Handed Down - Nevada Arts Council

1992–1993
Washoe Baskets:
Theresa Jackson and Sue Coleman
Folk art, like blue eyes or curly hair, tends to run in
families. That’s because folk traditions of all kinds
are based on shared values and esthetics, and survive
by being passed from person to person over time. How
better to perpetuate a culture than through families?
Washoe elder Theresa Smokey Jackson is one of
the best and most respected basket makers in the tribe,
and is carrying on a family tradition she learned from
her mother, grandmother and older sister. She in turn
is now passing on her knowledge to her daughter Sue
Coleman, who lives in Carson City. Theresa has been
making baskets since she was a child, and is one of the
few people who makes round baskets in addition to
cradleboards and winnowing trays. She and her sister
JoAnn Martinez have been the primary movers behind
a revival of interest in Washoe culture. They are members
of the last generation to be raised traditionally,
with annual summer trips to Lake Tahoe, and fall pine
nut gathering camps in the mountains, and they feel it
is their duty to pass on what their parents taught them.
“We’re the elders now, and it’s up to us to teach what
we know to those that are interested and want to learn,”
Theresa says.
Sue Coleman
A few years ago Sue asked her mother to teach her
about willow basketry, so Theresa started taking her
along on gathering trips, showing her how to find good
willows for different types of baskets. Theresa and her
sister are firm believers in teaching every step in the process;
she says, “If somebody already had it for you, then
you’re not learning it, you’re taking somebody else’s
work. You have to start from scratch.” Sue had made
several doll-sized cradleboards, and was determined
to make a full-size one during her apprenticeship. She
succeeded admirably, and said with a big smile, “I love
that basket, I’m really proud of it. I told my mom when
I finished it I stood it around the house for days, and
made everybody look at it!”
Sue raised her own children in cradleboards, and
both she and her mother are encouraged to see more
and more Washoe people using them again. Theresa
can hardly keep up with orders for baby baskets, and
just finished one for her first great-grandchild. One of
Sue’s most treasured possessions is a cradleboard that
her grandmother made and she cares for it like the
priceless heirloom it is. “A lot of people don’t take care
of them and don’t respect them, and it just irritates me,”
Sue declares. “They come back broken and I think, how
could they do this, it’s so precious. I take really good
care of my baskets, and I don’t understand people who
don’t respect them. If you take care of them, they’ll last
forever.” With that kind of care, both the baskets and
the way of life they represent can last forever.
Theresa Jackson with
some of her baskets.
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