Miniature Pack Basket 2"- perfect! Pam Outdusis Cunningham: Penobscot

Description

At only 2" high this miniature pack basket by Pam outdusis Cunningham, master Penobscot basketmaker is an amazing feat of technical excellence.   Full size pack baskets (20" high)  were made by the thousands by Pam's ancestors.  These huge baskets were fitted with canvas or leather straps and worn like a backpack. Used for over 150 years in the Maine woods to carry supplies by woodcutters, hunters, hikers, fisherpeople, campers, gatherers of mushrooms, berries, rocks, wood and more, pack baskets have been indispensable for those heading into the wild.
In its early years LL Bean sold Penobscot pack baskets in the store and through their catalog.  Some makers of these pack baskets were from the other Wabanaki tribes residing here in Maine and in eastern Canada.  - The Wabanaki Confederacy is comprised of 5 tribes; Abenaki, Maliseet, Micmac, Passamaquoddy and Penobscot.  -  I am uncertain if the Abenaki or Maliseet basketmakers ever sold pack baskets to LL Bean - I have been told by tribal members of the other 3 tribes of family members who had sold to LL Bean.
Miniatures are more difficult to make than full size baskets.  Only skilled, experienced basketmakers can make a true miniature that has the shape and detail of the larger piece it is miniaturizing.  This particular miniature pack basket is the smallest one I have seen - and it is a tiny work of art!
Here Pam has scaled this basket perfectly - including it's flat back (to fit against your back), it's rounded front (to carry more stuff) and the hole in the top back (for a hand hold if you want to carry it rather than wear it).  Pam has also added "pop out X curls to the front sides of this basket.  -  Only the best and fanciest full size pack baskets include this decorative detail.  One that may also extend the life of a pack basket, absorbing some of the damage as it's wearer backs into a tree or as it falls over on its front.
This is 2" to top of basket opening, 2.25" across at back of opening, 1.75" deep at middle of opening.  The bottom is a 2" long and 1.25" deep rectangle.  On the bottom Pam has signed "Pam C", added the date and put her maker's mark, a sweet fern unfurling into a turtle - Pam is of the turtle clan.
Made of brown ash, the traditional material of Maine and Eastern Canadian basketmakers, this has plain tidal sweetgrass wrapping the rim of the basket... sweetgrass is held in place by a perfect X shape ash splint wrap.
With this miniature basket, Pam has included a miniature lavender flower she has made of hand dyed wool -  See it in the 6th and 7th photos in the slide show above.
Second to last photo is of Pam dancing the Shawl Dance at the 2019 Penobscot Nation Community Day Festival.  Last photo is a pic of Pam's great-grandmother, ssipsis, selling her baskets about 1920.  To make some of her basket forms Pam uses some of her ssipsis's basket making tools - gauges, crooked knives and wooden molds.    Be sure to view some of Pam's other baskets in this ebay store - you might find pumpkins, corn, strawberry baskets or prayer baskets.