A CaliforniaBasketry Bibliography

An excellent and insightful discussion of influences affecting changes in basket production in pre and proto historic times. Beginning with a discussion of baskets made specifically for trade in aboriginal times, such as Washoe basketmakers traditionally providing Sierra Miwok people with winnowing trays, Bates traces changes due to Spanish, Russian and American collector's market demands, citing initial collecting beginning in the late 18th century when Spanish ships first plied the waters of the California coast. The introduction of native Californians to a cash economy caused a new rash of changes in which collector's demanded new forms, realistic designs, bright colors and nontraditional size. Included in his discussion are basket color, form, function, design, and materials.

Bates, Craig D. and Brian Bibby

1984 Amanda Wilson: Maidu Weaver. American Indian Art Magazine 9(3):38-43.

Bates, Craig D. and Martha J. Lee

1990 Tradition and Innovation: A Basket History of the Indians of the Yosemite-Mono Lake Area. The Yosemite Association, Yosemite National Park, CA.

This is perhaps the most important work yet produced which portrays the relationship between culture and basketry. It explores traditional uses of basketry and the impact of collecting on the production of baskets. Bates and Lee look at the collecting urge and profiles nearly two-dozen women basketmakers. This work was a monumental research task, and brings together the largest collection of photographs of Western Mono, Mono Lake Paiute, and Sierra Miwok basketry ever assembled.

Baumhof, M. A.

1952 Carbonized Basketry from the Thomas Site. University of California Archaeological Survey Reports 19:9-11, Berkeley, CA.

1957 Catlow Twine from Central California. University of California Archaeological Survey Reports 38:1-5.

Bean, Lowell John and Harry Lawton

1967 A Bibliography of the Cahuilla Indians of California. Malki Museum Press, Banning, CA.

Bean, Lowell John

1972 Mukat's People: The Cahuilla Indians of Southern California. University of California Press, Berkeley.

Written by the preeminent scholar of the Cahuilla, this view of Cahuilla life encompasses kinship, ethnobotany, spirituality, history, settlement patterns, worldview and religion. Bean's discussion of basketry is limited to its social context, citing the production of baskets as a physical manifestation of a woman's industriousness, a desirable attribute in a Cahuilla woman. His other reference is in his explanation of Cahuilla reciprocity and the ritual exchange of goods to assure no one suffered from want when others has excess goods. Contains an extensive bibliography.

1992 Indians of California ‑ Diverse and Complex Peoples. California History fall 71(3):302+.

Bean, Lowell John and Harry W. Lawton

1993 Some Explanations for the Rise of Cultural Complexity in Native California with Comments on Proto-Agriculture and Agriculture. In Before the Wilderness: Environmental Management by Native Californians. Ballena Press, Menlo Park, CA.

Bean, Lowell John and Katherine Siva Saubel

1972 Temalpakh: Cahuilla Indian Knowledge and Usage of Plants. Malki Museum Press, Morongo Indian Reservation.

This volume discusses different plant materials used in basketmaking. Unlike other references to plant materials it make references to individual rights to gather materials, and the habit of keeping gathering sites secret. Several detailed photographs of basketmakers and materials. With an appendix on the problem of aboriginal agriculture among the Cahuilla by Harry W. Lawton.

Begley A.

1993 Raiders of the Lost Archives: The Pomo Postdoc Action‑adventure Novel. Lingua Franca Jul‑Aug 3(5):36‑40.

Benedict, Ruth (1887-1948)

1924 A Brief Sketch of Serrano Culture. American Anthropologist 26:368-369.

Bernstein, Bruce

1984 Basketry Collections Around the Country. Fiberarts 11(50):50‑51.

A listing of public museums containing baskets. These baskets represent many Native American as well as European, African‑American, Euro American, and Asian basketry traditions.

1990 Weaver’s Talk, the Language of Baskets and the Meaning of Aeesthetic Judgement: The Patwin of Central California. In The Art of Native American Basketry: A Living Legend edited by Frank W. Porter. Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut.

