Shallow Basketry Bowl with Flower Design [SOLD]

The name Tohono O’Odham is the ancestral name of the tribe known as Papago until a few decades ago, at which time the tribe went back to its ancestral name. The word used by tribal members for themselves is Aw-aw-tam, meaning “the people.”  The tribe inhabits the second largest reservation in the United States, second to the Navajo Reservation.  It is approximately 3 million acres, about the size of Connecticut. 

The Government established the reservation in 1916 with the tribal headquarters located in Sells, Arizona, sixty miles west of Tucson.  The town was originally known as Artesia, then Indian Oasis, and finally being named after Cato Sells in 1918, a Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

Basketry is the oldest of all Indian crafts which still exists today.  Most tribes made baskets of various sizes and shapes for their own use and then eventually began making smaller baskets for sale to tourists, visitors and collectors.  It is often quite difficult to distinguish between baskets of the Tohono O’Odham and their neighbors the Akimel O’Odham because of the proximity of the two tribes and intermarriage amongst the members.  Generally, the former’s baskets have larger coils and looser stitches than those of the Akimel O’Odham, which generally are of finer stitch and finer quality.

We originally posted this basket as an Akimel O’Odham because of its high quality, better than most baskets of the Tohono O’Odham weavers, but it was brought to our attention that the attribution was in error so we are posting it now as having been made by a Tohono O’Odham weaver.

Condition: excellent

Recommended Reading: The Papago Indians and Their Basketry by Terry deWald.  This book is currently not available from Adobe Gallery

Provenance:  from the collection of an Albuquerque resident