A split twig figure of a deer made of delicate willow branches. The shape is highly stylized and very expressionistic, and is a fine example of the use made of the Simplest material. Height: 2.6 inches, Walnut Canyon (Arizona), Western Archaic Period, 2000-1000 B.C., MNA.
MNA = Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff (Arizona)

The Spiral, a universal motif and symbol of fertility. It also occurs in European, Siberian and South American petroglyphs, in the Sahara and Australia, from the Magdalenian Age to the Middle Ages. This is a detail of a basket, Basketmaker II, MVM.
MVM = Mesa Verde National Park Museum (Colorado)

Several split twig figures, representing deer, each made from a single thin willow rod or from some other flexible wood. Archaic Period, 2000-1000 B.C. - 3.88 inches high, Sycamore Canyon (Arizona), ASM
ASM = Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson (Arizona)

Several split twig figures, representing deer, each made from a single thin willow rod or from some other flexible wood. Archaic Period, 2000-1000 B.C. - 4.52 inches high, Grand Canyon National Park (Arizona), MNA
MNA = Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff (Arizona)

Several split twig figures, representing deer, each made from a single thin willow rod or from some other flexible wood. Archaic Period, 2000-1000 B.C. - 5.8 inches, from Grand Canyon National Park (Arizona), ASM.
ASM = Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson (Arizona)

A basket made using the coiling technique, of yucca fibers and decorated with geometric designs in red, green and yellow; the pigments were derived from minerals and plants. When the basket was discovered, it contained 48 ears of corn. Its shape is designed to facilitate transport. Height: 24 inches. Painted Cave, Lukachukai Mountains (Arizona), Anasazi Culture, AFM.
AFM = Amerind Foundation Museum, Dragoon (Arizona)

Woven sandals made of yucca fiber. The sandal to the left is made with a more refined technique, from Mummy Cave, Canyon del Muerto in Canyon de Chelly (Arizona). The sandal on the right is from Long House, Mesa Verde National Park (Colorado). Both Anasazi Culture, MVM.
MVM = Mesa Verde National Park Museum (Colorado)

Left: Basket woven of yucca fiber, found in a kiva at Mug House, Mesa Verde National Park (Colorado), Anasazi Culture, MVM. Right: Yucca fiber, best suited for items that would get rough use such as baskets and sandals.
MVM = Mesa Verde National Park Museum (Colorado)

A coiled basket with black geometric pattern. Diameter: 8.4 inches, Sinagua Culture, MNA.
MNA = Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff (Arizona)

Thanks to the twined-weaving technique, this Nootka whale-hunting hat is waterproof. Jessie Webster (born 1909), a Nootka artist in Ahousat, located on Flores Island, wove this fine piece out of cedar bark fiber and dyed grasses. According to her account, this is a Maquinna hat, named after the powerful chief of the Mowachaht Nootka at the time of contact with James Cook. (26 cm; MOA)
MOA = Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

A small, densely woven basket with lid. The material is dyed and undyed sweet grass, interwoven to create a scene with water birds and a whaling canoe hunting a killer whale. The basket was acquired from the Makah in 1880. (Ø 24 cm, VM)
VM = Völkerkundemuseum der Universität Zürich

Around 1900 this little basket was the property of the Thompson River Salish, an Inland Salish group who lived in the area where the Thompson flows into the Fraser River. They carried on an active trade with the Stalo Halkomelem, who lived further down the Fraser River, and so acquired this basket. A Stalo woman wove it out of cedar roots, dyed grasses and bark fibers. (16 cm, NMM)
NMM = National Museum of Man, Ottawa

In her home in Ketchikan, Holly Churchill-Burns demonstrates the art of weaving a Haida hat from spruce roots. When she was a child, she says that she often had to help her mother, Delores Churchill-Peratrovich, gather roots and cedar bark, and that she made early attempts at basket-weaving. At that time she was a less enthusiastic weaver than her sister, April Churchill-Varnell. Now, however, she has begun to feel that she, too, wants to continue this tradition of her Haida family. She was inspired, in part, by an exhibition of contemporary basket-weaving in Alaska dedicated to her grandmother, Selina Peratrovich, a Haida woman from Masset.

Inca basket - diameter 19 cm - comes from an Inca grave in Solcor - Museum San Pedro de Atacama (province Antofagasta) - Chile - 1976

Basket with figure with axe and 3 javelins - diameter 35 cm - Atacameña culture second phase - Museum San Pedro de Atacama (Antofagasta province) - Chile - 1976

Detail of a basket with figure with axe and 3 throwing spears - diameter 35 cm - Atacameña culture second phase - Museum San Pedro de Atacama (Antofagasta province) - Chile - 1976

The majority of Paraguay's Indians are Guaranis. You also meet them in the Argentinean province of Misiones. This indigenous woman is sitting outside her house, weaving a basket. - 1973

Market day in Masaya in Nicaragua. A woman has bought two wicker chests. - 1977

A Daouda boy weaving a ribbon. - Edeyen of Oubari - Libya - 1964

Zouï oasis near Bardaï. In the enclosed courtyard of a Toubou house, an old woman is busy weaving baskets. The palm fibres woven into strips, put together, make baskets or sleeping mats. While the substructure of the houses is made of brick, the roof is made of large rushes, which can be found almost everywhere in the Sahara. - Chad - 1967

Tatum, a young Targia, weaving ribbons that are further processed into mats - Iberkom - Niger - Aïr - 2001

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