L. W. Currey, Inc.

BATES, CRAIG D. and MARTHA J. LEE. Tradition and innovation a basket history of the Indians of the Yosemite-Mono Lake area [by] Craig D. Bates, Curator of Ethnography Yosemite Museum Martha J. Lee, Assistant Curator Yosemite Museum. Yosemite National Park, California: Published by the Yosemite Association, [1990]. 26x27.7 cm, pp. [i-iii] iv-v [vi-viii] ix-xv [xvi] xvii-xix [xx] xxi-xxiii [xxiv] 1-224 [225: colophon] [226-228: blank], 363 illustrations and figures, 2 maps, original gray cloth, front and spine panels stamped in silver, tan endpapers. First edition. "... not just a study of basketry, but rather a history of Indians and whites and their relations in the Yosemite area ... Through twenty years of study, with these baskets and experimentation with basket materials and weaving, Bates has derived from these silent documents a reconstruction of of aboriginal cultures ... what follows is not only a comprehensive study of basketry but also one of survival as told through an intertwined story of history, culture, and art" (foreword, pp. xvii-xviii). "The ethnohistory of the native people of the Yosemite region has previously been recorded in only a piecemeal fashion and the individual stories of many Yosemite Miwok and Paiute people have never before been published. An understanding of the intertwined stories of the people, their history, and their culture is essential to a study of Yosemite-area baskets. Thus, this basket history of the Yosemite Indian people was born. For the past twenty years increasing attention has been focused on the basketry of the Miwok and Paiute people of the Yosemite and Mono Lake regions by scholars, collectors and students of Native American art, but information has only been published in scattered articles. This publication attempts to combine previously published material and amplify it with additional information gathered from museum collections, federal and state records, ethnographic field notes, collectors and native people" (preface, p. xix). The first five chapters, pp. 1-71, provide historical background: "The Collectors: Basket Collecting in Yosemite," "In the Beginning," "Explorers, Missionaries, and Miners: Spanish and Euro-American Exploration and Settlement," "Scenes of Wonder and Curiosity: Yosemite Indians, Early Tourists and Settlers," and "The Role of Baskets in Native Life." Craig Bates (b. 1952), Curator of Ethnography for the National Park Service in Yosemite National Park, California, "worked for the National Park Service for more than 30 years (1973-2006), and was a nationally recognized expert in the history and culture of the Paiute, Miwok, and other native peoples of the Yosemite area ... He specialized in Native American basketry, but also conducted research and wrote widely on Indian languages, shamanism, genealogy of Northern California tribes, crafts, dance, mythologies, and legends. He published more than 100 articles and monographs, and wrote or contributed to many books on the history, languages, art, and material culture of Native Americans in the Western United States" (Finding aid, Yosemite National Park Archives). A fine copy in fine dust jacket. (#166280).