ABORIGINAL BASKET-WORK. 305 



SOUTHERN INDIAN BASKETRY. 



In the States of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida,. 

 Alabama-, Mississippi, and Louisiana are many Indians still living, rem 

 nants of the Cherokees, Choctaws, Creeks, Chickasaws, and Seminoles^ 

 removed fifty years ago into the Indian Territory. Through the low 

 land portion of these States grow the interminable cane-brakes, and 

 from the split cane all these tribes make their basketry. They all fol 

 low the twilled pattern of the common checker weaving. If there i& 

 any one tribe that excels it is the Choctaws, who even now expose for 

 sale in the markets of Mobile, New Orleans, and other southern cities 

 little baskets of green, yellow, red, and black cane r *roven in twill, 

 crossing with the woof two or more warp splints, and managing the 

 stitches so as to produce diamonds and various zigzag patterns on the 

 outside. They make a basket oval at the top and pointed below for 

 presents, averring, as I was informed by a gentleman well acquainted 

 with them, that this shape imitated the heart, which should always 

 accompany every gift. The handles of their basketry are very clumsily 

 put on, marring greatly the appearance of the otherwise attractive 

 object (Figs. 85-95). 



ALGONKIN AND IROQUOIS BASKETRY. 



All along our northern frontier and in many parts of Canada the 

 descendants of the once powerful Algonkin and Iroquois fabricate bas 

 kets from the birch, linden, and other white woods. The method of man 

 ufacture is universally the same : it is the plainest in-and-out weaving. 

 The basketry is very far from monotonous, however, for the greatest 

 variety is secured by difference of form, of color, of the relative size of 

 the parts, and of ornamentation. In form these baskets run the whole 

 gamut as among the Haida and the Maka, guided by the maker's fancy 

 and the demands of trade. These Indians all live on the border of civil 

 ization and derive a large revenue from the sale of their wares. The col 

 ors are of native manufacture, red, yellow, blue, green, alternating with 

 the natural color of the wood. By changing the relative size of the part& 

 a great variety of effects is produced. To commence with the rudest, 

 let us take a dozen or sixteen strips of paper half an inch wide, and 

 cross them so as to have one-half perpendicular to the other, woven in 

 checker at the center and extending to form the equal arms of a cross. 

 Bend up these arms perpendicular with the woven checker and pass a 

 continuous splint similar to the frame- work round and round in a con 

 tinuous coil from the bottom to the top. Bend a hoop of wood so as to 

 fit the top, bend down the upright splints over this, and sew the whole 

 together with a whipping of splint, and you will have the type basket. 

 Now, by varying the width of the splint used to cover the sides you 

 secure a great difference of appearance. In the National Museum are 

 baskets made of uniformly cut splints not over the one-sixteenth of an. 

 inch in width. 



S. Mis. 33, pt. 2 1^0 



