Tohono O'odham basket by Esther Lopez is featured at Bair's.

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Tohono O'odham Geometric Design Basket
Tohono O'odham baskets are handmade from the fibers of yucca plants, devil's claw, banana yucca root, and beargrass. The Tohono O'odham people are well known for intricate geometric and pictorial designs in these larger yucca baskets and in their miniature baskets made of horsehair.

Basketmaker: Esther Lopez, Tohono O'odham Nation

Closed coiled basket features devil's claw and yucca fiber woven over beargrass.

Tohono O'odham closed coiled basket by Esther Lopez.

Tohono O'odham member, Esther Lopez made this fret design basket. The inner coils are beargrass covered with yucca fiber (white), and devil's claw (brown) to produce the geometric design. The basket is 9.5" in diameter and has sides that slope up 1.75" high. Note that the rim is fully covered with devil's claw.

Members of the Tohono O'odham tribal nation (formerly known as Papago Indians), live along the Arizona, Mexico border. Their present tribal lands consist of a reservation of 2,854,881 acres in the Sonoran Desert in south central Arizona and into Mexico, an area comparable in size to the state of Connecticut, but with a population of 27,500 members. Basket making is a long-honored tradition of the Tohono O'odham people who make baskets from various materials such as willow, yucca (most common today), and horsehair. Traditionally, the men harvested the materials and women were the basketmakers. Some families began making the natural material harvesting a family event leading to a transition where now there are some men who are basketmakers in their families as well.

Decorative Tohono O'odham basket patterns include fret designs, turtle back designs, coyote tracks, dragging coyote tracks, cross designs, stars, squash blossoms, dust-devils, human figures, saguaro fruit picking scenes, the well-known "man in the maze" pattern, and representations of antelopes, bats, bees, ducks, humming birds, rattlesnakes, and turtles. Some designs are done in the negative using devil's claw as the the background and yucca or willow for the contrasting design.

In the handmaking of Tohono O'odham baskets, materials are harvested, the yucca fibers are laid out to be bleached by the sun and are then split for weaving. The baskets are carefully woven around a core of beargrass first starting at a central core at the base using simple tools. Lengths of beargrass are continually spliced in to provide the foundation for building the basket. Devil's claw (black or brown), and banana yucca root (red) are split to create decorative geometric or pictorial patterns and to add finished detail to the top or outside edge of some baskets. When first made, the appearance of the yucca is generally white due to its being sun-bleached. With age, the color will slowly darken by degrees, a process that does not detract from the item in any way.

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Item Number: 66-14-801_EL
Price: $375.00
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