CHITIMACHAN BASKETWEAVER ADA THOMAS DIED
Born July 31, 1924, on the Chitimacha Reservation, near Charenton, Louisiana, Ada, at age 12, learned traditional basket-weaving from her grandmother. Traveling and working all over the United States, she did not begin basketweaving again until the mid-1970s when her husband died and she returned to the reservation. To make the double-woven basket, she interlaced strands of red and dark brown dyed swamp cane or cane reed from the bayous. Most of the designs reflect a close association with life in the Louisiana bayous. In 1983, she was honored as a National Heritage Fellowship recipient by the National Endowment for the Arts and participated in the Smithsonian’s Folk Life Festival. Her baskets are in the permanent collections of: Birmingham Museum of Art, Louisiana Folklife Program; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Museum of International Folk Art of Santa Fe, New Mexico; and collections of the U.S. Department of the Interior. Thomas died in Charenton.
Source: “Ada Thomas,” Know Louisiana. Retrieved 7/6/2020, https://www.knowlouisiana.org/entry/ada-thomas Photo: Author and date unknown. Fair Use. Source: http://www.louisianafolklife.org/LT/cse/cse_education_guide.pdf
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