Making Their Mark 27

A CELEBRATION OF GREAT WOMEN ARTISTS

The history of twentieth-century Native American arts, as well as the history of , would not be complete without mentioning Lucy Telles (circa 1870- 1885-1955-56, left). Telles, whose Native American name was Pa-ma-has ("Meadows"), was a Paiute and Southern Sierra Miwok artist who transformed the 8,000-year old tradition of Native American basketry. The sheer scale of her baskets was both new and Lucy Telles, Mono Lake Paiute Basket, 1916. Coiled Brachen fern widely admired; it was her addition of a second root, willow, sedge root. 7 x 13 1/2 inches. Yosemite Natl. Park. color, red, to the traditional Miwok black designs that was even more revolutionary. She also designed new patterns that she adapted from traditional Native American beadwork. Although there were a number of well-known women basket weavers at Yosemite at the time, including Carrie Bethel (1898-1974), Lucy Telles was considered by many to be the best and most innovative. Lucy Telles with her largest basket in 1933.

Although the nation had experienced a so-called "basket craze" around 1900-1910, no doubt spawned by the general interest in the mythology of the American West, and by extension, in the narratives of Native American extinction and Manifest Destiny, the revived interest in Yosemite came in part because of the National Park Service's "Indian Field Days." This festival, held annually at the park from 1916 to 1929, was largely a publicity event in which participants were chosen based on their adherence to what the National Park Service deemed to be "authentically" Native American. While much of the festivities re volved around rodeo Lucy Telles with her largest basket in 1933. The basket took Telles four years to complete and is viewed today as her masterpiece. performances and stereotypical Native American dances, there were contests held for crafts. Basket weaving became a competitive event, and artists like Telles worked to larger, more ornate, and more lucrative pieces for the tourists who attended the Field Days. Her basket of 1933 (below, left and above left) is a masterpiece of the medium. Some three-feet in diameter, the basket took Telles four years to complete and earned her an award at the 1933 Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago. She spent her life demonstrating her craft to visitors to Yosemite until her passing around 1955 or 1956. Her contibutions are now viewed as instrumental to the art of the American West as the paintings of Thomas Moran or the photographs of Carleton Watkins. Lucy Telles, Mono Lake Paiute Basket, circa 1912. Telles use of two colors was innovative, as was the lid--an addition made to appease the Lucy Telles, Basket, 1933. Coiled basket, Bracken fern root, redbud, sedge root. tourists to the . 19 x 36 inches. Yosemite National Park.

KAM CELEBRATES WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH