Lidded Basket

This twill-plaited, double walled (double woven) container is from Louisiana. Crafted from natural and dyed river cane splints, the basket bears a sinuous design motif known as "alligator's entrails" executed in black walnut dye (blackish-brown) and bloodroot (orange). The piece was made by Mrs. Benjamin Paul (Christine Navarro Paul) an accomplished basket maker whose husband was Chief of the Chitimacha tribe from 1903 to 1934.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Indian New Deal encouraged the revitalization of indigenous crafts, and until 1942 Christine Paul taught basket making at a newly established school for the Chitimachas. Her sister-in-law Pauline Paul was her successor in this position.