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Frances and Mary Allen posed these girls with the materials for making baskets. Basket making was one of the useful skills taught to young girls in Deerfield, Massachusetts. The girl in the center has just begun to form the outer ring of one basket's base, the necessary first step. The girl on the left is a little farther along, having formed the base, and the girl on the right holds a half-finished basket. To the far right, carefully positioned, stands a finished basket with particularly fine workmanship. Although baskets were made by Europeans before their arrival in North America, Indian basket techniques directly influenced later designs and methods, influences that are evident in the one shown here.

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