Maine Memory Network

Also known as a melon basket, for its shape, this basket is both decorative and functional.

While the Wabanaki Tribes originally made specialized baskets to gather and prepare food and trap fish during the nineteenth century, when the Wabenaki were making goods to sell their baskets and other goods gained a decorative element. Decoration usually came in the form of fancy weaving patterns, colored splints or unconventional shapes that made the baskets and things nice to look at as well as useful.