White Mountain Apache Burden Basket [SOLD]

According to Clara Lee Tanner, "Western Apache burden baskets almost always carried distinctive styles of decoration from colored bands woven into or painted on the vessel wall to buckskin and tin tinkles as additions.  The wall decoration consists of two or more horizontal encircling bands, usually black and generally of woven design.

"Burden baskets of the Western Apaches were characteristically decorated with buckskin in the form of a bottom patch and four vertical bands along the wall of the vessel, with longer or shorter thongs along both and sometimes between bands at the rim.  Thongs often terminated in tinkles cut from cans and rolled into cone shapes."

This Apache burden basket follows closely to the descriptions provided by Tanner.  The bands of decoration are raised from the level of the basket wall and portions are dyed dark brown.  The rawhide decorations follow the form specified and the tin tinkles are all intact.

Burden baskets were used to carry personal goods as well as to carry food such as corn, mescal beans, and seeds.  The strap was carried on the forehead of the person and the basket on her back. 

Condition: The basket is in original condition.

Provenance:  This basket was personally purchased by Adobe Gallery at the White Mountain Apache Reservation, Arizona, in 1979 and sold to an Albuquerque client from whose estate it is now offered again.

Reference: Apache Indian Baskets by Clara Lee Tanner