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Water bottle basket

Northern Paiute water bottle basket
ca. 1880–1900
Nevada
Plant fiber, pitch
28 x 32 x 44 cm
Presented by Jay Noble Emley
18/2189

Southern Paiute water bottle baskets
ca. 1880–1920
Arizona
Plant fiber, pitch, hair
31 x 29 x 33 cm, 11 x 13 x 18 cm
M. F. Savage Collection, Frederick W. Skiff Collection
7004, 15/6554

The skill to make finely woven, watertight, and sometimes pitch-covered twined or coiled water bottles was knowledge crucial to life in the arid Great Basin. Regionally and tribally distinct, these baskets were sought after items of trade among neighbors within and beyond the region. Southern Paiutes traded their pitch water bottles to the Hopi people of the Southwest, as did the Southern Ute to the Jicarilla Apache. The Owens Valley Paiute traded their basketry bottles to the Yokuts of south-central California, as did the Northern Paiute to the Achomawi and other groups in Northern California. Sturdier coiled water carriers made by the Northern and Southern Ute were favored by the Wind River and Snake River Shoshone.

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