April Stone

April Stone is a member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, based in northwest Wisconsin. When she first decided she wanted to learn basketry, she had to learn from YouTube videos because there were no practicing basket makers in her area. She’s since taught basket making to thousands of people. She specializes in practical baskets for daily use, and has made ash backpacks for workers, baskets for shopping and foraging, baskets for fruits and vegetables. A few years ago, she wove a 5-foot-7-inch coffin out of ash to visually represent the death of ash trees due to the ash borer. It was the largest basket she had ever made and is on display at the Minnesota History Center in Saint Paul.

Last year, Stone's work took on an even greater urgency. The ash borer was detected for the first time in the black ash swamps near where Stone lives. Stone says the Ojibwe word for insect means “little messenger,” and she interprets the ash borer as a lesson. “I’ve heard elders say that when something isn’t being used in the natural world, the spirit gets sad, and may eventually disappear," she says. "So I thought, well, maybe the emerald ash borer is coming around because people aren’t making enough baskets. We got away from making our own carrying devices, our own vessels.”

Stone believes basket making will continue, but she and other makers will need to adapt. She is now working to save the tradition and her own livelihood, perhaps by figuring out how to make baskets using other trees, by securing access to tribal lands she hopes emerald ash borer hasn’t reached yet and, if needed, by harvesting ash trees ahead of the borer and preserving them in cold lakes and rivers for later use.

above: April Stone examines a black ash tree for selection

left: completed pack basket

photos by Gabe Popkin