeds and lined with bitumen. Von Huruboldt speaks of the Indians 

 around Santa Barbara presenting the Spaniards &quot;with vases very curi 

 ously wrought of stalks of rushes &quot; and &quot; covered within with a very thin 

 layer of asphaltum that renders them impenetrable to water.&quot;- Such 

 baskets have been rare finds, owing to their destructibility, and of 

 course their manufacture by the coast Indians ceased many years ago. 

 The story of the unfortunate woman abandoned on the island of San 

 Nicolas when the Indians were transferred to the mainland by the 

 Spaniards and of her rescue fifteen years later by Captain Nidever has 

 been often told. When found she was making such baskets, distribut 

 ing the pitch over the inside of the receptacle by placing lumps of 

 asphaltum in the basket with hot stones and shaking the whole with a 

 rotary motion, causing the melting asphaltum to be distributed evenly 

 over the surface. The daubing of wicker baskets with bitumen or 

 gum is very common among the Shoshone Indians. Water bottles 

 with small necks and well coated are made by the Chemehuevi, the 

 Tehachipi Indians, and others. Such water baskets were once made 

 by the Coahuillas, and are called ka-put-il. Mr. Hugo Reid speaks of 

 the water baskets made by the Coahuillan tribes about San Gabriel. 



Their baskets, made out of split rushes, are too well known to require 

 description; but, though water-proof, they were used only for dry purposes. 

 The vessels in use for liquid were roughly made of rushes and plastered 

 outside and in with bitumen or pitch, called by them san-ot. 3 



Such receptacles may still be made at some of the desert villages, 

 but I have never seen any. The Coahuillas make pottery for use 

 about the house, and their need of a water canteen ceased when they 

 stopped their roving and marauding. 



24. The making of baskets by Coahuilla Indians at Palm Valley 

 was studied by Mr. Schummacher twenty years ago, and his description 



I Described and figured in Vol. VII, Archeology of the United States Geological Survey West 

 of the looth Meridian. 



2 Essay on New Spain, Vol. II, p. 297. 



3 California Farmer, Vol. XIV, p. 154, 



San-ot is still the Coahuilla word for gum or pitch. 



