"There is an explosive renaissance today in Southwest Indian basket making, a creative movement that draws on both traditional tribal designs and contemporary images and inspirations. In these pages, Susan Brown McGreevy explores the history and current status of basket making in the Native American Southwest, and ten contemporary basket makers share their methods, techniques, and expressive work.

Ranging in age from 21 to 82, the artists represent the Akimel O'odham (Pima), Apache, Hopi, Dine (Navajo), Pueblo, and Tohono O'odham (Papago) peoples of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. Their ancestors began making baskets more than 8,000 years ago, using local plant materials to fashion containers for gathering, processing, storing, and serving wild plant foods. Since then, baskets have evolved into a vast array of ritual, utilitarian, and decorative forms, still in use in Native American homes and increasingly appearing in art galleries, museums, and private collections.

This volume celebrates the contemporary florescence of this ancient art form."--BOOK JACKET.