Tohono O´odham, Papago

Southwest Indian Tohono O´odham - Papago Baskets and Fine Art

The Tohono O´odham - Papago, Desert People are a Piman-speaking group who live in southwestern Arizona and northern Mexico. The basketry artists of this group have long been renowned for their sensitive and beautiful works, created of the simplest of materials in the harsh environs of the southwest. Descendants of the ancient Hohokam peoples, this tribe has extensive roots in the Southwest, reaching long into the prehistoric past.

The Tohono O´odham weavers of Arizona made baskets very much like those of the Pima - Akimel O’odham River People of the same area.  Both tribes used willow and both used martynia—or devil’s claw—for a decorative material.  It seems that the Tohono O´odham produced many more shapes than did the Akimel O´odham.