Burden Basket

This conical burden or pack basket was created for commercial sale and is somewhat more modest in size than most. It is Atsugewi (Hat Creek) or possibly Achumawi in origin. The piece is twined with a full-twist overlay of bear grass (light color) and maidenhair fern (dark color) to create the quail plume design element. The wefts of this basket are conifer root; the warps are hazel shoots. The rim is bound with redbud. In northern California, native use of a burden basket would be for gathering materials like bulbs, pinyon pine nuts and live oak acorns.