Spi [yay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon
Page 10
November 28, 2 0 0 2
Weaving' together the pieces o f a lost art
Warm Springs Native revitalizes Wasco basket making
s
even generations later, Pat
Courtney Gold, traditional
basket w eaver o f W arm
Springs, graciously cradled a “sally bag.”
She had been studying the intricately
woven basket for a week at the Peabody
Museum o f Harvard University.
The basket was made by a Wasco
woman prior to 1804, the year o f the
Lewis and Clark Expedition.
W hen they returned to the E ast
Coast, Lewis and Clark took the bas
ket with them.
The first time Gold saw the basket
in a picture, the beauty o f the design
awed her. She promised herself when
she became a “good enough” Wasco
weaver, she would recreate that design.
T hat day came, and the Peabody
Museum sponsored her trip to study
the design of the basket. While there,
she not only studied the weaving tech
nique but, through her intuition, slowly
realized the significance of the design.
Wasco tribal tradition says that de
cisions should be based on how they
will affect the seventh generation, she
explained.
Ironically, Gold realized she was the
seventh generation, and the basket had
affected her. Furthermore, she discov
ered that the diamond-shaped zigzags
on the basket signify fishing nets, and
inside are pictograph faces. The two
symbols together represent the meet
ing o f the new generation and tradi
tions o f the past, she concluded.
“It was one o f the most profound
spiritual experiences I’ve had. The in
formation flowed from the basket to
me,” she remembered fondly.
Search for a beginning and an end
Just 11 years ago Gold was “turned
on” to the Wasco weaving style when
she received a phone call from her sis
ter.
“She told me there would be an op
portunity to learn how to basket weave
in the Wasco tradition,” remembers
Gold. A non-Indian woman named
Mary Schlick, wife to a BIA employee,
pieced together the remnants o f the
Wasco sally bag tradition by talking with
elders on various Indian reservations
where she had lived.
Without the knowledge o f how to
begin or end a sally bag, Schlick of
fered a class in hopes of returning the
knowledge to the Wasco people.
“She learned enough from the el
ders to spark my interest,” said Gold
o f Schlick’s class.
In fact Gold’s interest was sparked
enough to make a career change.
In 1991 she devoted her full atten
tion to the pursuit o f Wasco basket
weaving, and quit her job as a math
ematician.
Before long Schlick solved the mys
tery o f the beginning and the end of a
sally bag. One Yakama elder from the
n o rth side o f the C olum bia River
named Julia Sohappy had retained the
knowledge o f how to begin and end a
sally bag. Before her death, she was able
to share the missing piece.
When the Wasco people relocated
to the reservations, the Wasco word for
sally bag, “I-schkul-le,” stuck but the
art was nearly lost.
“We lost about two generations of
basket weavers,” says Gold.
She estimates the last generation of
Wasco who were experts at the craft
ended in the 1940s or 1950s.
Bill Bachhuber
Trish Reynolds
Story by
Shannon
Keaveny
pounded into a concentrated form,”
explained Gold, as she indicated the ap
proxim ate rectangular size w ith her
hands as being about five inches by
three inches.
“By doing this, they (the Wasco
people) could fit roughly 90 to 100
pounds o f salmon in a sally bag,” she
elaborated.
Sally bags come in a variety o f sizes,
anywhere from a large 2-gallon to small
quart to a cup size. Families created
basket designs, used am ong family
members but also open to use by the
tribe, said Gold.
Traditional fibers for baskets come
mostly from water plants. Some ex
Bringing it back to life
amples are dogbane, cattail, beargrass,
N o one knows for sure where the sedge, cedar, bull rush or tule. Some
name sally bag, the traditional geometri are peeled and shredded with a razor
cal designed basket o f the Wasco edge seashell until soft and fluffy. Af
people, came from.
terwards they are twined.
It seems likely it’s the white man’s
Plant fibers are gathered in the ap
interpretation of the similar sounding propriate season, washed and then dried
Wasco word for basket, “I-schkul-le,” anywhere from three months to a year,
hypothesizes Pat Courtney Gold.
depending on the plant.
Sally bags were used for storage.
