A Scotts Valley senior donated 22 Native American baskets valued at nearly $27,000 to the Nevada State Museum for public use.
Becky Boyes, 92, donated her mother’s early 20th century woven Washoe tribal basket collection to the museum last month.
“They were really thrilled with them,” Boyes said. “It’s such a satisfaction to get something done like that, that you want to get done in your lifetime.”
The baskets were all woven in the early 1900s. Boyes’ mother, Evelyn Sutton, was born on a Nevada ranch in 1890, which employed members of the Washoe tribe. At an early age, she began collecting baskets, and most of her collection was gathered before 1910, when her family moved to Oakland.
Evelyn died in 1989 and passed the collection to her Becky, who kept the baskets in boxes.
“The appraiser said they are unique because they’ve been kept in perfect condition,” Boyes said.
A collector approached Boyes about purchasing the baskets, but she said they should be returned to Nevada for people to see.
So this summer, Boyes, her son Gerry Boyes, his wife, Chicha, and other family members delivered the baskets to the museum in Carson City, Nev.
The baskets were appraised and all were in “good” to “excellent” condition, with the finest, a “Degikup” basket stitched from willow between 1910 and 1915 valued at $8,000.
“They guaranteed they will be added to the museum,” Boyes said happily. “I think the people in Nevada will appreciate them.”
Boyes, who moved to Scotts Valley three years ago from Colusa County, plays bridge at the Scotts Valley Senior Center.
