Collections by Name | Collections by Region

Native American Basket Collections

The Michigan State University houses significant collections of Native American basketry. The largest and most important of the historical collections is the Frank M. Covert/R.E. Olds Native American Basket Collection (see separate description) which has been augmented by items acquired primarily through other donors.

Beginning in the 1970s, Michigan State University Museum began documenting and collecting examples of contemporary Native American basketmaking as part of surveys. The collection expanded with the addition of examples of baskets produced by recipients of Michigan Heritage Awards, Michigan Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Awards, participants in the Sisters of the Great Lakes project, and participants in the 1998 and 1999 Great Lakes Indian Basket and Boxmakers Gatherings. The collection is now expanding with the initiation of the MSU Museum's documentation and exhibition project, Carriers of Culture: Contemporary Native Basket Traditions. The project focuses on contemporary Native basketry traditions that exist in Hawaii and North America at the turn of the twentieth century.

Donors and Fieldworkers

Numerous donors Dr. Marsha MacDowell, Dr. C. Kurt Dewhurst, Mrs. Frank M. Covert

Exhibitions

"Gatherings: Great Lakes Native Basket and Box Makers," Nokomis Learning Center, Okemos, Michigan, February - August 1999.

"Sisters of the Great Lakes: Art of American Indian Women," Nokomis Learning Center, Okemos, Michigan, September, 1995 - December, 1996; Hall of Ideas, Midland Center for the Arts, Midland, Michigan, January, 1997 - March, 1997; The Field Museum, Chicago, Illinois, December 20, 1997 - July 5, 1998; Forest County Potawatomi Cultural Center & Museum, Crandon, Wisconsin, September - December, 2000; Fort Miami Heritage Society, St. Joseph, Michigan, May - September, 2002.

Publications

Marsha MacDowell, ed. Gatherings: Great Lakes Native Basket and Box Makers. East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University Museum in collaboration with the Nokomis Learning Center, 1999.

Marsha MacDowell and Jan Reed, eds. Sisters of the Great Lakes: Art of American Indian Women. East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University Museum in collaboration with the Nokomis Learning Center, 1995.

Otis Tufton Mason, American Indian Basketry (1904); reissued, Dover Publications, 1989. 

Whale Hunt, Val Stickings, twined swamp grass, Cree, 1996

Wolf basket, Nancy Edwards, twined methods, Yupik, 1999

Homage to Wild Strawberries, Gail Trembley, Onondaga/Micmac, 20th cen.