Multi-colored Traditional Southern Paiute Basket [SOLD]

The San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe is a small newly recognized tribe of approximately 265 members.

The San Juan Southern Paiutes have lived for the last several hundred years in territory east of the Grand Canyon, bounded by the San Juan and Colorado Rivers, with the Navajo and Hopi Tribes as their neighbors. They share a common heritage with the Southern Paiutes of northern Arizona, Utah, Nevada and California. They retain and maintain their native language which is distinctly separate from their neighbors.

The San Juan Paiute produce baskets for their own use and for sale through the local trading post.  The Navajo wedding basket is one of the patterns they make because it is a ready source of income.  The Paiute live on the edge of the Navajo Reservation and make baskets for the Navajo.

This basket is a modified version of the wedding basket and is not suitable for use by the Navajo because of the deviation from the traditional pattern and the lack of a spirit line which is essential for use by Navajo medicine men.  It is of the style made by the Paiute weavers for sale to collectors.  The use of many colors in their baskets sets them aside from the traditional black and red used in Navajo baskets.

William Beaver, owner of Sacred Mountain Trading Post has been largely responsible for the increased production of Paiute baskets because he has developed a market for them, particularly in several museums nationally and internationally.

For more detailed information on the San Juan Paiute and their basketry, read "Translating Tradition: Basketry Arts of the San Juan Paiute." It is the exhibit catalog of the exhibition at the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian Santa Fe, New Mexico: October 6, 1985 to February 28, 1986.  The catalog is still available through the museum.

Condition: The basket is in original excellent condition

Provenance: ex. coll. Frances Sonnenberg, Santa Fe resident.