White Mountain Apache Burden Basket

Apache

About The White Mountain Apache Burden Basket

This handsome cone-shaped basket likely was made to be sold to the public.

Dangling buckskin elements number 21, each ending in a tin cone tinkler plus the buckskin tump line.

Originally this form was a basket made to contain gathered materials such as wild foods as well as kindling.  Its tumpline was designed to fit across the gatherer's forehead, resulting in a hands-free container.

About Apache

"The Western Apaches include five independent divisions speaking slightly different varieties of the same language; one of these is the San Carlos Apaches. Each division consists of two to five independent bands of some 50 to 700 members each (in 1880). Each of these in turn included several locals groups of 35 to 200 people. These were the basic landholding and political units. The Apaches live in a mountain and canyon country of forests, well-watered valleys and deserts. They depended mainly on hunting deer and antelope and on gathering wild plants such as mescal tubers, cactus fruits, mesquite beans and pinon nuts. Farming provided about a quarter of their foods from corn, beans and squash raised on small irrigated plots in the mountains. . . " The Native Americans The Indigenous People of North America edited by Colin F. Taylor

Cultures

American Indian

Medium

Baskets

Subject

Keywords

White Mountain Apache, Apache burden basket