Bernstein offers his interpretation of the Patwin system of basket analysis. He also outlines why such a system is utilized and maintained and how it emphasizes process and de-emphasizes end product. He gives a quite brief history of the Patwin people and maintains that baskets are a record of Patwin life. He states, “A weaver learns her culture like any other member of society; she is then able to present her interpretation of it through basket making.” He selects baskets and makers from five predominantly Patwin communities for his analysis. He identifies eight technological features which define Patwin baskets. These are the basket start, the incorporation of new weaving splints, the foundation, form, materials, the use of color, the combination of design motifs, and the placement of design motifs. Because of these fixed elements, Patwin weavers are able to identify baskets produced by their own people as separate from those of other groups even though some of the other elements may be present in the other work. He further declares the skill of Patwin weavers to be such that they can imitate the basket style and elements of other groups. This practice seems to have developed for economic reasons, as does the practice of using nontraditional materials for baskets for collectors.

1996 Native American Basketry: The Hartman Collection. The Albrecht Kemper Museum of Art, St. Joseph, Missouri.

Bibby, Brian

1996 The Fine Art of California Indian Basketry. Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA.

Blackburn, Thomas C. and Kat Anderson

1993 Before the Wilderness: Environmental Management by Native Californians. Ballena Press, Menlo Park, CA.

Blackburn, Thomas C. and Travis Hudson

1990 Times Flotsam: Overseas Collections of California Indian Material Culture. A Ballena Press, Menlo Park, CA and Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History , Santa Barbara.

Lists thousands of objects in overseas collections by tribe, type of object and accession or catalog number.

Bolton, Henry E., editor

1916 Spanish Explorations in the Southwest, 1542- 1706. New York.

1931 Anza’s California Expeditions. University of California Press, Berkeley.

Borger I.

1990 A Shoreline Composition ‑ Natural Materials Enhance a Collection of Primitive Art in Southern California. Architectural Digest Mar 47(3):199+.

Bowers, Stephen (Reverend)

1878 History and Antiquities of Santa Rosa Island. Smithsonian Institution Annual Report. Washington, D.C.

1885a Relics in a Cave. Pacific Science Monthly 1:45-47.

1885b A Report on a Cave in the San Martin Mountains. Pacific Science Monthly 4:1.

1888 A Remarkable Valley and an Interesting Tribe of Indians. San Buena Ventura, CA.

A self-published survey of the Conchilla (Coachella) Valley and the Desert Cahuilla Indians. presents a jaundiced view of Cahuilla life describing them as "sun and fire worshipers who venerate the coyote." He briefly describes large basketry granaries used for the storage of mesquite beans and notes otherwise that "they make beautiful baskets." It is noteworthy that Bowers arrived in the Conchilla Valley via the railroad, according to the pamphlet.

Branstetter, Katherine B.

1980 A Wiyot Fancy Basket. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 2(2):266-269.

Broadbent, Sylvia

1964 The Southern Miwok Language. University of California Publications in Linguistics 38, Berkeley, CA.

Contains the text (#1) of a conversation about gathering and preparing basketry materials between Rose Watt and Lizzie Graham. In addition there is a discussion with Emma Lord regarding the use of sourberry shoots for cradle making in text number two. All three women are represented in photographic plates. The volume contains Miwok to English and English to Miwok dictionaries which define basket terms and plants.

1972 The Rumsen of Monterey, an Ethnography from Historical Sources. University of California Archaeological Research Facility 14.

A cultural inventory of the Rumsen culture. Analysis of basketry is limited to a short discussion of materials and uses.

Bruchac J.

1992 Waw‑giwulk ‑ The Center of the Basket: Pima Indian Legend and Basket Mazes. Parabola‑the Magazine of Myth and Tradition summer 17(2):52‑53.

Campbell, Elizabeth W. Crozer (1893-?)

1931 An Archaeological Survey of the Twenty Nine Palms Region. Southwest Museum Papers. Southwest Museum, Los Angeles.

This volume is a preliminary report of the outstanding features of the archaeology of the Twenty Nine Palms region. A remarkably large collection of pottery, textiles, baskets, lithics and other manufactured objects are listed as discovered, cleaned, repaired and cataloged. Liberally illustrated with photographs of the cave with objects in situ and after cleaning. Elizabeth and William Campbell first entered the Twenty Nine Palms area in 1925 and subsequently explored every cave they could find, under the auspices of Federal permits. This paper offers a cursory look at the culture of the users of the objects excavated and a brief history of the Campbells' collecting.

