Illustration: Washoe burden and trinket basket.
The Washoe people originally lived a nomadic lifestyle around the shores of Lake Tahoe and the surrounding area in what is now the border area of California and Nevada.
The Washoe have always been adept at weaving the indigenous plant life around them such as reeds, ferns, and sagebrush, into all aspects of their nomadic lifestyle. To be constantly on the move produces a honed strategy as far as the domestic and personal necessities of life are concerned. All items must be light, easily transportable, but durable. Over generations, the Washoe were able to finely tune such items as basketry, netting, shelters, clothing, and footwear in order to procure the best quality from the local natural resources that were immediately at hand.
Illustration: Examples of Washoe basketry.
By the later nineteenth century, the Washoe had lost both their original indigenous lands along with their nomadic lifestyle. They were particularly targeted because of the beautiful surroundings of Lake Tahoe which were deemed too enticing and attractive to be left to their original inhabitants, which were forcibly removed in order that the area be opened up to American European tourism.
Illustration: Washoe Basket.
However, although often hoped for, this was not the end of this particular indigenous people. The Washoe were able, through the tourist magnet of Lake Tahoe which they now lived near in scattered communities, to tap into that market and eventually that of the more lucrative American Arts & Crafts movement which was beginning to discover an interest in 'native' crafts. Washoe basketry became much sought after and although basketry techniques and styles were manipulated in order to be more pleasing in an aesthetic and 'genuine indian' manner for the American European population of the US, it does not denigrate the achievements of Washoe individuals, all of them female, who produced outstanding basketry pieces that are some of the best examples produced during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These Washoe basketry weavers became much sought after artists and such names as: Louisa Keyser, Scees Bryant Possock and Sarah Jim Keyser amongst others, were names that became known across America by avid collectors.
Illustration: Examples of Washoe basketry.
It is interesting to note that these women were creating artistic basketry, in other words they were producing a craft that was not meant for any domestic or utilitarian use, but was purely to be seen from a strictly ornamental basis. It must be said that these women, who made up such a large part of the Washoe craft output and helped to maintain the public face and integrity of their people, were not subservient to the commercial market or indeed of European Americans. They were not producing 'Indian' basketry, but were instead guiding their own status as craft artists. They were in control of their artistic output, creating new aspects of Washoe basketry techniques and style, so that the craft could develop and continue into the contemporary world, rather than be relegated to the purism sought by so many American Europeans of an idyllic, but buried 'Indian' past.
Illustration: Examples of Washoe basketry.
These women should by rights be seen as being on the same artistic and creative level as many of the main players of the American Arts & Crafts movement. That they are not is problematic. Much Native American craftwork of the past is, by its nature and sometimes by deliberate design, anonymous. However, when an individual name can be produced for a specific range of work, there should be no problem in celebrating that particular individual as an artist of repute, irrespective of their gender or nationality.
Illustration: Washoe cradle baskets.
Louisa Keyser (1850-1925)
Scees Bryant Possock (1858-1918)
Sarah Jim Mayo (1860-1945)
Maggie Mayo James (1870-1952)
Tillie Snooks
Jennie Shaw
Lena Frank Dick (1889-1965)
Lizzie Peters
All of the above links are from the extremely informative and comprehensive California Baskets website. There is also a Washoe Tribe website where more information can be found, both past and present, concerning the Washoe people.
Further reading links:
Washoe Tribe website
California Baskets website
Washoe Seasons of Life: A Native American Story
Basin Region: Washoe People
Celebrating Nevada Indians: Washoe, Northern Paiute, Southern Paiute, Western Shoshone
The Oneness Trail : A Novel of the Washoe Indians
Trust Lands for the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California: Hearing, etc., 1982
Tahoe Place Names: The Origin and History of Names in the Lake Tahoe Basin
The Two Worlds of the Washo, an Indian Tribe of California and Nevada (Case Study in Cultural Anthropology)
The Washo Indians
Precious Cargo: California Indian Cradle Baskets and Childbirth Traditions
