Ed Carriere, a Suquamish tribal elder and master basketmaker, and Dale Croes, an archaeologist at Washington State University, have both spent more than fifty years pursuing their interests in ancient basketry. This personal memoir tells the story of how the authors developed an interest in the basketry of the Northwest coast. Carriere began the study of Salish basketry in 1957, soon after he returned from Korea, in order to preserve this tribal tradition that goes back some 5,000 years. Croes got interested in basketry through his career as an excavator of waterlogged archaeological sites (known as wet sites) where normally perishable artifacts like baskets are preserved.
Their collaboration led to a joint study of the 2,000-year-old basketry from the Biederbost site, an Archaeological Conservancy preserve on the Snoqualmie River that was recovered in the 1960s and is now housed in the University of Washington’s Burke Museum. They describe the development of generationally-linked archaeology, a new approach that connects contemporary cultural specialists with ancient and ancestral specialists through collaboration with archaeologists. They then share their insights with cultural and scientific audiences, such as the Northwest Native American Basketweaving Association and the Northwest Anthropological Conference.
Re-Awakening Ancient Salish Sea Basketry is a superb case study of how cultural and scientific interests can work together to advance the knowledge and understanding of both communities.
