Tohono O'Odham
Basketry
The Tohono O’odham is a
tribe of the Sonoran Desert region of present-day southern Arizona and
northern Sonora, Mexico. Formerly known as the Papago (which was an
English mispronunciation of a Spanish mispronunciation of another
tribe’s name for them) Tohono O’odham is a Uto-Aztecan
word meaning 'Desert People' and is their name for themselves.
A Tohono O’odham "hoh" or basket is made from a coil of
bear grass (Nolina microcarpa, called moho in their language) sewn
with bleached white yucca (Yucca elata, tokway). Other materials used
include green or yellow-green unbleached yucca, black from the seed pod of
the devilsclaw plant (Martynia parviflora, eehuk) and on occasion,
red from the root of the Spanish or Shin Dagger (Yucca arizonica, oh’eetock).
There are two styles: the split-stitch, which is
used for utility or storage baskets; and covered stitch baskets, for
those which are subject to more wear, like baskets for parching or winnowing.
(C) BAHTI Indian Arts, 1977--2007
