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Palmetto Basket Weaving

with Janie Verret Luster

Learn how to weave a palmetto basket using the Houma half-hitched technique, unique to the Houma Tribe. Registration required. Spots are limited.

The Houma half-hitched coiled method is unique to the Houma tribe, Louisiana’s largest Indigenous tribe, in North America, but it can also be found in South and Central America. By the 1940s, no Houma practiced the technique, and it was found only in various museum collections. Janie Verret Luster is credited with reintroducing a distinctive weaving technique that had been lost to the tribe for nearly a generation.

During this class, you will learn how to identify what part of a palmetto to use for your basket, as well as how to prepare the palmetto for weaving. Janie will demonstrate how to start and end the basket, as well as the weaving technique, so that you can finish your basket at home. Click the button to register.

Janie Verret Luster is a cultural preservationist, a Tradition/Culture Bearer of the United Houma Nation and Louisiana, and a dedicated practitioner of diverse tribal customs, including palmetto basketry, Alligator Garfish scale jewelry, and Spanish Moss dolls.

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