Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Spring 2008 - (Page 30) The Whitecloud Collection of Native American Art contains an array of woven cane masterpieces from Louisiana’s tribal artisans U 30 LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES\Spring 2008 nique traditions, culture, and creativity from the original creators of American Art are captured in one remarkable art collection and celebrated in the exhibition Blue Winds Dancing: The Whitecloud Collection of Native American Art. This exhibition of more than 400 objects collected over the last 30 years by Dr. Thomas and Mercedes Whitecloud was organized by the New Orleans Museum of Art and was on view through February 18, 2008. Many different cultures and all major regions of the United States were represented in Blue Winds Dancing, including the renowned basketry of Louisiana’s tribes, namely the Chitimacha peoples. The Chitimacha people occupy roughly 450 acres of bayou and land in southeastern Louisiana — land they have occupied for thousands of years. While their reservation is only a portion of their original settlement, the Chitimacha are proud to be the only Native Americans in the state of Louisiana to have continually retained ownership of some of their ancestral land. Both their ancestral land and current reservation holdings have proven to be integral to the survival of the Chitimacha and their culture. At the beginning of the 18th century, the Chitimacha were the most powerful and populous Native culture in the region. With the arrival of the French and succession of wars, their land and population were reduced to fractions of what they had been. Those who were neither killed nor taken as slaves escaped to the complex waterways and dense, sheltering foliage of the bayous. There, during a period of increased Europeanization in southeastern North by Paul Tarver and Jane Somerville Irvin America, they maintained an existence similar to that of their ancestors. Eventually, however, their naturally fortified land was penetrated, and the Chitimacha gradually adopted a lifestyle that resembled their Acadian neighbors. Their language, an isolate, was replaced with French, and their physical survival became increasingly dependent on trade. The ancient art of basketry, though, survived, and with it the Chitimacha were able to retain a significant relationship with both their history and their land. Impressions of fragments of river cane woven into flat mats found in southeastern Louisiana date from the 24th to 11th centuries B.C. Over time, Chitimacha weavers expanded their weaving repertoire to include complex baskets and containers, the most elaborate being doubleweave baskets for which the Chitimacha are famous. In his 1911 Indian Tribes of the Lower Mississippi Valley, John R. Swanton describes the use of similar baskets to hold the ashes of the dead after cremation, and this could be the origin of the double-weave basket. Most baskets were made for daily and ceremonial use by the Chitimacha; but, as their land and resources were taken from them, the Chitimacha began to rely on the trade and monetary value of the baskets for survival. Still, income made from the sale of baskets and crops could not save the Chitimacha from losing the remainder of their land. In 1916, with the help of some local land owners and basket collectors, they were able to regain title to their land and become the first nationally recognized tribe in Louisiana. In 1934, when they established the first school on the reservation, basketmaking was included in the curriculum. Chitimacha baskets are revered for their delicacy of
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