A Native American Basket Guide

One area of collecting that I find fascinating is Native American baskets. For many antique collectors and sellers, baskets pose tricky identification issues. In particular, how to tell their age? But also, what material did the maker use and is the piece well-made?

In this article, we’ll look at baskets made by indigenous woodland people from my neck of the woods in the Northeastern United States. We’ll undertake answering some of those tricky issues and learn more about these interesting baskets. Let’s dive in.

Related Post: Vintage Basket Price Guide

Native American Basket Video

Check out my video on Native American baskets where you’ll see me handling and discussing the baskets seen in this post and please, I hope you follow me and give me a thumbs up 🙂

Who Are Woodland Native Americans?

Indigenous woodland people lived and moved in the Northeastern part of the country down the Atlantic coast, over to the Mississippi and down to the Gulf of Mexico. But the baskets we’ll look at today were made primarily by those people inhabiting the Northeastern U.S. and Southeastern Canada.

These people groups, known as the Algonkians and Iroquois, constructed vessels from natural materials native to their area to hold food and other goods. Interestingly, it’s likely that their basketry methods and designs were strongly influenced by the European settlers.

The tribes who constructed the baskets we’ll be talking about, include the Mi’kmaq, Passamaquody, Maliseet, and Penobscot of Maine, the Abenaki of Canada, and the Mohawks of New York.

Experts often have difficulty connecting a particular tribe with a specific basket due to tribal movements and intermarriages. So I will generally not be attributing any of today’s baskets to a specific tribe.

By the late 18th century, selling both baskets and birch bark boxes for souvenirs in tourist towns throughout the Northeast, contributed heavily to the Native American economy.

Over the winter they would make their wares and then move down into the Adirondack and White Mountain towns and set up stalls during the summer. All of the examples that we’ll look at today were made for the souvenir market from the 1940’s-80’s.

A Word About Birch Bark Boxes

In addition to baskets, woodland people made and used birch bark boxes for storage purposes. In fact, in many locales, boxes would have been in more use than baskets.

Here’s an example of a woodland birch bark box trimmed with sweet grass that has been sewn to the rim with black cotton thread. 

The Algonkians of Canada were known in particular for their use of sweet grass for rim trim, while eastern rims would have been bound with spruce root (Turnbaugh, 114).

The lid to this piece bares a simple punched leaf design, but on earlier examples you would find beautifully detailed etched designs. And still other examples would have been decorated (or even covered) with porcupine quills.

The bottom is stamped “Genuine Indian Handicraft, Made in Canada,” letting us know who made the box and where. It may also provides a hint as to when it was made since the term “Indian” became controversial in the 1960’s and 70’s and has largely given way to specific tribal names.

What Are Native American Baskets Made Of?

Woodland Native Americans made their “plain plaited” baskets primarily out of ash splint and sweet grass, while later baskets occasionally incorporate Hong Kong cord (an imported, twisted sea grass).

Ash splints, like those you see on the bottom of this basket, historically came from black or brown ash. Trees would soak for a year in a marsh or bog, after which basket-makers would remove the logs and strip off the bark. Each log would be cut into quarters and then eighths.

These long strips would be beaten until the growth rings separated, and then finally these strips would be cut almost paper thin for weaving (Sober, 156). Typically men prepared the splints while women wove them.

A couple of varieties of sweet grass make up the second natural resource used in woodland basket making. When dampened, you can still smell the lovely scent of the sweet grass.

The grass, found in the Northeast and Great Lakes regions, is harvested in the spring and heated over fire to allow the fibers to separate for weaving (Sober, 146).

On this basket, the horizontal weavers are primarily sweet grass (the very thin material) along with very thin strips of ash. The spokes, which run vertically, are also ash. The lid has a single wrapped, sweet grass edge.

The third material one often finds incorporated in woodland baskets is called “Hong Kong cord”  or “old China wire.” Made of imported, twisted sea grass, you see it used as a decorative weaver and even more often in the construction of handles.

Thanks to William Dearborn, Jr. who commented below for informing about the alternate name for Hong Kong cord.

This basket, likely a souvenir piece meant to be a hand or tote bag, contains Hong Kong cord weavers and handles, the rest is ash splint. It has a wide reinforced rim that is single wrapped with a thin ash splint.

How Are the Native American Baskets Constructed?

Most woodland baskets on the market are “plain plated” like this one. It’s occasionally referred to a “checkerwork,” which is easier to remember since it resembles a checkerboard. The spokes and weavers are often the same size and are pulled up tightly to each other.

Historians believe that woodland Indians likely adopted this plain plating method of basketry from European settlers  sometime during the 18th century. 

Native American Basket Decoration

This cylindrical, plain plated basket is decorated with orange paint or dye, which would have been applied either before or after weaving. Braided sweet grass comprises the decoration between the orange rows as well as the handles.

This beautifully handmade basket has a reinforced rim and is double wrapped with a thin ash splint. It is perfectly proportioned, tightly woven, and surprisingly lightweight. 

Other methods of decoration frequently used by the woodland Indians include both block stamps with simple designs and “swabbing,” which involved more or less “splotching” paint onto select areas using a cotton covered splint as a paint brush.

A unique method of decoration adopted by many woodland tribes is known as “porcupine twist” or “curly-que,” like you see on this basket. The flexibility of ash and the thinness of the splints allows the wood to be  curved to create this unusual surface.

The “shaggy” appearance of the twisted splints indicates the poorer quality of this particular piece, though it sold for $20.

This smaller, but better quality basket, has porcupine twist “feet” and a [faded] green stripe decoration.

Here you see another version of the porcupine twist. UPDATE: When I listed this basket on eBay, a member of the Abenaki reached out and told me that this basket can be specifically attributed to the Mi’kmaq.

And on the far right basket, a similar red-dyed twists.

Unique Features of Woodland Native American Baskets

There are many distinguishing features of the baskets created by woodland indigenous people of the Northeastern U.S. and southern Canada. They include:

• Sweet grass or spruce root edging 
• Braided sweet grass decoration
• Painted splints
• Porcupine twist decoration of various styles
• Reinforced rims
• Block-printed and swabbed decoration (no examples)

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed today’s post as much as I enjoyed preparing it! I’m fascinated by the history of the “First Nations.” If you have any additional information to share on this topic, please do in the comments below.

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Sources:
Indian Baskets, Sarah Peabody & William A Turnbaugh 
“Baskets: Handy and Handsome Carryalls,” by Marion Burr Sober as found in
The Encyclopedia of Collectibles: Advertising to Baskets
Native American Basketry