F-0-173 Large 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.
These large trays were used for winnowing grains and often date to the 19th century. This example has a particularly pleasing design referred to as “butterfly wings”. 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 aged a tan color) and split devils claw (Proboscidea) for the black.
A large and handsome example. 18 3/4"d. by 5 1/2"deep. Circa 1880. $4,750.00