COILED BASKETRY IN BRITISH COLUMBIA AND 
SURROUNDING REGION 
By H. K. Hanser, James A. Teit, and Heren H. Roserts, 
under the direction of Franz Boas 
INTRODUCTION 
All of the interior Salish tribes of British Columbia! once made coiled 
basketry of cedar or spruce root—the Upper and Lower Lillooet, the 
Upper and Lower Thompson, the Shuswap, the Lake (of the Okana- 
gon group), and the Okanagon proper. The last were the least pro- 
ductive. The Lake and Okanagon as well as the Shuswap make 
almost no coiled baskets at the present time, but the Lillooet and 
Thompson probably manufacture as many now as they ever did. 
Of the Athapascan group of southern British Columbia, the Chilcotin 
are the only people who make coiled ware. The Tahltan and Nahani 
declare that they never made any, and the same is said of the Stuwi’- 
xamux", who once inhabited the valleys of the Nicola and Similka- 
meen. Less is known about the Sekani and Carriers. Father Morice 
does not mention the industry. Harmon refers to some kind of 
water-tight basketry having been made in his day at Stuarts Lake, 
in the Carrier country. The northern Shuswap say that the Carriers 
never made coiled ware so far as they know, so probably the variety 
mentioned was manufactured in another technique. On the coast 
only the Sechelt, Squamish, Stalo or Lower Fraser, the Nootsak, the 
tribes east of Puget Sound, and the Cowlitz, all of whom live not far 
from the Lillooet and Thompson and their southern neighbors, 
make coiled baskets, of which they produce no small amount at the 
present day. The interior people say that although these tribes had 
access to the very best basket material in their own country none of 
them made coiled ware in old times but learned from the Thompson 
and Lillooet. The Stalo, and later the Nootsak, learned from the 
Lower Thompson Indians. The latter believe that they were taught 
by hunting bands who sometimes wintered with them and by some 
Thompson women who married into their tribe. Probably their 
adoption of the art took place about the beginning of the nineteenth 
century. The theory that the Stalo acquired their knowledge from 
the Lower Thompson seems to be confirmed by a study of their 
designs, which are not only the same but are arranged in a similar 
manner. Where interpretations of designs are available, they prove 
1 For distribution of tribes see map at end of yolume. 
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