Baskets of the 19th and 20th centuries form the heart of the museum's Native American ethnographic collections. Centering on the Far West, they comprise about 1,800 items, representing Oregon Tribes as well as those from adjacent regions, including Washington, California, the Southwest, Great Basin, British Columbia, and Alaska. The museum's Klamath basketry collection was the focus of a University of Oregon master's project by Klamath Tribal member and former UO Longhouse steward Gordon Bettles, and have been photo-documented by Roger Scott as part of the museum's ongoing digitization effort.
Exceptional for its range of forms and designs, the collection also represents a continuous link to archaeological weavings thousands of years old, found in dry caves of the nearby high desert. A small sampling of the baskets is presented here with information drawn from Bettles’ research.
Images © UO Museum of Natural and Cultural History. Production of this gallery was generously supported by The Ford Family Foundation.