Photo by Tom Jones courtesy Museum of Wisconsin Art
Helen Lonetree - sewing basket, c. 1975
Helen Lonetree - sewing basket, c. 1975
Humankind has long been turning the functional into art forms, taking everyday items produced from readily available resources and creating collectable pieces that reflect the culture of the artists who produced them.
This is especially true among Indigenous peoples who live in greater harmony with the land. In the arid American southwest, the Pueblo cultures excelled in producing beautiful clay pottery, many of which have found their way into museums and galleries. In Wisconsin, the Ho-Chunk people have for more than a century created stunning baskets from the Black Ash tree. Although basket uses were originally practical in nature, the artists executed them with high levels of craftsmanship and beauty. The first major exhibit of those baskets is on display now at the Museum of Wisconsin Art in West Bend.
“Weaving a Legacy: Ho-Chunk Black Ash Basketry”, which opened Aug. 3 and runs through Nov. 10, showcases 200 different Ho-Chunk baskets of different styles, shapes and sizes. Exhibit co-curator Tom Jones, a Ho-Chunk artist and University of Wisconsin–Madison professor of photography, had over the years photographed 2,000 such baskets in homes of the Central Wisconsin tribal people, and the current exhibit has drawn from his collection of images as well as his own personal Ho-Chunk basket collection.
“The exhibit contains a lot of baskets of various types,” says MOWA curator Jane Aspinwall, who worked closely with Jones on the exhibit. “We have them arranged in the galleries sorted by function. There are market baskets, shopping baskets, sewing baskets, and large baskets to collect eagle feathers.”
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The baskets also are grouped by shape, including kettle baskets, barrel baskets, and others, Aspinwall adds. The oldest baskets date back to 1910, although there are wool-sided bags from the 1800s. Of those on display, 40% come from known artists, while the remaining 60 percent, including many of the older ones, come from unknown creators.
Photo by Tom Jones courtesy Museum of Wisconsin Art
Christine Hall - rocking doll cradle, c. 1980
Christine Hall - rocking doll cradle, c. 1980
Storytelling Culture
The origin story for the black ash baskets dates back to a much earlier time, Aspinwall says.
“The Ho-Chunk are an oral storytelling culture, and this story has been handed down among generations,” the curator says. “Legend has it that a woman had a relative die, which tradition said required a week-long medicine dance and sendoff for the departed spirit. But woman had no money for such an event and prayed to the Great Spirit for help.”
The Great Spirit came to the grieving woman in a dream, Aspinwall explains, and directed her to a certain Black Ash tree, instructing her to cut strips of wood from the tree and weave them together to create a beautiful basket that she could then sell to raise money for the medicine dance. She did as she was told, and the money was raised for the loved one’s sendoff.
Economic and Environmental Challenges
The older baskets on display tend to be darker in color and more functional in style and shape, while more contemporary ones do more to explore various color palettes and combinations. By the mid-20th century, the Ho-Chunk were selling their baskets from roadside stands in and around Wisconsin Dells and other tourist areas. The stands have largely disappeared, Aspinwall says, depriving Ho-Chunk artists from what was once a major commercial avenue. Further, challenges posed by the Emerald Ash Borer and other environmental threats also raise concerns about the future of the Wisconsin ash tree population and what it could mean for the continuation of the art form, the curator says.
“The Ho-Chunk are a resilient people who have been driven from their ancestral Wisconsin lands more than once, only to return,” Aspinwall says. They may find a way, she adds, but in the meantime exhibits like this preserve a crucial part of their history.
“It makes a solid case for why museums matter when it comes to preserving culture,” she adds.
‘Weaving a Legacy: Ho-Chunk Black Ash Basketry’ is on display through Nov. 10 at the Museum of Wisconsin Art, 205 Veterans Ave., West Bend. For more information, visit wisconsinart.org.
