American Indian Artist.  Dat-So-La-Le was Native American Washoe born about 1835 in Navada. Her birth name was Dabuda, meaning “young willow”. Little is know about her early life, except that she worked as a laundress. About age 45, she began weaving baskets exclusively from willow. Her baskets were globular in shape with a pattern she often used. She referred to the pattern as Degi coop. Her basket were so beautiful and perfect in every way.  The basket would begin in the center bottom. The technique was coiling and was done with rods of willow for the core material and split willow for the outside – stitched portion. Da-So-La-Lee’s technique is called three rod coiling with uninterlocked stitches.  The light background color of the basket was made by stitching with willow taken from just under the bark surface, or the inside of the bark of the willow and cut very narrow.  The dark or black stitches were made with bracken fern roots that had been soaked in dark mud or cold ashes from a fire.  The red tones came from red willow shoots.  All the willow grew wild and had to be gathered and stored, until use.  De-So-La-Lee learned to make baskets from a very early age, as most Native American girl did, then.    Dat-So-La-Lee was married three times. Her last husband was Charlie Keyser.    About 1895, she met Abe & Amy Cohn.  He purchased a basket for $25.00, recognizing the quality and workmanship in the basket.  He sold the basket for $50.00.  After the purchase, his customer told him that he sold the basket way too cheap.  Fifty dollars in 1895 was a high amount to pay for most anything, particularly a basket.  It is thought that she only made about 300 baskets in her lifetime.  It is theorized that she made only about 120 baskets after meeting the Cohn’s.  From the time the first basket was purchased, the Cohn’s bought every basket she created until her death.  Her baskets are the most famous in the world and people who know baskets, all know her name.  Her baskets are in the Navada State Museum and the Philbrook Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Her baskets, in 1999, were valued at over $300,000.00 each.  She frequently traveled with the Cohn’s to help promote her baskets.  Eventually the Cohn’s offered her and her husband Charlie, a house to live in, in exchange for one basket per year.  Da-So-La-Lee died in 1925.  In her home, the Cohn’s found a basket, which had been started, but never finished. (bio by: Judy K.  Brantley/Wilson)