Narragansett Basket
The Narragansett Basket is one of only two surviving 17th-century Algonkian baskets in the world. Despite an accompanying note that claims the basket was a gift made hastily, it was in fact carefully woven of basswood splints and cornhusk interwoven with red wool.
Close Looking Questions:
What do you notice first? What material do you think this object is made of?
Do you notice any patterns or colors? How would someone have used this object?
What might this object tell us about the person who owned it?
Trade and Use of Materials Among Native and European Peoples in Rhode Island
Essay by Ann Daly, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of History, Mississippi State University
Trade was important between Native and European people in Rhode Island. The English traded cloth and tools for fur and wampum. The Narragansett people made baskets using traditional methods and with materials from both North America and Europe. Even though the basket was made after the English came to Rhode Island, it shows that the Native Narragansett people could blend English things with their old customs. The basket is woven from bark and corn husk, which were local to Rhode Island and used for making baskets before Europeans came to America. The basket also has bits of red and blue wool, which came from England.
The Narragansett, Wampanoag, and English people traded things with each other, and you can see signs of this trade in the basket. Native people liked wool cloth, and English settlers wanted land, fur, and support. But, having European things did not make Native American life more like the Europeans. Instead, the Indigenous people traded for useful European things and mixed them with their own ways. By using both local and European trade goods, the basket maker found a middle way that combined Native American crafts and new materials from Europe.
Native people and English settlers might have recognized each other’s farms, cloth, and baskets, but they didn’t think it made them similar. Narragansett people made fabric from reeds and bark, while the English used European plants like flax and wool from English sheep. However, they used similar methods to make fabric. Narragansett weavers used the same patterns as English colonists when weaving mats and baskets, like twills and plain weave.
The two groups had different ideas about who should do what work. A Narragansett woman made this basket in the 1670s. In Narragansett culture, women made textiles, including baskets and mats for homes. But the English thought weaving was men’s work, and they believed their wool cloth made them more civilized than Native people. The colonists looked down on the Narragansett women’s textiles as a sign they had less culture.
Native people did not feel the need to make English-style cloth. Even 50 years after Roger Williams arrived, they still used baskets and lived in houses made of woven mats. It was not because they were not civilized, but because they did not see a reason to follow English ways. When they used English things, they did it in their own way. For example, they wore English wool cloth because the English paid high prices for Native traditional fur clothing. Instead of making English-style dresses and shirts, they turned wool blankets into coats that looked like their old fur clothing. Even with new goods from English colonists, the Narragansett and other Indigenous people used them to keep their way of life.
Terms:
Wampum: A type of “money” made by Native Americans from clamshell beads
twills: Fabric weave in which the threads give an appearance of diagonal lines
plain weave: Fabric weave in which the threads give an appearance of a checkered surface
Reading Comprehension Questions:
1) What kinds of materials did the Natives and English trade with each other?
2) How did the Native people and English people differ in their opinions about which people should do what types of work?
3) Explain an example of how Native people blended English goods with their own customs.
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