Handed Down - Nevada Arts Council

1996–1997
Washoe Baskets:
Jean McNicoll and Jeanne O’Daye
When she first heard of the Apprenticeship
Program and the chance to pass on her basketry
skills, Jean McNicoll thought long and hard before
committing to take on a student—she didn’t want just
anyone, she wanted someone she knew she could count
on to make the most of the opportunity. But she had
started teaching her niece Jeanne O’Daye when the
younger woman was a teenager, so she knew her heart
was in it even though she hadn’t been practicing for
awhile. “I decided to go for it because our kids weren’t
learning anything from anybody,” Jean explains, “so
I thought, well, I’m not going to be around long so I
better start sharing so somebody else can learn. And
Jeanne was the only one out of everybody that I could
think of. She had the interest and she wanted to learn…
it’s just worked out great.”
The two women did accomplish a great deal, going
on gathering trips together, working on weaving, and
sharing their knowledge with Head Start children and
other school kids through classroom visits. “It’s really
been a fascinating journey for us because we really got
into it, and you know when you have this incentive and
the wanting to do it, and then the willows pushing you,
come on, come on, we really got into it,” Jean laughs.
And in spending time together they got to share other
aspects of the Washoe culture, like stories and songs,
and they learned together how to skin a buck and tan
the hide the traditional way.
Both women are tremendously energetic, involved in
all kinds of activities, but now any spare moments are
used for cleaning willows or weaving. “Even if I’m not
thinking, those willows just tell me I’d better get busy,”
says Jean. But without the impetus of the Apprenticeship
Program, “I’d still be just looking at them and walking
by.” For Jeanne, “basket weaving has been the most difficult
task I have ever partaken in,” but it has given her
the confidence to try other new things as well.
What started as an individual apprenticeship turned
into a family affair as Jeanne’s husband Tyrone, who is
Paiute, began weaving his own round baskets along with
her. Their two small children play in the willow threads
and come along on gathering trips as well. Jeanne says
her husband’s grandmother is exceptionally proud that
he is learning traditional ways, since he was raised as a
“town Indian.” “It’s a great big deal in their family, she
says happily. “It makes him walk taller.”
A collection of Jean’s baskets
The continuity within the family is no accident: “My
family taught me everything,” says Jean. “When I think
about the beauty of our baskets, it is mind-boggling to
wonder who created such beauty in a harsh and challenging
environment. I feel so proud to be blessed with
the gift to weave baskets.”
Jean McNicoll
gathering willows
along the
Truckee River
near Verdi.
Jean McNicoll
and Jeanne
O’Daye at the
Sierra Folklife
Festival in
Reno.
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