Black Ash and Sweet Grass Basket - Haudenosaunee - Kahnawake Tribe

Artist: Unknown
Origin: Haudenosaunee - Kahnawake (gan-ah-wah-qeh) Tribe from Upstate New York on the south shore of the St Lawrence River

Dimensions: 12”x 12”x6”
Weight: 0.182kg

These baskets are made from Black ash splints and sweetgrass, which are both native to Akwesasne. Various natural and synthetic dyes are used to color the baskets. Basketmakers usually source their own black ash, which typically grows in wetter areas, to use in their baskets, and often learn how to harvest black ash from elders or older relatives. Black ash is the preferred material because it is easy to pound into thinner, flexible splints for the baskets which remain strong throughout the process. Black ash trees are a precious resource and grow slowly—they take up to 50 years to mature. Sweetgrass is used to bind some of the baskets together and grows throughout Akwesasne. Sweetgrass is prized for its pleasant aroma, pale color and pliability. Harvested in the summer, sweetgrass is typically cut instead of pulled out at the root to preserve the plant for other basket makers.

Actual product colour may vary due to photographic lighting sources or your monitor