Carr, Jeannie C.

1892 Among the Basketmakers, California. Illustrated Magazine October.

Caughey, John Walton, editor (1902-

1952 The Indians of Southern California in 1852. The B. D. Wilson Report. The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.

Channing, Grace Ellery (1862-1937)

1890 The Baskets of Anita. Scribner's Magazine Aug.

Chestnut, Stewart

1902 Plants Used by the Indians of Mendocino County, California. Contributions to the U.S. National Herbarium 7:3.

Cody, Bertha Parker

c1940 California Indian Baby Cradles. Southwest Museum Leaflets 12.

A brief comparison of cradle manufacture and use in central and northern California. In south-central and southern California only the Diegueno are mentioned.

Coe, Ralph T.

1976 Sacred Circles: Two Thousand Years of North American Indian Art. Arts Council of Great Britain, London.

Cohodas, Marvin

1976 Lena Frank Dick: An Outstanding Washoe Basketmaker. American Indian Art Magazine 4:32-41,90.

Collings, Jerold

1975 The Yokuts Gambling Tray. American Indian Art Magazine autumn 1(1):10-15.

Conn, Richard

1974 Robes of White Shell and Sunrise: Personal Decorative Art of the Native American. Denver Art Museum, Denver.

An exhibition catalog covering the range of clothing and ornamentation in North America as represented in the collections of the Denver Museum of Art. Of interest from California are front and back skirts, basket hats, and a few other peices of dance regalia, notably the Maru Pomo Bighead headdress.

1979a Native American Art from the Permanent Collection. Trustees of Pomona College, Claremont, CA.

1979b Native American Art in the Denver Art Museum. Denver Art Museum, Denver.

Examines a wide range of Native American material culture from most of North America. Discussion of southern California baskets is generalized, stating that all the "Mission" groups made coiled basketry of a similar nature. Discussion of northern California basketry differentiates clearly between tribes, identifying baskets as Yokut, Miwok, Pomo, and Mono. Lavish photos with a 50 item bibliography.

Cooper, Amy R.

1983 Interweaving Traditions. Forward by Frank LaPena. Mary Porter Sesnon Gallery, University of California, Santa Cruz.

An exhibition catalog devoted to the work of various anonymous, native California women basketmakers and the work of contemporary fiber artist Elizabeth Lindsley.

Cullin, Stewart

1975 Games of the North American Indians. Dover Publications, Inc.: New York. Originally published by the Government Printing Office as the Twenty-Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Smithsonian Institution, 1902-1903, W. H. Holmes, Chief.

An incredible work which illustrates thousands of gaming objects including sticks, dice, string figures, racing, balls, and hoop and pole games. Here as elsewhere basketry emerges as an integral part of the game in many cultures, but nowhere do they achieve the perfection of form, that they did in California. Several baskets are illustrated in photographic plates and sketches. This volume points out the myriad proto-basketry techniques used in the construction of equipment (see also Gendar 1995).

Dalton, O. M.

1901 California Basketwork (note on a specimen of basketwork from California recently acquired by the British Museum). Man 1(17):23-24.

Davis, E.L. and William Allan

1967 Diegueño Coiled Baskets. San Diego Museum of Man Ethnic Technology Notes 1.

This purely descriptive pamphlet is a sketchy study of fifty‑one Diegueño coiled baskets in the collection of the San Diego Museum of Man. Of note in this work is the identification of basketmakers and the purpose of manufacture as for sales, use, or gifts.

Dawson, Lawrence E.

1978a Personal Communication to K. Whistler regarding similarities between Yokuts baskets and archaeological basketry from Oregon. Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley.

1978b Suggestions of Maidu Prehistory from Basketry Evidence. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for California Archaeology, Yosemite National Park.

Dawson, Lawrence E., and James Deetz

1965 A Corpus of Chumash Basketry. Annual Reports of the University of California Archaeological Survey 7:193-276.

Deetz, James F.

1963 Basketry from the James-Abels Collection. Museum Talk - Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History 38(2):16-23.

