The California Culture Area

1
The California Culture Area
2
The Region
There is a multitude of tribal diversity in
California.
3
The Environment
4
The Lifestyle
Housing styles varied depending on the climate
and environment.
5
Acorn Culture
Acorns have been a staple of Native California
economies for millennia. Plentiful and
nutritious, they could be collected and stored
for a continual food source.
Grinding holes
Acorn granary
Live Oak acorn
6
Processing Acorns
7
Cooking in a Basket
By adding hot rocks and removing cooled ones, it
is possible to boil water in a basket.
Acorn meal is spread into a shallow basket and
water is poured over it to wash out the tannic
acid.
The acorn meal is added to a cooking basket full
of heated water.
Rocks are heated in a nearby fire and transferred
to the basket to keep the mixture hot.
8
The People
9
The Regions of California
California can be divided into a lot of smaller
regions because its climate is so varied. There
is are 6 distinct areas The Coast The
Mountains The Northern area The Southern
area The Central valley The Deserts
10
The Impact of Contact

• California tribes endured tremendous hardship
  during the 19th century
• The Mission System
• Disease
• The Gold Rush
• Bounties
• Legislated Slavery
• Treaty Violations
• Reparations

11
Artistic Traditions
While basketry is the premier artform known from
the California region, many other arts have been
created. Shellwork, woodcarving, stoneworking,
featherwork, and beadwork have been produced.
12
Basketry
Every tribe produced some form of basketry in
pre-Contact times. Some baskets were quickly
woven and discarded when worn out, others were
painstakingly constructed for decades of use.
Similar designs are found on baskets of different
tribes but they often represent different ideas.
13
Basketry Techniques

• Coiled
• Twined
• Wicker/plaited

Can be fast to produce and durable
When constructed with fine materials, can be
watertight
Quick construction
14
Basketry Styles
Feather/gift basket
Storage basket
Cooking basket
storage
Gambling tray
Miniature basket
Winnowing basket
Mortar/grinding basket
15
Pit River - Hat Creek Baskets
Designs are woven into the basket by using
materials of different colors.
16
Feather baskets
Baskets are covered with feathers which are
inserted one quill at a time into stitches.
These are baskets which would be given as gifts
at special times in a persons life.
17
Watertight Baskets
By making an extremely tight weave it is possible
to create a basket that will hold water without
leaking.
Watertight baskets were made for storing edibles
and cooking foods.
18
Unusual Basket Designs
Pomo teacup
Trinket or tobacco basket
19
Basketry at Auction in 2002

• A 20x20 inch Southern California polychrome
  olla, collected between 1907 and 1924.
• Woven with vertical panels of naturalistic
  butterflies and checkered diamonds,.
• Sold at Butterfields in San Francisco,
  California on April 23 for 146,625 - a record
  for Native American basketry offered at auction.
  Another polychrome olla at the same sale realized
  75,125.

20
Largest Basket In the World?

• This basket is a seri sappim.,.
• Made from torote, a bush grown in the sonora
  desert.
• The basket was constructed over a 3 1/2 year
  period by 2 Seri Indian ladies.

21
Beaded baskets
An artistic variation as a result of trade and
Contact, beaded baskets continue to be produced
by Paiute weavers today. A glass bead is
inserted into stitches during the construction of
the basket.
22
Shell, Bone and Wood Carving
Wood carving is an artform often neglected when
looking at this region.
Carved elkhorn purses to hold strings of
dentalium shells.
23
Famous California Basketmakers
24
Dat So La Lee, Washoe

• She single-handily changed the art of Washoe
  basket weaving.
• She changed and refined the stitching technique
  to create a new shape of basket called, degikup.

25
Dat So La Lee - Washoe

• Degikup was a larger basket which curved in
  towards the top.
• She also expanded the design to cover most of
  the basket surface.
• Then she introduced a dye called, Redbud.
• This was used along with a black dye for
  decoration.

26
Dat So La Lee - Washoe

• She made over 250 baskets in her lifetime, many
  of which reside in museum collections.

• Her baskets were done with perfection and
  outstanding workmanship, even though she was
  almost blind.

27
Elsie Allen, Pomo

• Elsies mother, Annie Burke (1876-1962), asked
  her to break with tradition and not destroy her
  baskets upon her death.
• It was a hard decision, but Elsie honored that
  wish and the family baskets survive.
• Elsie took over the responsibility to teaching
  about Pomo tradition and making baskets when her
  mother died.

28
Elsie Allen, Pomo
Elsie Allen (left) at 50, her mother at the
right. Family baskets that carried a culture of
the hands, of growing plants, of the spirit.
Elsie's grandmother, Nellie, taught her plants
and basketry. She was photographed in 1898 with
this basket - at least 4' in diameter - a twined
storage basket.
29
Elizabeth Hickox, Wiyot

• Elizabeth directed her weaving to the élite
  market, specializing in a lidded gift basket
  with undulating profile and a high knob.
• On these she delineated main designs with
  supreme attention to the relationship of positive
  and negative elements and embellished them with a
  complex scheme of bordering designs and shifts in
  weaving technique.

30
Elizabeth Hickox, Wiyot
Elizabeths work can be seen at the Southwest
Indian Museum in Los Angeles.
31
Lucy Parker Telles, Miwok
The huge 36" World's Fair winner basket it took 4
years to make, 1933.
32
California Indian Basketweavers Association

• http//www.ciba.org/

Learn to make California baskets.
Pomo Gift Basket. Coiled willow, sedge, bulrush,
woodpecker feathers, quail plumes, clam shell
beads
Kawaiisu Storage Basket. Coiled dear grass,
willow yucca, bracken fern, quail plumes, wool
yarn.
33
California Artists
34
Fritz Scholder, Luiseno/La Jolla
A sometimes controversial artist, he has extended
the parameters of Native art.
35
Linda Yamane, Rumsian Ohlone
Storyteller, basket maker, rattle singer, and
historian.
36
Harry Fonseca, Nisenan Maidu
Rosie
Coyote
37
Vivien Hailstone, Hupa
An accomplished basket weaver and shellworker,
artisan and tribal icon.
38
James Luna, Luiseno/Diegueno
A performance and spatial artist, his pieces are
often political in nature.
39
Linda Aguilar, Chumash
40
Frank Day, Maidu
One of the first CA Native artists to use
painting as a medium to express traditional
thought and culture.
41
Julia Parker, Kashaya Pomo
The Native interpretor for Yosemite National
Park, she often demonstrates basketweaving.
42
Frank Gist, Yurok
Traditional carver and artisan.
43
William Pink, Pala Cupeno
Continues to make traditional materials,
especially stone carving and bow making.