Very Large Yavapai Basket OLLA, circa 1900

This is a historic, large-scale Native American coiled OLLA basket originating from the Yavapai weavers of the Southwest, dating from the late 19th to early 20th century. The term olla refers to the classic wide-bellied, narrow-necked jar shape. While smaller baskets were used for daily tasks, large ollas like this one required immense skill and months — sometimes over a year — of intensive labor.

Originally, closely woven ollas could be sealed with wild piñon pitch to carry water. However, during the late 1800s and early 1900s, master weavers began producing exceptionally large, intricately decorated ollas like this one specifically as high-value trade items for art collectors and expositions.

Close examination beautifully highlights a three-rod foundation coiled construction. This structural choice gives the basket its rigidity, heavy weight, and thick, durable walls. The light-colored body is typically made from split willow or cottonwood shoots. Over time, exposure to light gives it this rich, golden-brown patina. The dark patterns are woven using the split seedpods of Devil's Claw (Martynia), a desert plant highly prized by Southwestern weavers for its natural, deep black-to-dark-brown permanence.

In terms of background and history, the Yavapai have shared culture with Mohave, Apache, Havasupais, and Hualapai. There were three Yavapai groups — Western, Northeastern, and Southeastern. The Western Yavapai made baskets more like those of the Western Apache. Reasoning is that many Yavapai women lived on the San Carlos Apache Reservation and learned basket weaving from the Apache. Because of this similarity, many Yavapai baskets have been misidentified as Western Apache. We, at Adobe Gallery, made that same mistake with this olla, but we have been corrected by the research of Diane Dittemore, Associate Curator, Arizona State Museum, who recently published a book Native Basketry of the Southwest, to whom we offer our thanks.

This "now identified as a" Yavapai storage jar or olla is excessively large and commanding with remarkable designs. It measures 21 inches in height and 20 inches at its maximum width. From the flat base on which it rests, the wall expands outward to the midpoint of the olla, and then gracefully slopes inward to the point where the rim curves out. The diameter of the base is 10-½", the widest point of the body is 20", the cincture at the neck is 11-½", and the rim diameter is 13-½".

The basket was divided into sections for design placement. Four dark bands run vertically from base to rim.  In each black band are diamonds containing stacked black triangles (arrow heads?). Pictorial elements  fill the areas between the black bands. There are animals, pairs of humans, corn plants, humans on horseback, an American flag on a flagpole, a very tall man wearing a hat, and several whirling crosses.

From a letter we received from Diane Dittemore, referring to her book, I quote:  

"In it I argue that the type of baskets with lots of negative designs and including the whirling cross (that native basket weavers in conversations have rejected being called swastikas) are likely to have been woven by Yavapai weavers. I am not the first person to attach these design choices to Yavapai, and fully understand the complex relationship between Yavapai and Western Apache people who were interned together at San Carlos. Suggesting Yavapai as a possible culture of manufacturer is, from my research, fully justified."

Condition: good condition with some missing stitches on the underside.

Provenance: this Very Large Yavapai Basket OLLA, circa 1900 is from the collection of a resident of Santa Fe

References:

- Thanks to Diane Dittemore, we have reclassified the heritage of this olla from Western Apache to Western Yavapai.

- Tanner, Clara Lee. Apache Indian Baskets, The University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1982

- Personal Correspondence: Diane Dittemore, Associate Curator, Arizona State Museum, who recently published a book Native Basketry of the Southwest.

TAGS: Native American Baskets, Apache, American Indians, Western Yavapai