Hand woven toys for Native California babies

Jon Hammond.

Jennifer Malone begins to pull the rods together to form the egg-shaped sphere that will hold seashells

Native American mothers, grandmothers and aunties have been making toys for the babies in the family for untold centuries. For many California Indian children, one of their first presents was traditionally a rattle made from native plant material with seashells and pebbles inside to jangle around and make a pleasant sound.

Not only would such a rattle provide entertainment and distraction for Native American babies, they could also use it as a teething toy, since the rattles were made of natural, non-toxic materials like willow and redbud that infants could safely chew (or drool) on when new teeth were making an appearance.

A Native woman named Jennifer Malone has come to Tehachapi on several different occasions to teach how to make these traditional baby rattles. Jennifer was at each of the Go Native Days that have been held, and also taught local Nuwä tribal members.

Jennifer is the vice-chair of the California Indian Basketmakers Association, and her late mother, Marie Wilcox, spent many years working on her own to create the first Wukchumni dictionary. Jennifer's sister Evelyn Malone is also a talented weaver.

Jennifer is a full-blooded California native, and her family is Wukchumni, Yowlumni, and Tachi. Jennifer learned basketweaving from watching her grandmother, Beatrice Wilcox, and she worked with her mother in preserving cultural materials and making baskets together at home, and in the community teaching weaving and gathering as well as their Wukchumni language.

Jennifer and her family are kind, helpful people who willingly share the ancient skill of making baby rattles. To make a rattle, peeled sticks of willow or a similar wood, about 18 inches long and the diameter of coffee stirrers, are soaked to make them pliable, and then seven similarly-sized sticks are selected.

Four sticks are laid one way and the remaining three are laid on top of them in the opposite direction to make a large "X" shape. These rods are then lashed together, and the weaver passes split willow, split western redbud or other cordage over-and-under, over-and-under, around and around while pulling the sticks together to form a hollow sphere.

Jon Hammond.

This traditional toy is a baby rattle made by basketweaver Evelyn Malone, who crafted it from sourberry rods, willow and western redbud and placed seashells inside to jangle pleasantly.

When nearly finished, small seashells like olivella shells, obtained from the California coast, and sometimes a few pebbles are placed inside and the egg-shaped woven sphere is closed. The ends of the sticks are then trimmed to a uniform length, looped around and bound together to form the handle. With the handle wrapped, the toy is finished and ready to be presented to a new baby.

Another handmade item given to teething babies was a flat, three or four-inch diameter willow disk. These were essentially a coiled basket start. Coiled baskets start with a small knot in the center, then spiral around, each coiling round of willow stitched to the previous coil.

The disk stays flat to form the bottom of the basket, then starts to curve upward to form the sides. A basket start, that was still flat and about the size of a peanut butter cookie, would be given to teething babies. The disk was lightweight and easy to hold, and the texture of the willow stitches would feel good on little gums.

Because the material used was primarily willow, it might provide a very low dose of pain reliever, since members of Salix, the willow genus, contain salicylic acid, or aspirin.

Simple, safe and handmade with love, a woven rattle or a basket start have made good presents for hundreds or perhaps thousands of years. It is heartwarming and encouraging that Native California people are keeping these traditions alive.

Keep enjoying the beauty of life in the Tehachapi Mountains.

Jon Hammond is a fourth generation Kern County resident who has photographed and written about the Tehachapi Mountains for 38 years. He lives on a farm his family started in 1921, and is a speaker of Nuwä, the Tehachapi Indian language. He can be reached at [email protected].