> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.fsm.ink/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # On Exhibition: Weaving a Legacy: Ho-Chunk Black Ash Basketry - URL: https://www.fsm.ink/weavingalegacy/ - Published: 2025-03-16T19:39:22.000Z - Updated: 2026-06-03T17:59:03.000Z - Author: Staff - Tags: Exhibtion Review, #Import 2026-08-03 09:59 > *Weaving a Legacy: Ho-Chunk Black Ash Basketry* > March 15th–June 29th, 2025 > Curated by Tom Jones > **The Paine Art Center and Gardens** > 1410 Algoma Blvd., Oshkosh, WI by Jane Aspinwall ***Weaving a Legacy: Ho-Chunk Black Ash Basketry*** is a groundbreaking exhibition that introduces audiences to the historically important and visually compelling tradition of Native basketmaking in Wisconsin. Featuring more than 100 works by more than 40 Ho-Chunk makers from the early 1900s to present day, this exhibition is curated by Ho-Chunk artist and University of Wisconsin–Madison Professor of Photography Tom Jones. *Weaving a Legacy* debuted at the Museum of Wisconsin Art in West Bend in fall 2024 and is currently presented at the Paine Art Center and Gardens in Oshkosh from March 15 through June 29, 2025\. For more than a decade, Jones has collected and studied thousands of Ho-Chunk baskets, piecing together tribal history. He was inspired by his own family history when he began researching and collecting black ash baskets. His great-grandmother Mabel Lowe was a highly regarded basketmaker of the early twentieth century. Baskets featured in the exhibition were lent by Jones and other pioneering collectors with strong ties to the Ho-Chunk community. The story of how and why Ho-Chunk basketmaking came to be is said to have originated sometime in the early 1800s. A part of the Ho-Chunk tradition of oral storytelling, it begins with a tale about a distraught Ho-Chunk woman whose loved one had recently died. Ho-Chunk tradition mandated that a Medicine Dance take place—an almost weeklong event in which the host incurred significant costs. Lacking resources, the woman was unable to provide the necessary items. One night, she dreamed a “voice” instructed her to find a specific tree in the forest, identifiable by its bark and leaves (a black ash tree). The voice outlined how to prepare, dye, and weave strips into a basket that could be sold or traded for the money needed to purchase the necessary items for the Medicine Dance. And thus, the beginning of Ho-Chunk basketry. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/d1/b7d1b6d1-443f-4e09-b301-d344accb0bbe/content/images/2025/03/Unknown--Sewing-basket--c.-1950.jpg) Unknown Ho-Chunk maker. Sewing basket, c. 1950\. Black ash splints. Collection of Michael Schmudlach. Around the time this origin story began to circulate (in the early 1800s), large numbers of German, Norwegian, and French immigrants were arriving and settling on traditional Ho-Chunk lands which helped fuel the Ho-Chunk basket market. With limited employment options and increasingly frequent government policies displacing Ho-Chunk from their land, families needed a way to supplement income. Basketmaking became a family endeavor that kept households intact and acted as a conduit for retaining customs and traditions. By the 1820s, Ho-Chunk black ash basketmaking had fully emerged in Wisconsin. Design inspiration was borrowed from the Indigenous traditions of hand-woven twill and wool mats, rugs, and panel bags. Over the decades, growth of the tourist industry helped fuel the demand and proliferation of the baskets. By the early twentieth century, tourists were flocking to central Wisconsin brought by newly constructed roads like Highway 12, connecting major cities like Chicago and Milwaukee to increasingly popular regions like the Wisconsin Dells. Ho-Chunk entrepreneurs opened roadside stands to sell baskets, along with beadwork, textiles, and handicrafts. Carloads of visitors stopped to purchase baskets, drawn in by the vibrant colors and dynamic patterning. All of the components of Ho-Chunk baskets are harvested entirely from the black ash tree. In addition to the weaving, handles, handle attachments, and other decorative additions are hand-carved out of black ash. Ho-Chunk men typically select and cut down the trees, prepare and pull splints—thin strips of pliable ash wood—from tree trunks, and carve the handles while women dye and weave the baskets. Although the act of