History of native baskets in the northeast woodlands
Native American basket making in the northeast woodlands is centuries old. The Wabanaki tribes (Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, Maliseet, and Micmac) of Maine and other northeastern tribal artists were expert weavers.
Recognizing the need to participate in the market economy of the white colonial culture, Native basket weavers took advantage of the growing interest in Native American culture to sell or trade their baskets. After dispossession of their lands, Native groups now living on reservations with diminished resources experienced a sudden change in their cultural way of life. Their original hunting and fishing rights to feed their families were more confined to reserve lands. Less mobility and freedom encouraged a heavier reliance on European market goods. Eventually, selling or trading baskets and other souvenir art for European goods became a source of survival to feed and provide for their families. By the turn of the century, many, if not all, families on reservations in Maine were making baskets for sale or trade in the new colonial cash economy.
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