The paint is green, red, and black.

The paint is green, red, and black.

The clam basket represents a highly successful solution to an everyday problem in Northwest Coast life. Baskets made to hold clams as they are dug must be rigid and strong, but must allow water and mud to pass through the walls when the clams are rinsed. The solution was a large, flaring basket of split spruce or cedar root in the open wrapped twining technique. The basket, full of clams, can be plunged up and down in the water, and the sand and mud clinging to the shells are quickly removed, draining through the sieve-like sides. (Holm, Crooked Beak of Heaven, 1972)

The paint is black, blue, and green.

Low truncated cone hat woven from spruce root and painted with a design in black, red and blue. The design painted on the crown of the hat is of an animal' s face with small eyes surrounded by blue, with a toothy mouth bordering the rim. the design on the rear is highly stylised, having two circular faces and many lines.; Good.Condition: Poor and in need of conservation. A large split in the spruce root runs horizontally across the crown and through the eye designs.

Small honey coloured birch bark basket with circular top and square bottom. Bark is cut, bent and laced into shape at two sides, with a twig rim which is overcast with strips of root? The lighter coloured bark is to the interior.

Brown birch bark basket with a slightly oblong-shaped top and a square bottom. Bark is cut, bent and laced into place at twp sides, with a twig around the rim which is overcast with thin strips of dyed black root or bark. Vertical half-moon and linear patterns are scratched onto the exterior sides, revealing a lighter shade of bark. Interior is light coloured with a very rough surface.

Brown birch bark basket with an oblong-shaped top and a rectangular bottom. Bark is cut, bent and laced into place at the two ends, with a twig around the rim overcast with thin strips of dyed root? Vertical half-moon and linear patterns are scratched onto the exterior sides, revealing a lighter shade of bark.

Square birch bark basket with rounded corners at the rim. Bark is bent and laced into place at two sides, with a birch twig around the rim which is overcast with a dyed root? The dark part of the bark, speckled with lighter streaks and patches, is to the outside.