Tohono O'odham (formerly known as Papago) deeply value their basketry traditions, and today produce more basketry than any other Indian tribe in the nation. The continued vitality of this craft is the result of years of individual and group efforts within the community, coupled with efforts from the outside by traders, government agencies, and religious organizations.

One government program emerged during the New Deal Era. With the election of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932, Federal Indian policies took a decided turn in philosophy and direction. After decades of efforts to assimilate Indian people into the mainstream, programs were put in place to encourage preservation of native culture, including the traditional arts. Combining this desire with a need to provide employment opportunities in a Depression economy, Indian Commissioner John Collier pushed to create an Indian Arts and Crafts Board for assisting Indian communities in reviving, promoting and marketing their handmade products.

A New England Yankee anthropologist, Gwyneth Harrington, was hired by the Indian Arts and Crafts board and sent to work with the Tohono O'odham in 1938. She was already familiar with the tribe, as she had investigated and published a report on their cattle industry several years earlier.

Gwyneth traveled the reservation, from sunup to sundown according to one account, purchasing baskets from weavers, which were then marketed to the outside world through retail networks. She consulted with the newly formed Tohono O'odham Tribal Council to create an all-Indian Tohono O'odham Arts and Crafts Board, which could take over for her once her tenure was completed. Mrs. Harrington had the pleasure of securing both Tohono O'odham and Akimel O'odham (Pima) baskets for a groundbreaking exhibition of Indian Art at New York's Museum of Modern Art in 1940.

During this same period, Goldie Richmond was actively promoting basketry and other craft sales. Described by anthropologist Bernard Fontana as "Goldie's own New Deal program," she bought and sold 20,000 O'odham baskets a year for three consecutive years in the 1930s, selling baskets to Curio and Department stores from coast to coast.

The combined tribal, private and public efforts served to provide essential support to Tohono O'odham basket weavers, assuring that their artistic productions would find an appreciative buying audience. The continued richness of the basketry arts among the Tohono O'odham is due in great measure to the work of Gwyneth and Goldie, the Papago Arts and Crafts Board, and the dedicated basket weavers for whom their work is a link to the O'odham Himdak, or Way.

Today there are still well over 500 Tohono O'odham basket weavers. A select few have become well known and are sought out by collectors and dealers so that they have little need for outside assistance in marketing their creations. Others rely upon Indian traders who travel the reservation purchasing baskets for resale. Church groups also buy directly from weavers on the reservation, and sell the baskets through their networks.

In 1996, Tohono O'odham Basketry Organization (TOBO), a crafts cooperative was founded to provide a mechanism for basket weavers to sell directly to the public and "avoid the middle man." Their goal is not only to promote the retention of basketry as an economic pursuit, but as a means for the Tohono O'odham to keep connected across generations to their shared past. For more information on TOBO, call 520-383-2966.

References:

Armstrong, Jeanne
1988 Deserts and Dreams: The Life of Gwyneth Harrington. Journal of the Southwest, Volume 30, Number 4, pp. 522-534.

Fontana, Bernard L.
1964 The Papago Indians, Part 3, Sells, Arizona: Papago Affairs Center, p. 197.

Schrader, Robert Fay
1983 The Indian Arts and Crafts Board: An Aspect of New Deal Indian Policy. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press