* What plants would you want to use to weave a basket?   
* Why would you choose those?     Refer back to the Plants of Arizona activity to figure out where you might find those plants.

The sharp-tipped leaves are split and used in coiled and plaited baskets. Harvested in the winter, the leaves are green. When collected after the summer rains, the new-growth leaves are lighter and will become whiter when left in the sun to bleach. Tohono O’odham coiled baskets are stitched with this yucca. Hopi basketmakers use a similar but botanically separate yucca species (yucca angustissma).

The red roots are used for design highlights in O'odham, Apache, Havasupai and Yavapai coiled baskets. The fibrous, spiny leaves can be used to make cordage as well as coiled and plaited baskets. 

Also called martynia, many Southwest, California and Great Basin weavers split the dried claw-like seed pods of this annual to make the black designs in coiled and twined baskets. Devil’s Claw is both wild and domesticated. 

A clumping, perennial, grass-­like plant. Green leaves are cut with a knife. Trimmed leaves are split and used in coiled foundations by Tohono O'odham basketmakers, and for plaiting by Tarahumara basketmakers.

 Lupe Lopez, Tohono O’odham, weaving a basket with yucca, devil’s claw, and bear grass. Tohono O’odham Nation, Sells, AZ. 

Photo by Jannelle Weakly, courtesy ASM, 2016

 Juanita Ahill, Tohono O’odham, splits ‘ihug, devil’s claw with her teeth. Tohono O’odham Nation, AZ. 

Photo by Helga Teiwes, courtesy ASM, 1975

Eloisa Velasco, Tohono O’odham, weaves a coiled basket. Big Fields, Tohono O’odham Nation, AZ. 

Photo by Helga Teiwes, courtesy ASM, 1979

 Pauline Antone, Tohono O’odham, weaving a basket with yucca, devil’s claw, and bear grass. Tohono O’odham Nation, Sells, AZ. 

Tohono O’odham baskets for sale at the Tohono O’odham Community Action (TOCA) booth, Southwest Indian Art Fair, Arizona State Museum, Tucson, AZ. 

Photo by Marnie Sharp, courtesy ASM, 2009.

Miniature baskets by Harrison Preston. Two have been made into necklaces with shell beads.

Baskets featuring the wheat stitch design by Harrison Preston

No:ligk Traditional Singers and Dancers, Tohono O'odham, performing at Arizona State Museum’s Woven Through Time exhibit opening.

Photo by Jannelle Weakly, courtesy ASM, 2017

Tohono O’odham No:ligk Traditional Singers and Dancers perform the basket dance at the Southwest Indian Art Show, Arizona State Museum, Tucson, AZ. Julie Luchetta, photographer, 2005.

Standards for Plants and Tools Used in Making Tohono O'odham Baskets

College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework