Jicarilla Apache

Jicarilla Apache basketry covers a long span of time, but very little is known of their work before they were settled on a reservation in 1887 in northern New Mexico. All Jicarilla baskets are of coil weave, usually of sumac, but sometimes of willow.  The Jicarilla Apache women generally made large deep basket bowls for winnowing or storage.  They were designed with elements of commercial dyes, so fading is quite normal on a basket of some age.

The Jicarilla Apache Nation is located in the mountains and rugged mesas of northern New Mexico.  The landscape offers diverse scenery of Ponderosa pine forests in mountainous terrain and Pinon pine mesas with Sage brush flats.  Dulce, New Mexico, is the Jicarilla Apache Nation Headquarters and is accessible via US Highway 64 from Farmington and Chama or from Albuquerque via US Highway 550 and NM 537.