Indian Basketry: Forms, Designs, and Symbolism of Native American Basketry

Everything there is to know about traditional Native American basket weaving.

Native American basket weaving is an intricate and powerful art, representative of the legends and ceremonies of the Indian nations and their cultures. George Wharton James’s Indian Basketry is an invaluable aid for the artist, designer, craftsman, or beginner who wants to recreate authentic and often extinct basket forms and decorative motifs of the Native American peoples.

Filled with 355 illustrations and photographs of Native American basket weavers taken at the turn of the twentieth century, this pioneering study—first published in 1901—provides in-depth information about specific aspects of Indian basketry, including:

• Its role in legend and ceremony
• The origins of forms and designs
• Materials and colors used
• Weaves and stitches
• The symbolism and poetry woven into each basket
• Preservation
• Tips for the collector
• And much more!

From Yolo ceremonial baskets to Oraibi sacred trays, Indian Basketry traces the origin, development, and fundamental principles of the basket designs of the major Indian tribes of the southwestern United States and Pacific Coast, along with comments on the basket weaving of a number of other North American tribes.

George Wharton James, born in Lincolnshire, England, in 1858, was ordained as a Methodist minister and came to the United States in 1881, settling first in Nevada, then in California. Following his divorce in 1889, James traveled through Arizona and New Mexico, and eventually wrote over forty books and pamphlets on the American West. James was also a popular lecturer. He died in San Francisco in 1923.