Carrie McGowan Bethel (1898–1974) was a Mono Lake Paiute – Kucadikadi (Northern Paiute)[1] basketmaker associated with Yosemite National Park. She was born Carrie McGowan in Lee Vining, California, and began making baskets at age twelve. She participated in basket-making competitions in the Yosemite Indian Field Days in 1926 and 1929. She gave basket weaving demonstrations at the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition.[2]

Carrie Bethel
Bethel c. 1929
Born
Carrie McGowan Bethel

1898
Died1974 (aged 75–76)
NationalityKucadikadi
Known forBasket weaving
Awards1926 Yosemite Field Days competition

Bethel was one of a group of Mono-Paiute women who "became known for their exceedingly fine, visually stunning and complex polychrome baskets."[3] Other basket weaving artists in this group included Nellie Charlie and Lucy Telles.

Bethel died in Lee Vining, in 1974.

Legacy edit

In 2006, one of her baskets sold at auction for $216,250. This basket had won first prize in the 1926 Yosemite Field Days basket competition.[4]

Four of her baskets were part of an exhibition on the art of Yosemite which appeared at the Autry National Center, the Oakland Museum of California, the Nevada Museum of Art, and the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art from 2006 to 2008.[5]

Gallery edit

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ Dalrymple, 3
  2. ^ Trainer, Laureen (2006). Amy Scott (ed.). Yosemite: Art of an American Icon. Los Angeles and Berkeley: Autry National Center and University of California Press. pp. 194. ISBN 0-520-24922-4.
  3. ^ Bibby, Brian (2006). "Native American Art of the Yosemite Region". In Amy Scott (ed.). Yosemite: Art of an American Icon. Los Angeles and Berkeley: Autry National Center and University of California Press. pp. 97–101. ISBN 0-520-24922-4.
  4. ^ "Property from the Ella M. Cain Collection: A Paiute polychrome basket". San Francisco: Bonhams. 2006. Archived from the original on 24 February 2012. Retrieved 7 March 2010.
  5. ^ Scott, Amy (2006). Yosemite: Art of an American Icon. Los Angeles and Berkeley: Autry National Center and University of California Press. pp. 222. ISBN 0-520-24922-4.

References edit

  • Dalrymple, Larry. Indian Basketmakers of California and the Great Basin. Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, 2000. ISBN 0-89013-337-9.
  • Bonhams & Butterfields, The Ella M. Cain Collection of Mono Lake Paiute Basketry. 2005. ISBN 9780977670802