Indians of the Eastern Woodlands made splint baskets for hundreds of years. There are a few late-eighteenth century records that mention the sale and production of wood splint baskets by Indians in the Northeast. Some people claim that the Indians learned this craft through contact with Swedish colonists who settled in this area in the early eighteenth century. Others say that it is an indigenous tradition that has developed independently. The technique is quite simple, metal tools are not a necessity and small fragments of splint basketry have been found in seventeenth-century Seneca graves. However, it was not a very active industry until the middle of the eighteenth century when the production of these baskets grew for sale to local white households. Wood splint baskets were made from several different trees, but the most common and universal tree was the black ash (Fraxinus nigra). White oak (Quercus alba), hickory (Carya), maple (Acer), white cedar (Thuja occidentalis) and white ash (Fraxinus americana) were used as well but in a lesser degree. The traditional and best time to collect the wood is in the early spring when the bark is loosened by the sap. The bark is removed with an axe or a 'crooked knife'. After this the log is pounded on top and along its length. Every square centimetre must be pounded heavily in order separate each year's growth from the others. Thick and thin splints are separated: thicker for burden baskets and the thinner for more delicate basketry. The splints are then split to the desired width and sorted on length and the artist will be able to start weaving. Cutting the tree and splitting the logs are men's work, the women do the weaving. The earliest baskets were made solely for utilitarian purposes and were probably not decorated. These baskets might have been used for food storage, transport and processing. Later on, they were made for the white market and provided a source of income to the families. Indian women travelled great distances to sell their baskets but by the middle of the nineteenth century, Indians relocated in summer to tourist spots and resorts around the Northeast to sell their products. At about the same time, they began to decorate their baskets more to make them more appealing to their Victorian clientele. In addition, very small miniature baskets were made, purely to demonstrate the skill of the artists. The Depression made it hard for Indians to sell their items and relied heavily on catalogues or made utilitarian baskets only. In the last decades, basket making has regained some of its former popularity and are again a means of economic and cultural survival. <BR>