They were used as cradles, caps for the head when carrying burdens, wardrobes for garments not in use, granaries on roof, sifters for pounded meal, for carrying water, and keeping it for use, for cooking, receptacles for money, plaques to gamble on, and so on.

And the basket plays an important part in their legends and folk-lore.
Mrs.Lowe determined to preserve these specimens, as tourists were rapidly carrying away all they could find of such relics, and soon the State would be without proofs to tell how the Indian of the past lived and fed and fought, bought and sold, how he was dressed, and how he amused himself.
Mrs.Ellen B.Farr, an artist in Pasadena who is famous for her success in painting the pepper tree and the big yellow poppy, with its reddish orange line changing toward petal tips to pale lemon, has also devoted her skill to pictures of such baskets grouped effectually--baskets now scattered all over the world, each with its own history, its own individuality, and no duplicate, for no two baskets are ever exactly similar.
The true way to obtain these baskets is, go a-hunting for them, not buy them at stores.

They are handed down for generations as heirlooms originally, never intended for sale, and with the needles used in weaving, made usually of a fine bone from a hawk's wing, and the gambling dice, are the carefully concealed family treasures.

But sometimes by going yourself to see the aged squaws, or paying one who is familiar with their ways to explore for you, you may get a rich return.

Baskets are of all sizes, from the little beauties no bigger than a teacup, woven finely and adorned with beads and bits of dyed feathers, to the granaries, or the storage baskets, holding half a ton, nine feet and nine inches in circumference, three feet deep.