SPECIAL EXHIBIT
Miniature Native American Baskets – A Lifetime Collection
Curated by Jan Duggan

In their language, the Pima refer to themselves as Akimel O’Odam—the River People. Their villages traced the meanders of the Gila, Salt, Yaqui, and Sonora rivers long before the first European set foot on the continent. The Pima men used those rivers to create an unparalleled irrigation system to grow corn, squash, beans, and even cotton. The women used the riverbanks to harvest willow, cattails, wheat, and devil’s claw to create some of the most remarkable weavings of all Indigenous peoples.

Materials for Pima weaving were collected at specific times of the year to ensure color and quality. Women then used a unique coiling technique that twisted cattail, willow, or wheat straw to produce coiled strands. Those strands were sewn tightly together, often using mesquite bark or cotton thread, so that one coil was sewn through the previous one to keep the shape intact. The resulting integrity of these Pima baskets was at a level of perfection that allowed them to actually hold water.

Historically, Pima baskets were utilitarian in nature, used for storage, carrying crops, food preparation, and even trading.  Modern technologies, as well as information from descendants, have allowed researchers to identify generations of Pima weavers from more than a century ago.  Mary Juana, who learned the craft from her grandmother, made notable contributions to the art form in the late 1800s.  Remarkably, other significant weavers from the time like Maggie Noble, Manuella Thomas, Lena and Josephine Wiston, Fanny Juan,  Minnie Marks, Lucy Enos, Louisa Lewis, Susie Anton, Gondoloria, Manuella Thomas, and Louise and Donna Kuyiyesva can now be identified.