Large San Juan Paiute Basket With Butterflies [SOLD]

The San Juan Paiutes of Arizona and Utah have lived in contact with the Diné since at least 1864, and have for a hundred years made wedding baskets for the Diné. With the encouragement of the trader at Sacred Mountain Store near Tuba City, AZ, the San Juan Paiutes entered into a new era of basket making in the 1970s. The trader, William Weaver and his Diné wife, Dollie Begay, encouraged the women to create their own style of baskets. They purchased all that were made, good or bad, to encourage them to improve and to innovate.

As a result of Beaver’s program for the Paiute women, they were rewarded in 1985 with a large exhibition at the Wheelwright Museum in Santa Fe. The exhibition brought a great deal of favorable recognition to the Paiutes in national and regional publications, and the School of American Research in Santa Fe purchased the entire collection.

This large basket is a unique style created by a Paiute weaver. It features five large butterflies as the central motif of the design. It is in excellent condition.