The Basket Trade

​An Abenaki family encamped at the foot of Mt. Kineo on Moosehead Lake in Maine circa 1870. At their feet are birchbark and black ash utility/fancy baskets. People from the Abenaki Nations in Quebec would frequently make trips south to their homelands in western and southern Maine to sell their artwork during the height of the basket trade. Our origin stories tell of us emerging from the Ash tree. Baskets have taken on many different purposes throughout the centuries: utility, artistry, survival, reclamation, and much more. This traditional art is still practiced and evolved today by members of the five Wabanaki Nations.​

–Lokotah Sanborn​​

Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909) published a short story in The Independent on April 1, 1875, called “Tame Indians.”  The piece describes Jewett’s perceptions while visiting the mission at the Oneida Tribe of Indians in Wisconsin’s reservation.​

Jewett often used dehumanizing language to describe Indigenous peoples. She wrote about having only ever seen “the forlorn creatures who live at watering places in the summer and make fancy baskets to sell to the summer visitors,” referring to the Abenaki. ​

–Danikah Chartier​

Photomontage

Inkjet on glossy paper

2024