Dolores Patencio
(Cupeno, ca 1860-1931)
Cahuilla Basket

height 4-1/4 inches x diameter 9-1/2 inches



With old collection label that reads: Presented by / Dr. Clara Judson Stillman / March 17th 1935" (verso) "Made by - / Dolores Patencio / Wife of / Chief Francisco Patencio / of the Cahuilla Tribe / of Indians living on the / Agua Calientes Reservation / Palm Springs, California


From the Collection of Jessie Cavannaugh (1886-1981) and Descended through the Family

Also included is a handwritten letter dated March 20, 1935, from Clara Judson Stillman to Mrs. Cavanaugh telling of Dolores Patencio and her basket.

My dear Mrs. Cavanaugh:

As a slight token of appreciation of your interest my poor old Indian people, I am mailing you a basket - which will be a companion for the one you have from Pala. This one was made by Dolores Potencio, wife of Chief Francisco Patencio. Dolores was one of the famous basket makes of the Cahuilla tribe of Indian living on the Agua Calientes Reservation. She was of whom I told you of being given liquor by some white person and after drinking some curled up on a cot in the yard and slept her life away.

You will notice that while the basket is not so fine as the one you amired[sic] so among my collection and which I told you, you could only obtain by stealing; yet it has the same smooth velvety feel that that one had. I am glad to have you have it for I know you will enjoy and treasure it. Dolores put the fluredeli[sic] into many of her baskets and no one else used it. In one of these you will see a stitch or two f black near the base, which is her own individual mark, "My story" as she would say if telling you of it. Perhaps a prayer, perhaps a wish, perhaps "a good word or "a good thought". No one ever knew, but Dolores herself, and not all of her baskets carried her secret and that little "secret" enhances the value of the basket considerably.

When next I go among them, if you care to have me, and will trust me with the basket you have, I will be glad to find out who made it. The name of the maker and some what other history adds to the interest in the basket for me.

With kindest regards and very pleasant memories of my slight association with you, I am yours most cordially.

Clara Judson Stillman
440 So. Lake Ave.
Pasadena, California

March 20, 1935