Willow-grouse had a baby and she thought he was a wonderful child. She dressed him in the softest skins which she embroidered with a prayer. And she hung a bear’s tooth about his neck because she thought it was a charm. In winter she put him in a skin cradle and wrapped him in the warmest furs. In summer he played in a basket cradle which Willow-grouse wove on a forked stick.
In all that Willow-grouse did, she always asked the gods for help. The baskets she made for boiling food, were also prayers to the gods.
She searched for the choicest grasses and spread them on a clean spot to dry. No one knew so well as Willow-grouse when to gather the twigs. She knew the season when they were full-grown and gathered them before the sap had hardened. She gathered them when the barks peeled easily and when the rich juices flowed.
When the twigs were gathered the women soaked them and peeled off the bark. They left some of the twigs round, but others they made into flat splints. Sometimes they stained them with the green rind of nuts, and sometimes they dyed them with pretty dyes.
First step in coiled basketry.
Second step in coiled basketry.