A 20-minute water soak prepares
Gold says pounded dry salmon was of them for weaving.
ten put in the basket when trading with
Gold says fiber collectors need to
other tribes.
be aware o f chemical sprays, and o f
“A 20 p o u n d salm on could be preserving plant populations when har-
FROM CLOCKWISE,TOP LEFT: Pat Courtney Gold stands
among cattail grass, a common plant fiber gathered for W asco,
basket weaving. TOP RIGHT: Gold’s basket created for the
2004 Lewis-and Clark anniversary. The design was inspired by
a Wasco basket acquired by Lewis and Clark in 1804 and
presently exhibited in the Peabody Museum of Harvard. On the
top of the basket, Gold added a picture story based on the
journals of Lewis and Clark. She hopes to utilize the Lewis and
Clark Anniversary by sharing with the public a Native American
version of the arrival of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
MIDDLE RIGHT: Gold weaves a Wasco sally bag.
BOTTOM RIGHT: Gold processes Some dogbane with a
seashell, as her ancestors did. ABOVE CENTER: Miniature
sally bag attached to a necklace designed by Gold. ABOVE
LEFT: “Yuppie Indians” designed with a traditional weave and
a contemporary motif by Gold atthe High Desert Museum.
Shannon Keaveny/Spilyay
vesting. Like the knowledge o f the
weave, many aspects o f fiber process
ing were lost and had to be fediscov-,
ered.
“It was hard for us to continue our
traditions on the reservation, when we
were a Colombia River based people,”
acknowledged Gold.
Just four years after Gold’s first class
in 1995, she and her sister formed the
N o rth w e st
N ativ e
A m erican
Basketweaver Association (NNÁBÁ).
Their mission was to promote, preserve
and maintain the tradition o f basket
weaving.
Tribes on the original Columbia
River trade routes were encouraged to
participate.
“We wanted to be really inclusive and
include all tribes that traded together,”
said Gold.
Today tribes participate from O r
egon, Washington, Idaho, western Mon
tana, Alaska, A lberta (Canada) and
so u th w e stern B ritish C olum bia
(Canada).
NNABA embraces the tradition of
baskets mixed with a modern day con
temporary twist.
“Current weavers maintain traditions
but also want to express new interpre
tations, by using their traditions to ex clothes. T he man’s baby blue socks
press contemporary views,” explained match his tie.
NNABA participants gather for con
Gold.
G old realizes basket weaving has ferences. Elders come and the younger
always evolved according to what ma generation hopes to learn from them.
“Often instead o f teaching classes,
terials were available. Blankets from
the fur traders were unraveled and the the elders will just sit down and start
colorful wool was woven into sally bags. weaving, as weavers do. If someone
In the 1920s the Wasco people trav wants to learn, they can sit and watch
eled to the Willamette Valley and re and learn,” said Gold.
A fter G old and her sister started
cycled the cotton twine leftover after
agricultural hops were harvested. Old NNABA, they discovered there were
clothes are often shredded and incor p o ck e ts o f p eo p le w ho knew th e
Wasco basket weaving tradition but
porated into baskets.
G old herself shares a photo o f a didn’t know who each other were.
“It was so rewarding to find other
wall hanging that she created with a tra
ditional weaving method. The weave is weavers,” said Gold.
done with old dry cleaning bags, col
Pat Courtney Gold will receive the 2002
ored shopping bags, audiotape, and film
Community Spirit Award from the First
canisters hanging from the bottom.
N e x t year an an tiq u e w oven People’s Fund in Denver on December 13.
barbwire wall hanging, created by Gold, First People’s Fund is committed to support
ing the creative work o f American Indian
will be exhibited in London.
She has a basket woven from hous artists.
Gold resides in Scapoose near the Colum
ing wire. These are materials available
bia River, where she practices her art.
today.
Her work can be found at the Museum
O ther baskets she makes are more
traditional but have contemporary de at Warm Springs, Lillian Pitt Art Gallery,
signs. One example is the piece called and other galleries throughout the Pacific
“Yuppie Indians,” a basket featuring Northwest. To contact Pat Courtney Gold
N ativ e A m ericans w ith expensive directly call (503) 543-3584.