Reanna Moore-Best
rmoore-best@zagmail.gonzaga.edu
Pat Courtney Gold
"The Native People of the Columbia Plateau are rich in basketmaking tradition. For thousands of years their ancestors have used the roots, bark and grasses of the region to fashion containers for all their needs. Today a small number of descendants of these basketmakers continue this ancient heritage an art form known worldwide for fine craftsmanship, variety in design and beauty"
- Mary Dodds Schlick author of
Woven History: Native American Basketry
"MEMORY episode Pat Courtney Gold segment" by www.craftinamerica.org premiered on PBS in 2007
An excellent example of a basketmaker with a more contemporary style is Pat Courtney Gold. She is a Wasco native who grew up on the Warm Springs Reservation in Oregon. She continues the use of the full turn twine technique used by her ancestors but experiments with different plant fibers including cattail, tule, dogbane, cedar bark and tree roots.
Pat Courtney Gold (Wasco). Honor the 1805 Wasco Weaver. 2003. Harvard University's Peabody University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Web. https://www.peabody.harvard.edu/node/2349
Pat Courtney Gold enjoys the use of traditional designs in her baskets. One design that is often used by this popular basketmaker are very similar to the designs used in petroglyphs. Harvard University's Peabody Museum recruited her to write an essay on a Wasco basket collected by Lewis and Clark on their expedition west in 1805 and even had her recreate the sally bag to include in their collection. In some of her more creative baskets Pat likes to give each petroglyph a different facial expression, which shows her free reign of creativity in the weaving process.
Both the Yuppie Couple and the Yuppie Couple 2 baskets were featured in the High Dessert Museum in Bend, Oregon in an exhibit named "From the Vault: Pat Courtney Gold Baskets" until September 10, 2017. By pairing these two baskets together Pat contrasts contemporary and traditional Wasco basketry. In the basket titled Yuppie Couple 2 Pat uses traditional Wasco basket patterns. They are geometrical patterns that continue to resemble the look of the historic petroglyphs used by her ancestors.
In Yuppie Couple she continues the use of traditional geometric patterns but incorporates colorful modern clothing to reference the new culture that came with the expansion of Euro-Americans. The modern clothing is weaved with colorful chenille fiber which also adds a certain texture to the basket. She states that she "enjoy[s] experimenting with new fiber and trying variations on old designs' and that she's "sure if my ancestor basket weavers were transplanted into this century they would be inspired to do the same."
"Baskets Exhibited in Museums." Pat Courtney Gold: Native American Fiber Artist and Basket Weaver. n.d. Web. http://www.patcourtneygold.com/baskets_museums.htm
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Additional References
Ojibwa. "Pat Courtney Gold's Baskets." Native American Netroots. 24, July 2017. Web. 27 February 2018. http://nativeamericannetroots.net/diary/2376
"Pat Courtney Gold." Craft in America. n.d. Web. 27 February 2018. http://www.craftinamerica.org/artists/pat-courtney-gold/
"Pat Courtney Gold." The Language of Native American Baskets From the Weaver's View. n.d. Web. 27 February 2018. http://nmai.si.edu/exhibitions/baskets/subpage.cfm?subpage=view_pat