I-1-88 Large polychrome Pima tray woven by Grace Kisto.
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. Coiled trays represent the majority of Pima basketry production being used for winnowing, as well as other purposes, and tended to be large due to their utilitarian function. Thus, as work baskets, these large utilitarian trays were sturdily woven. This beautiful polychrome tray has a star or flower design done in black, red, and white. It came from the Robert Whiteside collection, which was disbursed when he passed away about 10 years ago. Bob had one of the more important collections of southwestern pottery and basketry with pieces numbering in the thousands.
This basket was woven by Grace Kisto one of the last of the old, great Pima basket weavers. 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 a mellow honey color), split devils claw (Proboscidea) for the black and split yucca root (Yucca) for the red.
An important and spectacular example of a Pima polychrome tray. 19 1/4"d. by 5 3/4"deep. Circa 1965. $8,500.00