Two ranchers, J.G. James and Henry Abels, excavated objects from a cave near Mr. James ranch in 1930. Carbon dating of one of the baskets found there indicated 120 years ± 80 years. Deetz examined the objects upon their donation to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. He has concluded that the objects are of Chumash manufacture and use, but his analysis moves little beyond descriptive narrative. He describes the direction of coiling and the materials used and comments on probable use. He mentions adapted use of one bowl-shaped basket indicating that because the work surface appears to be the outside of the basket it was probable that the original form was taller and had a constricted neck, comparing the form to the manufacture of an open bowl which was typically worked from the inside.

Degenhart, Pearl

1931 Hupa Indian Basket Designs. School Arts 30:629-631.

Dick, Linda, Lorrie Planas, Judy Polanich, Craig D. Bates, and Martha Lee

1988 Strands of Time: Yokuts, Mono, and Miwok Basketmakers. Fresno Metropolitan Museum, Fresno, CA.

This exhibition catalog documents the cultural process of basketry. Beginning with an explanation of materials and techniques it quickly divides in several directions including the object in its cultural context and its uses, histories of individual basketmakers, and modern constraints on basketmaking; it is amply illustrated with portraits of basketmakers and of the general cultural milieu. Craig Bates offers a look at the impact of collecting on basketmaking in the Yosemite Valley and adjacent areas. This catalog includes many quotes from living basketmakers.

Dixon, Roland B.

1900 Basketry Designs of the Maidu Indians of California. American Anthropologist 2(2):266‑276.

Dixon prefaces his descriptions of Maidu basket designs with commentary on how the "region has been of late years more or less thoroughly scoured for baskets by local dealers, and by several traveling salesmen, who have become victims of the `basket craze'." He generally discusses forms, the interpretation of design, and the use of various materials including feathers. He makes passing comparison to baskets from neighboring groups to the north and east. Illustrated with sketches of Maidu baskets at the American Museum of Natural History. No bibliography.

1902 Basketry Designs of the Indians of Northen California. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 17(1):1-32.

Includes 37 black and white plates of 136 baskets.

Dozier, Deborah S.

1992 Objects of Myth and Memory - American_Indian Art at the Brooklyn Museum. American Indian Culture and Research Journal 16(2):240-242.

A review of an exhibition catalog from the Brooklyn Museum exhibition of 1991. Dozier points out the responsibility of collecting institutions in working cooperatively with Native American populations to forge new and cooperative relationships, especially in light of the museum community's removal of so much cultural material from native hands.

Douglas, Frederick H.

1939 The Main Divisions of California Indian Basketry. The American Indian Leaflet Series 83-84. Denver Art Museum, Denver.

DuBois, Cora

1939 Wintu Ethnography. University of California Publications in Archaeology and Ethnology 36:131‑139.

Dubois, Constance Goddard

1902 The Mythology of the Diegueños, Mission Indians of San Diego County, California, as Proving their Status to be Higher Than is Generaly Believed. New York.

1903 Manzanita Basketry, A Revival. Papoose 1(7):21-27.

A description of the revival of the basketmaking of a group of Diegueño basketmakers from the town of Manzanita, CA. She attributes the revival of basketry to the influence of collectors from the eastern US. She further points out that Manzanita baskets are desirable in the eastern market because the location of Manzanita is so remote that the Diegueños there have scarcely had contact with whites and their culture, i.e. the work therefore being "primitive." She describes the old women as still wearing their basket hats and yucca sandals. A succinct summation says, "These baskets compare very favorably with early specimens of the same weave, some of them having gained rather than lost from the commercial impulse, since in this case it takes the form of a general wish to please the purchaser, and is defended by an absolute isolation from any absorption of the white man's ideas in decoration. The dyes are genuinely primitive, and the designs original to the maker."

1905 Religious Ceremonies and Myths of the Mission Indians. American Anthropologist 7(4):620-29).

1907 Diegueno Mortuary Ollas. American Anthropologist 9:484-486.

1908 Religion of the Luiseno Indians. University of California Publications in Archaeology and Ethnology 8: 167-173.

Dwiggins, Don

1976 Gathering of the Clams. Westways 68:46-49.

"Malibu's littleneck clam is valued today as a delicious seafood, but did the Chumash find inspiration for their exquisite basketry in the patterns of the shell?" reads the note beneath the headline.

Ebeling, Walter

1988 Handbook of Indian Foods and Fibers of Arid America. University of California Press, Berkeley.

Elasser, A. B.

