Tohono O'odham baskets by Barbara Francisco are featured at Bair's.

Bair's Indian Trading Company. Authentic American Indian baskets.

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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: Barbara Francisco

Closed Coiled Zoomorphic Tray Basket.

Tohono O'odham pictorial basket made by Barbara Francisco

Tortoise Tray Basket
Material: Sun bleached (white) and natural (green), split yucca fiber, devil's
claw (black), and banana yucca root (red) over a beargrass core.
Style: Closed coiled tray shape zoomorphic pictorial with closed stitches.
Rim has an open coil with a "V" stitch of split yucca.
Note the 'overstitching' technique for eyes.
Size: 6.5" diameter.
Handwoven by: Barbara Francisco (Tohono O'odham Nation).

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Item Number: 66-BF-729
Price: $95.00
S/H via First Class Mail: $8.90,
includes Insurance & Delivery Confirmation.

To order this item, use our secure Shopping Cart or contact us.

Members of the Tohono O'odham tribal nation (formerly known as Papago Indians), live along the Arizona, Mexico border. Their present tribal lands, established in 1874, consist of a three parcel reservation of 2,854,881 acres (approximately 5,000 square miles), 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), 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.

See books for sale about American Indian Baskets.

PLEASE NOTE: Orders of multiple items may result in a reduction of the total
amount charged for shipping/handling/insurance that is listed per item.
Any such reduction will occur before charging your credit card.

Free Shipping/Handling/Insurance on all Navajo rug orders over $500.00
Free Shipping/Handling/Insurance on all other orders over $250.00
(S/H/I fees posted on orders of multiple items that when added together total over $500.00 for
rugs, or over $250.00 for all other items will be adjusted off before charging your credit card.)

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