In Hazel Pete’s basketry and art collection, there is a photo of her at 8 years old and 4 generations of weavers, taken before she left for boarding school – a representation of weavers since the signing of Stevens’ Treaties in western Washington. Influenced by the sights, sounds, touch and fragrance of basketry materials and extended family members weaving – Hazel Pete was able to keep the memories within her for the day she would reclaim Basketry gathering, processing, techniques and designs and weave with her family and Chehalis members. Hazel attended several Bureau of Indian Affairs schools: Chehalis Day School, Tulalip Indian School, Chemawa Indian School, and then entered a pilot Indian arts and crafts program for high school graduates at Santa Fe Indian School in New Mexico. She was in the first graduating class from the school later to become known as the Institute of American Indian Arts. Hazel Pete taught at Warm Springs Indian School at Warm Springs, Oregon, Sherman Institute in Riverside, California, and Carson City Indian School at Steward, Nevada. After working for Boeing during the war as a tool grinder, Hazel returned to the Chehalis Reservation with her family to work and weave full time with her mother Harriet Pete – others weavers she sought out for techniques and designs included: Nancy Secena, Maggie Benn, Louisa Pulsifer, Emily Miller, Leila Pulsifer, Fran James and later Bill James, Bruce Miller, and Karen Reed. Over her lifetime, Hazel Pete constantly challenged herself to learn how to weave with diverse materials, techniques, and sought out teachers. Many basketry materials grow outside of the continental United States and she said “Chehalis weavers have always worked with materials within their reach and now we can reach around the world!”
The Hazel Pete Family has selected a representation of baskets for the Honoring the Hazel Pete Legacy: Chehalis Basketry gallery show – many show Hazel’s reclaiming basketry efforts – to bring back to the Chehalis people knowledge about traditional areas to gather cedar, sweetgrass, cattails, bear grass and nettle. Hazel in her 80’s said “I still go out with family to gather sweetgrass, cattail, bear grass, nettle, and cedar. My mother always said – if you don’t know how to gather, clean, and store the material, you’re not a basket maker.”
