Tohono O’odham Basket

Tohono O'odham basket by unknown artist. This polychrome tray features a fret design. The Papago Indians, now called Tohono O' Odham (People of the Desert), inhabit over 50 villages within their beautiful reservation in southern Arizona. Here they still gather the materials for their baskets as their ancestors did. This authentic piece of Native American art consists of two parts: the warp (inner coil) is made of bear grass, the weft (design) is harvested either from the soap tree yucca, the pod of the devil's claw (black), or the roots of the banana yucca (red). All the colors occur naturally, and no dyes are used.

Circa: 1960