Tolowa Basketry Hat

This is a relatively rare woman's hat from the Tolowa people who lived along the Southern Oregon coast and inland into the Applegate Valley.  The basket has two horizontal bands of bear grass and maidenhair fern below the top of the hat, two bands of irregular maidenhair fern around the middle and two narrow bear grass and maidenhair fern bands above the rim. There is noticeable loss of maidenhair fern in the two central bands. The rim is somewhat ragged in places with old black thread basting along one section. There is a reddish stain along the inside of the rim in two large areas from being worn by a woman with "paint" on her forehead or along her hairline which creates a narrative about this hat and who wore it.  

c. 1900