THE ANCIENT BASKET MAKERS OF SOUTHEASTERN UTAH 
On the first or lower shelf of the Wetherill collection there is 
a series of eight baskets that were probably used as food trays or 
Rood faye meal bowls. Some may have been used as gambling 
or Meal trays with which to toss the bone and wooden dice, 
Bowls. while others were, possibly, ceremonial objects that 
were used only on special occasions. This series is composed of 
specimens that are practically of the same form. They are made 
of willow stalks and splints and are of the “three-rod founda- 
tion’’ type, as illustrated and described by Professor Otis T. 
Mason in the American Anthropologist, N. S., vol. 3, No. 1, 
p. 122. Since almost all of the baskets made by these people 
are of this type, Mason’s description of this particular form of 
weave as given in the article cited may be quoted here. 
“ Three-rod foundation—This is the type of foundation called 
by Dr. Hudson, bam tsu wu. Among the Pomo and other 
Mode of tribes in the western part of the United States the 
Manufac- most delicate pieces of basketry are in this style. Dr. 
tke. Hudson calls them the ‘‘jewels of coiled basketry.”’ 
The surfaces are beautifully corrugated and patterns of the most 
elaborate character can be wrought on them. The technic is as 
follows: Three or four small, uniform willow stems serve for the 
foundation. The sewing, which may be in splints of willow, 
black or white carex root, or cercis stem, passes around the three 
stems constituting the coil, under the upper one of the bundle 
below, the stitches interlocking. In the California area the 
materials for basketry are of the finest quality. The willow 
stems and carex roots are susceptible of division into delicate 
filaments. Sewing done with these is most compact, and when 
the stitches are pressed closely together the foundation does 
not appear.”’ 
Accepting this description as covering the generalities of 
manufacture, we may proceed to the examination of a few of 
the individual peculiarities. Beginning with the second specimen 
from the right of this part of the case we have a basket seventeen 
inches in diameter, which is slightly concave. The stitch is the 
ordinary ‘“‘ wrap stitch’’ with the exception of a space about an 
inch and one-half from the end of the outer coil, where the 
16 
