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Performing Archive

"Woman"

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Piopio-maksmaks, quoted in Volume VIII, pages 20-21, is the son of the Piopio-maksmaks who as principal chief of the Wallawalla negotiated a treaty with Governor Isaac I. Stevens in the Wallawalla valley in 1855. The father was killed while a captive of the Oregon volunteers, and the son thereafter lived permanently among the Nez Perces, having married a woman of that tribe. Piopio-maksmaks possesses as unusually strong face, and his remarkably piercing eye betokens a man possessing the courage characteristic of his family and tribe.
The painter is clad in a short, seamless, cedar-bark cape, which is worn for protection from rain. That she is a woman of wealth and rank is shown by the abalone-shell nose-ornament and the gold bracelets, no less than by her possession of a "chief's hat". These waterproof hats, of a form borrowed from the Haida are made of closely woven shreds of fibrous spruce-roots, and are ornamented with one of the owner's crests - a highly conventionalized painting of some animal or mythological being.
The basketry of the Karok does not differ from that of the Hupa and the Yurok. The process is always twining, and the usual materials are hazel rod for the warp, roots of the digger or the yellow pine for the weft, and Xerophyllum grass for white overlay, bark of the maidenhair fern for black, and fibres from the stem of Woodwardia fern, dyed in alder-bark juice in the mouth of the workwoman, for red. Represented in the plate are the receptacle for the storage of seeds and nuts, the burden-basket, the winnowing tray, various sizes of mush-baskets and food containers, and the cradle-basket.
The Achomawi, or Pit River Indians, produce baskets only by the process known as twining, which is true weaving, never by coiling, which is actually a sewing process. In general their baskets have bottoms and sides slightly rounded, openings broad, and depth rather shallow. The usual materials are willow rods for the warp, or upright elements, and pie-root strands for the weft, or horizontal elements. The structure in the background is a summer hut, a rudely conical or hemispherical tipi covered with tule mats. The workwoman is wearing a rabbit-skin robe.
The Cupeño are a small Shoshonean group of mountaineers formerly residing at the head of San Luis Rey river in north-central San Diego county. Popularly known as Aguas Calientes and as Warner's Ranch Indians, they gained considerable prominence at the beginning of the century when the Supreme Court ruled adversely upon their title to the land of their nativity. In 1903 they were settled at Pala reservation on lands adjoining those of the Luiseños, and their former habitat is now beautiful Warner's ranch. Cupeño is a Spanish derivative of Kupa, the name of their former village. The surviving population of Wolak, the other Cupeño settlement, is now on Los Coyotes reservati
The Serranos (Spanish, "mountaineers"), a Shoshonean branch comprising numerous local groups, occupied San Bernardino valley, San Bernardino mountains north of Los Angeles and San Bernardino, a portion of Mojave desert north of that range and east of Mojave river, and Tehachapi mountains. This last group, who lived principally on El Paso and Tejon creeks, were the Kitanemuk. In 1853 most of the resident Indians, including not only various Shoshoneans but many Yokuts, were taken to Tule river reservation. Tejon rancheria remains, however, a settlement of various Shoshoneans, but predominantly Kitanemuk
The coiled baskets produced by this woman have not been equalled by any Indian now living. Compare her work, shown in Plate 541, with the baskets of another woman as illustrated in Plate 542. The latter, seen alone, would be very excellent examples of Indian basketry, but their comparative coarseness is easily seen even in photographic reproduction. About ninety years old, Datsolali appears to be in the early sixties. She has the pride of a master in his craft, and a goodly endowment of artistic temperament. Persuading her to sit for a portrait is a task not to be lightly undertaken. Tatsolali (said to mean "big hips") is a nickname. Her proper name is Tabuta.