The Pomo are seven distinct cultural groups that historically occupied the California coast from south of the Russian River northward to the Fort Bragg area and inland to the region around Clear Lake. Although the Pomo made a variety of baskets, they are best known for finely coiled baskets such as these. The basket on the left is constructed with a three-coil foundation. The woven designs on Pomo baskets are usually geometric; figurative designs are rare. Pomo weavers often add feathers and clam shell beads as further ornamentation. The dark plumes are quail topknots, frequently used as accents around the basket rims. The red feathers, from the acorn woodpecker, are very fine; each tuft on the basket is made of several feathers that have been twisted together.

Museum Purchase: Caroline Ladd Pratt Fund.

Museum Purchase: Caroline Ladd Pratt Fund.

Gift of Pratt Institute

Gift of Edna Ebling

At either side of this bunch of owl feathers are one or two pairs of triple pronged ceremonial hairpins. Wire is used as their base as the desired effect is to make them tremble as the dancer moves.

Mrs. Ann Barber, the Maidu owner sold this belt to the Museum curator Stewart Culin. According to another Maidu informant, Mrs. Azbil, when she came into the country everyone of any wealth and importance had a belt. People could marry with them. The man gave it away. They also wore it in the War dance and this was the only way a man used it because it actually was a women's belt. This particular belt had been given to Mrs. Barber by her first husband, Pomaho, who married her with it. When he died it became hers and she was criticized for not burning it. The belt would be wrapped around the waist of the dancer twice for the Hesi, Toto of Kenu dances. The patterns on the belt mirror those used on baskets. The red triangles are composed of the scalps of twenty-five woodpeckers and are called grapevine leaves. The two narrow strips, composed of duck feathers, were named after the tongs used to lift the boiling stones out of the baskets when boiling mush. The knot of the belt where the threads come together is called the navel. Feather belts were the supreme Maidu representations of wealth and as such were prime candidates for destruction at death of the owner. Thus they are rare.

This is a conical shaped basket with a stepped flag design in brown on natural fiber colored background. The shells and feathers are fastened to the exterior and extend out from basket. Although called a puberty basket it is thought that this basket was not necessarily used for puberty ceremonial. At the time it was collected it was thought that ceremony no longer was being practiced so such baskets were no longer being made for traditional practice. While it may have been intended for such, there is no physical evidence that it was ever used to hold water, and it is more likely that it was made for sale, an aestheticized version of a traditional form.