Burden baskets are traditionally carried via a strap on the forehead and the basket rests on the woman's back. this frees her hands for picking fruit, berries, gathering sweetgrass, or carrying a child in a cradle board. This larger basket has an open weave in the bottom that Darleen has begun to incorporate in her baskets only after actually holding one of her grandmother's early baskets while she was a guest at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. Darleen uses sumac and is one of the only basketmakers that still gather and weave baskets with this material.
Many burden baskets, particularly the small ones, have little jingles that hang from leather thongs. These jingles alert animals to move on and also, when a child has a small basket on it alerts the mother as to where the child is.
At the end of the day these baskets are hung outside the home, visitors are asked to put their troubles in the basket as they enter and then gather them when they leave. Many times, the visitors will find that the troubles have vanished while they visited.
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