1978 Basketry. In Handbook of the North American Indians, Vol. 8: California, pp. 626-641. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

The Emporium Company

1900 The Queen of Basketry: Louisa Keyser. San Francisco: Francis Valentine Company.

1905 How The Louisa Keyser Baskets Are Made: Dat So La Lee, Her Life and Work. Los Angeles: Le Berthon.

The Emporium Company, established in Carson City, Nevada bought and sold several thousand Washoe baskets over four decades. They later opened a summer store in Tahoe City. Owners Amy and Abraham Cohn concentrated on promotion and documentation. They published many photographic pamphlets and issued certificates of documentation with each basket sold. They were the major vendors of Dat so la le baskets.

Fane, Diana, Ira Jacknis and Lise M. Breen

1991 Objects of Myth and Memory: American Indian Art at the Brooklyn Museum. The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York.

Stewart Culin, the Brooklyn Museum's founding curator of ethnology, devoted the first decade of this century to defining and preserving American Indian cultures by means of a comprehensive collection. By 1912 he had installed more than 9,000 objects in the Museum's Hall of American Ethnology. A founding member of the American Anthropological Association, he was a self‑educated ethnologist who gained experience in Philadelphia's Chinese community. He headed the section entitled "Folklore and Primitive World Religions" for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, securing his position as a leading ethnologist. He collected and displayed a large number of Hupa, Yurok, Maidu, and Pomo baskets and other objects in his Barnum and Bailey style Hall of American Ethnology. Jacknis credits the sale of the private collection of J.W. Hudson to the U.S. Nation Museum (Hudson was a physician who collected for the Field Museum in Chicago) with a surge in interest in California baskets. He also credits the Arts and Crafts Movement for interest in California baskets. Culin competed with Kroeber and other ethnologists for baskets and artifacts which he himself acquired or which he bought from dealers and traders, although he eschewed contact with academics.

Forbes, Jack D.

1969 Native Americans of California and Nevada. Naturegraph Publications, Healdsburg, CA.

An introductory synthesis dealing with the history and sociocultural evolution of native groups living in California and Nevada, especially as the subject is relevant to education and community development. Passing mention is made of baskets in association with burials and resistance to Anglo‑American conquest. Some early sketches by G. Langsdorf reproduced. Some historical photos of Miwuk, Pomo, Mono, and Paiute basketmakers. The author is a faculty member at UC Davis and is associated with DQ University.

Foreman, Louise

1967 Baskets! Baskets! Baskets! The Masterkey 41(4):143-147.

A brief description of the 2500 piece, Carolyn Boeing Poole basket collection, housed in the Southwest Museum.

Fowler, Catherine S. and Lawrence E. Dawson

1986 Ethnographic Basketry. In Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 11. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D. C.

Furst, Peter T. and Jill L.

1982 North American Indian Art. Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., New York.

This volume ably describes the art of all North American culture regions. Generously illustrated with color photographs it is an ideal introductory text for the study of Native American Indian art. The section on California sheds no new light on California ethnography but provides a worthwhile comparison of Northern, Central, and Southern basketry.

Gamble, Geoffrey, Janette Gamble and Cecilia Silvia

1979 Wikchamni Coiled Basketry. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 1(2):278-279.

This paper was written by a Wikchamni basketmaker, Cecilia Silvia, Janette Gamble, an anthropologist at Cal State Fresno and Geoffrey Gamble, a linguist at Washington State University. Cecilia Silvia took the Gambles to gather materials, showed them the proper preparation for materials and instructed them in coiling technique. Modern problems for Indian basketmakers, such as the fencing of preferred gathering areas, were discussed. Some designs are discussed and photos and sketches illustrate this account of much digging to procure the necessary roots. Short bibliography and Wikchamni lexicon and pronunciation guide.

Gendar, Jeannine

1995 Grass Games and Moon Races: California Indian Games and Toys. Heyday Books: Berkeley, Ca.

This volume not only shows some basketry, notably gaming trays, but also talks about baskets in their place in gaming, as subjects of bets, as prizes, or as models for gaming equipment. A most interesting aspect was to see how many fiber/textile techniques used in toy and game equipment manufacture are protobasketry techniques, ie., making hoops, stripping rods, and stitching.

Gifford, E.W.

