Horse Hair Baskets; a Papago, Tohono O’odham Art

One of the more intriguing forms of basketry art is the minature horse hair baskets originating from the Papago, or more recently known as “Tohono O’odham”, tribes. Members of the Tohono O’odham tribal nation, live along the Arizona, Mexico border.

Papago Horse Hair "Man In The Maze" Basket

 Their present tribal lands, established in 1874, consist of a three parcel reservation of 2,854,881 acres (approximately 5,000 square miles), in the Sonoran Desert in south central Arizona and into Mexico, an area comparable in size to the state of Connecticut, but with a population of 27,500 members. Their history is traced back to the Pima tribes who settled along the banks of the Gila River and who later migrated to the banks of the Santa Cruz River in southern Arizona south of the current metropolitan area of Tucson. Basket making is a long-honored tradition of the Tohono O’odham people who make baskets from various materials such as willow, yucca and horsehair. Traditionally, the men harvested the materials and the women were the basketmakers. Eventually, Tohono O’odham families began making the material harvesting a family event and it lead to a transition where now there are basketmakers who are men in their families as well.

Decorative basket patterns include the well-known “man in the maze” pattern, fret designs, turtle back designs, coyote tracks, dragging coyote tracks, cross designs, stars, squash blossoms, dust-devils, human figures, saguaro fruit picking scenes,and representations of antelopes, bats, bees, ducks, humming birds, rattlesnakes, and turtles. Some designs are done in the negative using devil’s claw as the background and yucca or willow for the design.

The Tohono O’odham people are world-famous for their intricately woven miniature horsehair baskets, many of which feature pictorial themes. The horsehair is all natural colors of black, white and shades of brown.

Minature Horse Hair Tohono O'odham baskets

The intricately detailed miniature horsehair basket below features a fine weave of black and off white colored horse hair. It is designed and hand-made by native craftsman who are known for their skill in basket weaving. The Tohono O’odham produce more baskets than any other Southwestern tribe today.