The Pomo Indians are the only tribe known to have completely and fully decorated baskets with feathers. These baskets were considered to be the tribe’s highest artistic achievement. It was a great honor to the memory of a deceased person when this type of basket, especially made for such an occasion, was placed on his body at the cremation ceremony. It may be said that the sacrifice of these baskets was the tribe’s most profound means of showing respect at the time of cremation.
The custom of making and using these baskets no longer prevails. Few people today know the art, and even fewer people are willing to devote the nearly two years to make one feathered basket.
At the time this ceremony was active in the Pomo culture, each family had several such baskets in reserve. It must therefore be assumed that the women of the tribe devoted a great deal of their time producing these symbols to honor the dead.
It is interesting to compare cultures: The Pomo Indian sacrificed a work of art which took about two years to make—today’s Anglo society calls the florist and orders a “ten dollar spray” of flowers. This basket on the collector’s market is valued at about $300. (See [Plate 18c] & [18d])
JUMPING DANCE
Hoopa—California
Case No. 4:
The “Jumping Dance Basket” receives its name from a ceremony in which the participants perform with jumping dance motions. This ceremony is a prayer of supplication for the return of the soil’s fertility. It is held in the spring of the year on land that has ceased to bear crops.
Some people question these customs, and actually call them mere “Indian superstitions.” It is revealing to note, however, that less than a century ago Anglos believed that the childhood disease, rickets, could be cured by splitting an ash tree at dawn, and passing the stricken child head-first through the opening in the tree.
This set of three baskets, handed down from generation to generation, was secured from a medicine man. The baskets were made prior to 1860 and no one living today seems to know how to weave them. As a result, the baskets are quite rare, and it is doubtful if another such set could be obtained. (See [Plate 18a])