Wood-splint basket with lid
Title
Wood-splint basket with lid
Title
A wood-splint basket with lid, typical of those made by Mohican, Munsee, and related Native groups that lived in the Hudson Valley and along the borders between New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Holding Institution
Historic Huguenot Street
88 Huguenot Street
New Paltz, NY 12561
845-255-1660
www.huguenotstreet.org
info@huguenotstreet.org
88 Huguenot Street
New Paltz, NY 12561
845-255-1660
www.huguenotstreet.org
info@huguenotstreet.org
Creator
Mohegan/Munsee
Provenance Information
Wood-splint basket, 1179.1
Date Created
c late 18th/early 19th century
Format
wood splint basket
REDC Region
Notes
The splint basket helps highlight the story of Native American habitation and craftsmanship in the Hudson Valley. Formed by weaving thin strips of flexible ash wood made by pounding apart the growth rings of soaked tree trunks, the basket is typical of those made by Native people of the Northeast in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Similar examples appear in the collections of the New York State Museum, Historic New England, and Harvard’s Peabody Museum.
The area of New Paltz has been the home to the Esopus Munsee people for thousands of years. The Munsee, a sub-tribe of the Lenape (aka Delaware), shared a similar lifestyle and language with the Mohicans who lived to the north and east, including parts of New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Vermont. The Munsee and Mohicans regularly interacted, sharing trading and kinship ties. In the second half of the 17th century, Dutch and French-speaking settlers began taking over land in the Hudson Valley. Over the next 150 years, the region’s Indigenous population struggled as communities were forced from their ancestral homes, sometimes banding with allied tribes, like the Mohicans in Stockbridge, MA. Yet, well into the early 19th century, accounts were made in New Paltz of Native people still living in the area, often along the banks of the Wallkill River. According to these reports, one way the Esopus Munsee supported themselves was by gathering timber to make scoops and baskets that they sold for food and other necessities.
Contrary to popular 19th-century narratives like James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans, Indigenous people did not simply disappear from the Hudson Valley and surrounding regions. In the 18th century, Native people like the Munsee and Mohicans adapted to increasing challenges to their lives and travel patterns, and many found ways to remain in, or return seasonally to, their ancestral homelands. Traditional skills were extended into what had become the mainstream economy through the making and selling of baskets and carved spoons and bowls. Already skilled in using forest products, local Native people adapted to an emerging market for inexpensive, lightweight, and decorative containers, such as the HHS basket. Multiple references are made in Ralph LeFevre’s “A History of New Paltz, New York,” (1909) to this fact, including on page 79, “There was a family of Indians that would come and live in a hut in the woods of Cornelius DuBois …, and with his permission cut down any timber they desired, which they would manufacture into scoops and baskets. Stephen G. DuBois tells us that when he was a small child he visited this Indian family many times.”
Baskets similar to this one currently add to period furnishings in the Jean Hasbrouck House, where they are interpreted, along with carved wooden bowls and scoops, to explain the ongoing presence of the Esopus Munsee in New Paltz in the 18th and early 19th century. A planned 2023 exhibition of baskets and other Native-made objects will reach a broader audience and do even more to dispel misconceptions about Native American extinction. The exhibition will also illustrate the multicultural atmosphere that was 18th and 19th century New Paltz, as well as hardships the Esopus Munsee faced after Europeans took over their lands and confined them to a small portion of the place the Indigenous people once farmed and hunted freely.
The area of New Paltz has been the home to the Esopus Munsee people for thousands of years. The Munsee, a sub-tribe of the Lenape (aka Delaware), shared a similar lifestyle and language with the Mohicans who lived to the north and east, including parts of New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Vermont. The Munsee and Mohicans regularly interacted, sharing trading and kinship ties. In the second half of the 17th century, Dutch and French-speaking settlers began taking over land in the Hudson Valley. Over the next 150 years, the region’s Indigenous population struggled as communities were forced from their ancestral homes, sometimes banding with allied tribes, like the Mohicans in Stockbridge, MA. Yet, well into the early 19th century, accounts were made in New Paltz of Native people still living in the area, often along the banks of the Wallkill River. According to these reports, one way the Esopus Munsee supported themselves was by gathering timber to make scoops and baskets that they sold for food and other necessities.
Contrary to popular 19th-century narratives like James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans, Indigenous people did not simply disappear from the Hudson Valley and surrounding regions. In the 18th century, Native people like the Munsee and Mohicans adapted to increasing challenges to their lives and travel patterns, and many found ways to remain in, or return seasonally to, their ancestral homelands. Traditional skills were extended into what had become the mainstream economy through the making and selling of baskets and carved spoons and bowls. Already skilled in using forest products, local Native people adapted to an emerging market for inexpensive, lightweight, and decorative containers, such as the HHS basket. Multiple references are made in Ralph LeFevre’s “A History of New Paltz, New York,” (1909) to this fact, including on page 79, “There was a family of Indians that would come and live in a hut in the woods of Cornelius DuBois …, and with his permission cut down any timber they desired, which they would manufacture into scoops and baskets. Stephen G. DuBois tells us that when he was a small child he visited this Indian family many times.”
Baskets similar to this one currently add to period furnishings in the Jean Hasbrouck House, where they are interpreted, along with carved wooden bowls and scoops, to explain the ongoing presence of the Esopus Munsee in New Paltz in the 18th and early 19th century. A planned 2023 exhibition of baskets and other Native-made objects will reach a broader audience and do even more to dispel misconceptions about Native American extinction. The exhibition will also illustrate the multicultural atmosphere that was 18th and 19th century New Paltz, as well as hardships the Esopus Munsee faced after Europeans took over their lands and confined them to a small portion of the place the Indigenous people once farmed and hunted freely.
Citation
“Wood-splint basket with lid,” Flipping The Narrative, accessed February 10, 2025, https://flippingthenarrative.omeka.net/items/show/10.