Uses of Plants by the Hidatsas of the Northern Plains

Conclusion

seventeen Miscellaneous Material miscellaneous material 395 Basket making Baskets were still being made and used at the time the Wilson brothers were at Fort Berthold, and Frederick did a detailed study of their manufacture, which included his trying his hand at making one. A historical account of the origins of Hidatsa (and Mandan and Arikara) basket making was published by Mary Jane Schneider in 1984. Gilbert L. Wilson (vol. 18, 1915: 490) Making of a bark basket In the summer of 1912 I was on Fort Berthold reservation with my brother and hired Buffalobird-woman to teach us the weave of a bark basket. This was accomplished with some difficulty as she had been accustomed to expect special pay for instruction in old times. The year after, when I returned to the reservation, she wanted to know if I had been making any of the baskets for sale in Minneapolis! Buffalobird-woman (vol. 25, 1912: frames 0084–0086) Our Hidatsa name for basket was midaxisi or holder (frame 85). Pay demanded for teaching basket making Basket makers would not let others see how they worked, for if another wanted to learn how to make baskets she should pay a good price for being taught. All basket makers did thus. They would not teach another how to make baskets without being paid. Another reason why I did not want people to watch me at my work (weaving baskets) was because they asked me questions. These questions bothered me so that I was apt to make a mistake with the splints. I did not like to have people around when I worked. 396 miscellaneous material This custom (of not letting others watch us work) was also true of pottery makers. When I was working at making a basket and someone hung around and watched me in order to learn how I did it, I would work too fast so that she could not see how it was done, because I did not want her to learn. That is why there are so few basket makers on this reservation . They do not want to pay to learn, and we (basket makers) do not want to teach them when they do not want to pay for it. More than one woman has thought she could learn to make a basket by just watching. This was just stealing, but it won’t do any good because she cannot learn without a teacher. We used these baskets to bear burdens on our backs, but their especial value was to carry corn and vegetables of our gardens to the village, especially the corn. Three sizes of baskets made We made three sizes of these woven bark baskets; you have purchased (examples of) all three kinds for the museum. This basket I am now making for you is the largest size that we used. Use of baskets We also carried our clay pots as well as our other cooking utensils in these baskets when we moved from our summer to our winter village. We often used baskets to bring snow into the house to melt for water. In raising the basket full of corn, the thong or band was passed over the head and rested across both shoulders above the breasts. As the woman got to her feet (she had knelt), another helped her by taking the ends of the rear standards of the basket in either hand, and she raised the basket in place. We did not fill the basket just loosely with corn. It was filled up to about three or four inches from the top when a row of ears was stood on end quite around the inside of the rim of the bas- miscellaneous material 397 ket. Corn was then heaped within. These up-jutting ears prevented the corn from spilling out. Both husked and unhusked corn was brought in baskets. The green corn that we boiled to keep for winter was (brought home) unhusked. Buffalobird-woman interviewed by Frederick N. Wilson. (vol. 12a, 1912: 62–68) The wood used in the framework of a basket is of willow maxoxica [peachleaf willow–Salix amygdaloides]. This wood is light and strong. The bark from this tree was also used for the black splints or strips used in weaving the design, and it was colored or dyed with clay. The way that this was done was by taking the bark out to a...