Very Deep Rare Maricopa Basketry Bowl [SOLD]

This rare Maricopa basket is a very deep bowl that dates between 1900 and 1910.  It has been described as a wine bowl but certainly could have served many functions for the owner.  It is in such excellent condition because it probably never served a function for the tribe. It was probably sold shortly after completion.  It is a very rare basket from a tribe no longer making them.

According to Andrew Hunter Whiteford, “most River Yuman baskets have long since disappeared.”  He states that the Maricopas are now primarily pottery makers and no longer make baskets.

A number of tribes which speak the Yuman language have, for a number of years, been grouped together because their cultural patterns are similar.  There are four Yuman-speaking tribes—one in California, one in Mexico, and two in Arizona.  The Arizona Yuman-speaking tribes are known as the River Yuman tribe.  They settled along the lower Colorado River and the Gila River, which provided for good farming. The three groups that make up the Arizona Yumans are Mohaves, Cocopas, and Maricopas.

Condition: this Very Deep Rare Maricopa Basketry Bowl is in very good Condition

Reference: Southwestern Indian Baskets – Their History and Their Makers by Andrew Hunter Whiteford, 1988

Provenance: from a private collection

Relative Links: Maricopas, baskets