Basket

Burden basket. Tsilhqot’in weavers made coiled cedar-root baskets imbricated with cat-tail grass and cherry bark (for the darker designs). Animals, figures and geometric designs in bands are worked into their sometimes playful designs in bullrush and cherry bark on cedar root. Baskets were used extensively in communities for carrying, storage and cooking and for trade and sale to non-natives. Today baskets continue to be valued in First Nations communities for their cultural importance and continue to be used as gifts, in trade and are made for sale.

Coiled basket with bifurcated stitches; parallel splint base construction; partial imbrication. The design from the bottom to top: animal figures in red on bullrush ground; two rows of animal figures in red on plain ground; one row of animal figures and a zigzag line in red on bullrush ground; two plain rows; series of red triangles on bullrush ground. Four rows of imbrication on base. Colour: tan.