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; rim is overcast; parallel splint base construction; fully imbricated. The design from the bottom to top: four staggered rows of rectangles (checkerboard); meander pattern; repeat of checkerboard; horizontal zigzag pattern around rim; all in red on bullrush ground; light and dark quill on rim; base is beaded in quill. Colour: tan.