Nettie Jackson | Native Baskets

Nettie Jackson, a member of to Klickitat band of the Yakima Nation, came from a long line of basketweavers, learning the trade from her grandmother, Mattie Spencer Slockis and her mother-in-law, Elise Thomas. It took Jackson seven years to learn to weave baskets in the ways her family had. She devoted her life to mastering these ancient skills and to passing them on to future basketweavers, both as works of beauty and as an essential part of her living in and helping to revive native cultures and practices. Jackson is responsible for almost single-handedly keeping alive and restoring stature within her tribe of the tradition of Klickitat basketmaking. Passing the traditions on to her own daughter and to her apprentices, she was surprised that so few in her community knew the significance of the visual symbols used in Klickitat baskets,. Jackson taught others about their importance, including a focus on dyeing and the use of a variety of plant materials used for making Klickitat baskets. Here we see some of the master-works, the weaving coiled baskets using split roots from Western Red Cedar bark, with intricate decorations of natural and dyed beargrass and cedar root skin.

image Three Baskets 97
image Two Traditional Baskets
image Wedding Basket
image Untitled Baskets 9
image Untitled Basket 3
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image Untitled Basket 6
image Small Baskets
image Untitled Basket 2
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image Untitled Basket 1
image Untitled Baskets 4