Sweetgrass Sewing Basket

Name/Title

Sweetgrass Sewing Basket

Entry/Object ID

L2024.3.104a-e

Description

a & b: woven ash splint and sweetgrass round basket with lid. Varying width ash weavers and sweetgrass bundles. Lid has a raised, looped design (cowiss) and small ring handle. c: Pin Cushion of velvet with woven ash splint base d: Woven sweetgrass scissor case e: Woven sweetgrass Needle case (etui)

Context

This is a very rare piece, there are hundreds of baskets like this all over Vermont in antique shops, never with any good provenance. They could be made by Akwesasne Mohawks, Canadian Abenakis or Maine Indians, we will probably never know until a comprehensive stylistic research project can delimit tribal origins. This may not be possible. This basket was purchased from “a Local Indian family” (presumably the Lapans) by Mrs. Bell of Swanton Vermont in the early 20th century. All other Swanton-made baskets are coarse utility baskets or open work baskets without any Sweetgrass interweaving like this one. The basket depth and cowiss over weave decoration are atypical of Quebec Abenaki production. This was from the collection of Swanton Historian Ben Gravel who received the basket during the 1959 Champlain celebration.

Acquisition

Source (if not Accessioned)

Abenaki Cultural Conservancy

Made/Created

Date made

circa 1900

Place

Town

Swanton

County

Franklin County

State/Province

Vermont

Country

United States of America

Continent

North America

Ethnography

Culture/Tribe

Abenaki
Native American

Lexicon

Nomenclature 4.0

Nomenclature Secondary Object Term

Basket, Needlework

Nomenclature Primary Object Term

Container, Needlework

Nomenclature Sub-Class

Needleworking Equipment

Nomenclature Class

Textileworking T&E

Nomenclature Category

Category 04: Tools & Equipment for Materials

Material

Ash Splint, Sweetgrass

Relationships

Related Person or Organization

Person or Organization

Gravel, Benjamin Frederick (1895-1988)