Baleen Basketry
OF THE NORTH ALASKAN ESKIMO
Baleen Basketry
OF THE NORTH ALASKAN ESKIMO
Molly Lee
Foreword by Aldona Jonaitis
New Preface and Introduction by the Author
University of Washington Press
SEATTLE & LONDON
published in association with the
University of Alaska Museum
FAIRBANKS
For my son, his father, and his grandparents
Copyright © 1983 by the North Slope Borough
Planning Department, Barrow, Alaska
Foreword, Preface, and Introduction to the 1998 edition
© 1998 by the University of Washington Press
Printed in the United States of America
All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lee, Molly
Baleen basketry of the North Alaskan Eskimo / Molly Lee
p. cm.
Originally published: Barrow, Alaska:
North Slope Borough, Planning Dept., c. 1983.
With new pref. and introd.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-295-97685-3 (alk. paper)
1. Eskimo baskets—Alaska. 2. Whalebone baskets—Alaska.
1. Title
E99.E7L417 1998 97-35482
745.593–DC21 CIP
Unless otherwise stated, the baleen baskets illustrated in this book, if decorated, use light baleen and have ivory starter pieces and finials. Measurements are given in centimeters; height precedes diameter. For baskets in public institutions, museum catalogue numbers are given in brackets after the collection identification.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. ∞
Contents
Foreword by Aldona Jonaitis
Introduction to the 1998 Edition
The Cultural Context of Baleen Basketry
The Historical and Formal Development of Baleen Baskets
Characteristics of Baleen Baskets
Foreword
I met Molly Lee in 1985 at a Native American Art Studies conference where she gave a talk on baleen baskets, a type of art about which I knew virtually nothing. There was a reason for my ignorance: this basketry was not part of a centuries-old indigenous art form and there was little in print about it. Baleen baskets had been “invented” in the relatively recent past and were made for tourists. Because they could not easily be assigned to categories of mainstream western art, they were generally dismissed as craftwork and thus inferior to the fine arts.
A scholar who was unwilling to adhere to such a restrictive paradigm, Molly Lee treated Inupiat baleen baskets as objects of significant artistic merit, which also embody profound statements of cultural identity. Her trenchant observations at that conference more than a decade ago prompted me, and I’m sure others, to rethink objects made for the tourist market as worthy of serious study. Argillite carvings, Eastern Woodlands moose hair embroidery, and Plains ledger drawings, as well as baleen baskets, are just a few examples of art that until recently was disparagingly labeled as “acculturated.” In the last decades of the twentieth century a new respect for tourist art acknowledges its intrinsic merit, its cultural significance, and its place in the world’s history of art.
It is most fortunate that this book is available again after a decade out of print. It stands as a major contribution to the literature on the enduring vitality of Native art.
ALDONA JONAITIS
Director
University of Alaska Museum, Fairbanks
Preface
The seed of this study was sown on the June day in 1976 when I first saw a baleen basket. Browsing through the display cases at The Legacy Ltd. in Seattle, a mecca for lovers of Native art, my eye lit on a small black basket with an ivory carving of a seal on its top. The seal was posed as though sunning itself on the spring ice; tiny baleen plugs gave its eyes the right luster, and every whisker on its small snout was exquisitely articulated. Enchanted by the basket’s tightly woven, elliptical body, I turned it over and saw that a signature had been etched into
