BULLETIN 



OF THE 



AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



VOLUME XVII, 1902. 



I. BASKETRY DESIGNS OF THE INDIANS OF 

 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. 



By ROLAND B. DIXON. 

 PLATES I-XXXVII. 



ONE of the earliest-noted and prime characteristics of 

 the Indians of California is the great development among 

 them of the art of basket-making. Not only did they excel 

 in technique, in producing water-tight baskets of both the 

 coiled and twined varieties, but also in the extent to which 

 they developed the purely artistic side of basket-making in 

 the elaboration of designs and methods of ornamentation. 

 Carving and painting were, as far as we know, not numbered 

 among the arts of this portion of the Pacific coast; pottery 

 was unknown; and decoration in dress was, if we except the 

 feather ornaments used at dances, as a rule, of the simplest 

 sort in comparison with the elaborate and often profuse dec 

 oration found among many of the Indians of the plains. The 

 California Indians were, therefore, practically confined, for the 

 expression of their artistic sense, to basketry alone; and possi 

 bly this concentration of effort will afford a partial explanation, 

 at least, of the great perfection to which the art was carried. 



But, while we find that basket-making and basketry design 

 and ornamentation are characteristic of the California Indians 

 as a whole, these arts were not developed to the same extent, 

 or along the same lines, in all parts of the region. We can, 



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