1940 Culture Element Distributions: XII Apache-Pueblo. Anthropological Records 4(1). University of California, Berkeley.

A true culture element distribution in the style of the mid 20th century. This work is merely a long list of traits and their distribution across Apache and Pueblo populations.

1967 The Use of Acorns in California. In The North American Indians, Owens, et al., eds. Macmillan Company, Inc.: New York, pp. 403-409.

A very brief discussion of basketry incidental to acorn processing.

Gifford, Edward W., and Alfred Kroeber

1939 Culture Element Distribution, IV: Pomo. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 37(4):117-254.

Gifford, Edward W., and Stanislaus Klimek

1939 Culture Element Distribution, II: Yana. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 37(2):71-100.

Gogel, John M.

1982 Klamath, Modoc and Shasta Basketry. American Indian Basketry Magazine. 3(2):10-13.

Discussion of design, materials, forms, and uses of basketry among the Modoc, Klamath and Shasta people of northern California. Some small reference to language, culture differences, and basketry as an income producing industry in modern times. Well illustrated by historical photographs and containing a short bibliography.

Halpern, A. M.

1989 A Review of Southeastern Pomo Ceremonials: The Kuksu Cult and Its Successors by Bruce Bernstein. Journal of Anthropological Research summer 45(2):252‑255.

Harrington, John P.

1923 Archaeological Work in California. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 76(10):107-108.

1927a Archaeological and Ethnological Research in California. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 78(7):232-237.

1927b Researches on the Archaeology of Southern California. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 78(7):106-111.

1933 Report on Fieldwork on Indians of Monterey and San Benito Counties. Bureau of American Ethnology Annual Report for 1931-1932:2-3.

1942 Culture Element Distribution, XIX: Central California Coast. University of California Anthropological Record 7(1):1-46.

Harris, Benjamin

1857 Report on Southern California Indians. In 34th Congress, 3rd Session, House Executive Document 76 Serial No. 906. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.

Heizer, Robert F., D. Bailey, Mark Estis, and Karen Nissen

1969 Catalogue of the C. Hart Merriam Collection of Data Concerning California Indian Tribes and other American Indian Tribes. Berkeley: University of California, Department of Anthropology, Archaeological Research Unit.

Heizer, Robert F. and Albert B. Elasser

1980 The Natural World of the California Indians. University of California Press, Berkeley.

Heizer, Robert F.

1968 One of the Oldest Known California Indian Baskets. Masterkey Apr-Jun 42(2):71-75.

Heizer, Robert F. and M. A. Whipple, editors

1965 The California Indians‑‑A Sourcebook. University of California Press, Berkeley.

A collection of general survey essays, archeological reports, historical accounts and works pertaining to California native material and social cultures.

Heye, George G.

1919 Certain Aboriginal Pottery from Southern California. Indian Notes and Monographs 7(1):3-48.

1921 Certain Artifacts from San Miguel Island, California. Indian Notes and Monographs 7(4).

Holmes, W. H.

1883 Prehistoric Textile Fabrics of the United States, Derived from Impressions on Pottery. Bureau of American Ethnography Third Annual Report 393-425. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.

1919 Handbook of Aboriginal American Antiquities. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 60.

Hudson, J. W.

1893 Pomo Basket Makers. Overland Monthly 21:561-578. Second Series.

Hudson, Travis, editor

1978 The Wind Sycamore: Some J.P. Harrington Notes on a Ventureño Chumash Shrine. The Ventura County Historical Society Quarterly 24(1):1‑15

A description of a Ventureño Chumash shrine at an ancient sycamore tree adopted by the Catholic padres as the location for a chapel. Harrington describes objects left at the shrine by the Chumash, including baskets of ants. Other "baskets containing offerings of seeds, nuts and so forth were placed both inside and outside the tree." The tree, known as the Wind Sycamore, evidently had a large hollow "near the ground at one end." Other objects including beads and food were also left there. It is interesting to note that a wooden image about two and one‑half feet long was hung in the hollow of the tree. According to Harrington's informants people who wished ill for an enemy would go to the tree and afflict their enemy by turning the various plugs which held the articulated form together, thus affecting the enemy's corresponding part. He also states that medicine men would cure people ills by means of the god of the Wind Sycamore. A photograph of the tree depicts the tree as anthropomorphic.

