The Beaded Huckleberry Basket

The scene: Newark Airport, changing planes after the 2008 Inauguration, walking around the boarding area of the terminal, which was packed, trying to find something to drink. The loudspeaker crackled to life to announce my cross-country flight was boarding when out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a handsome Northwest Indian man with his briefcase balanced atop a garbage can, talking to two people, likely members of a Plains tribe. What had my eyeball glued to the briefcase were its contents --- it was filled with really fine beadwork.

I wandered over and asked, "Are any of these for sale?" I had already spotted a singular piece, a beaded replica of a Klickitat basket brimming with huckleberries, with three paddlers in a Chinookan canoe worked into the front of the basket. It was exquisitely made, with smoke-tanned elk hide as its base and three-dimensional huckleberries in the basket, which has Klickitat 'ears' and the obligatory one-bead mistake.

I asked if he was from the Columbia Gorge, where those baskets originated --- he said he was a member of the Nez Perce, but his wife is Warm Springs. I was already reaching for cash while watching the boarding line recede down the corridor and onto my plane. I indicated the one I wanted; he said $40. I handed him my last two twenties and a business card and dashed for the plane. My heart was pounding, full of gratitude for this chance encounter. It is now my favorite beaded piece, eclipsing the silvery blue fish motif earrings I once bought at a powwow.

I sewed a small loop on the back so it can also work as a pendant. Mary Schlick, whose book on imbricated basket-making is a definitive work on the subject, stopped during an event to admire it.

Now, I wish I knew who made it. I have searched the web but found only two other beaded baskets, and they were not like mine.

There were many tribal members at the Inauguration; they hosted their own ball. While walking to the Dirksen Building in D.C. the day before the Inauguration, I talked to two women from a northern Alaskan village walking down the street wearing beaded anoraks and sealskin mukluks. Later, I emailed Warm Springs tribal headquarters, attaching a photo of the piece and asking if anyone knew of its maker, but he or she is still a mystery.