154 COILED BASKETRY IN BRITISH COLUMBIA [ETH. ANN. 41 
The cleaning is done with a sharp knife on a flat board or table. 
In former times bone knives, stones, and fine-edged arrowheads or 
spear points were the implements employed, but steel has been used 
so long now that many women know little or nothing about the for- 
mer methods and tools. 
When imbricating or beading, the pieces of bark are cut off as required 
and the ribbons split into lesser widths according to the size of the coil 
to be ornamented. When several lines of beading in varying colors 
are used on a single coil, the strips are necessarily very narrow. 
Grass stems and bark ribbons as well as splints are soaked just 
before being used. 
Too.Ls 
The tools needed in harvesting were not numerous. For uncoyer- 
ing and loosening the roots, digging sticks and pry bars were formerly 
ehsentiall but are mostly supplanted by shovels and picks at the pres- 
ent day. Axes, hatchets, and knives are used for cutting; and knives, 
pieces of antler, and sharpened bones for peeling. 
In the preparation of material bone awls served to split the roots 
and perforate the coils in sewing, while crooked pieces of antler were 
employed to smooth the bark ad grass. Awls were manufactured 
from the front leg bones of the deer and sharpened to very fine 
points. Iron ones have come into use only very recently. There 
are different sizes of awls, the small ones being adapted to finer work 
or for difficult places where there is not much room for tools or hands. 
For measuring, the only instrument that could be designated a 
tool is the piece of sewing splint sometimes held up to gauge the 
proposed height of the walls. 
Sticks were employed for holding out side walls or flattening 
warped bottoms to which they were lashed. 
DistriBuvTiIoNn oF Coitep BasKETRY AND MarerrAts Usep By SALISH TRIBES 
Tribe Materials used 
Cedar roots-}4- <5 4.25222 
9 
Nespelim 3 4_ Juniper root. 
Sanpoil §4_ Do. 
Colville 3__ Do. 
Columbia group: 
Columbia 34 Do. 
Wenatchi-___ 
Coeur d’Aléne 3________- 
Salish group: 
Spokane 34__/___-..- 
Kalispel §____ 
Pend d’ Oreille §_ 
Mlatheadis- aes 22 
1 Has been made from time immemorial, but not now made by most tribes. 
2 Sapwood foundation (Lillooet and Thompson only). All the tribes made their coils of a bundle of 
splints. 
B Tribes that have not made coiled baskets for some time. In some of these tribes a few old women 
remain who made baskets in their youth. Basket making has lapsed the last two or three generations. 
The most eastern tribes stopped making them earliest owing to the change in their culture and the inaugu- 
ration of hunting on the plains after the introduction of the horse, 
4 Tribes that in olden times made the least basketry. 
5 Not much used, 
