Nellie Charlie
Encyclopedia
Nellie Charlie was a Mono Lake Paiute - Kucadikadi
Kucadikadi
The Kucadikadi are a band of Northern Paiute people who live near Mono Lake in Mono County, California. They are the southernmost band of Northern Paiute.-Name:...

 basketmaker
Basket weaving
Basket weaving is the process of weaving unspun vegetable fibres into a basket or other similar form. People and artists who weave baskets are called basketmakers and basket weavers.Basketry is made from a variety of fibrous or pliable materials•anything that will bend and form a shape...

 associated with Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park is a United States National Park spanning eastern portions of Tuolumne, Mariposa and Madera counties in east central California, United States. The park covers an area of and reaches across the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain chain...

. She was born in Lee Vining
Lee Vining, California
Lee Vining is a census-designated place in Mono County, California, United States. It is located south-southeast of Bridgeport, at an elevation of 6781 feet . Lee Vining is located on the southwest shore of Mono Lake. The population was 222 as of the 2010 census, down from 250 reported as of 2000...

, California, the daughter of tribal headman Pete Jim, and his wife Patsy, also a basketmaker. She married Young Charlie, a Mono Lake Paiute - Kucadikadi
Kucadikadi
The Kucadikadi are a band of Northern Paiute people who live near Mono Lake in Mono County, California. They are the southernmost band of Northern Paiute.-Name:...

 man from Yosemite, and they had six children. Her Paiute name was Besa-Yoona.

She worked in both traditional and modern basket styles, and participated in the annual Indian Field Days competition in Yosemite in the 1920s. Her daughter, Daisy Mallory, became a prominent weaver.

She was among a group of Paiute women who "became known for their exceedingly fine, visually stunning and complex polychrome baskets." Others in this group included Lucy Telles
Lucy Telles
Lucy Parker Telles was a Mono Lake Paiute - Kucadikadi and Southern Sierra Miwok Native American basket weaver.-Background:...

 and Carrie Bethel
Carrie Bethel
Carrie McGowan Bethel was a Mono Lake Paiute - Kucadikadi basketmaker associated with Yosemite National Park. She was born Carrie McGowan in Lee Vining, California and began making baskets at the age of 12. She participated in basket making competitions in the Yosemite Indian Field Days in 1926...

.

She died in Bishop
Bishop, California
Bishop is a city in Inyo County, California, United States. Though Bishop is the only city and the largest populated place in Inyo County, the county seat is Independence. Bishop is located near the northern end of the Owens Valley, at an elevation of 4147 feet . The population was 3,879 at the...

, California.

Legacy

One of her baskets covered with beadwork
Beadwork
Beadwork is the art or craft of attaching beads to one another or to cloth, usually by the use of a needle and thread or soft, flexible wire. Most beadwork takes the form of jewelry or other personal adornment, but beads are also used in wall hangings and sculpture.Beadwork techniques are broadly...

 using Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

n seed beads is in the collection of the Yosemite Museum
Yosemite Museum
The Yosemite Museum is located in Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park in California. Founded in 1926 through the efforts of Ansel Franklin Hall, the museum's displays focus on the heritage and culture of the Ahwaneechee people who lived in the valley...

. This and a more traditional basket she made of sedge
Cyperaceae
Cyperaceae are a family of monocotyledonous graminoid flowering plants known as sedges, which superficially resemble grasses or rushes. The family is large, with some 5,500 species described in about 109 genera. These species are widely distributed, with the centers of diversity for the group...

 root were part of an exhibition on the art of Yosemite which appeared at the Autry National Center
Autry National Center
The Autry National Center of the American West is an intercultural center and museum in Los Angeles, California that celebrates the diversity and history of the American West through three important institutions: the Southwest Museum of the American Indian, the Museum of the American West, and the...

, the Oakland Museum of California
Oakland Museum of California
Oakland Museum of California or Oakland Museum is a museum dedicated to the art, history, and natural science of California located in Oakland, California....

, the Nevada Museum of Art
Nevada Museum of Art
The Nevada Museum of Art, located at 160 West Liberty Street in Reno, Nevada, is the only American Association of Museums accredited art museum in the state of Nevada. The museum is thematic, focusing on the growing interest in the protection of the land...

 and the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art from 2006 to 2008.

See also

  • Native American art
    Native American art
    Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas encompasses the visual artistic traditions of the indigenous peoples of the Americas from ancient times to the present...

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