| Object ID |
T0040 |
| Object Name |
Basket |
| Description |
Iroquois Splint Basket. Ash splint basket decorated with potato stamp designs.;
Medium/Materials: Ashwood strips, pigments; |
| Dimensions |
H-5 Dia-11 inches |
| Early Date |
1840 ca. |
| Place of Origin |
New York, USA |
| People |
Oneida/Iroquois/ |
| Provenance |
(1) William E. Channing. Santa Fe, New Mexico.;
(2) Eugene V. Thaw.;
|
| History |
Scholarly Attributions:
[1] Text by Ted Brasser - Introduced by Swedish settlers on the lower Delaware River, the manufacture of splint basketry was adopted by Native people throughout the Northeast when the fur trade had come to an end. After the War of Independence the industry reached the Iroquois, who traded their baskets all over New York State and eastern Ontario. The vertical splints of this basket were painted yellow and designs were applied by means of potato stamplings. [2] Drawing upon early documentary art and ethnohistoric references, scholar Ruth Holmes Whitehead refutes Brasser's chronology for the development of splint basketry, especially for the Micmac. In her publication, ELITEKEY, Whitehead states (1980:55): "...the Micmac were twill- and checker-plaiting cedar bark prior to the seventeenth century. Some type of wicker-weave may have been practised as well." Furthering her argument, she maintains that "...the _sine qua non_ of the splint basket industry is NOT the availability of steel tools, but the
availability of large amounts of wood splints. Not only were the Micmac (and others) capable of making wood splints in pre-contact times, they DID make them" (_ibid_; emphasis in original). - Cath Oberholtzer 19 July 1996. [3] Ted Brasser - January 1997 - "the revived claim for aboriginal origin of splint basketry is far from generally accepted by Woodland experts. Moreover, the debatable evidence should be balanced by 18th century native statements of this basketry's foreign origin." |
| Used |
Oneida/Iroquois |
|
