Navajo Baskets

Navajo baskets possess a rich history, indicative of the Navajo people’s movement into the Southwest and their subsequent adoption of a lifestyle which would best help them survive in the high red rock desert of the American Southwest. Interestingly, Navajo baskets today descend from basketmaking techniques adopted from Ancestral Puebloan people. As is true with other Navajo art forms perfected by rug weavers and silversmiths, Navajo basket artists have mastered techniques necessary to create fine baskets with a uniquely Navajo flavor.

All Navajo baskets employ the coil method of weaving using rhus trilobata, more commonly known as three-leaf sumac. The foundation for all designs is the Navajo ceremonial basket which continues to be woven and used in traditional Navajo healing rites. In the late 1960’s, a few Navajo basket weavers experimented with other pictorial elements such as yei’i and eagles. As a result of this early experimentation, Navajo basket artistry is currently experiencing its richest period of innovation. Led by fine basket technicians and artisans such as Elsie Holiday, Lorraine Black, Alicia Nelson and Joann Johnson, a plethora of representational and geometric designs is making contemporary Navajo basketry one of the most exciting expressions in contemporary Native American art.