making a basket often involves the entire family, most weavers are women. Often weaving styles, skills, or color palettes are passed down generation to generation from mother to daughter. Contemporary Ho-Chunk weavers, although still predominantly female, include a highly skilled group of male artists represented in the exhibition. Preparing wood for basketmaking is no small feat. Splints are cut from the concentric age rings that make up the trunk of a tree. Once a suitable tree is selected and cut down, the branches and bark are carefully removed. The trunk is pounded using an even and consistent pressure until the age rings can be loosened with a knife. Each ring is carefully removed in long splints that run the length of the trunk. Splints can be further divided into thinner and thinner pieces increasing the pliability for intricate weaving purposes. The bark of the trees is often used to create canoe baskets while wood from branches may be used for carved basket handles. One log can produce as many as thirty to fifty baskets. More than fifty known basket shapes are named for function, supporting domestic chores like laundry, sewing, waste collection, and food storage. Outdoor activities include fishing, flower gathering, picnic, market, and shopping. Tall, sizable feather baskets store large eagle feathers regularly used in traditional ceremonies. A few basket names emphasize the shape of the basket including barrel, kettle, urn, or canoe. It is important to note that categories do not necessarily strictly dictate shape and size. Makers often re-interpreted function, creating innovative shapes with unexpected weaving styles and colors. Basketmakers tinted basket splints a variety of vivid colors, creating natural dyes from minerals, berries, fruits, flowers, seeds, roots, and grasses. By the 1920s, with the introduction of commercial dyes like Rit, most basketmakers shifted away from natural dyes. Modern and contemporary works establish Ho-Chunk basketry as an enduring and evolving art rooted in uniqueness and individual expression. Although most basketmakers did not sign their work, there are notable exceptions. *Weaving a* *Legacy* highlights a few artists whose works are collected by major American museums like the National Museum of the American Indian and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Helen Lonetree (1932–2014), for example, is widely regarded as the most experimental Ho-Chunk basketmaker of the twentieth century. Lonetree was known for her elaborate plaiting and sophisticated color palette. Her self-invented curlicue pattern technique is considered a tour de force of weaving. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/d1/b7d1b6d1-443f-4e09-b301-d344accb0bbe/content/images/2025/03/Helen-Lonetree--Sewing-basket--c.-1975--1-.jpg) Helen Lonetree, Ho-Chunk (1932–2014). Sewing basket, c. 1975\. Black ash splints, dyed. Collection of Michael Schmudlach. More than ever, Tom Jones’s endeavor is profoundly important. Recently, the continuation of the Ho-Chunk basketry tradition has come under threat by the proliferation of the invasive emerald ash borer insect which is rapidly destroying black ash trees across the Upper Midwest. His groundbreaking original research is all the more remarkable considering there have been no comprehensive monographs or major exhibitions solely dedicated to this history. As an expression of commitment to this art form, the Museum of Wisconsin Art accessioned its first Ho-Chunk basket in 2024 and has continued to acquire work, many of which are featured in this exhibition for the first time. In its role as the museum for the state, MOWA endeavors to represent all Wisconsin- based communities and histories. MOWA is proud to partner with Tom Jones and the Ho-Chunk Nation in this critical collective act of preservation. The exhibition is organized by the Museum of Wisconsin Art in West Bend, the leading institution dedicated to preserving and presenting the work of the state’s artists. Author Jane L. Aspinwall is the Deputy Director of MOWA and institutional curator for Weaving a Legacy. > Jane Aspinwall is the Deputy Director of the Museum of Wisconsin Art. > Aspinwall holds an MA and PhD in art history from the University of Missouri–Kansas City and an MBA in arts management from the University of Missouri–Columbia. She received a BS in accounting from St. Louis University.