Description

This is a traditional Navajo basket containing the traditional red, white, and black colors. It is made from an inner coil of sumac or cottonwood and has an outer coiling of split thin-leafed Yucca. It is the traditional design of all Diné ceremonial baskets, but is by far a much more carefully woven one with tight stitches over a single rod foundation.

The designs in Diné baskets have significance and depending on the interpretation can symbolize the creation myth, life’s journeys or be a map of the Navajo cosmos. The simplest interpretation is that the white center is the emergence area, or area of birth. The black coils represent clouds or four sacred mountains. The red band is the sun’s rays which bring life. There is always a line from the center of the basket to the outer rim, a path from the center for the Spirit to come and go. The pathway meets at the outer edge where the weaver has stopped coiling.  The rim of a Navajo wedding basket always terminates opposite the spirit line.

Condition: Excellent – original condition – new.
Provenance: Purchased from Sarah Ross through Adopt A Native Elder program.