Baskets were the cash crop that bought store goods for the Pigeon family

Evidence

“You’re about up to a loaf of bread,” John says, shaking his head when I ruin yet another piece. “That’s what my mother would say when we spoiled splints.” Basket making was and is the livelihood of the Pigeon family. In their grandfather’s time the lake, woods, and gardens gave them most of their food and other provisions, but at times they also needed store goods, and baskets were the cash crop that bought bread, canned peaches, and school shoes. Spoiled splints were like food thrown away. Depending on the size and design, a black ash basket can sell for good money. “People get a little mad when they see the prices,” John says. “People think it’s ‘just’ basket weaving, but 80 percent of the work comes long before you weave. With finding the tree, pounding and pulling, and all, you barely make minimum wage.” — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 513

Categorization

• XREF: Basket making as economic livelihood connects to ch16 elderly-poverty and craft-livelihood work; a land-relationship economic-justice angle for Eco-Justice.