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

Basketmaker: Debbie Lopez (Tohono O'odham)

This handmade basket uses a combination of stitches producing closed coiled, and open coiled sections. The central star design is made by contrasting the yucca fiber (white) with devil's claw (black). The fully wrapped rim is also laced with devil's claw for a nice finishing touch.
Material: Sun bleached, split yucca and devil's claw over a beargrass core.
Style: Open and closed coiled tray shape with open and wheat stitches with laced rim stitches.
Size: 11.5" in diameter; sides slope up to 1 3/8" high.
Handmade by: Faye Ventura (Tohono O'odham Nation).

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.

This close-up shows detail of the very well executed center design as well as the combination of stitches utilized.

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.

Here's a close-up of the center coils showing detail of the star pattern made from the contrasting yucca and devil's claw, both over the green beargrass coils.

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), 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: 66-15-802_DL
Price: $180.00
S/H via Priority U.S. Mail: $17.40,
includes Insurance and Delivery Confirmation.

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