Mono Indians

We are inclosing a quotation by George Wharton James from his book, published in 1903, because I feel it describes the Mono Indians and a particular basket maker in beautiful detail.

“Just below the Yosemite Valley, east and south, a nation of aboriginal basket-makers is to be found.  One of the counties of California, as well as a noted lake, are named after them—Monos.  Little by little the lands owned by their ancestors have been stolen from them, and now they are driven in every direction higher and higher into the mountains.  With an indifference to their rights that is very different from the passionate rebellion of such people as the Apaches, they have allowed themselves to be dispossessed of their homes, and have climbed away further from the white man.  Doubtless the reason for this seeming indifference is to be found in the fact that there is plenty more valuable land in the higher Sierras which they can use for their simple pastoral wants.

“Not long ago, I visited this people with a desire to see what could be learned of them before they entirely disappeared from the ken of white men.  Leaving the line of the Southern Pacific at Fresno, I drove up into the heart of the Sierras, past the great flumes and lumber yards at Clovis . . . A few miles over the ridge, and the first of the Mono Indian rancherias was found. . . We pushed along over the mountain sides, down into a shut-in valley, and then on and up, over steep and difficult trails until a large settlement was reached.  Here we were in the veritable home of the Monos.  They are seldom visited and white people are a rarity.

“(A) woman from whom I bought four baskets is pictured.  The basket she holds is a beautiful creation.  The colors of many of these bottle-necked designs are as harmonious and pleasing to the most cultured chromatic taste as the finest dress . . . and the weaving is as regular and perfect as if done by machinery.  In shape, too, it is artistic, symmetrical and perfect.  It was made to be a little household treasure basket, and the design is an embodied prayer. 

“After I purchased this and the weaver sat looking at it with regretful longing that her necessities were such that she was compelled to part with it for the white man’s money, I could imagine her thoughts lifted to Those Above that they would not deem her sacrilegious in selling that which she had intended as a perpetual prayer.”

George Wharton James’ experience in visiting the Mono village in the High Sierras and his comments about a bottle neck basket he purchased and his impression of the thoughts of the weaver are so eloquent that I wanted to share it.  

Reference:  INDIAN BASKETS and How to Make Indian and Other Baskets by George Wharton James, 1903.