The Elizabeth Cole Butler Collection.

Gift of Myrtle Dietsche Fisher.

Gift of Myrtle Dietsche Fisher.

This basket is a round-walled variety of the Washo fancy basket (it is called degikup). The design on the basket is organized by a meandering band of patterns known as matcati le'lup (arrowhead opposed), referring to the triangles on the corners of the zigzag band. This band isolates large open areas that are filled with free-floating designs: eight-pointed stars, checkerboard diamonds, and notably, a standing figure with a hat and large hands.

The Elizabeth Cole Butler Collection.

The Yokuts are some forty to sixty linguistically related tribal groups that historically lived in the San Joaquin valley and adjacent Sierra Nevada foothills of California. They made a variety of coiled basketry forms, including jars with distinct flat shoulders and short, vertical necks. Figurative and representational motifs woven in red and black were common, as were the quail topknots that adorned many Yokuts baskets. The interlocking diamond pattern on the shoulder of this basket is meant to represent a rattlesnake.