SURVIVAL: Exhibit explores basket weaving and the history associated with the ancient art.

By VALERIE DETWILER/The Valley Chronicle
3/1/2008

Basket weaving is an ancient tradition that American Indians in Southern California passed down through the generations.

A new exhibit at the Western Center for Archaeology and Paleontology, called “Stories of Survival: Walking with Weavers through Generations of Time,” outlines the art from its birth, to its near death, and through its revival.

“It’s the history of Southern California basketry,” said Soboba tribal member and exhibit consultant Carrie Garcia. “Every basket has a personal story that it tells. It can be woven into the basket itself, a story about how the basket was acquired by a family member, or a story about the person who wove the basket. This exhibit allows the baskets to tell the stories.”

Although the exhibit features baskets from tribes throughout Southern California, families from the Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians have supplied the majority of the baskets on display.

Joseph Ontiveros, a member of the Gabrieleno tribe of San Gabriel and employee of Soboba’s Cultural Resource Department, said the exhibit is unique because the baskets come from the homes of American Indians.

“This is the first time that people have actually came out and lent baskets from their families,” Ontiveros said. “These baskets have probably never been out of the families’ homes. Usually, baskets on display are from a museum’s collection or on loan from a collector.”

Garcia said the art of basket weaving was nearly extinct because of the off-reservation boarding schools into which American Indian children were placed in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

“Boarding schools took the children out of the families. That took away the chance for children to be taught basket weaving,” Garcia said. “In the late 1940s, basket weaving was almost extinct because a lot of native women had not learned the art as children because of their placement in boarding schools.”

Both Ontiveros and Garcia said groups such as Nex’wetem - which is made up Native Americans from San Bernardino, San Diego, and Riverside counties - formed to revive the art of basket weaving.

Ontiveros said basket weaving is an important tradition among Native Americans because it is a connection to their past.

Garcia agreed: “It’s a living tradition of our people. It’s never been changed from the very beginning. The plant materials have always been the same. It’s just a living connection to our culture and to our past.”

The baskets from Southern California are unlike baskets from other areas of the United States, said Ontiveros, because the plant materials used are indigenous to Southern California.

“Some of the plants used in baskets don’t even grow here anymore because of development and water shortages in the Valley,” Ontiveros said.

Basket weavers will be on hand to weave baskets throughout the life of the exhibit, which opens today and runs through May 25.

The Western Center’s hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. The center is at 2345 Searl Parkway in Hemet. For information, call 791-0033 or visit www.westerncentermueum.org.

Copyright © 2008 The Valley Chronicle

Posted on March 1st, 2008 by hunwut
Filed under: Culture, Museum, Reservations