THOMPSON-FRASER RIVER AND INTERIOR SALISH BASKETS
Infant Carrier or Cradleboard	Cradle	Infant Carrier
Burden or Pack Basket	Coiled Pack or Burden Basket	Coiled Berry Collecting Basket
Coiled Basket	Coiled Basket Bowl	Coiled Bowl
Coiled Bowl	Coiled Bowl	Coiled Bowl
Coiled Cooking Bowl	Coiled Rectangular Bowl	Coiled Basket

Coiled Jar

Linguistically the Plateau had two language groups:

1. Salishian Speakers to the North, with links to the Salish of the Northwest Coast, included the Shuswap, Okanogan, Wenatchi, Sanpoil, Kalispel, Flathead, Coeur d'Alene, Columbia, Thompson, Fraser, Lillooet, and Spokan.

2. Sahaptin-Klamath speakers were south of the Columbia River in the Snake River basin and included the Nez Percé, Cayuse, Umatilla, Yakima, Tenino, Klikitat, Walla Walla, Klamath and Modoc.Most of the Native American groups in this region were hunters, gatherers, and salmon fishermen dependent on the rivers and lakes and wild plants for food and transportation. Until the horse arrived in the late 1700s mobility was limited to walking and dugout canoes. With the horse many of the more eastern tribes adopted Plains Indian culture and even made long excursions to hunt buffalo. In 1805 -1806 the Lewis and Clark expedition obtained horses from some of these tribes, as well as provisions and the dugout canoes they used to travel down the Columbia River to the Pacific Coast.

Trade was extensive and a central part of Plateau life. The Pacific Coast Chinook people traveled up the Fraser and Columbia Rivers so much that Chinook was a lingua franca or trading language used over much of the Plateau.

KLIKATAT & LILLOOET BASKETS
Lillooet Coiled Bowl	Klikatat Coiled Oval Pack or Cooking Basket	Klikatat Coiled Bowl
Klikatat Coiled Berry Collecting Basket	Klikatat Coiled Oval Bowl	Klikatat Coiled Bowl

BEADED BAGS OF THE PLATEAU

In the 1820s and 1830 French and other European fur traders brought glass beads that were made in Venice, Italy and were known as "pony" beads. It was about this time that fully beaded bags began to appear.

In the 1860s smaller glass beads, known as "seed" beads were imported from Belgium or Czecho-Slovakia.

DESIGNS - early on beaded bags had geometric designs similar to the twined "root" bags - but in time the colorful beads were used to create floral patterns and pictorial motifs which proved to be very popular.

BEADED BAGS OF THE PLATEAU
Yakima Leather Beaded Pouch	Yakima Leather Beaded Pouch	Nez Perce Leather Beaded Pouch
Nez Perce Leather Bag	Nez Perce Leather Bag	Nez Perce Felt Bag

Nez Perce Leather Bag

Nez Perce Cloth Bag

MANUFACTURING TECHNIQUES:

THE BAG - was usually made of either leather (deerskin, elk, moose or buffalo hide, later from cowhide) or trade cloth (denim, gunny sacks or flour sackings).Sometimes cloth bags were edged in leather. They were stitched up the sides with leather thongs, sinew is made of leather and with thread if made of cloth.

BEADS - in ancient times shell beads were used to decorate clothing. By the early 1800s imported glass beads were common enough to be used as decorative panels on clothing as well as bags. The earliest beads were quite large and are known as "pony' beads. All of the bags in this case use the smaller "seed" beads, now known as "size 12" beads. THREAD - for leather bags, the beads were usually strung on sinew thread made from the fibers of a deer tendon and twisted on the thigh into thread. With sinew thread an awl is used to make a hole through the leather surface and then the end of the sinew thread was pushed through. With cloth bags and cotton thread, steel needles were used that they obtained in trade along with the beads.

STITCHING TECHNIQUES - the art of covering a surface with beads is called "appliqué beading".

Two methods are used:

1. "LAZY STITCH" - the beads are strung on the sinew or cotton thread and then fastened to the surface only at the ends of fairly short parallel rows. The beads tend to bump up between the stitches.

2. "SPOT" or "OVERLAY STITCH" - The strings of beads are tightly attached to the surface, in close set rows that follow the pattern or design (don't have to be parallel) and a second thread is brought from below to tie the bead string down. This technique allows more curvilinear designs for floral motifs or pictorial scenes.

NEZ PERCE CORNHUSK BAGS
Nez Perce Twined Cornhusk Bag	Nez Perce Twined Bag	Nez Perce Twined Cornhusk Bag
Nez Perce Twined Bag	Nez Perce Twined Cornhusk Bag	Nez Perce Twined Cornhusk Bag

Nez Perce Twined Cornhusk Bag

NEZ PERCE CORNHUSK BAGS

Cornhusk bags developed during the 19th century from earlier root and grass twined bags. Once forced onto reservations the weavers could no longer get their preferred plat materials and began to substitute cornhusk, wool, and cotton twine.

Bags, like these were used to transport and store food and were often given as gifts full of cooked tubers or meat to hosts when visiting. Designs on opposite sides are almost always different.

PLATEAU DOLL CRADLES
Nez Perce Doll Cradle	Umatilla Doll Cradle

The long, cold winters required village houses that were dug into the earth with plank and sod roofs for insulation. Most villages had from 5 to 10 houses, each with an extended family of 10 to 15 members. Most villages also had a large communal gathering house where feasts, ceremonies and visiting traders or guests were hosted. Visiting and feasting were the chief activities of the long winters. Visitors arrived with basket bags packed with cooked or preserved food as gifts. Peaceful exchanges and gatherings were part of the Plateau way of life.

The mid to late 1800s saw devastating warfare between the U.S. Military and southern Plateau tribes. The Nez Percé, led by Chief Joseph, were forced into a long retreat before they surrendered in 1877. Like other Plateau tribes, they were forced onto small and over-crowded reservations in Idaho, Oregon and Washington.