H16.2750

collected prior to June, 1915
5.625 in HIGH
(14.29 cm HIGH)
Bean Creek near Bald Rock, Butte Co.
Museum Purchase
H16.2750

"Natives and Settlers," Great Hall, 12-17-79 to 3-9-80. Memory & Imagination: The Legacy of Maidu Indian Artist Frank Day. Oakland Museum of California, March 15-Oct. 12, 1997; National Museum of the American Indian, Feb. 15-May 3, 1998; Museum of In

Basket bowl, shperical, coiled & sewed. White oak design in redbud, arranged in two circles. "Older style of trinket basket, used to hold personal valuables. Peeled redbud sewing element and unpeeled redbud for design, moving ends bound under on base only." (Bruce Bernstein and Craig Bates, 7/91) "Pattern is deer walking up hill". (Rella Allan, 5/25/94) "Rella Allan's aunt, Lucy Johnson Wagner, used this pattern. Rella Allan's brother, Dick, has a basket nearly like this one, made by Rella Allan's mother, Lena Martin." (Rella Allan, 5/25/94) Rella Allan (Tyme Concow), Dorinda Allan (Rella's daughter), and Brian Bibby came to The Oakland Museum to study Concow Maidu baskets, May 25-26, 1994. They were particularly interested in baskets collected by C.P. Wilcomb from the Brush Creek, Bean Creek, Bald Rock, Berry Creek, and Sulpher Springs areas. Carey Caldwell and Denise Antes (Intern) assisted during their visit. Rella was born at Brush Creek, and then her family moved to Bald Rock to Henry Flinn's place. Henry Flinn was known to Rella as `Uncle Henry'; he made several headnets in OM collections. Rella's parents were Lena Logan Martin and Jack Martin. Jack Martin had two sisters, Cleo and Cordelia; the Martins were from Brush Creek. Cleo married Hood Smith; Cordelia married Johnny Johnson. Wilcomb collected baskets from Cleo and Cordelia. Rella also saw several baskets in the OM collections which she believed could have been made by her mother. Lena Logan Martin (1893/94 - 1980) was from Mooretown (Feather Falls). Lena made and sold many baskets during the Depression which Rella said that Lena sold for $40/each. The family was supported through Lena's basket sales and sale of furs and skins from their trap line. Rella assisted in retrieving the skunks, foxes, racoons, ring tail cats and other animals caught on the trap line. The skins were then sent to a buyer in San Francisco. Rella said that the family did rather well in the Depression compared to many others. Lena Martin learned weaving as a child from her mother Lydia Logan (from Mooretown). When Rella was about ten years old, she began to assist her mother Lena in basketmaking. Rella had not made baskets again since her childhood until 1984. With the help from Maidu weaver Lily Baker, Rella began to piece together what she remembered of her mother's instruction and her own experience with weaving as a child. Rella Allan is one of the few remaining speakers of the Concow language, which was her first language. Note: see North American Indian archive files for additional information on Rella Allan. See `Indians of the Feather River' by Donald P. Jewell, for photograph of Dick Harry, Johnny Johnson, Hood Smith and Henry Flinn (p. 134).
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