Tehachapi News

The long journey home: American Indian artwork returns to Kern County

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One summer in the 1920s on the lower flanks of Piute Mountain, an Indian woman sat and carefully wove a basket from native materials of deergrass, willow, Joshua Tree root and others. She worked outside her adobe home in a remote portion of Kern County, about 30 miles north of Tehachapi in a small valley hidden between ridges where the afternoon breeze lightly rustled the blue oaks, willows and gray pines she could see from where she sat.

She could hear California quail calling from the shin oak and gooseberry thickets while red-tailed hawks and ravens circled overhead.

The days passed with little interference from the outside world as she patiently wove her coiled basket, stitch by stitch. Using black (from bracken fern root) and red (Joshua Tree root) and the straw color of peeled willow she created a beautiful design of diamonds and triangles patterned after the markings on the back of a familiar neighbor: Togo-wa, the rattlesnake.

The basketmaker’s name was Sophie Williams, and she was a Nuwa (Kawaiisu) Indian woman, though she would have used the term Paiute — the larger family of related tribes — to describe herself. She was the daughter of Emma Williams, a noted basketmaker and expert on Nuwa traditional ways.

After many months of careful work, Sophie finished her basket with the rattlesnake pattern. It was one of her finest pieces, an elegant basket that flared outward for most of its shape and then narrowed inward with a jar-necked top, like a broad low vase. There were three complete bands of the snake pattern, one near the bottom, another around the middle and a third at top surrounding the opening.

Sophie made her basket to sell to a collector to raise needed money for food and clothing. The basket was taken down the rutted dirt road away from the peaceful Piute Rancheria where it was made.

A homecoming in the mountains

Incredibly, the basket returned to the old Piute Rancheria site last week.

And even more unlikely, the basket was cradled in the hands of Sophie Williams’ direct descendents.

An odyssey that covered 80 years and thousands of miles has brought a piece of Kern County artwork back home. . . .

The return of Sophie’s basket on June 9 was made possible by the generosity of the Geldman family, who presented both the rattlesnake basket and a smaller one decorated with a lightning bolt pattern to the Williams family and the Kawaiisu tribe, represented by Kern Valley Tribal Chairman Harold Williams, who is Sophie Williams’ grandson.

Also present at a small ceremony at Kelcy’s Restaurant was Sophie’s granddaughter Janice Williams, Harold’s sister, who is currently helping to revive the Kawaiisu basketmaking tradition and is nearing completion of the first Nuwa basket in perhaps 70 years — Sophie was probably the last active Kawaiisu weaver.

Sophie’s great great-granddaughter Ronneigh Quiroga, 13, who is also making a basket, was among the interested locals who attended the lunchtime gathering to transfer the baskets and honor the Geldmans.

Geldman family arrives 60 years ago

The Geldman family originally moved to the now-vanished town of Monolith in 1950. The father, A.L. Geldman, was an engineer at the cement plant who eventually worked his way up to assistant superintendent. He and his wife, Virginia, raised their three children —  Karen, Susan and Steve — in Monolith at first and then in Tehachapi when the family moved into town in 1953.

A family friend was pioneer rancher Vic Phillips, who used to take Mr. Geldman to the Mojave Desert for rock-hounding and mineral exploration. Knowing that the family appreciated American Indian culture, in 1959 Vic gave the Geldmans several Kern County Indian baskets that he had received from a sister-in-law who collected them.

In 1961 the Geldman family moved to Huntington Park and took the baskets with them. The basket with the rattlesnake pattern eventually wound up with Steve in New York City.

Inspired by Kawaiisu mural

When Steve visited Tehachapi two years ago for the annual Oldtimers Picnic, he was fascinated by the Kawaiisu mural on the Hitching Post Theater, particularly because it featured Emma Williams, and he remembered that she had the same last name as the woman who made the rattlesnake basket.

With some help from longtime Tehachapi historian and Kawaiisu advocate Del Troy, Geldman did some research and corresponded with Harold Williams. The Geldman family decided it was time to repatriate the baskets.

“We have loved them and treasured them for 50 years,” Steve Geldman told me. “Now we wanted them to have a better home where more people could see them and appreciate them. It can be hard to give away something you love, but we knew it was the right decision and we are very happy to have these baskets back where they were made, among people who truly appreciate them.”

Back to the source

Following Tuesday’s brief ceremony, Harold Williams took Steve and his lovely mother Virginia, 86, and the old baskets up to Piute Mountain to see where the baskets were made. There is no trace of the old adobe houses that once stood there, but otherwise the scenery is little-changed from those long-ago days when Sophie and Emma created their beautiful baskets.

“It was very moving to actually be on the land where Sophie lived and made her baskets,” Steve said. “My mother and I both cherished the visit to Piute Mountain and it was a real pleasure to meet Harold and his family.”

Geldman said that he hopes his family’s decision to return the baskets may inspire others to do the same.

“I hope this gift encourages other people to consider returning artwork to the tribe,” he explained. “So much has been taken away and so little has been brought back. I hope that is changing.”

There are plans to display the baskets, along with other Kawaiisu artifacts, in the new addition to the Tehachapi Museum or in other suitable public space.

“We are honored by the Geldmans’ gift and the repatriation of these baskets,” Harold Williams stated. “These are treasures and part of our cultural heritage. We are very grateful for the Geldmans’ generosity.”

And perhaps, if such a thing exists, the spirits of the baskets are happy to be back in the land where they were made long ago.

Have a good week.

Posted June 16, 2009; Volume 110 - No.10, print edition June 17, 2009.