News Release

Basketry Guild to Demonstrate Traditional Basket and Cordage Making

Date: July 18, 2019
Contact: Mary Rose, Executive Director, Friends of Fort Vancouver, [phone]

The Friends of Fort Vancouver National Historic Site and the National Park Service are pleased to announce that members of the Columbia Basin Basketry Guild will demonstrate basket and cordage making on Saturday, August 3, from 12 pm to 4 pm at the Fort Vancouver Visitor Center.

The Indigenous peoples of the Columbia River made baskets for gathering and storage. Their techniques were handed down generation to generation, and influence both Native and non-native basket makers today. Guild members will show their work and also teach visitors how to make cordage. Visitors can use the cordage to create a bracelet.

“The guild is dedicated to preserving, promoting, and teaching the art of basketry, a skill that has deep roots in the Pacific Northwest. We are so pleased that the members are offering their time to share their techniques with visitors,” said Executive Director Mary Rose.

The Columbia Basin Basketry Guild was formed in the summer of 1989 by a small group of basket makers from the Portland and Vancouver area so that basket makers could share ideas, information, and techniques with each other and with the community. Its mission is to preserve, promote, and teach the art of basketry. Today the guild has more than 225 members,

What: Demonstration of basket and cordage making

Who: Columbia Basin Basketry Guild

When: August 3, 2019, 12 pm to 4 pm

Where: Fort Vancouver Visitor Center

Cost: Free