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Basket tray

Juana Basilia Sitmelelene Chumash

Not on view


When the Spanish arrived in California in the late eighteenth century, a new market led weavers to create innovative designs. Here, Juana Basilia Sitmelelene has woven a nontraditional, centrifugal pattern. She began with an intricate, swirling, almost dizzying image in the center, including a number of distinct, yet unidentifiable, shapes that evoke life-forms. Weaving outward, she added the heraldic crest from Spanish coins, combining the designs of European colonists with the imagery of a complex Indigenous world.

Basket tray, Juana Basilia Sitmelelene (Chumash, 1782–1832), Dyed and undyed juncus stems, Chumash, Native American

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Basket tray, Juana Basilia Sitmelelene (Chumash, 1782–1832), Dyed and undyed juncus stems, Chumash, Native American
Basket tray, Juana Basilia Sitmelelene (Chumash, 1782–1832), Dyed and undyed juncus stems, Chumash, Native American
Basket tray, Juana Basilia Sitmelelene (Chumash, 1782–1832), Dyed and undyed juncus stems, Chumash, Native American
Basket tray, Juana Basilia Sitmelelene (Chumash, 1782–1832), Dyed and undyed juncus stems, Chumash, Native American
Basket tray, Juana Basilia Sitmelelene (Chumash, 1782–1832), Dyed and undyed juncus stems, Chumash, Native American

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