Dear Curator Quakenbush:  The American Indian basketry collection at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science has national research importance and includes several Flathead examples.  I believe that, because of its material, construction, and form, the basket you describe was probably made in the northeast, by one of several tribes or by a non-Indian.  There is little chance it was made by a Flathead, even in a school project, for importing such wood materials from the east would have been impractical and expensive.  Did the owner give any indication of an alternative history?   We would be interested in seeing a photo in order to determine whether it is right for our collection.
Yours sincerely,  Joyce Herold, Curator of Ethnoloy, Denver Museum of Nature and Science

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