Turtle Shaped Coushatta Pine Needle Hanging Effigy Basket host gifts Afganistan on men’s smocks

Afganistan on men’s smocks

this piece was purchased at an estate sale that included an excellent collection of 20th century ceramics from Japan

4ʺW × 4ʺD × 7

accurately depicted in the photos

Wichita Art Museum

Turtle Shaped Coushatta Pine Needle Hanging Effigy Basket host gifts Afganistan on men’s smocksThis wonderful little turtle shaped Coushatta hanging effigy basket is made of coiled Louisiana native pine needles sewn together with raffia. (The Coushatta are a matrilineal society native to Southwest Louisiana recognized as a sovereign nation in 1973; today most of its thousand or so members live in Elton, LA, the seat of the tribal government.) I believe this particular basket may have been made by Marjorie Abbey Battise, a member of a family of