Hudson, Travis and Thomas Blackburn

1982‑1987 The Material Culture of the Chumash Interaction Sphere. 5 vols.

Ballena Press, Los Altos, California and Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Santa Barbara.

Five volumes covering every known aspect of Chumash material culture. Basketry is addressed in sections on transportation, gathering, storage, cooking, processing and serving food, furnishings, mats, netting, textiles, ritual structures and paraphernalia, headgear, and games. Each item is defined, historical accounts of the object are cited, and ethnographic accounts are listed. A discussion follows, encompassing distribution and remarks further defining the ethnographic accounts; examples are depicted in sketches by Georgia Lee or photographs of know objects in collections.

Jackson, Helen Hunt

1884 Ramona. Roberts Brothers, Boston.

James, George Wharton

1901a Among the Mono Basketmakers. Sunset: The Magazine of the Border 6(4):107-112.

1901b Indian Basketry. Malkan, New York.

This volume examines West Coast basketry from Alaska to Southern California. Among the topics discussed are the relation of basketry to pottery, the appearance of basketry in legend, the use of baskets in ceremony and a host of data regarding materials, preparation, dyes, form, use, and the symbolism of designs. Explains how to collect, preserve and differentiate between "good" and "bad" baskets. Liberally illustrated with more than 300 illustrations consisting of sketches and historical photos. Contains a two-page bibliography.

1903 Basketmakers of California at Work. The Basket 1:2-18.

Johnson, Barbara

1959 Seri Indian Basketry. Kiva: A Journal of the Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society 25(1):10-13.

Keator, Glenn, Linda Yamane, and Ann Lewis

1995 In Full View: Three Ways of Seeing California Plants. Heyday Books: Berkeley, CA.

Kelly, Isabel I.

1930 Yuki Basketry. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 24(9):421-454.

Kelsey, Andrea

1975 Interview with Ada Charles. In I am These People. Governor’s Office, State Capitol, Sacramento, CA.

King, C. D.

1992 A Review of The Evolution of Chumash Society: A Comparative Study of Artifacts Used for Social System Maintenance in the Santa‑Barbara Channel Region Before A. D. 1804 by J. R. Johnson. American Indian Culture and Research Journal 16(3):207‑209.

Kroeber, Alfred Louis

1904 Types of Indian Culture in California. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 2(3):80‑103.

A rather ethnocentric view of California Indian life with frequent references to the primitiveness and simplicity of various cultures. In Kroeber's opinion lack of "war for its own sake," a lack of "confederacies of powerful tribes," and an absence of "totems" combined with the lack of "picturesqueness and dignity of other Indians" qualify California natives as "unusually simple and undeveloped." His primary means of differentiation of peoples seems to be linguistic. His reference to baskets is limited and in his opinion it is the sole area of culture which had "reached considerable development."

1905 Basket Designs of the Indians of Northern California. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 2(4):105‑165.

1906 Shoshonean Dialects of California. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 4:65-165.

1908 Ethnohistory of the Cahuilla Indians. The University of California Press, Berkeley.

1909 California Basketry and the Pomo. American Anthropologist 11:233-249.

1922a Elements of Culture in Native California. University of California Publication in Archaeology and Ethnology 13(8):259-328.

1922b Basket Designs of the Mission Indians. Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History 20:149-183.

1925 [1976] Handbook of the Indians of California. Dover Publications, New York.

The authoritative text on the subject. A complex summation of every aspect of Native American life in California. It is essentially a culture distribution element guide which focuses primarily on material culture. It aptly describes basketry techniques and materials, and names some English translations of design names. It is one of the earliest texts to largely ignore the convenient heading of "Mission" Indian, although his differentiation of southern California tribes is sketchy.

1926 Basketry Designs of the Mission Indians. American Museum of Natural History Guide Leaflet Series 60:1-10.

1967 The Indians of California. In The North American Indians: A Sourcebook. Edited by R. C. Owen, J. J. F. Deetz, and A. D. Fischer. The McMillan Company, New York. Abridged from Elements of Culture in Native California originally published 1922, University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 13:259‑328.

1970 Elements of Culture in Native California. In The California Indians: A Source Book edited by R.F. Heizer and M. A. Whipple. University of Ca

A California Basketry Bibliography