Ancient and Modern Choctaw Baskets Spanning Time
Along river and creek beds, Choctaws search their favorite harvesting places for the right river cane to cut. These are Choctaws hundreds of years ago; they are Choctaws today. Basket making with river cane remains a core art form for our people, though often with commercial dyes instead of natural ones, and less emphasis on the baskets as essential kitchen tools than our ancestors relied on.
Baskets such as the ishshoha (sifter) and ufko (fanner) are rare today. The ones held in safe care by the Chahta Foundation at U.S.Art in Dallas, Texas were made in Oklahoma around the turn of the century and take us back to a time when Choctaws drew their sustenance from the land. Through the collection, we can reconstruct these daily life practices of our ancestors.
The fanner is a scoop-like basket, a clever way to meet a cook’s need for after she had crushed corn with a mortar and pestle. Scooping the collection into the fanner, she would swing the basket in a careful arch to toss the pieces in the air. The breeze caught the lightweight chaff, blowing it away. The heavier meal fell back into the fanner for what became her cornmeal.
One fanner basket in our collection had once been repaired by a piece of canvas folded and sewn along the rim.
“I’d never seen that repair technique before,” says Dr. Ian Thomson, Historic Preservation Department Senior Director. “It would have helped to keep the basket functional after wear and tear had broken down its edges.”
The ishshoha is a sifter basket also used for preparing harvested foods for consuming. Its woven bottom is designed with gaps large enough to sort pieces of crushed nuts and corn. It’s a common kitchen utensil much like we use a colander, though it is also an art piece of our ancestors to be admired — then and today.
Beyond food uses and baskets woven tightly enough to hold water, Choctaws took pride in the aesthetics of basketry. Made from river cane they harvested, carefully sliced into splits, they used natural dyes to add color to their unique work. Berries, flowers, roots, or bark colored the cane. Some basket shapes are commonly recognized as signature designs of our people today. The bull nose and elbow baskets were used to gather herbs, but because of their attractive forms, they were valuable trade items to barter with Euro-Americans for things Choctaw families needed.
Today, Choctaw basket makers continue this art form with commercial dyes and other materials. Natural material is challenging to locate. According to Dr. Thompson, river cane in Oklahoma is a threatened plant with less than 2% of its original range. It is the only Native American bamboo in the U.S. He and others are working to revitalize it.
The baskets in the collection, about 40, show the care our ancestors put into making them. Their durability and appeal span time.
“These were functional implements that were made to be used for food-preparation and other activities, and yet, they were also part of a highly developed art form made by skilled artists,” Dr. Thompson says.
Like all art, basketry has evolved with time, yet there are fundamental techniques many hold to. These are being put to use by Choctaw basket artist today who are recreating rare styles — such as tapushik pothoma (double-weave trunk basket) and kishi (pack basket) — for permanent exhibit in the upcoming Choctaw Nation Cultural Center Chahta Nowvt Aya (Choctaw Journey).
If you have a basket you want preserved for future generations, please contact us at the Chahta Foundation: 1.800.522.6170 ext. 2993. We can discuss options for donating, including you retaining ownership of the item.
Credit: Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer
