LCPD's Willow Working Class participants busy cleaning willows for projects on March 20.
By ROSELYNN YAZZIE
Sho-Ban News
FORT HALL — The Language & Culture Preservation Department (LCPD) is revitalizing the practice of willow working.
There were 45 participants at the Willow Working Class with Sho-Ban tribal member, Marietta Cortez on Wednesday, March 20.
The effort was in collaboration with the Sawtooth Historical & Interpretive Association and its grant partners from the National Forest Service, who have commissioned three Shoshone-Bannock artifact replicas to be on display at the Stanley Museum in Stanley, Idaho. Replicas will include a winnowing basket, fish trap and parfleche bag.
The class was meant to provide community members the opportunity to learn more about working with willows and the process of creating a winnowing basket.
LCPD organizer, Bailey Dann, who is the Original Territories & Historical Researcher said, “We’re able to impact not just our tribal artisans and memory keepers, but also our community to revitalize our cultural practices like willow working.”
Instructor Marietta Cortez.
Dann said, “It’s really exciting to be able to partner with museums and be able to tell our story, but then also revitalize our culture at the same time. And bring back practices that have sustained our people for thousands of years and are at risk of being lost or forgotten. And so by bringing our community together to learn together and remember together is a really powerful moment of revitalization also just saying that, ‘We’re here and we remember and we’re going to continue into the future.’”
Dann continued, “Willows benefit from our relationship with them to maintain their wellbeing. Through careful harvesting, willows are stimulated to regrow, ensuring they remain productive while also preventing overgrowth.”
Dann said the willows are our relatives and when we care for them they care for us.
“So when we go out there and engage in the land and we collect our willows we’re letting the land know that we still remember and we care for it too.”
Gathering willows is a process. Scraping the willows immediately after they’re harvested will produce the best result. Keep them fresh by keeping them out of direct sunlight. Dann suggested burying them in a bank of snow or placing them in a bucket of water in the shade.
To scrape the willow, hold the smooth (not serrated) blade perpendicular to the willow to avoid carving into it, and continue scraping until a bone-white color appears. Leaving the green membrane on the willow will cause it to turn brown as it dries and is exposed to light.
Be delicate when splitting willows. Keeping the willow thread in water helps maintain its workability. Once the pith, or inner part, has been scraped, wrap the thread in a loop and allow it to dry until ready for use. When ready to use, rehydrate the thread by placing it in a tray or pan of water.
Winnowing basket made of willows.
Marietta Cortez remembers her hutsi weaving baskets, cradleboards and water jugs. By watching her she gained her own interest. But she worked a lot, it wasn’t until her friend Roger asked her if she would like to learn to make a willowboard, and she jumped at the chance.
She was told to start with a little willowboard, doll-sized, and eventually progress to bigger projects. She soon pulled out her hutsi’s winnowing basket and thought it looked like a shade, so she decided to give it a try.
Cortez said the best time to do willow work is in the winter, so you don’t have to fight with the buds.
She describes a good willow to pick for a cradleboard is a larger size, she says usually frames are done with red willow. She uses a mid-sized willow for the ribs of the cradleboard.
Cortez was excited to see so many people in attendance at the class and said the practice is important because it’s a dying art and she wants to do her part to pass it on.
In her family she has only sons, but she says anyone can learn.
Cortez encourages more people to learn willow work.
“To learn your beadwork, to learn everything. To learn hides, especially hides. Learn a lot of stuff that our ancestors has done and keep it going. Keep it going. That will make us stronger, us Native people stronger. Having that knowledge,” she said.
Elders and youth attend the willow working class.
Tribal crafter, Lisa Honena makes willowboards and shades. She attended the class to learn how to make a winnowing basket and get more techniques on how to split willows.
Honena does her collecting in the winter, mid-January, she says it’s a good time because it’s peaceful and is something she enjoys doing. Over the weekend she collected willows down Bottoms with her son and his girlfriend.
She’s particular with her collection of willows and after all her gathering she feels it’s good to make something nice she can keep for her own kids and grandkids.
“I want to be able to create the family heirlooms. Like Marietta’s winnowing basket was her hutsi’s. So that’s something I want to carry on,” said Honena.
Lin Gray is the executive director of the Sawtooth Interpretive and Historical Association in Stanley, Idaho. She said they’re trying to get some permanent tribal history in the museum in the voice of the Tribes. Prior to now they haven’t had any history of the area that was in the tribal perspective.
They’ve been working with LCPD to come up with interpretive signs that will be installed this spring along with the replicas.
Gray was happy to be in attendance to see the process so she can help educate the folks visiting the museum about the steps used to create the items.
“So that we’re not just saying here’s this artifact that exists in the world, but you know, that there are skills involved that take a life time to kind of develop and it isn’t just something thrown together,” said Gray.
LCPD plans to host a continuing Winnowing Basket Class in April, dates and location will be determined soon. Participants will need to have a frame dried, strong/yarn/waxed thread, and willows the size of a pencil or smaller scraped for the middle part of the basket.
Future classes will be on Fish Basket making this summer and Parfleche Bag Making in the fall.
Dann encourages people to not be afraid to ask questions and to reach out to LCPD if they have any.