Handed Down - Nevada Arts Council

1996–1997
Washoe Winnowing Trays:
Norma Smokey and Colleen Hernandez
Norma Smokey comes from a renowned family
of Washoe basket makers, and is doing her part
to make sure the tradition lives on in her own family
by teaching her daughter Colleen Hernandez how to
make winnowing trays. “We were around [baskets] all
the time when we were growing up, there were baskets
everywhere, they had baskets for everything,” Norma
recalls. “I wanted to do one of these because, you
know, you just don’t see them anymore, people don’t
loan them out.” She had been taking her aunts Theresa
Jackson and JoAnn Martinez (both master artists in
the Apprenticeship Program) out gathering willows
and started learning to weave from them. With only
a few basic lessons and a lot of enthusiasm, she soon
became proficient, returning to her aunts occasionally
for guidance on the fine points.
Before the weaving can begin, basket makers must
gather their willows. In the rapidly developing Carson
Valley, where the Washoe people have lived for generations,
it is increasingly difficult to find healthy plants
not damaged by pollution or pesticides, or fenced off on
private property. Norma has found good willows near
Woodfords across the California line, and also in Smith
Valley. She looks for long, strong willows to make the
threads, so they don’t break and don’t have to be spliced
as often. She says she has a tendency to overdo it when
she finds a good source, since healthy willows are so
rare, and then all the willows must be worked at once
because they have to be cleaned and split while they are
fresh. Especially when she was first learning, she was
so enthusiastic she would work until “her fingerprints
wore off.” She encouraged Colleen to take it a little
easier and just weave a couple of rows a day.
Colleen Hernandez works on her first winnowing
tray as her mother Norma Smokey watches.
Norma Smokey with a large cone basket
and winnowing tray.
So far Norma has specialized in winnowing baskets
and cradleboards. Her daughter’s first project was a
winnowing tray, which begins with a frame bent out of
a branch from a berry bush. Willow sticks are fanned
out from the small end and woven together with twined
split willows. Additional sticks are added in as the tray
gets wider. As the basket nears completion it must be
shaped into a concave bowl, which requires a great deal
of strength in the hands. Using the basket takes strength
and skill, too. The open-weave winnowing basket will
be used to roast pine nuts by tossing them with hot
coals. The basket must be kept constantly moving to
prevent the coals from burning through it, but to many
Washoe people there’s no other way to do it; roasting
pine nuts in the oven just doesn’t have the same taste.
When Colleen’s first basket is finished, tradition
dictates that it be given away to someone. “It’s not like
I am happy about it,” she says, but her mother assures
her it’s the proper thing to do. And then she can start
on her next project, a baby basket.
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