Basket c. 20th century

This basket was woven by Indé, who was Apache. What I notice first is the radial design—the way it echoes growth, like the rings of a tree or the layers of an onion. Imagine the maker coiling and coiling, round and round, their hands shaping the form. The brown and tan pattern creates a rhythm, a visual language. The triangles and zigzags—are they mountains, rivers, stories? I can't help but think of the countless hours it must have taken to create this, the slow, deliberate act of weaving. It's a form of embodied expression, like a dance, where the body knows what to do without thinking, and the artist is building on the work of those who came before. There's such a feeling of dedication here, of honoring tradition while making something new. It connects us to the earth, to history, to the hands that made it.