Baskets may be one of museum's most important exhibits

It's been up since April 8 but appears to have been reduced somewhat in the past weeks to make room for the display of Fred Machetanz lithographs.

But it may rank among the more important things the museum has done this year.

The museum notes that it has a collection of about 1,000 Alaska Native baskets. But most have come "with little or no documentation."

The containers are so interwoven (so to speak) with Alaska's history, prehistory (some have been dated back 5,000 years) and tourism that establishing provenance for the pieces was often overlooked.

So in 2010, the museum invited an all-star group of basket makers and scholars to review pieces in the collection.

Annie Don, originally from Quinhagak, and Molly Lee, formerly with the University of Alaska Fairbanks, reviewed Yup'ik baskets. Southeast basket maker Janice Criswell teamed up with Peter Corey, former curator at Sitka's Sheldon Jackson Museum, and Steve Henrikson from the Alaska State Museum in Juneau, to look at Haida, Tlingit and Tsimshian baskets. Walter Van Horn, with the Anchorage Museum, coordinated the project.

The teams selected 80 baskets in a variety of styles dating from the 1880s to the present. Where possible, the makers have been identified: Rachel Smart of Hooper Bay, Ellen Dock of Kipnuk, Anna Martins of Chevak, Flora Mathew of Southeast. In addition to the baskets the display includes historic photos.

The informative signs identify the purpose and style of the pieces -- which is a work basket, a rattle top basket, a ruffled rim or telescoping basket. The techniques for weaving are listed -- open and closed twining, fake embroidery, rod and coil, skip stitch, between weave, eyehole or crossed warp.

We can read the thought process of the experts as they examined the baskets. "Lee wonders if the basket has a Siberian origin," reads the sign by a basket that features the unusual addition of beads. And of a narrow-necked basket, "Don wondered what it could have been used for since you could barely get your hand into it."

Particularly delightful is the video made of the teams as they discuss what they're looking at. The history and craftsmanship behind the work, whether it was intended for sale or for use. Don, a master basket weaver, explains why it's harder to make a basket with straight sides than the familiar apple-like shape bowing out in the middle. A major highlight comes when she divulges the secret for weaving a tight-fitting lid -- which we won't reveal here.

Like most Alaskans, I have several such baskets around the house. While I admire them as art, I treat them like furniture, containers, places to put everyday things like pens or thumbtacks or airline tickets. Perhaps I should show more respect, but somehow putting them to work has never bothered me.

Criswell seems to be of the same mind. The Tlingit/Haida teacher and basket maker observes, "There is something really delightful about a basket that has been truly used and probably loved."

The exhibit ends on Dec. 31, but should perhaps be considered for a return at a future date. Some of the other 920 pre-loved baskets in storage at the museum might merit a fresh look.

Reach Mike Dunham at mdunham@adn.com or 257-4332.