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Images of selected objects from the Nevada State Museum's anthropology collection will regularly be placed on this website to assist visitors with artifact identification and to provide others with information about our collections. These objects are not currently on display in the museum. (click on thumbnails for closer view)
WASHOE BASKET
 Weaver: Attributed to Dat So La Lee (Cohodas 1979:77, no. 8). Dat So La Lee is arguably the finest Washoe basket weaver. Her artistic creativity flourished with the help of Abe Cohn, owner of The Emporium in Carson City, Nevada. As a patron of Native American art and an entrepreneur, Mr. Cohn supported Dat So La Lee and sold her works in his store for nearly 30 years until her death in 1925. Price tags in several of her baskets from the 1920s were $1500 for a large Degikup and a coiled burden basket. Some of her other works reportedly sold for up to $3000. The Nevada State Museum, Carson City, and the Nevada Historical Society, Reno, have collections of Dat So La Lee's baskets on display. This piece, however, is not currently displayed.
Style: Degikup -- Small-mouthed globular basket.
  Description: This willow basket is manufactured with a three-rod, bunched foundation, top rod split, and sewn with simple close coiled stitches. The basket start is a normal, reinforced center with a right to left work direction. The rim finish is a "self" rim with tapered, terminal stitches and rods. Basketry decoration is comprised of dyed bracken fern wefts forming stacked, V-shaped elements.
Material: Willow (Salix sp.), dyed bracken fern (Pteris aquilina).
Date: 1905 -- 1910
Accession No.: Nevada State Museum 218-G-1
Comment: Individuals frequently contact the Museum regarding identification of family baskets that they believe were woven by Dat So La Lee. The Museum and the Nevada Historical Society have Abe Cohn's ledger books that record many of Dat So La Lee's baskets. The Museum and the Historical Society can assist in identifying these documented pieces. For the most part, however, Dat So La Lee's baskets are characterized by the following characteristics: very symmetrical shape with an even surface; finely stitched (10 stitches per cm./ 25 stitches per in.); simple, non-braided, rim; and a reinforced start. Even if these criteria are met, there were and are other skilled weavers that produce beautiful, finely woven baskets similar to Dat So La Lee's work.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cohodas, Marvin. 1978. Degikup: Washoe Fancy Basketry 1895 -- 1935. Fine Arts Gallery of the University of British Colombia, Vancouver, B.C.
Mason, Otis T. 1904. Aboriginal American Basketry: Studies in a Textile Art Without Machinery. U.S. National Museum Report, pp. 171-548. (Reprinted Dover Books).
BEADED FROG BASKETRY
 Weaver: Unknown. This pictorial, beaded basket has no information regarding who made it or where it came from. The basket, and probably the beading, is attributable to the Western Great Basin (western Nevada and eastern California), and most likely Washoe or Northern Paiute. Any definitive information regarding its origins is welcome. Please e-mail
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.
 Description: This small, one-rod coiled basket is sewn with the "gap stitch" coiling technique leaving the foundation rod exposed between adjoining stitches. The stitches are also vertically aligned from row one row to the next. The non-work surface (interior) exhibits a rightward coil direction with fag ends clipped even with the non-work surface. The interior of the basket exhibits two redbud bands encircling the base and a single redbud band, all but hidden beneath the rim. The close coiled start is tightly woven with the central hole filled with a stitch. There are approximately 3+ stitches per cm (6 stitches per inch) and approximately 3.5 rods per cm (9 rods per inch).
 Exterior decoration is accomplished with a variety of colored "seed" beads including solid colored beads - light blue, medium blue, white, light green, black, pink, and mustard; and translucent, colored beads - amber, dark blue, dark green, and ruby. The stitching is the so-called "Peyote stitch" as found on the handle of peyote ceremony fans. On this basket this technique results in a tight fitting, net-like overlay that was initiated at the rim and terminated at the basket start.
 The basket's design is divided into almost equal quadrants, each separated by a multi-colored, diagonally striped, vertical bar. The designs are nearly identical, paired representations with each half of the pair on opposing sides. One pair of panels consists of upright, large- and medium-sized blue and pink speckled white frogs or toads grasping walking sticks (?) with their outstretched arms. In between these panels are another set of paired images each displaying an American flag (15 and 17 stripes, and 9 stars), and a Native American sporting a feather atop his head and a sash. Curiously, his hands are beaded blue (gloves?) and the feet flesh-colored (bare feet?). The base consists of a series of concentric inner rings bordered by a series of concentric 9-pointed stars. Of note are occasional, apparently "stray," contrasting colored beads woven into otherwise solid colored areas. Unlike Navajo art, these stray beads do not break up enclosed design elements.
Material: Willow (Salix sp.), redbud (Cercis occidentalis), glass beads, and thread.
Date: Estimate, Post-1940.
Accession No.: Temporary No. NADA-16
Comment: The museum has approximately 42 beaded baskets in its collections. Although this is the only pictorial basket, it is a wonderful and intriguing example of its type. The willow basket is a very finely crafted and somewhat unusual oblate bowl. Unfortunately, the vertical design overlaying this squat shape requires moving the bowl to adequately view the figures, so the photographs do not do the piece justice. Beaded basket maker Ms. Rebecca Eagle Lambert and Professor Catherine S. Fowler relate that frogs are favorable creatures in Northern Paiute culture.
Dimensions: Diameter 17.1 mm (6 11/16") X Height 59 mm (2 5/16").
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bates, Craig D. and Martha J. Lee. 1990. Tradition and Innovation: A Basket History of the Yosemite-Mono Lake Area. Yosemite Association, Yosemite National Park, California.
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