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Introduction

Blankets and Baskets

Weavings from the American West
July 2 - October 10, 2004

By the 17th to 18th centuries, native cultures in the American West and their Spanish American neighbors had established widespread trade routes for their weavings. Pueblo women in Arizona created elaborate cotton blankets for their own use and also traded them as far away as the Great Plains. Arizona-made baskets were to be found in California, along with locally made baskets used for ritual purposes or for gathering, storing, and cooking food. Blankets and baskets were traditionally woven by women for utilitarian purposes, and their decoration reflected the cultures of the various makers. Some of these objects exhibit patterns based on the natural world, such as the Apache and Pima winnowing baskets and the California cooking bowls decorated with butterfly or rattlesnake motifs. Gathering baskets from the Cascades region of Oregon and Washington present depictions of the human figure and imagery borrowed from neighboring Plains Indians. The weavers' spiritual worlds are evident in the ceremonial patterns incorporating sacred images that appear on Hopi plaques from the Southwest or on blankets and baskets from the Pacific Northwest Coast. After European contact, Indian decorative arts both flowered and changed with new economic realities and the advent of the tourist market. Navajo weavings replaced Pueblo blankets as a mainstay of Native American trade. Old photographs show Navajo blankets being worn on the Lakota Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota in the 1890s. By 1880, native blankets and baskets were being avidly collected, and native makers incorporated into their work motifs and forms reflecting the tastes and preferences of their new customers.This exhibition surveys the Museum's fine collection of historic baskets and blankets made in the 19th and early 20th centuries by American Indian and Spanish American peoples throughout Western North America. Techniques, patterns, and materials reflect the stories, myths, traditions, and histories of those who made them: the woven worlds of the artists.

Selected Objects

Tulare Native North American

Basket Bowl, 1900s

Diné (Navajo) Native North American

Man's wearing blanket (Chief blanket, phase III), ca. 1865 - ca. 1880

Diné (Navajo) Native North American

Women’s wearing blanket, 1870-80

Diné (Navajo) Native North American

Man's wearing blanket (Chief blanket, phase II), 1855-1863

Diné (Navajo) Native North American

Basket, early 1900s

Tlingit Native North American, Northwest Coast

Lidded basket, early 1900s
No Image Available

Tlingit Native North American, Northwest Coast

Basket lid, early 1900s

Native North American, California

Bowl, ca. 1900

Spanish-American

Man's wearing blanket (Rio Grande Style sarape), 1850-1870

Native North American, Southwest

Bowl, early 1900s

Tlingit Native North American

Rattle-lid basket, early 1900s

Akimel O'odham (Pima) Native North American, Arizona

Tray, ca. 1900

Diné (Navajo) Native North American

Man's wearing blanket, ca. 1880s

Tulare or Yokuts Native North American

Cooking basket, 1800s

Kwakwaka'wakw (Kwakiutl) Native North American

Hat, late 1800s

Yokuts Native North American, California

Oval Basket, 1800s

Native North American

Tray, ca. 1900

Diné (Navajo) Native North American, Southwest

Man's wearing blanket ("Moqui" style), 1870s

Apache Native North American

Jar (olla), ca. 1910

Diné (Navajo) Native North American, Southwest

Man's wearing blanket, 1870 - 1880

Hopi Native North American, Arizona

Plaque, early 1900s

Hopi Native North American, Southwest

Wedding plaque, early 1900s

Hopi Native North American

Women’s wearing blanket (manta), ca. 1870

Spanish

Sarape, ca. 1870

Pomo Native North American

Bowl, early 1900s

Wasco Native North American, Northwest Coast

"Sally" bag, 1800s

Attributed to Susie White

Tray, early 1900s

Tlingit Native North American, Alaska southeast

Berry basket, early 1900s

Tulare Yokuts Native North American

Cooking basket, late 1800s-early 1900s

Western Apache Native North American, Southwest

Tray, ca. 1910

Pomo Native North American

Bowl, early 1900s

Tulare or Yokuts Native North American

Necked jar, late 1800s - early 1900s

Hopi Native North American, Oraibi Mesa

Basketry plaque, late 1800s

Diné (Navajo) Native North American

Women’s wearing blanket (manta), ca. 1880

Diné (Navajo) Native North American

Man's wearing blanket ("Moqui" style), ca. 1860-1870

Tlingit Native North American

Chilkat robe, late 1800s

Diné (Navajo) Native North American

Blanket or rug, ca. 1890

More objects +

Exhibition Checklist

Blankets and Baskets : Weavings from the American West

July 2 - October 10, 2004
View Checklist PDF

RISD Museum

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