Indian Baskets Of Central California

This unique book provides a complete study of the exquisite Native American basketry from the San Francisco Bay Area and the Monterey Bay region north to Sonoma, Napa, and Mendocino and eastward across the Sacramento Valley to the crest of the Sierras. Baskets of the Pomo, Ohlone (Costanoan), Coast Miwok, Esselen, Huchnom, Lake Miwok, Maidu, Wappo, and Yuki people are lavishly illustrated and knowledgably and sensitively described. Color photographs and drawings illustrate the rare, fine California Indian baskets from museum and private collections in the United States and Europe. The vast majority of these baskets are illustrated for the first time. Ralph Shanks is vice president of the Miwok Archaeological Preserve of Marin. Lisa Woo Shanks is editor of the Basketry of California and Oregon Series. They are the authors of The North American Indian Travel Guide.

California Indian Baskets is lavishly illustrated in full color with rare baskets from the magnificent collections of the University of California, Harvard University, Smithsonian Institution, The British Museum, Madrid's Museo de America, Royal Museum of Scotland, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Southwest Museum and many other world-class museums and private collections. The vast majority of these rare baskets have never appeared in print before. Made possible in part through the support and vision of three California Indian tribes, this remarkable book is the result of decades of research by noted basketry scholar Ralph Shanks. Expertly researched and well written, California Indian Baskets honors the achievements of the First Californians. The book illuminates Native American art, history, technology, population movements, cultural interactions, and native plant uses. The book demonstrates basketry studies can rank with archeology, linguistics and DNA research in understanding and appreciating Native American culture and history. This is especially true in California where baskets were central to daily life. It was through basketry that the most populous and linguistically diverse Native American population in the United States was able to create a highly productive economy and vibrant cultural life with no agriculture and very limited use of pottery. Native California was not "pre-agricultural," but rather a land where basketry was combined with native plant resources so successfully that agriculture was not needed.

This richly illustrated photographic overview captures the beauty and artistry of the remarkable world-class, Native American Indian baskets of California, circa 1895 to 1940, known as the Florescence or Flowering. It is a tribute to these artisans and includes biographical snapshots of weavers and portraits of their masterpiece California Indian baskets, which today exist in museums and private collections throughout the United States. Collecting highly complex and artistic Native American baskets became a successful tourist business in the late 19th and early 20th century -- tourism in the United States exploded as a result of the expansion of the railway system to hitherto relatively inaccessible locations. This new business benefitted both collectors of this art form and the weavers who created them. The transition from woven baskets used for utilitarian use to more durable and less expensive metal cookware and storage vessels allowed weavers the time needed to innovate and create baskets specifically catering to tourist interests. During this period of Florescence, some of the world's most intricate, beautiful, and artistic baskets were woven, particularly by highly-talented weavers representing several Native American tribes located throughout California.

Presents over sixty examples of beautiful California Indian basketry, with commentary upon each basket by native basketweavers, scholars, and California Indian artists in other media.

Situated on the western edge of the Great Basin between the Sierra Nevada and White-Inyo mountain ranges, Owens Valley has been home for thousands of years to the Owens Valley Paiute and their southern neighbors, the Panamint Shoshone. The willow baskets both groups created are noteworthy for their complex construction and durability, and their materials and designs reflected available resources as well as the seminomadic existence that characterized life in the Great Basin for generations. Since the mid-nineteenth-century arrival of non-Indians into the Valley, the baskets have changed. Weaving a Legacy places those changes in the context of the region's dramatic social history. In addition, the volume closely examines basketry techniques and technology, historic weavers and their lineages, contemporary weavers, and basket collectors. The text is extensively illustrated with black-and-white photographs of people, landscapes, and baskets. Among the legacies of these baskets are the stories they evoke, many of which the authors recount in this beautiful work.

Indian Baskets of Northern California and Oregon is a richly illustrated, detailed study of the Native American basketry of this fascinating region. The book is the result of decades of research by Ralph Shanks who is a careful scholar and delightful author.The book covers the basketry of the Yurok, Hupa, Karuk, Wiyot, Tolowa, Wintu, Yana, Atsugewi, and other California cultures. It also details the baskets of Oregon peoples including the Klamath, Kalapuya, Wasco, Coos, Tillamook, Tututni, and others.The book features nearly 200 previously unpublished color photographs of baskets of Northern California and Oregon from museums and private collections in the United States and Europe.