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Preview image of work. split ash,  Band Basket 37373

2018.13.47

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Band Basket

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Artists

Artist Unidentified (Penobscot) [formerly attributed to Artist Unidentified (Native American)];

Title

Band Basket

Creation Date

ca. 1860 - 1870

Century

mid-19th century

Dimensions

9 1/2 x 12 in. (24.13 x 30.48 cm)

Object Type

textile/natural fiber

Creation Place

North America, United States, Maine

Medium and Support

split ash

Credit Line

Anonymous Gift

Copyright

This artwork may be under copyright. For further information, please consult the Museum’s Copyright Terms and Conditions.

Accession Number

2018.13.47

Wabanaki artists have long excelled as basket makers. These works have an important utilitarian purpose, in addition to connecting to the tribe’s creation story. When Gluskabe, the cultural hero, shot an arrow into an ash tree, the People of the Dawn came forth. The Wabanaki have used ash for generations to make canoe paddles and snowshoes, in addition to historic and contemporary baskets. This particular form mirrors shapes made for household use in other materials – wood, paperboard or pottery –by non-Indigenous people and on view nearby. Today the Emerald Ash Borer Beetle, an invasive species from Asia and first identified in 2002, threatens Maine’s trees and has the capacity to destroy all the ash trees in North America. A consortium of Wabanaki tribal governments, Maine State agencies, and private natural resource organizations are working to mitigate the pest’s effects and its threat to Indigenous ways of life.