Basketry of the Wappo and California Native Americans

Mr. Ralph Shanks takes us on a fascinating and rich tour of basketry of Native Americans of central California, including the Wappo people. Basketry was central to California Native American culture. Few, if any, places in the world depended as much on basketry for art, food processing, family life and survival as did the First People of California. Beginning at birth and throughout everyone’s life nearly every significant event was marked by basketry.

Mr. Shanks grew up in St. Helena where his interest in the Wappo and Native American culture began. A graduate of University of California at Berkeley and San Francisco State University, he spent many years working as a Research Associate in the UC Davis Anthropology Museum. He has researched Native California basketry at over fifty museums across the United States and in Europe, worked with Native California weavers, and has been president of the Miwok Archeological Preserve of Marin. With his collaborator, Lisa Woo Shanks, he has authored eight books including “Indian Baskets of Central California” that details the beautiful basketry of the local Wappo and neighboring native people.

This presentation was part of the 2022 Susanne Salvestrin Memorial Lecture Series hosted by the St. Helena Historical Society.