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Performing Archive

Papago

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Coiled basket vessel with neck. There is a diagonal zig-zag (stepped pattern?) design that runs across the vessel. This pattern is extremely faded on exterior but is more visible on the interior. "CURTIS" is written in pink pigment on the exterior of the base. Typed note inside vessel says: "31. Basketry Olla. Tribe: Papago- Southern Arizona. Design: very faint stepped cube design; foundation is a bear grass coiled core w/yucca overstitch. Size: 12" h., 10" dia., 8 1/4" rim dia. Condition: Fair. Circa: 1900."
The baskets made by the Pima, Papago, and Qahatika, as well as by their Maricopa neighbors, are practically identical in form and design, but the Maricopa basketry is of somewhat superior workmanship. The four-armed cross, a form of the swastika, appears as the central feature in the decoration of a majority of the Piman and Maricopa baskets of to-day, and while the true signification here is not known with certainty, it is not impossible that it was designed originally to represent the winds of the four cardinal directions. Less than a generation ago the swastika was employed by the Pima to decorate their shields, and as a brand for their horses.
A particularly fine-looking Papago girl of as nearly pure blood as can be found in the region. The northern Piman tribes have been in direct contact with Spanish people for more than two centuries. Much of the early foreign blood, however, has become so blended that its physical influence is no longer apparent. Indeed there are many instances in which the Indians insist that their blood is entirely aboriginal, whereas in fact an infusion of alien blood is traceable several generations back.
Hanamh is the Piman name for the cholla cactus and its fruit. The natives gather the fruit of this spiny plant in large quantities, and it forms a food of material importance to the several tribes living within its habitat. In gathering it they use rude tongs made from a split stick. After a basket is filled, the fruit is spread on the ground and bushed about with a small, stiff besom until the spines are worn off, or the spines are burned of in an open fire.