TRADITIONAL TYPES OF BASKET CAPS
Women wore more than one type of basket cap in the nineteenth century. Along with the work cap, a woman who had lost her husband wore a widow’s cap without fancy patterns and
materials during her period of mourning. A day cap with patterned overlay might be worn to the store or to visit someone. Ericson’s photographs of women waiting for provisions at Fort
Gaston in Hoopa in 1893 are almost all wearing basket caps, but not their work caps (figs. 7) and (fig. 8). There were also smaller caps for children. Ceremonial caps are easily distinguished by their
overlay materials that usually cover the whole cap. The most expensive and highly regarded of the ceremonial caps were those with dyed porcupine quills and black maidenhair fern. These
materials were more difficult to use and required greater weaving expertise. Caps with quills may also have popularly been called "wedding caps" among white collectors. The black and white
cap was second only to the cap with quills, whereas the red cap was considered more common. Woodwardia fern is easier to weave and this may partly account for its lesser status.
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