Thursday, June 7, 2012

Sally Bag

My cousin Claudia asked about where the name Sally Bag came from (my last post). Our teacher told of several places it might have come from but no one is positive. Unfortunately I was busy learning how to do the full turned twining so I didn't write anything down but two ideas were that it had to be with an Indian woman actually named Sally who is in the book 'Columbia River Basketry: Gifts of the Ancesters, Gifts of the Earth'. or there a plant called 'sal..... something or another' that was commonly used in the making of the bags.

Here are some links to read further on the Sally Bags and to see what they really look like, not my tiny little bag made of hemp spokes and Harrisville wool. The Oregon History Project. The Ethnography of Lewis and Clark. University of Oregon, The Museum of Natural and Cultural History.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for the quick response! I wonder if it has to do with the salal plant, which native peoples used for lots of things. According to info from the UW Burke museum, no one really knows the origin: "The most familiar form of Wasco/Wishxam basketry is a flexible, cylindrical, twined container known as a Sally bag. Although there are numerous interpretations explaining the origin of this name, there is not one definitive explanation. In the Wishxam language, this basket is called akw’alkt.

    http://www.burkemuseum.org/static/baskets/Teachersguideforbasketry.htm

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