H-0-180 An early Pima tray.
The Pima, who now prefer to be called “Akimal O’odam”(the River People), live in south central Arizona along the Gila and Salt Rivers. They traditionally spoke the Tepiman (formerly the Sonoran) branch of the Uto-Aztecan linguistic family and are believed to be the descendants of the early Hohokam civilization that thrived in ancient times in what are now southern Arizona and the northern part of Mexican Sonora. The Pima were an agricultural people with sedentary villages producing both pottery and baskets and tend to this day to remain an agricultural people although their weaving tradition appears to have seriously diminished over the past fifty years.
This large early example has an elaborate combination of designs including the “tacit” design, the coyote track and a partial turtle shell design. Its unusually deep form and large tondo (central black circle) suggest that this may be an early Papago tray instead of Pima but such subtleties are often unreliable without documentation. The Papago and Pima are closely related. Coiling is to the left using a bundle of cattail leaf (Typha) for the foundation of the coil. The sewing splints are split peeled willow (Salix) for the white (now darkened considerably from age) and split devils claw (Proboscidea) for the black. An early example of a winnowing tray with very good visuals.
19 3/4 inches d. by 7 inches deep. Circa 1880. $5,250.00