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Case Studies Bearing Upon Survival – John F Thomas

CASE 8. THE INDIAN BASKET

Back in the country several miles from Wall Lake, in Lower Michigan, where the Thomases once had a cottage, there is a somewhat isolated lake on which Indians from a small government reservation have a, summer camp.

The Indians made baskets and trinkets and sold them not only at their camp but peddled them over the surrounding countryside. To this Indian camp, about twenty years ago, went E. L. T [Mrs Thomas], together with some friends, and while at the camp she purchased one of the baskets. It is one of small size, with a cover, and with a woven grass handle that goes over it. Mr. T. found it at the Orchard Lake cottage subsequent to the reference. It still has a distinct odor of sweet grass.

Ruth, a sister of E. L. T.'s, remembers this basket as being used later to hold the yarn with which E. L. T. was much given to working, but she does not remember its origin. The two sons, who were small at the time, do so only after some help. Mr. T. can find no way of learning other details of the trip, since it was a matter of no record. Even the identity of E. L. T.'s companions on the trip to the Indian camp is now forgotten.

On July 18, 1927, the control of Mrs. Soule gave the following: “Who's the Indian? You got any Indians out Your way? "

(None, any more than you have here.)

“Any one where your summer place is?"

(I don't think so.)

 “Didn’t your wife ever go where there were some Indians or Gypsies with a camp and there was something-looks more like Indians making baskets and things like that."

(Possibly she did.)

 "All at once I saw an Indian and I saw a basket with a handle up over it-and it may be a long time ago before you knew so much about it-not a very large basket and not a tiny one, but a basket made by the Indians that she bought herself when she was with other people and it isn't-it isn't a picnic and this Indian camp was back of where they were. This Indian woman places this basket in her hand and she takes it. She's referring to it and thinking back there with other girls-and in the basket is some green and some sweet grass-you probably would not know much about that. That's what she says-'Can't you find out about it?'"

(I think I remember it dimly now.)

Some of the points in this account were simply unverifiable by Mr. T., since all those whom he thought might be able to recall or who might have been in the party, could not contribute further. Presumably E. L. T., herself, would be the only one knowing.

As far as can be ascertained, this was E. L. T.'s only visit to the Indian camp and the only Indian basket she ever purchased anywhere. Soon after the visit to the camp, some Indian women canvassed the line of Wall Lake cottages with baskets and trinkets for sale. E. L. T. refused to buy, herself, and discouraged the neighbors from doing so on the ground that the Indians would become nuisances if encouraged through purchases. They never came back.

It was his amused reaction to the characteristically common-sense reasoning and action that probably served to fix this basket episode in Mr. T.'s memory. Mr. T. feels that his own difficulties in trying to penetrate the past in search of these forgotten details make it certain that no one could get them normally. With this conclusion the reader will probably agree; and he may judge for himself as to whether such a description of E. L. T.'s single trip and single purchase in an Indian camp is definite and complex enough to be beyond guessing and inference.