I recently had the opportunity to study traditional Wasco basketry techniques with Pat Courtney Gold. Pat was hosted by the Columbia River Maritime Museum. It was a two day event held in the Museum’s Barbey Maritime Center. The class project was a small 2” by 4” twined flat bag. As an experienced twiner, I was able to finish the bag in the time allotted.
The Wasco people are a Chinookan tribe formerly living on the south side of Columbia River, in the neighborhood of The Dalles, Oregon. Their name comes from a cup shaped rock near their ancestral homeland. The Wasco joined in the treaty of 1855, and were removed to the Warm Springs Reservation, where some reside today.
The project that we worked is a small flat bag. These bags were traditionally used to store dried roots. They were made from dogbane, bear grass, and straw grass. Dogbane is toxic and thus gives the bags some insect resistance. After the arrival of agriculture, weavers substituted corn husks, cotton string and wool yarn for the traditional materials.
Twined Wasco bags have a very distinctive artistic tradition. The following is a bag done by Louise Van Pelt Spino. This bag is in the collection of the Maryhill museum. It was woven about 1925, of cornhusk, dogbane, cotton string, and leather. It measures 8½” x 10″.
I like this bag because it illustrates the very distinctive Wasco ancestor figures. A feature of Chinookan art, identified to me by Tony Robinson of the Chinook nation, is the visible ribs on the human figures. The butterfly looking patterns on either side of the bag are Condors. The figures across the top and between the people’s legs are sturgeon. Condors and sturgeon are important to the Wasco people.
Pat allowed us to choose from several traditional Wasco figures. I chose the Condor figure for my little flat bag. For the class we worked in cotton yarn. This material is great for beginners. It doesn’t stretch so it is very easy to control tension while weaving.
Interestingly Pat says that traditional Wasco bags rarely have the same design on both sides. On the reverse side I used a series of triangles to represent mountains. The mountains go along with the Condor motif.
My interest in this class is multi-fold. I am researching the Paiute (neighbors of the Wasco) for a future story I’m writing. I also have an interest in stone age crafts; including the collection, preparation, and usage of plant materials; this helps with my living history programs. And most importantly I like working with my hands to produce tangible objects — something I don’t get to see from my day job. It is also a way of practicing awareness and preparedness.