"Washoe degikup baskets are characterized by their tightly coiled circular forms with narrow bases, wide centers, tapered tops, and decorative motifs made with bracken fern root and redbud. The artist Louisa Keyser pioneered the form and popularized it amongst weavers and consumers alike. She and Tootsie Dick Sam wove these sculptural baskets at a time for great cultural upheaval for the Washoe people, as the tribe was reckoning with colonial violence and environmental destruction due to white incursions on their land. Baskets like these provided vital income and sustained artistic practices that may have otherwise been lost "