“Designs from the River”

Local O’odham tribes have an ancestral legacy of creating basketry designs that derive from desert lifeways and materials. Basket weavers harvest cattails, willow, bear grass, and the white of yucca plants around early spring. The flora is cleaned, dried, and stored to later be woven with devils claw. Weaving practices vary from coiling to split stitch basketry. This practice is traditionally led and passed down by the matriarchs of communities. The design motifs reference traditional stories and indigenous ways of being for the O’odham peoples. The table was produced through a collaborative design process with local Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community artist Jeffrey Fulwilder.